March 16, 2011: Superman Movie Timeframe Comparison

By Steve Younis

I often see complaints from fans disappointed with the apparent lack of official announcements regarding the up-coming Superman movie. I thought it might be interesting to look back at "Superman Returns" and see how far in advance Warner Bros. made official announcements before the theatrical release of that film in June 2006.

While "Superman Returns" was released mid-year, this next Superman movie is scheduled for end of year 2012. So, to make a comparison, I'll post how many months prior to the film's release we received certain announcements. And while no official title for the up-coming film has been announced, for the sake of this article I'll refer to it as "Man of Steel".

To clarify, as of the writing of this article we are 1 year, 9 months from the scheduled release of the new film. An asterisk (*) indicates that the announcement was an official Warner Bros. press release. A hash (#) indicates that the person in question confirmed their involvement.



NEWS ITEM
SUPERMAN RETURNS
MAN OF STEEL


Director announced:
1 year, 11 months*
2 years, 2 months*


Script writer announced:
1 year, 11 months*
2 years, 9 months#


Composer confirmed:
1 year, 11 months#
Nothing yet


Production Designer confirmed:
1 year, 10 months#
Nothing yet


Superman casting announced:
1 year, 8 months*
1 year, 11 months*


Lois Lane casting announced:
1 year, 5 months*
Nothing yet


Lex Luthor casting announced:
1 year, 5 months*
Nothing yet


Jimmy Olsen casting announced:
1 year, 5 months*
Nothing yet


Martha Kent casting announced:
1 year, 4 months*
1 year, 9 months*


Start of filming:
1 year, 3 months*
Nothing yet




The announcements on the director (Zack Snyder) and script writer (David Goyer) for "Man of Steel" were well in advance of those for "Superman Returns". Admittedly we don't have any news on a composer or production designer for the new movie yet. The casting news on Superman/Clark Kent for "Man of Steel" came out around 3 months earlier than it did for "Superman Returns". Even earlier for the casting of Martha Kent.

As we're still roughly 1 year and 9 months away from the scheduled release of the new movie, if we use the release schedule of announcements from "Superman Returns" as a comparison, we may see further casting announcements any time between now (1 year, 9 months) and July (1 year, 5 months).

"Superman Returns" started filming approximately 1 year, 3 months before its theatrical release. 1 year and 3 months before December 2012 (the scheduled release of "Man of Steel") would be around September/October 2011. Rumor had it they were scheduled to start filming in August.

At the end of the day, no two movies are ever created the same way. Therefore the above comparisons should not be considered to be anything more than an interesting observation.

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