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Warner Brothers is ignoring Superman Returns and restarting the films.

We reported earlier that Warner Brothers hadn’t decided in which direction to take the Superman franchise.  That has changed.  The Wall Street Journal is reporting that in an interview with Warner Bros. Pictures Group President, Jeff Robinov, that Supes will be returning to the big screen in a rebooting of the franchise completely ignoring Superman Returns.

Fans can breathe a momentary sigh of relief that all the baggage of the last film will be wiped clean. 

“‘Superman’ didn’t quite work as a film in the way that we wanted it to,” says Mr. Robinov. “It didn’t position the character the way he needed to be positioned.” “Had ‘Superman’ worked in 2006, we would have had a movie for Christmas of this year or 2009,” he adds. “But now the plan is just to reintroduce Superman without regard to a Batman and Superman movie at all.”

The verdict is still out on the return of director Bryan Singer but it’s a pretty good bet he won’t be returning since Warners is crapping all over his film. 

Currently, the only comic book movie Warner Brothers has coming out next year is “Watchmen”.  That could be delayed due to a lawsuit with Fox Studios.  Fox isn’t looking to shut out the film only share in its profits. 

The “Justice League of America” project was slated for next summer but got shutdown after script problems.  After the less than stellar box office of “Superman Returns”, they also shelved the “Batman vs. Superman” film.  If the new Superman films succeeds, that could get back into production. 

Warner Brothers lack in their lesser known superheroes is their main reason for not going forward with Wonder Woman and Green Lantern.  According to the article, Warner Bros. plans to release four comic book movies in the next three years.  Look for Batman three, the new Superman movie and two other films.  It’s not clear if “Watchmen” is part of that count but rumors abound that Green Arrow, Green Lantern, Captain Marvel and Jonah Hex could all be adapted to films. 

It’s also not clear how dedicated Warners is to building a screen universe for its superheroes the way Marvel is.  Marvel is building all of their superhero films into a loose film universe building up to an Avengers movie.  If Warner Bros. decides to go the same route, it would be wise decision and could help lesser known characters films in the box office.  Only time will tell what is planned but we’ll be there to cover it.