Singer Signs For Superman

X-Men director Bryan Singer signed a deal to develop and direct the long-gestating Superman movie for Warner Brothers, the third helmer to take on the off-again, on-again project, Variety reported. Singer will work with X2 writers Michael Dougherty and Dan Harris to draft a new script for the movie, which is slated to begin production late this year in Australia, the trade paper reported. The studio has apparently scrapped a Superman script by J.J. Abrams (TV's Alias).

A tug of war over Singer's next project had been going on for weeks, with Fox's third X-Men installment competing with Warner's remake of Logan's Run to land the helmer, the trade paper reported. It now looks likely that Singer will not do the third X-Men, even though he has an overall deal with Fox.

McG quit Superman last week in a reported dispute over location and budget, and producers Neal Moritz and Gilbert Adler have apparently disappeared from the scene as well, the trade paper reported. The fate of producer Jon Peters also is up in the air. Earlier, Brett Ratner had been attached to direct, but dropped out.

Rumors late last week had Singer signing a deal that would still allow him to direct Logan's Run, but Francis Lawrence (Warner's upcoming Constantine comic adaptation) has also been rumored to be in line for Logan's Run.

Source: Scifiwire