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Could Bryan Singer Return for More Superhero Movies?

by Alex Billington
June 1, 2009
Source: The Geek Files

Don't get your hopes up. After the dismal debut of X-Men Origins: Wolverine, I started to think back to the older X-Men movies, and I realized the only reason they were as great as they were is because Bryan Singer had directed them. I know Valkyrie wasn't as widely appreciated as most of his past movies, but I love Singer, he's an amazing director who just gets better as time goes on. Anyway, when Total Film talked with Singer recently (via The Geek Files blog), they asked him about his thoughts on X-Men 3 and if he might ever return to the comic book movie world to direct something like, say, X-Men Origins: Magneto.

Singer was asked if he wished he had directed X-Men 3, and he admitted that he had that feeling "before I was watching it, during watching it, after watching it." He continues: "It's weird for me to watch it, because I'm so close to the universe. And also Brett is a good friend of mine. But, of course, I would love to return to that universe." It's sort of the same reason why Sam Raimi decided to return to direct Spider-Man 4 - it's so much a part of who he is. "I'm eternally intertwined with X-Men now. What takes an audience four hours to watch - the first two movies - took six years of my life. So, to not be part of it... It's a shame."

So how about coming back to help save the franchise and directing X-Men Origins: Magneto, Mr. Singer? "Possibly," he says, getting our hopes up just a bit. "The only thing that concerns me about Magneto is that if the prequel were to follow the track I used in X-Men, which is Magneto's history in the concentration camp, then I've lived in that world." He adds: "Apt Pupil, X-Men and now Valkyrie... I've lived in that Nazi universe for quite a while. I just might need to take a little break before I do something like that." Like I said, don't get your hopes up. So other than that, what other superhero projects could Bryan Singer direct?

We last heard that Singer was interested in Prisoners starring Mark Wahlberg and Christian Bale or an adaptation of Radical Publishing's Freedom Formula comic series. Personally, I'd like to see him do the Freedom Formula movie, but if he ends up getting attached to direct another superhero movie, then I'm in, either way. Whatever he ends up directing next, I'm already excited for it, as I always love his movies.

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Cmurder

You usually always love them? Which one is it...usually or always? Haha!
mr sol

While i admire Bryan Singer's ability, i am not fond of his style when it comes to superhero movies. Although I think he got the whole feel for X-men's dark and gloomy storyline / drama / whatever, sometimes i just want to go watch a good action intense superhero movie. Superman Returns was not to my liking.
Cat

I would love to see him direct magneto if he keeps control and keeps fox away from it.
Shane

Only gets better as time goes on? What has he done that was better than The Usual Suspects? It has all been downhill from there. Not that some of his stuff after TUS isn't good, it just ins't as good.
WingcommanderIV

I'm one of the rare people who liked Superman Returns. It wasn't an action movie by any means, but it really made me feel for the character of Superman in ways none of the other movies had. And Kevin Spacey was brilliant as Lex Luthor. I've line out of his mouth was gold.
Rob

The first 3 X-men movies were terrible. Franchises with large amounts of main characters do not translate well to the screen example: Fantastic Four. Too many characters and too much of a background results in not enough character development and not enough of a story to care about. I do appreciate Singer's work but those 2 movies and of course the 3rd which wasn't him but nonetheless were bad. Wolverine was much better since it could focus in on 1 character and throw around other cool X-men characters for fun. I would love to see Singer reboot the Superman franchise. I agree with #5 Superman Returns was very enjoyable because even though it wasn't great it was an updated version of the great story of superman which we haven't seen in a while.
nelson

^ in the words of Kevin Spacey WWWWWWWWWWRRRRRROOOOOONNNNGGGGGGGGGG!!!! x3 was the only bad x men film singer's x1 was solid and his x 2 was great
http://www.vimeo.com/4674166 Nick Sears

#6 - You're all over the place. For one, the first 3 XMen movies were NOT terrible. The 3rd, ehh, that got a little out of hand at parts, but the first two were great. Was it THAT hard to follow X1 and X2? You don't need tons of background to connect with the characters. I think we've all had that 'out-of-place' feeling before, and xmen movies were all about that - Humans were evolving and therefore were being hunted down by normal humans. What more info do you need other than their lives being threatened purely out of fear and ignorance?? Where have you heard that before? Oh wait, in the prologue of X1! It focuses on the event of on a human scale, not an individual one. You gotta give more details to your claim other than, "Ah, I can't keep up!" "an updated version of the great story of superman which we haven't seen in a while." What does that mean? I can't accept where you stand on what makes a movie good or terrible. I did enjoy SR, and I can understand why a lot of people didn't like it. However, it only had a flashback of his 'great story' - everything else was entirely new to his story - Lois has a kid / boyfriend - Lex grows kryptonite islands - etc. Pardon me for tearing you a new one, but you can't start your first line, saying 3 movies are terrible, and relate them directly to a movie that can't really compare(in box office sales, fanbase, story, characters)
XD

BRYAN, MAKE AN X-MEN 4!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! PLEEEEEEEEEEAAAASSSEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!
cody

Seriously he needs to make an X men 4 and bring in ALL THE XMEN, I wish he would make what I was hoping Wolverine wouldve been. Imagine some actually good action scenes with Gambit and deadpool FUUCK SO MANY POSSIBILITIES AND THEY HAVENT EVEN BEEN TOUCHED!
mandarin

Superman Returns wasnt too bad, I kinda wished it was more action packed though. X1 X2 were pretty good. X3 meh, lots of one liners and they killed off The Professor, Jean Grey and Cyclops. Where are you exactly going if they make an X4?
Spider94

the professor didnt die in x3,if you waited after the credits of the movie theres a special scene were you can see hes still alive,he got blow up into 1000 pixels and hes still alive.thats friggin whack
http://www.vimeo.com/4674166 Nick Sears

I gotta agree with mandarin, what direction would they go? Even if they had a substantial plot, I feel the audience would miss the fallen heroes. I think Ratner got selfish and killed them off to get more of a WOW factor outta the audience, but then, kind of cuts the cord for any future XMen movies. I think Singer's strongest approach would either be a Magneto Origins or another crack at the next Superman movie. I think he's learned his lesson from Returns, so I think he would come back around with a more action packed "superman saves the world" kind of a flick. Maybe he fights Darkseid - The mythos of God-Mortal would be pushed heavily, as Darkseid originally offers SM a seat to rule the galaxy. I could see some amazing superhero fights scenes from that. We'll see I'm sure!
Matt Suhu

I've always said here, and I'll continue to say it...Bryan Singer not a great action director. He does well at introducing and developing characters, but that's about it. For the life of him, he does not possess the ability to direct good, exciting, and intense action scenes and sequences. For instance, the X-Men are a team, but he too heavily relied on Wolverine while splitting everyone up into 1-on-1 fights, for both films. Secondly, there was not a single "cool" fight scene in Superman Returns. Granted, the character is nearly invincible, but still...there was nothing exciting about Superman Returns.
S

The Professor was revealed to be alive at the end and you never actually see Cyclops die, it's just heavily implied. They need to bring in Emma Frost (not the lame excuse they used in Wolverine), bring Cyclops back and go along the Astonishing story line where Jean is dead and the Professor is mostly out of the picture. And we need some GD sentinels!!!
LSP

Wow...the Xmen movies were good? I'm lost here. This article makes no sense as we're talking about a guy that directed some shitty movies save three House episodes (love that show) but it could have been episodes that were meh...and this is news? We are excited about what? He'll make more shitty superhero movies? YEA!!!!! Also, Cyclops was a pussy bitch. I hated his character and glad they kille him. The whole series generally sucked and Cyclops is kinda a cool character in the Xmen universe but those movies, gosh.
Easy Fix

The deal with Prof. X was (according to Ratner) that he had a twin brother that was his mental opposite (brain dead) that was lying in a bed on Muir Island. When Charlie was destroyed he transferred his mind into his brother. The Dark Phoenix wasn't Jean. She's still dormant (healing) under the water from the dam. We never saw Scott get killed. Phoenix could have stripped him of his powers and shredded his memory. After Phoenix was killed his powers and memory could be slowly returning. They could go up against him during a battle with The Brotherhood or some other team of villains (which in his confused state Scott is a member of).
Last Son

Besides "Superman Returns" every other Bryan Singer film including the recently released Valkarie film are great. The problem with his Superman film was that he was both trying to reimagine Donner's original film and not making it his own. Plus the casting (Yes and that includes Brandon Routh who looked more like Superboy than Superman) and the film's climax was absolute shit. Singer made some really bad choices with that film, but I say his next film should be the next Superman film "The Man Of Steel". I have heard about what he wanted to do with the next film, and that was to up the action and bring in some real threats for Superman. Maybe Superman Returns can be remembered as a teaser trailer to the next film, like Singer did with X-men where X2 was the much better film. I don't think Singer should be making X-Men Origins: Magneto. He left that universe when he went away to make Superman. He needs to stay with Superman. I just hope that those dickheads at Warner Bros finally wake up to themselves and realize that making the next Superman film dark is a big mistake. Leave the dark to Batman and the light to Superman.
brian barajas

i love superman returns, it gets better every time i watch it. i think it blows the xmen movies out of the water.
Dan Walimaa

I gotta say that I love Superman Returns too. It would be nice to see a sequel to it be made, with a worthy adversary for The Man of Steel to duke it out with.
Greg

As long as Singer stays far away from Superman, he can do whatever he wants. After his abortion killed the franchise, nerds turned on Singer in a big way. Now they're retroactively ripping X-Men to pieces and starting on the Usual Suspects in fallout over their loathing and anger with Superman Returns. The aftermath of that movie damaged Singer's career and continued association could kill his career. Now is the time for Singer to rebuild goodwill with crime dramas and thrillers, to showcase what he's best at. Otherwise he'll go the way of Schumacher.
thawhitepiccolo

xmen 2 aint enough action and the story was boring they shoulda threw apocalypse in that hoe
Fisherr

I don't like Singer although i believe he has a good potential of making awesome movies.