Chris Nolan is rightfully considered a God among nerds for resurrecting the Batman franchise Joel Schumacher killed, burned, and pissed on.  Naturally, he’d be the first choice to handle any comic-book franchise.  And now…

EXCLUSIVE: Warner Bros is trying to ready its DC Comics stalwart Superman to soar again on the Big Screen, and the studio has turned to Chris Nolan to mentor development of the movie. Our insiders say that the brains behind rebooted Batman has been asked to play a “godfather” role and ensure The Man Of Steel gets off the ground after a 3 1/2-year hiatus.

Let us emphasize that Superman 3.0 is in the early stages of development. And we doubt Nolan would direct. This wouldn’t be a sequel to Superman Returns but a completely fresh franchise.  [DHD]

If it pans out, this seems like the best thing they could possibly do with Superman.  Then again, that’s what I said about getting Bryan Singer to direct Superman Returns, and we all know how that turned out. GRRR, OVERCOMING KRYPTONITE WITH SHEER WILL POWER!

Warner Bros is producing a remake of the 1935 Errol Flynn swashbuckler Captain Blood, with Daybreakers directors the Spierig Brothers.  But of course, this won’t be your grandpappy’s pirate movie, because your grandpappy pisses himself and his fly is down.  No, this one will be fresh and hip and MP3 because this one will be set in space.  XXXTREEEEME SPACE PIRACY!!!

According to Variety, the studio decided that the best way to usher the beloved 1935 Errol Flynn pirate classic into the modern world was by setting the movie … in outer space!  When I called Producer Bill Gerber, he was matter-of-fact about the changes. “When it comes to swashbuckling, you just couldn’t go back to the pirate era, not once you’ve experienced the juggernaut that is ‘Pirates of the Caribbean,’ ” he explains. “So we needed to find a new way to tell the story.” [LATimes]

Oh sure, you can’t do a real pirate movie now that people have already seen Johnny Depp dance with skeletons and wear eyeliner.  Just like you can’t do basketball movies now because Zac Efron sang a love song to his basketball.

After Spider-Man 3, it was nice to see Sam Raimi go back to his roots with Drag Me to Hell.  But his return to smaller films won’t last long as he’s now signed to direct World of Warcraft, perhaps the ultimate no-win project for a director.

The plan is for Raimi to supervise development of “Warcraft” and shoot the picture after he completes work on “Spider-Man 4,” which gets under way early next year.  The “Warcraft” universe [and by "universe" they mean "video game"] features an epic conflict between the Horde and the Alliance. The game has developed a global following since its launch in 1994 and shows no signs of slowing. Its most recent expansion, “Wrath of the Lich King,” sold more than 2.8 million copies in the first day of release and more than 4 million its first month. [Variety]

Something tells me the movie will be more like the wrath of suck king, amirite?  Haha, good one, Jay.  Anyway, every video game movie so far has been tremendously sucky, but this time they’ve got an unquestionably huge-name game paired with an established, respected director.  If this still ends up sucking, can we all agree that movies based on video games are a bad idea and stop attempting them forever?  Haha, of course that’ll never happen, now get off my lawn.  LIGHTNING BOLT!  LIGHTNING BOLT!

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Today the Hollywood Reporter reports that WB has narrowed the list of Green Lanterns down to three possibilities: Ryan Reynolds, Brad Cooper, and Justin Timberlake.

Along with director Martin Campbell and producers Donald De Line and Greg Berlanti, Warners has spent the past five months searching for the actor to play Hal Jordan, the hot-shot Air Force pilot who is chosen by a dying alien to be his successor in an intergalactic police force known as the Green Lanterns.

The clock is ticking on the decision as the holding deal the studio had on the actors expired Monday, meaning the three are now free to accept other offers. The studio ordered up two rounds of screen tests with Cooper, Reynolds and Timberlake. Other actors in the early mix included Michael Fassbender, Henry Cavill and Jared Leto. Apparently, [Producer Donald] De Line, [Director Martin] Campbell and the studio each had a different favorite among the three finalists, making it difficult to come to a consensus.

Another issue impacting the casting process is the rising budget. “Lantern” is a full-blown space epic that is expected to cost between $150 million and $200 million, if not more. Warners would like to have the production costs at a reasonable level before proceeding.

I like all three of these guys as comedic actors, but none of them would be my first choice to play a superhero. Chris Pine from Star Trek and Jeremy Renner from The Hurt Locker come to mind. Then again, one of the best comic book movies was Spider-Man 2, and Tobey Maguire probably would’ve been just below Joe Pesci on my list of potential Spider Men.  I guess what I’m saying is, I can’t decide which muscular young man I’d most like to see fly around in tights and wear a power ring.  The important thing is that they keep Cam Gigandet 500 feet from the set at all times.