With the successes of Nolan’s Batman trilogy and his involvement in the upcoming Man of Steel, it seemed like Nolan was going to be getting the Joss Whedon treatment with the DC movies moving forward. Though no director or producers have been formerly assigned to the Justice League movie, it was assumed that Nolan would have some level of involvement in it. But it seems that Warner Bros. faith in their own franchise isn’t as strong as the fans would hope to believe.

Variety has stated that “Warner’s top brass has indicated that they are awaiting results of Man of Steel, which opens June 14, before moving further ahead.” Now while this doesn’t specify the exact results they are looking for, it is a very worrisome statement to hear Warner already discussing Man of Steel in this way as well as the future of the Justice League movie with it.

We’ve heard names like Kevin Costner for Jonathan Kent and Viggo Mortensen for General Zod being thrown around for Zack Snyder’s upcoming reboot of the Superman franchise, but they are not for sure yet. However, we do officially have another name to add to the cast alongside Henry Cavill as the title character. That name? Diane Lane, who is now set to play Clark Kent’s mom, Martha Kent.

The news was broken by THR late yesterday.

Warner Bros. Pictures and Legendary Pictures said late Wednesday that the actress is set as “the only mother Clark Kent has ever known.”

“This was a very important piece of casting for me because Martha Kent is the woman whose values helped shape the man we know as Superman,” Snyder said in a statement. “We are thrilled to have Diane in the role because she can convey the wisdom and the wonder of a woman whose son has powers beyond her imagination.”

Considering names like Phyllis Thaxter, K Callan, and Eva Marie Saint have played the character in the past, we’re expecting Snyder to take a drastic turn with Martha, as Lane is only 56. Lane is the second name to be cast in the film, after word came in earlier this year that The Tudors star Henry Cavill was to take the lead as the Man of Steel.

Snyder, who’s normally known for casting relative unknowns who pull off amazing performances, seems to be taking to the higher-profile names for this film. Could it be pressure from WB to compete with Nolan’s all-star supporting cast of Michael Caine, Morgan Freeman, and Gary Oldman for the Batman films?

We’re hoping to get some solid casting announcements in the coming weeks that will prove that theory.

David Goyer has had quite a successful relationship with DC and Warner Bros. dating back to Batman Begins. Now, with his potential to write scripts for the upcoming Superman and Batman projects, Warner has optioned a brand new property from the mind of Goyer, based on his brand new series of science fiction novels.

The first story of the trilogy, titled Heaven’s Shadow, has been optioned by the studio to be made into a large-budget picture, with Goyer staying attached to re-work the script. If all goes according to plan, the film is only the first to be adapted from the series. From Deadline:

The trilogy begins when an object is discovered heading for earth. Initial panic gives way to a competition between governments to be first to intercept what they believe is a breakaway meteor. What the astronauts discover leads to an encounter with alien forces that are a threat to humanity. It is the first book that Goyer has written and last spring, he set it at the Penguin imprint Ace Books to be published in July, 2011. Heaven’s War and Heaven’s Fall will be released in subsequent summers. The studio bought the book series after Goyer pitched it, as Goyer and his co-author are still working on the prose.

No word on how this upcoming project could effect Goyer’s work on his other projects, especially the upcoming third Batman film in the new trilogy. According to film star Michael Caine, the studio and Nolan are planning to shoot as soon as April of next year, which could mean Goyer’s script is already in the can.

Not only that, but DC Entertainment is also tired of leaving the Superman property on the shelf, and plans are already in action to streamline the film for a 2012-2013 release.

Whatever the case may be, you can believe we’ll be keeping a close eye on all things coming out of Goyer’s camp over the next few years, as he should have his work cut out for him.

When writer David Goyer left his post as showrunner for TV’s Flashforward there were rumblings about what he was up to. At the time the most obvious answer  was that he was helping director Christopher Nolan with the third Batman script. At the same time, DC had confirmed Nolan would be helping to get the Superman franchise back on track.

Well, today all the pieces are falling into place as we learn Goyer has been hired to write the next Superman movie.  A source confirmed the news to Latino Review and gave a little indication of what we can expect:

“I can tell you that Goyer’s story involves Luthor and Brainiac.  It is NOT an origin and assumes audiences already know about Lois, Clark, Jimmy and Perry.  I know the Daily Planet is struggling due to the internet.  And I know it sets up a huge Kryptonian mythology.”

Some other points of interest are that Bryan Singer and Brandon Routh will probably not return. Also, the film may be called The Man of Steel instead of Superman: The Man of Steel.  Contrary to prior rumors Mark Millar will not be involved  from the sounds of it.

Marvel has a long list of comic-to-film projects that didn’t pan out so well. Ghost Rider is one of them. That may be the most diplomatic way I’ve ever put that. Ordinarily anything having to do with Ghost Rider has elicited a rage in me that leaves me angry. . . Hulk angry. So why am I so calm this time?

Well, as we’ve already covered here at The Flickcast, Ghost Rider is getting a sequel which could have been as craptastic as the first film. However, the script for the new movie is from one of my favorite writers David Goyer (Batman Begins, FlashForward).  Recently, MTV caught up with Goyer and asked him about the Ghost Rider sequel:

“It’s not exactly a reboot,” said Goyer, “I hate to say it’s more realistic, because he’s got a flaming skull for a head, but it’s a bit more stripped down and darker. It’s definitely changing tone. What ‘Casino Royale’ was to the Bond movies, hopefully this will be to ‘Ghost Rider.'”

I’m not sure Casino Royale is the best comparison to make, but I understand what Goyer is trying to say. Dropping all the baggage like Mephistopheles and his minions and focus on Johnny Blaze and his curse.  That’s definitely the way to go as there was way to much attention paid to peripheral nonsense in the first movie.

There was one other thing I found interesting about the interview.  Goyer states Ghost Rider 2 isn’t really a reboot but then says: “You don’t have to have seen the first film. It doesn’t contradict anything that happened in the first film, but we’re pretending that our audience hasn’t seen the first film.”

As a new feature here on The Flickcast, Dave Press, who normally does our comic book recommendations, will be doing recaps of some of our favorite TV shows. Enjoy — Ed

The new Lost clone brought to us by Batman Begins writer David S. Goyer and Star Trek Deep Space Nine creator Brannon Braga is actually better than Lost. Which is really not hard to do. You know the premise: the entire planet blacks out for 137 seconds and everyone sees their individual futures for the date of April 29, 2010.

Joseph Fiennes, Shakespeare himself from the Oscar winning Best Picture Shakespeare in Love, leads a team of FBI agents that includes Seth McFarlane and “New Sulu” John Cho, to investigate the blackouts.

The first episode starts with Fiennes and his team encountering their blackouts. Fiennes, in his blackout, sees his board  in his office with various random and completely ridiculous names and numbers and pictures creating a mosaic of clues. As of the first episode his character is a recovering alcoholic, and as he drinks in his flash forward, his office is being invaded by Dead Presidents with machine guns and laser sights. Spooky.

Fiennes’s wife, played by Sonya Walger, sees herself with another man, which disturbs her and causes tenson between her and her husband. John Cho’s character doesn’t see anything, which frightens him to the point of thinking that he won’t be alive on April 29.

With the Marvel/Disney deal looming, the race is on for studios to secure properties. Variety is reporting that Columbia Pictures is working on a sequel to Ghost Rider, with David Goyer reportedly in talks to create the story, as well as supervise additional writers for the film. Nicolas Cage is expected to reprise his starring role as Johnny Blaze.

The resurrection of Ghost Rider as a franchise comes in the middle of negotiations with other Marvel characters at Sony, Fox, Universal and Paramount. Studios must move on these properties now if they want to retain the rights to their Marvel superheroes.  If the properties languish, Marvel Entertainment can reclaim the rights to those characters. This is exactly what happened with the Dr. Strange, Black Panther and Iron Man properties. Iron Man languished in development hell at New Line before Marvel turned the property into a self-financed blockbuster last year. And we all know how well that went.

Although Goyer stated through a spokesman, that he has not officially signed on to a second Ghost Rider, plans are already under way to base the sequel on a script Goyer penned years ago. Goyer’s, superhero work includes successful screen transfers of DC’s Batman Begins and Marvel’s Blade franchise.

Columbia isn’t the only one getting in on the properties action. Fox plans to reboot Fantastic Four with Green Lantern scribe Michael Green; develop a Wolverine sequel and other X-Men spinoffs; a Silver Surfer film; and a revamped version of Daredevil.

Sony recently tapped James Vanderbilt to pen the fifth and sixth installments of the Spider-Man series, and Universal is continuing work on Sub-Mariner. Paramount will continue to be the distributor for Iron Man 2 and are also expected to distribute the upcoming Thor and Captain America flicks.

It’s funny, even though the major (and minor) Hollywood studios seem to be cranking out as many comic book movie adaptations as they can, most of them don’t really end up being much of anything to write home about. And some others, such as Daredevil, Batman & Robin, Ghost Rider and Catwoman really suck.

In fact, last year I did two articles for ComicMix about the what I considered, up to that point, the Best and Worst comic book to film adaptations. Since then, we’ve had several more movie based on comics. But for the most part, I think my picks still stand as they are. In a similar vein is Zac Bertschy new article over at Topless Robot. In the article, Bertschy outlines what he feels are the five things comic book movies need to stop doing.

I don’t want to take anything away from the article by talking about it too much here. However, here’s some highlights that I particularly like. First, according to Bertschy, Hollywood needs to stop trying to cram so many villains into each movie. Second, he feels comic book movies need to stop wasting awesome side characters like they do, for example, in the X-Men movies.

Finally, he feels strongly that Hollywood should stop making feature-length origin stories because most people either already know where Batman comes from or don’t care — they just want to see him in action. Its a great article and covers a lot of ground.

I agree with almost everyting he says in it as well. Although, I did enjoy X-Men Origins: Wolverine, Batman Begins and Iron Man, all of which are origin stories. I guess Hollywood can get it right sometimes.