Studio mulls location for 'Superman'.

As rumors swirl in the trades and on fan Internet sites about which Hollywood hunk will be cast to play the next Man of Steel, a quieter more critical debate is taking place at Warner Bros.' corporate offices about where to build Metropolis.

With hundreds of jobs at stake, local officials have been putting on a full-court press to keep "Superman" in town.

Against a backdrop of runaway production that has seen L.A.'s entertainment workforce lose more than 10,000 jobs over the past decade, every studio feature that is made in L.A. these days is celebrated as a victory for local workers.

Keeping the "Superman" production has taken on added weight because of a budget expected to be well in excess of $100 million, and because of Warner Bros.' desire to make a trilogy of "Superman" films--perhaps in succession and at one primary location to reduce costs.

"It seems there is a tug of war going on between executives at Warner Bros. who desperately want the movie to be made here and those who want to go to Canada to save money," said Earl Brendlinger, business manager for Studio Utility Employees Local 724, which represents 1,150 set construction workers. "I could expect up to 50 of my guys to work on that show if it was filmed here."

Warner Bros. has refused to commit to a location for the film, which is to be produced by Jon Peters ("Ali," "Batman Returns") and directed by Brett Ratner ("Rush Hour").

In recent weeks, Warner Bros. executives have spoken to officials in Downey about filming the movie at a former NASA manufacturing plant in that city. The filming portion of the site is being sold to a developer who plans to turn it into a full-service studio (see story, page 41).

Warner Bros. has filmed several other movies there in the past three years, including "T3: Rise of the Machines," the latest installment of the Terminator series that is due out this spring.

"They are very interested in consolidating all their locations, and we understand they've narrowed it down to two locations, Downey and Canada," said Darrell George, Downey's director of community and economic development.

Stuart Lichter, president of Industrial Realty Group, which is buying the Downey film site, said he is optimistic that a deal could be reached to make it affordable for "Superman" to be filmed in that city. The highly discounted rates that the city has charged to film on the NASA property, along with a lack of community opposition, has been a big selling point.

In addition, the prospect of a war with Iraq--and with it increased travel and security costs--is giving many producers an additional motivation to stay close to home.

"We're hopeful," Lichter said. "Right now they're in the middle of a real evaluation to keep it domestic or take it (out of the country)."

Waiting for a lead

Barbara Brogliatti, a spokeswoman for Warner Bros., acknowledges that Downey "is certainly one of the places we're looking at," noting that, "We've been scouting all over Los Angeles, and several other places in the United States and several places outside the United States."

Until the studio casts a lead actor for the film, no final decisions will be made about where "Superman" is made, Brogliatti said. The latest rumors have the role going either to Josh Hartnett ("Black Hawk Down"), or Ashton Kutcher ("That 70s Show," "Just Married"). Like the 1978 version, the new "Superman" will start at the beginning of the comic book saga, with the alien Man of Steel arriving on earth and assuming the identity of Clark Kent.

There's no guarantee that Warner Bros. will follow through with plans to make three new "Superman" movies one right after the other, or, if it does, that all three would be filmed in the same location.

However, the studio has been operating in that mode lately with its franchise properties. The "Lord of the Rings" trilogy, the first two installments of which have been huge box office and critical successes, were filmed in succession in New Zealand by Warner sister company New Line Cinema.

The "Harry Potter" films have also been filmed one right after the other, and two new "Matrix" movies were filmed simultaneously in Australia last year. Both are scheduled to come to theaters this year.

Unlike the "Matrix" and "Lord of the Rings" films, there are no completed scripts beyond the "Superman" film slated to start production this year. Initial production on the film, which was scheduled to begin last December, has been pushed back to an undetermined date later this year.

Warner Bros. had booked studio space to do some "Superman" filming at Los Angeles Center Studios in downtown Los Angeles, but canceled its booking at the end of January.

"They drew the sets so big, they became bigger than our studio' said Chris Ursitti, co-owner of Los Angeles Center Studios. "Apparently they are talking to a lot of people about this. I'd say there's a 50-50 chance of it being shot locally."

'Super' again

Warner Bros. has produced four films featuring the comic book hero, starting with Christopher Reeve's debut as Superman in 1978 and ending in 1987, when "Superman IV" fizzled at the box office. At that point, the studio moved away from the franchise for about a decade.

Efforts to bring a new "Superman" to the screen in the late 1990s fell apart when Warner Bros. could not find a script it was happy with. The studio also chafed at the proposed production costs.

More than any other studio, Warner Bros. is responsible for the current big screen comic craze. The 1989 release of "Batman" was a huge success and spawned three sequels over the next seven years. Still, with each movie costing more to make than the previous one, the "Batman" franchise was providing diminishing returns. Warner Bros. has not released a "Batman" movie since 1997, although two new "Batman" films are in development.

But with Sony Corp.'s "Spider Man" and Twentieth Century Fox's "Daredevil" making a splash, some speculate that Warner Bros. is eager to speed up the pace of development.

A film on the scale of "Superman" is anticipated to generate in excess of 200 production jobs, many of which could stretch on for more than a year if two or three movies were made consecutively.

Canada, whose generous tax rebates and other incentives have drawn the ire of local production workers, just sweetened the pot for American filmmakers--saying it will increase the amount it rebates producers for labor costs by 5 percent to 16 percent.

Brendlinger and others hope that's not enough to push "Superman" across the border.

"You're talking about $25 million for set design and construction alone' Brendlinger said. "It's devastating when these types of projects leave town."

Super Slowdown

Domestic box office take for Warner Bros.' previous "Superman" films.


Superman: The Movie (1978)  $134.2 million
Superman II (1981)          $108.2 million
Superman III (1983)            $60 million
Superman IV:
The Quest for Peace (1987)   $15.6 million

Source: Exhibitor Relations