Superman gone for a Burton…

Faster than a speeding bullet, indeed! Just days after we told you the long awaited Superman Reborn project was ready to roll, Hollywood has today confirmed that director Tim Burton will not be directing the movie after all. Warner Bros producer Jon Peters, the man whose business skills are best described as "hands-off", admitted that the Batman helmer has pulled the plug on the project. Not that Peters is worried. Nicholas Cage, ear-marked to don the super cape from day one, is still eager to sign and Peters has admitted that they were "meeting with many, many directors" for the empty seat. The project, now tagged Superman Lives, has already reached pre-production stage with a modest (by Hollywood standards, anyway) $100m budget and a character-driven script by Dan Gilroy. Burton had previously been accused of down-playing the natural kindness and upbeat ideology of the 60-year old DC Comic legend. Nobody knows where the director will go from here but he is not the first to fall off the troubled Superman bandwagon. Kevin Smith, the indie-king behind Clerks, bailed out earlier this year after Peters rejected his script. Now Peters hope to shoot Superman Lives next summer, with a tentative release date in summer 2000. As we said before, don't hold your breath...