A Multiple Nerd Bait Update!

There's a lot of stuff floating around in regards to superhero and geek projects tonight so I'll bullet through them in one go instead of writing separate stories for each.

First up, Superherohype are reporting that Stephen Sommers' G.I. Joe will start shooting in Prague and Los Angeles next February. Casting is underway and the movie - which is scripted by Stuart Beattie - is going under the name The Untitled Stephen Sommers Project. The same site also has news on Gavin Hood's X-Men Origins: Wolverine, with 11-year-old Kodi Smit-McPhee being cast as young Logan. IESB got on the blower to Rupert Evans' reps and they confirmed that he won't be playing Superman in George Miller's Justice League film. The Hellboy star's people said:

"We don€™t know where that rumor started, there€™s no truth to the rumor at all.€

Mark Millar badly wanted to write the next Superman movie but he won't be able to because he's a Marvel writer. So the studio not only don't want to make films with women, but they also won't work with people associated with their comic book opposition? In a bit of non-news, I got an email a couple of days ago about two writers who might be doing the next Superman movie. They were Pirates of the Caribbean and Shrek scribes Ted Elliot and Terry Rossio. I was a bit suspicious, especially when news hit that the pair could be penning a new Lone Ranger film. Nevertheless I got in touch with Terry via his Wordplayer site and he told me it wasn't true, he and Ted hadn't been approached and they don't have any interest in doing it. However, Terry did mention something I've not seen reported anywhere else - he and his writing partner were approached for and subsequently turned down Transformers 2. The job eventually went to the Roberto Orci, Alex Kurtzman (who wrote the first film) and Ehren Kruger.