Greenlit on April 3rd 2007, and still the best superhero concept I've heard this decade, the now titled
Oobermind (previously the much better
Master Mind) at Dreamworks Animation has gone through a rather unfortunate casting change.
Robert Downey Jr. has left as the voice of the lead -
Will Ferrell replaces him. Still the intriguing premise remains.
Oobermind centers around idea of a super villain becoming depressed and fed up with life after accidentally killing his arch rival, the goody two shoes hero Metro Man (
Brad Pitt, who replaces
Ben Stiller) in the films opening scene. Its the theme that has made the feud between Batman and The Joker so fascinating and was recently dissected with the end joust between
Heath Ledger and
Christian Bale in
The Dark Knight.
"You and I will be doing this forever" and the reason for that is, without one, you don't really have another. They are ying and yang. They give each other a reason to live - that's why The Joker has never killed Batman. To fill the void left by Metro Man's death, Oobermind creates a new superhero, Titan (
Jonah Hill), but it's more fun being the bad guy and he ends up being more evil than Oobermind, who in this case eventually becomes the hero.
Tina Fey voices a newscaster who is continually baffled whilst trying to keep up with the ever changing superhero universe.
Tom McGrath, co-helmer of the
Madagascar films directs.