The bad fortune for this film has existed almost since day one. First the film was banned from being filmed in Germany due to Cruise’s involvement with Scientology which the Germans consider a cult. Then footage was destroyed during processing which had to be reshot. After that, ten extras were hurt trying to figure out how to ride in the back of a truck.

Perhaps no bad luck has befallen the film like the bad luck of having your release date pushed back to President’s Day 2009, though. That’s right. Valkyrie is now set to be released on February 13, 2009. That means that the Tom Cruise film is no longer in the running for blockbuster or Oscar status. In fact, it will probably have a hard time even making any money with that release date.

While I understand the studio might not be too comfortable with Tom Cruise right now after Lions For Lambs became his worst showing at the box office in two decades, but what has director Bryan Singer done to piss them off? Sure, his last film, Superman Returns, might have pissed all of us off, but it made a lot of money for his employers. I think there must be more to this story. I’ll keep my eyes and ears open.

Well, Bryan Singer confirmed the long suspected and pretty much believed rumors that a sequel to Superman Returns will happen.

And from the sounds of things, it could be one of the rare occasions where a sequel outdoes the original. From the story on Empire:

“The first one was a romantic film and a nostalgic film,â€Â? he says. “I’ll be the first person to own up to that without making any apologies for it. I knew it was going to be that from the outset. And now that the characters are established, there’s really an opportunity to up the threat levels…Clearly there’ll be a body count [laughs]. From frame one, it will be unrelenting terror! All those teenage girls who found the movie and mooned over James Marsden or Brandon? Well, I’m going to wake them up!â€Â? He may be joking about the unrelenting terror.

That’s pretty much how I felt about it. I wanted to like it, but I left the theater feeling lukewarm, probably for the reasons above: a romantic and nostalgic Superman wasn’t exactly what I was looking for.

There are also rumors, unconfirmed as of yet, that the writing team from Transformers, Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman will replace Dan Harris and Michael Dougherty in developing the new script.

He also added this, on the subject of it being a flop:

“That movie made $400 million!” Singer says incredulously. “I don’t know what constitutes under-performing these days…Look, I can understand, I suppose, what some people mean. Perhaps some people went in with the expectation of it being like an X-Men film, and Superman is a tougher character than that. Especially bringing him back. It really goes back to the fact that you can only please some of the people some of the time. But, yes, I’m just getting back with writers after the strike. We’re just in the development phase. I’m starting to develop a sequel…with the intention of directing it.”

I for one love the Superman franchise, the character, everything about it, so I’m really pulling for this sequel to be a success.

Let’s just hope it’s not called Superman Salvation: The Rise of the Luthor, or Superman: The Return Return of Superman. Sorry, I’m now paranoid about movie titles.

Bryan Singer is directing Tom Cruise in a script by Christopher McQuarrie and Nathan Alexander. “Valkyrie” will hit theaters on June 28, 2008.

Determined not to be outdone by Scorsese and DiCaprio, Ridley Scott and Russell Crowe are making plans for another trip down the Hollywood aisle – their fifth together (Gladiator, A Good Year, American Gangster, Body Of Lies).

Reports about the rumored “Nottingham” first surfaced early this year but not much has been known about the possible film since Scott has been hard at work prepping “American Gangster” for its November 2 release. However, at recent press events for Gangster, producer Brian Grazer made several mentions of the film including a statement describing it as “the Gladiator version of Robin Hood.”

On the MTV Movies Blog Grazer said that “…it will have the same propulsion that ‘Gladiator’ had – the same adrenaline hits.” That could be one of the reasons the spec script was so highly sought after. Universal Pictures acquired the rights to Ethan Reiff and Cyrus Voris’s spec script only after an aggressive bidding contest with other studios such as New Line Cinema, Warner Bros., Sony, New Regency Enterprises, and DreamWorks. Other directors wanted in on the action as well. Filmmakers Bryan Singer, Sam Raimi, and Jon Turteltaub were all in contention for the directing assignment on this film at one time or another.

This version of the Robin Hood tale will be told from the Sheriff’s point of view. Scott has said that the movie centers around a familiar, yet very different set of characters, than we normally see in tales of Robin Hood and that this story begins when a legend first walks into history. Scott elaborates even further:

“Richard the Lionheart is on his return from the Crusades [when] he took an arrow in his neck and died,” Scott said of the flick’s set-up. “His brother, John, [becomes king.]”

John, known in his own life as John Lackland (because as the youngest son he didn’t get any inheritance) “was actually pretty smart,” Scott insisted. “[But] he got a bad rap because he introduced taxation. So he’s the bad guy in this.”

Meanwhile, “You’ve got the returning Nottingham who is the right hand man of Richard and witnesses Richard taking the arrow,” Scott revealed. “And so he comes back to England to carry forward Richard’s dream about England.”

The Sheriff, then, strives to do right while caught in the middle of two wrongs – on one side a corrupt and unpopular King who orders him to arrest outlaws, on the other the outlaw himself who threatens to rouse the public in popular anarchy.

It sounds like it could definitely be a really cool movie. Telling the story from the Sheriff’s point of view should change it enough to make it seem like something new while adding the same kind of production values that “Gladiator” had should certainly make it a must-see film. It would seem imperative that the casting of Robin Hood and Marion be just right (I’m guessing they won’t go with Kevin Costner). Finding suitable stars shouldn’t prove too difficult.

The challenge they will face now will be getting this film into production before the possible strikes occur next year. Scott and Crowe are both currently tied up working on “Body Of Lies” with Leonardo DiCaprio.

Valkyrie is set for release by United Artists on June 27, 2008. The actors in the photograph below are, from left to right: Kevin McNally, Christian Berkel, Bill Nighy, Tom Cruise, Terence Stamp, David Schofield and Kenneth Branagh.

You can learn more about each of the characters here. Tom Cruise plays Col. Claus von Stauffenberg, the aristocratic German officer who led conspiracy to bring down the Nazi regime and end the war by planting a bomb in Hitler’s bunker after learning about the Nazi’s extermination of so many Jews.

You’ve probably heard about the movie in the news because the Germans are all pissed off that Cruise is playing one of their heroes. Apparently, Germany views Scientology as some sort of cult (hey, who doesn’t really?) and they’re all bent out of shape about a vocal Scientologist portraying someone who wanted to kill Hitler and end WWII. I really don’t know what they’re so mad about. If hate can’t unite us then what can? Besides, did you hear the Japanese complaining when Tom made that Samurai movie?

And Cruise looks disturbingly similar to the real Col. Claus von Stauffenberg when you compare their profiles. I mean, it’s really strange.

Oh yeah, we also can’t forget that some of those German extras fell off a truck while filming this movie. Come on guys. We ask you to do one little thing…