Superman coming to Vancouver? It's up in the air

via www.vancouversun.com

VANCOUVER — Superman may be flying into Vancouver next summer. Then again, he may not.
A media report surfaced Friday that the latest film about the Man of Steel will be shot here. This is a spin off the fact that the movie will be directed by Zack Snyder, who has worked here before.
But Susan Croome of the B.C. Film Commission says it hasn’t been nailed down just yet.

“I haven’t had any confirmation that Superman is green-lit for Vancouver in 2011,” said Croome, just back in town after some meetings in Los Angeles.
“We do know that Zack Snyder had a really great experience here on The Watchmen and Sucker Punch, and we’re hopeful the experience he had in the past will lead to new productions.”

Peter Leitch of Mammoth and North Shore Studios said he couldn’t confirm Superman, either.

“It’s difficult to talk about movies like that specifically, because we never know 100-per-cent if they’re coming here,” said Leitch, who is also chair of the Motion Picture Production Industry Association of B.C.

“We’re pretty comfortable that Zack Snyder’s [next] movie is coming here, but there are factors in all these productions which delay them, or for whatever reason they change their mind and do something differently...until they’re on the ground here and working and we know they’re here, there’s no certainty. It gets a little bit awkward when we talk about specific projects like that.”

Whether Superman comes here or not, 2011 is looking promising for the B.C. film industry. Stars like Tom Cruise, Liam Neeson and Kate Beckinsale are all slated to be working in town in the new year.

Cruise is here for the latest Mission Impossible movie, Aries. Neeson will be shooting The Grey, a thriller from Ridley and Tony Scott’s production company. Beckinsale will be here for Underworld 4.

An Alvin and The Chipmunks movie, Chipmunked, will also be shooting here, along with the sci-fi movie Apollo 18, a Weinstein company vehicle.

It’s directed by Gonzalez Lopez-Gallego, and is rumoured to be based on “found footage” of a secret outer space mission where astronauts encountered space aliens.

“The big studio facilities here are all really busy,” said Leitch. “In fact we’re turning away work.”

The latest installment of the Twilight series, Breaking Dawn, has been filming in New Orleans and Rio de Janeiro, but will return to the Lower Mainland for shooting in late February.

The film is apparently being split into two parts, one to be released in November 2011, one to be released in November 2012.