This one is a classic :
Spitting on Superman's Cape
by Joal Ryan
Jul 31, 1999, 6:10 PM PT
If this were a comic-book story, the title would be the always-dependable, "Clash of the Titans." Or, even better, "Clashing with the Titan."
In one corner: Jonathan Landberg, 17-year-old Superman fan from Brooklyn. In the other corner: Jon Peters, 54-year-old Superman movie producer from Hollywood.
At stake: Truth, justice and the Man of Steel way.
Since April, Landberg has waged an unacknowledged war against Peters via his People Against Jon Peters Homepage (
www.welcome.to/pajp).
While some movie buffs may crow Peters has been deserving of an Internet un-tribute since, say, Tango and Cash, Landberg's concern is singular: He wants the man's hands off Superman.
Peters, who reportedly once said he'd like the clean-cut hero to have a Sean Penn edge, has been trying (fitfully so) to revive the Superman franchise. In the last few years, the Warner Bros. project (last titled, Superman Lives) has eaten up writers (Clerks' Kevin Smith, included), a director (Tim Burton), possibly a star (Nicolas Cage) and a shoot date.
Landberg, at least, couldn't be happier that Peters' Superman vision has yet to go before cameras. "Mostly because Jon Peters really has no idea what he's doing, no idea what he's talking about," the high schooler says, noting that his own fandom dates all the way back to, well, 1992. (Hey, he is just 17.)
Landberg says his gripes against Peters, numerous though they may be, aren't personal; they're business--Superman business.
In his site's "Reasons to get rid of Jon Peters" section, Landberg spells out the mogul's cardinal sins. Perhaps since he's of another era, the teen refreshingly steers clear of the "ex-hairdresser" and "ex-Barbra Streisand boy-toy" jibes usually directed Peters' way. Instead he keeps it to the basics: Peters, he argues, is ignorant of the Superman legend ("Jon Peters did not know who Kal-El is...if you do not know who Kal-El is, you should NOT be in charge of Superman!!") and intent on focusing on the hero's dark side ("which is, in actuality, nonexistent").
Kal-El, by the way, was Superman's given Kryptonian name. No word if Jon Peters really does (or does not) know this bit of trivia. Calls to his office for comment on the People Against site were unreturned.
Landberg hasn't heard from Peters, either. His lobbying effort is actually aimed at Warner Bros. A site-based form letter addressed to the studio pleads with executives to "leave Superman alone and not alter his innocence."
In the end, Landberg does not consider Peters a perennial movieland Lex Luthor. (He liked Peter's 1989 Batman production, for instance.) Nor does he doubt Hollywood can do right by his favorite comic hero. (He swears by the Christopher Reeve flicks of the 1970s and 1980s).
At his most magnanimous, he even thinks Peters can be saved--"if they hired an assistant to educate him."
The bottom line to Landberg is the movie--he wants a good one.
Because "once you make a bad movie," he says, "there's no reversing it."
http://www.eonline.com/News/Items/0,1,5117,00.html
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