Bryan Singer is working on the WWII movie "Valkyrie" before he goes into production on "Superman: The Man of Steel." However, he's got writers Dan Harris and Michael Dougherty working on the script and other producers getting things ready, so he'll be ready to go as soon as "Valkyrie" is done.

"The idea is ['Valkyrie'] will be finished by the end of the year," said Singer. "So it'll be sometime next year. Sometime in the middle of next year, summer of next year. Probably summer."

"Superman Returns"'s standout scene was the airplane rescue, presented in 3D in some Imax theaters. Topping that may be Singer's biggest challenge. "Yeah, it's a pain in the ass. [Harris and Dougherty] just write it, they type in some huge gigantic thing and then I'm just there for eight months. It's tough, it's tough. That's a very complicated sequence. It'll be tough to do something but whatever."


On the set of "Superman Returns."

What they have in store for "Man of Steel" may determine how quickly after the summer '08 production the film gets into theaters. "It depends on how complex those airplane rescue topping sequences are and how long they take to shoot."

Harris and Dougherty have decided on villains for the new film, but can't confirm who they are yet. "They need a good approval from the chief," said Harris. "But, yeah, Superman is only as good as his villains."


Singer confers with Brandon Routh and Kevin Spacey.

Singer added that he has options for Kevin Spacey and Parker Posey to reprise their roles of Luthor and Kitty.

Also part of the "Superman" crew, John Ottman has already started contemplating a new musical score for Man of Steel. "Between the John Williams theme in the beginning and the end of the movie which his bookended with it, there's like two hours of original score that I wrote," said Ottman. "It's hard to remember that there's so much original music so I have a lot of new themes I established and hopefully I can expand upon those in the next film. And if there's new characters, I can come up with new ones of my own which is great when a franchise expands and new characters come about."