On the grand continuum of movie rumors, this item falls somewhere between a conversation half-overheard at a restaurant and something a dude you know heard from this one guy, but it concerns the breathlessly debated Superman Returns sequel, so we can't very well not report it, can we?

SuperheroHype reports that a user at Super-fansite forum The Planet just happened to bump into Superman Returns co-screenwriter Michael Dougherty recently, and took the opportunity to ask him if he would be working on the sequel. As the fan tells it:

I asked him if he was a part of the sequel because everything I have seen says [Bryan] Singer and [Dan] Harris are writing the script and that he isn't mentioned. He confirmed that he is writing it with the two just like the last picture. I then expressed to him that I was hoping the delays of Superman: The Man of Steel weren't true. He said that they were on track and that the goal is still to have the movie out in the Summer of 2009. He seemed a little hesitant about it, but did his best to try and reassure that it will get done by then. I asked if he could give any more info on the film. He responded, "There are TWO villains," and he smiled.

The fan in question is apparently a police officer who happened to be on duty when he came across Dougherty, so perhaps the screenwriter felt compelled to share a little information; he also seems to have consented to a picture with the officer, but it's no longer up at The Planet -- along with the rest of the original post, it's been edited out of existence "due to negativity." (In true fan-community fashion, the poster's fellow members immediately ripped him and each other to bloody shreds; more than a dozen pages of bickering follow the initial post.)

Source: SuperheroHype