Chris Nolan has accepted an advisory position for the next Superman movie, a complete reboot (yet again) of the franchise. Currently, Chris’ brother Jonah is busy writing the next Batman movie with David Goyer, each of whom penned the last film.

From Deadline Hollywood:

Let us emphasize that Superman 3.0 is in the early stages of development. And we doubt Nolan would direct. This wouldn’t be a sequel to Superman Returns but a completely fresh franchise. As one of our insiders reassures: “It would definitely not be a followup to Superman Returns.” Nolan coming on board follows a hiatus period for Superman after that 2006 reboot as the studio tried to figure out whether or not to make a sequel to that version starring Brandon Routh directed by Bryan Singer. As recently as this summer, Warner Bros was still contemplating how to proceed. We were told that ”Bryan or Brandon are not completely out of it yet. But Warner Bros doesn’t have a handle yet on it, either. [Producer] Jon Peters is trying to make something happen since he stands to benefit financially. But they [the studio] need to hear a great story that makes sense.” Another insider explained to us, ”We know what we don’t want to do. But we don’t know what we want to do. We learned a lot from the last movie, and we want to get it right this time.”

Fans have long been yearning for Superman to finally get the big screen Nolan-ized treatment this classic superhero deserves. Warner Bros clearly has learned from its attempt to follow the mediocre 1978-1985 quartet of movies starring Christopher Reeve and produced by Ilya and Alexander Salkind, with 2006’s underwhelming Superman Returns. That inbetween period was plagued by long delays and budget troubles and script misses. In 1997, original Batman director Tim Burton tried to make a Superman movie starring Nicolas Cage. Around 2004, J.J. Abrams wrote a film that was the first leg of a trilogy. Abrams wanted to direct, but had only directed episodes of his TV series (and wouldn’t make his feature directing debut until 2006’s Mission:Impossible III. McG and Brett Ratner separately were attached to that film. Ratner got closest, but Warner Bros was wary of a budget that swelled to $250 million, and which seemed risky after established star Josh Hartnett turned down the 3-picture deal that could have brought him $100 million in salary. After that, Warner Bros bosses didn’t embrace Ratner’s s choice of soap opera actor Matt Bomer to star.

Bidding starts at 12pm noon today on a very large collection of props and artifacts from the likes of Amelia Earhart, Michael Jackson and Stan Winston. We’ve included a more complete list below, but some particular items worth noting are Gus Grissom’s space flight suit, Michael Jackson’s glittery white glove, a full-scale male T-Rex head from Jurassic Park, multiple Terminator endoskeletons, Kirk’s Starfleet uniform from Star Trek: The Motion Picture, Stormtrooper helmet from Star Wars: Return of the Jedi, Michael Keaton’s Batman costume, a 17-foot Bumblebee from Transformers, and even Predator, Ghostbusters, He-Man and Freddy Kreuger memorabilia.

The list goes on and on. If you’re rolling in dough and want to pick out something to wear Trick-or-Treating early this year, the auction ends tomorrow (Oct. 9) so head over to this link to place your bets. (If you’re looking for a little more affordable memorabilia and reproductions though, we recommend you checkout some of the amazing stuff from Sideshow Collectibles.)

More pictures follow and from the press release, here is what’s on the block:

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At long last, Superman’s powers and abilities have been scrutinized by science, culminating in a Unified Theory that would make Einstein smile with pride. Where do Superman’s powers come from? What is the source?

In this paper we propose a new unied theory for the source of Superman’s powers; that is to say, all of Superman’s extraordinary powers are manifestation of one supernatural ability, rather than a host. It is our opinion that all of Superman’s recognized powers can be unied if His power is the ability to manipulate, from atomic to kilometer length scales, the inertia of His own and any matter with which He is in contact.

On Superman’s Flying Ability:

Superman’s ability to y also gives evidence supporting our conjecture. According to our conjecture, flight could be achieved if Superman were to lower by His own mass, and increase the mass of the air with which He is in contact. Flight could then be achieved and sustained by pushing the ambient heavy air about him. This mechanism, however, does not conne him to Earth’s atmosphere; since even outer space is not a perfect vacuum. It’s nonzero density should provide enough dust and gas for Him to accelerate by pushing Himself off of it (in addition, He might be accelerate by selectively radiating high intensity photons). Our conjecture does not only suggest a mechanism for His flight, but it also clarifies some issues concerning how He has been observed interacting with objects, in flight. Imagine the familiar scenario where a heavy stewardess falls from an airplane, and then Kal El intercepts and catches her, mid flight.

Read the whole report here. (PDF)

Poor Superman has been embroiled in a legal war between Warner Brothers, DC Comics and the estate of Superman creator, Jerry Siegel. It’s a complex case that is attempting to solve who owns what and who is owed what. U.S. District Court Judge Stephen G. Larson made a ruling yesterday that may force Warner’s hand in making a new Superman movie by 2011.

From Variety:

Toberoff also asseted that Larson found that Warner Bros. should have paid three to four times the amount actually paid for the Superman film rights and that he had found it “inequitable” that DC transferred the Superman film rights to Warner Bros. without the standard term providing for reversion for lack of ongoing exploitation.

“The Court pointedly ruled that if Warner Bros. does not start production on another Superman film by 2011, the Siegels will be able to sue to recover their damages,” Toberoff added. “The Siegels look forward to the remainder of the case, which will determine how much defendants owe them for their exploitations of Superman.”