With director Matthew Vaughn's "Kick-Ass" set to bow in theaters in less than a month, it's easy to forget that the filmmaker once had his name connected to a very different comic book property — the "Superman" franchise.

Mark Millar recently denied rumors that his "Superman" pitch with Vaughn never received much traction at Warner Bros.. When MTV News asked Vaughn for his take on the Man of Steel, however, he was quick to indicate that rumors of his Superman film with Millar getting off the ground might have been a bit exaggerated over time.





"That sort of all got blown out of proportion. I had a very brief chat with them and that's all it was. From a 30-second chat, it's become this huge thing," Vaughn told MTV. "It hadn't gone [as far as casting], we just had an idea for a story for Superman — that was it."

Currently, the "Superman" franchise is in the hands of "The Dark Knight" collaborators Christopher Nolan and David Goyer. Vaughn said that both filmmakers could create a compelling vision of the Man of Steel, but he hopes that they won't fall back on the darker toner of the "Batman" films.

"I think they're both talented, so it's in good hands — I just hope they don't make it too serious," he said. "I think that's the one thing not to do with Superman, trying to do the serious 'The Dark Knight' version. Superman is about color and fun, or it should be, for me."

At the very least, Vaughn said that a Nolan and Goyer-helmed "Superman" should be better than "Superman Returns," a film that he described as "a mess."

"It had no idea what it was," said Vaughn. "Was it a remake, a prequel or a sequel? What was it? I actually think Bryan Singer has done some fabulous movies, but I felt that that was just a mess. There's no other way to describe it."

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