What is it with Bryan Singer and his inability to commit to superhero franchises? First he abandoned X-Men in mid-gestation and now he’s on the verge of ditching Superman too. Variety says his next movie will not be the Superman Returns sequel we’d all been told he was so hot to do, instead he’s directing some lame, WWII thriller for Tom Cruise’s newly resurrected United Artists.

The movie is described as an original, multi-character ensemble piece in the vein of Singer’s much loved Usual Suspects. In fact, it’s even being written by Chris McQuarrie, the guy who wrote Usual Suspects for singer.

While it would be interesting to see Singer revisiting the crime-thriller genre, it’s not interesting enough to warrant screwing up Superman’s future. Warners is supposed to be in quite a rush to get that next Superman movie going, for Singer to take two steps to the right and start doing something else for another company might be taken as a sort of slap in the face. Kind of like when he hopped over the fence at Fox to go work for Warner Brothers. Will Warners wait for him to get around to making their next Superman movie, or is Brett Ratner already on speed dial?