Coates to write new ‘Superman’ film
Ta-Nehisi Coates, the acclaimed essayist and novelist who expanded the world of Wakanda for Marvel comics, will write the script for a new “Superman” film from Warner Bros.
The studio announced Friday that Coates will pen the screenplay for an upcoming
“Superman” film that’s early in development. J.J. Abrams will produce. No director or star has yet been announced.
“To be invited into the DC Extended Universe by Warner Bros., DC Films and Bad Robot is an honor,” said Coates in a statement. “I look forward to meaningfully adding to the legacy of America’s most iconic mythic hero.”
Coates is best known as the author of bestsellers
including “Between the World and Me,” “The Beautiful Struggle” and “We Were Eight Years in Power.” Since 2016, he has also penned the Black Panther comics for Marvel, with artist Brian Stelfreeze, a run set to conclude with a final issue in April. He was thanked in the credits of Ryan Coogler’s 2018 film “Black Panther.“
“Ta-Nehisi Coates’s ‘Between the World and Me’ opened a window and changed the way many of us
see the world,” said Toby Emmerich, chairman of Warner Bros. Pictures Group. “We’re confident that his take on Superman will give fans a new and exciting way to see the Man of Steel.”
A large iceberg about 20 times the size of Manhattan broke off the Brunt Ice Shelf in the Weddell Sea section of Antarctica this week, following the buildup of a large crack in the floating ice during the past decade. The iceberg is about 490 square miles and 492 feet thick, according to the British Antarctic Survey, or BAS.
The iceberg is large, but not as huge as the iceberg that in 2017 calved from the Larsen C Ice Shelf and recently threatened to run aground on South Georgia Island.
The BAS maintains a research station, the Halley Research Station, on the ice shelf that will be unaffected by the calving, the organization said. In 2016, the BAS moved the station, which is built on skis, to protect it from spreading cracks that could have left it marooned, floating out to sea aboard an iceberg.
The past decade has seen three major cracks develop
through the floating ice shelf, according to a BAS news release.
“This is a dynamic situation. Four years ago we moved Halley Research Station inland to ensure that it would not be carried away when an iceberg eventually formed. That was a wise decision,” Simon Garrod, director of operations at the BAS, said in the news release. No one is at the base since it is staffed only during the Antarctic summer research season.
“Our job now is to keep a close eye on the situation and assess any potential impact of
the present calving on the remaining ice shelf. We continuously review our contingency plans to ensure the safety of our staff, protect our research station, and maintain the delivery of the science we undertake at Halley,” he said.
Ice shelves are floating areas of ice that help hold back ice anchored on land. Because they’re already displacing water, the calving will not raise sea levels, but icebergs are carefully monitored in case they move into shipping lanes.