"Look, up in the sky! It's a bird... it's a plane... it's Superman!"

And it looks like he's not in Metropolis anymore.

Come 1998 Pittsburgh will be the new home of the new Tim Burton film rendition of the popular DC Comics superhero Superman. Burton, the director, has decided to cast Pittsburgh as the role of Metropolis, home of the superhero from the planet Krypton. Location shooting will commence sometime next year and should foster new hopes of a resurgence of filmmaking in the city once dubbed "Hollywood on the Mon".

And just in time, too. So far this year, not a single theatrical or television movie has been filmed in the region.

Such a stark contrast from the glory days of local Pittsburgh production, a period that ran roughly from 1988 through 1994 when the city was host to an average of eight major productions per year, including Silence of the Lambs, Stephen King's The Dark Half, and Hoffa.

With the success of comic books-to-movie characters such as Batman and Spawn, the Man of Steel will perhaps become the revival bonafide hit that will bring more filmmakers back to the 'Burgh.

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