"These have taken place at Frakes office at Pinewood," the source wrote. "The plan being that Frakes would move on to SUPERMAN as soon as [the] THUNDERBIRDS shoot has wrapped. From what I can gather Warners wants to film a large majority of their SUPERMAN movie here at Pinewood as well as Canada."

Frakes, who got his big screen directorial debut with the second NEXT GENERATION feature, STAR TREK: FIRST CONTACT, in 1996, also helmed STAR TREK: INSURRECTION in 1998 and Paramount's kid-oriented CLOCKSTOPPERS (2002). THUNDERBIRDS is a live-action adaption of the British adventure series of the same name being produced by Universal (story). Frakes gained his initital directorial experience with several episodes of THE NEXT GENERATION, such as "The Offspring," "The Chase," "Attached," "The Drumhead" and "Cause and Effect" and is often credited with opening the door for other TREK actors to move behind the camera. Frakes has since directed episodes of VOYAGER, DEEP SPACE NINE, ROSWELL and the pilot for UPN's new THE TWILIGHT ZONE.

Frakes is the fourth director to become attached to the new SUPERMAN project. Tim Burton and McG both had a go before RUSH HOUR helmer Brett Ratner seemed to be in the center seat for some time. Ratner left the project earlier this year.

You can reach the original report here. Thanks to 'The Insider' for the submission.