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Much like the red rubber codpiece component of Brandon Routh's Superman Returns costume, the budget for Bryan Singer's upcoming Man of Steel flick is ballooning out of control, according to Page Six, with Returns' independent Wall Street investors growing increasingly concerned:

"It's a money pit," gripes one high-level production source. "They feel like they're throwing good money after bad. The budget will end up being close to $300 million." Under the nameplate Legendary Pictures, the consortium, led by industry newcomer Thomas Tull, 35, set up a $500 million fund to co-finance 25 pictures with Warner Bros. Studios. Hoping the Man of Steel's universal appeal would limit their exposure, they signed off on an otherworldly, $100 million effects budget. But with a June release date, "they're in way over their heads and freaking out," says the source. "They know they're never gonna make their money back and there's not much they can do." Re-shoots and additional special effects are said to be kryptonite to the bottom line. The result? "It's like 'Superman' meets 'The Matrix.' Truly awful stuff," our insider said. We're told the ordeal may prompt Legendary to scale back from 25 films planned to just four. A rep for Warner said, "Your budget quote is absolutely absurd and we have a five-year deal with Legendary."

According to industry database Studio System, Legendary is also co-financing Spike Jonze's recently resurrected Where the Wild Things Are and the Tom Hanks-produced animated children's film The Ant Bully, two expensive features that will hardly ease their budgeting woes. But in the end, it could well end up being Bryan Singer's manboy/fanboy preoccupation with muscled young studs in capes and spandex that ends up wiping Legendary's "industry newcomers" off the map on their first Hollywood go-around.