SUPERMAN most likely to be an Unknown..

[The Bat]

Looks like Brandon Routh is out, and well as my first choice. But if they're trying to distance them selves from Returns...and start over, it does make sense to go with an Unknown. Hey, it worked with Chris Reeve!

http://www.aintitcool.com/node/47512

[ctc]

GOOD!

That way people will think "Hey! It's Superman!" instead of "Hey! It's Justin Bieber in a Superman suit!" 'Course, if they DO use an unknown he won't stay that way for long.... they'll hype him so much beforehand you'll THINK he'd had a long career.

....just like Justin Bieber....

Don C.

[MIB41]

Common sense wins the day... Thank God. If Warner Bros is serious about giving Superman a chance they have to come in with a fresh cast and new ideas not already covered in past efforts.

[Meule]

Makes perfect sense to me.
But then again, Brandon Routh was an unknown actor as well and look what happened there...

[Earth 2 Chris]

It's probably the way to go. I think the guy from True Blood (Flash Thompson in the Spidey movies) is unknown enough to qualify.

But this IS from Ain't it Cool News. And I use the word "News" lightly.

Chris

[LadyZod]

All I want out of a Superman movie is a Superman that looks like Superman and has the heart of Clark Kent... and a Lois Lane that is beautiful AND feisty... and has some sort of chemistry with Superman.

Watching Returns hurt when a cardboard cut out would have had better chemistry with Routh than that poor excuse for a Lois they gave us.

[cdhall]

I don't think I watched all of Returns, which made me sick from the trailers, news and previews but I thought Brandon did the best job of the cast. I thought he did well. I would keep him perhaps. But I'll go read the article...

OK, I read the short article and I have to agree with Merrick.

I would have to study the situation more but if it were my project to Produce I'd have to say start over. I loved the idea of picking up after Donner but that failed and should not be retried. Not Brandon's fault. Too bad for him I'll have to say.

[Earth 2 Chris]

Honestly, although I liked Routh okay, my favorite cast-member in Returns was Sam Worthington's Jimmy Olsen. To me, he's the best Jimmy since Jack Larson.

Frank Langella was okay as Perry White, but he can't help but come across as somewhat sinister in every role he's in.

Chris

[cdhall]

I'd have to watch the whole movie to comment further but as I recall, the plot was a rehash. I mean Luthor in a real-estate scam? What 80yrs of comics and they don't have 5 original stories to adapt? What is 80yrs x12 960 stories for just one title... really?

And I didn't like Spacey. I didn't think Langella made up for the lack of Nostalgia that Jackie Cooper brought. Don't recall Lois or Jimmy. Thought the Daily Planet looked ok. Thought Luthor stabbing Superman with a Kryptonite shank was just... uh... stupid... and I read an article by some famous writer about why Superman and Lois/any Earthwoman can't have... can't procreate and so the kid at the end was just stupid... so was the idea that he left or whatever.

I'll shut up. I don't know enough but as a movie guy/casual fan I thought I might have 2cents. And I did think Routh was good and totally not the issue that film stunk.

[LadyZod]

Returns suffered from a horrible Lois and the fact that it was meant for fans of the Richard Donner Superman. Lex has always been obsessed with Real Estate in the Donnerverse, so this new scheme made sense. So did the kid as much as I hated him. It's indicated that Returns takes place almost immediately after Superman II, where Superman and Lois, uh, do the Kryptonian mambo... and it's meant to happen after the Donner cut of Superman II, where this, uh, mambo takes place not after he loses his powers, but before. So a kid happens.

My problem is that obviously Lois either knew Supe's was the dad or jumped in the sack with the first guy that came along immediately after Superman left the planet. And by immediately, I mean I don't even think she took a shower between.

Granted, Superman did spin the planet/time traveled to avoid the Phantom Zone villians from doing damage to the world and made Lois forget what happened between them... and that he was Clark. (Again, Donner cut)

But back to the Lex plot... he'd been to the Fortress, knew about the Crystals, and he wanted the ocean front property Superman screwed him out of.

Was it a good story? No. But it did make sense given it's fuzzy connection to Superman I and II.

The problem you get when making a sequel to a film thats over 30yrs old... it's a bit too late.

(See the Star Wars prequels & Indy 4 for further examples of sequels too far removed from their heyday.)

Batman Begins worked because they stayed out of the Burtonverse version of Batman land... And that's why Catwoman didn't work. It tried to play in the Burton sandbox and it was a little too late.

It's a generation too late.

Superman deserves to be rebooted for today's audience. It doesn't need reimagining. It needs a good story and a good cast with chemistry. And no freaking Kryptonian monchichi love child.

[Hector]

Well said...LadyZod...

[SlipperyLilSuckers]

All I want out of a Superman movie is a Superman that looks like Superman and has the heart of Clark Kent... and a Lois Lane that is beautiful AND feisty... and has some sort of chemistry with Superman.

Watching Returns hurt when a cardboard cut out would have had better chemistry with Routh than that poor excuse for a Lois they gave us.

I totally agree with you.

[cdhall]

I do want to comment that Lois Lane must have been something back in the day. Without looking back I think it was very unusual at the time to have such a strong female lead. Particularly as a Journalist. In both the comic and the BW TV series.

I think that gets lost a lot. I think Margot Kidder did a good job but it didn't resonate the same in the 70s as it must have in the 40s although I'd have to look that up in light of Rosie the Riveter.

My point I guess is that Lois was an unusually confident, capable, fearless woman if I recall correctly.

Of course one of the things I hate about comics is they re-do everything every few years so maybe I'm onto something about her original appearances but maybe it changed a lot during later comics.

Sorry for posting an essay about stuff I'm not clear on...
:O

[LadyZod]

I do want to comment that Lois Lane must have been something back in the day. Without looking back I think it was very unusual at the time to have such a strong female lead. Particularly as a Journalist. In both the comic and the BW TV series.

I do believe that it's generally accepted by most of Superman fandom that Lois was based on the character of Torchy Blane (a reporter in a series of movies in the 1930's), especially since the actress who played Torchy Blane in "Torchy Blane in Panama" was named Lola Lane. (Her likeness, of course is that of a model Shuster used.)

Of course, real life journalist Nellie Bly is usually also cited as an influence.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nellie_Bly

Read up on Nellie Bly and you'll see that a woman reporter in the 1800's had to have a set of brass ones to make it in a man's world.

(yes, there was a time I wanted to be a reporter, thanks to Lois Lane's influence, but my nerves and my shyness were a bit too much for me.)

[cdhall]

Thanks. I will look into those!