Superman (casting, rumors, pix till release)

[Samurai8472]

In the first movie I want Luthor to be pulling the strings for the big bad of the movie

Superman- Who could have been supplying these weapons to ______?


Cut to giant skyscraper at night

Assistant- Chances are the weapons won't be traced back to you sir.

Lex-Good.

 

[Admiral_Young]

If it were up to me I wouldn't even show Lex at all, just hint as his presence. Show the LexCorp tower building. Have Daily Planet headlines of Luthor activity. Billboard. I would have a scene at the start of the movie of young Clark and Lex and that's it.

 

[Jetfire]

http://www.comingsoon.net/news/movienews.php?id=75442

Cool interview with Zack Snyder...some Superman stuff.

 

[StarTrek1701]

I'd still like to see Tina Fey as Lois.

She'd be a great Lois and she has the right age, I always preferred Lois to be older than Clark, she's supposed to be an experienced reporter with lots of connections, the last thing I want is a chick who looks like she's straight out of college.

Yeah, but take Tina Fey as Lois and see the sales of tickets plummet. Just because some nerds (not you) thinks that some mid-profile funny lady is hot doesn't mean the world thinks so too. Lois, by all accounts, should be as smart as she is glamorous. Something Teri Hatcher and her on-screen daughter Erica Durance has been able to portray.

 

[O'Dib]

If it were up to me I wouldn't even show Lex at all, just hint as his presence. Show the LexCorp tower building. Have Daily Planet headlines of Luthor activity. Billboard. I would have a scene at the start of the movie of young Clark and Lex and that's it.

I agree with the first half of that statement. As a reboot, they should go the Begins route and, at the very end, set up the next film as featuring Lex. But I'd prefer if they had never met prior to Superman's debut. Too many shades of Superboy/Smallville.

 

[Admiral_Young]

^ Yet their friendship was something that was based in the Silver Age and has been brought back into current continuity thanks first to "Smallville" then Mark Waid and Geoff Johns. That's the only reason I mentioned it.

Tiny Fey is mid-profile? Since when? She's A-List baby!

 

[Christopher]

You need Lex as much as you need Lois in a Superman movie.

Do you? Not every Batman movie features the Joker. We've had two successful Iron Man movies without the Mandarin. Lex Luthor is not Superman's only foe. It's just that the live-action Superman movies to date haven't been very flexible in their choice of villains. Just because something has been done repetitively in the past, that doesn't mean it needs to be done.

 

[TheSeeker]

^Agreed.

 

[AviTrek]

You need Lex as much as you need Lois in a Superman movie.

Do you? Not every Batman movie features the Joker. We've had two successful Iron Man movies without the Mandarin. Lex Luthor is not Superman's only foe. It's just that the live-action Superman movies to date haven't been very flexible in their choice of villains. Just because something has been done repetitively in the past, that doesn't mean it needs to be done.

Lex is more than Superman's enemy. He is supporting character in Superman's cast, just like Jimmy Olsen and Perry White. Would you make a Batman movie without Alfred or Commissioner Gordon?

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

^ Yet their friendship was something that was based in the Silver Age and has been brought back into current continuity thanks first to "Smallville" then Mark Waid and Geoff Johns.

Which sucks. Byrne's take on Luthor was the best by far.

Tiny Fey is mid-profile? Since when? She's A-List baby!

Not really. She's a popular TV star who's done a couple of movies - some successful, some not, nothing that would break her out on the big screen. The foundation of her career remains her ability as a writer.

 

[Admiral_Young]

Since Snyder has said they're making a clean break from past Superman films, it's possible we won't see Luthor. I chuckle at fans when they keep saying they're sick and tired of seeing Lex Luthor in a Superman film. Yes, Clark has a few other villains, but the plain and simple fact is that a general audience is gonna know who Lex Luthor is. No one but comic book fans know who Zod, Brainiac, Metallo, are. You've got to build up to these other villains. We'll see what happens when the rest of casting is announced.

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

On the subject of Luthor, Brainiac et al here's a piece on the current status of the Siegel heirs legal fight with Warners:

Superman Legal Fight Heats Up As New Appeal Sought

I'm 100% with the Siegels on this whole fight. Screw Warners; the big studios haven't earned any loyalty or the benefit of much doubt on either artistic or commercial grounds.

Frankly the idea of some creative folks having to craft a Superman moive from the "core characteristics" of the original conception has quite a bit of (pardon the pun) appeal. Dump Kryptonite and Luthor and you create new storytelling challenges - can't fall back on what's familiar to create peril. Without Lois Lane and Perry White the question of what kind of life this guy can live and what his relationships with normal people would be like opens up.

All idle speculation, though - in reality, of course, if the Siegels win this they'll simply accept a huge amount of money from Warner Bros in exchange for licensing Supes.

 

[AvBaur]

Would you make a Batman movie without Alfred or Commissioner Gordon?

Don't be silly! That would be like making a Batman movie without Robin!

Wait...

 

[Obiwanshinobi]

Not sure if that's a good example or not.

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

Well...Robin didn't come around until much later than those two, so that's a bad example.

Not at all. Not one in one hundred thousand people who recognize Batman or Superman knows anything about the early history of the comics, so the importance (or lack of same) of featuring particular long-standing characters has nothing to do with when they were introduced.

Peter Parker being in love from early adolescence on with his next-door neighbor Mary Jane Watson in the Spider-Man movies didn't appear to have cost the studio a single ticket sale...

 

[Obiwanshinobi]

i looked it up...Robin predates Alfred, while Gordon predates Robin...so i was wrong anyways.

I just assumed Alfred was there from the very beginning.

 

[Christopher]

Lex is more than Superman's enemy. He is supporting character in Superman's cast, just like Jimmy Olsen and Perry White.

In some versions, yes, and prominently so in screen/TV adaptations and later comics that have been influenced by them. But it has not always been so. In the Golden and Silver Age comics, he was Superman's primary foe, like the Joker was for Batman, but he wasn't a "regular" cast member, just the most prominent member of the rogues' gallery. Luthor never appeared in the 1940s Fleischer cartoons. He wasn't in the 1948 Kirk Alyn serial, though he was in the 1950 serial. He never appeared in the George Reeves series. He was only an occasional guest villain in the 1988 Superboy series. He was a regular in the first season of Lois and Clark but was then dropped and only rarely reappeared. He was a prominent character in Superman: The Animated Series, but plenty of episodes got by without him.

So no, Luthor is not always portrayed as a core member of the ensemble on the same level as Lois or Jimmy. My whole point is that it depends on the version.

Would you make a Batman movie without Alfred or Commissioner Gordon?

Commissioner Gordon was hardly even there in the Tim Burton movies anyway. And not much better off in the Schumacher films.

 

[Greg Cox]

He never appeared in the George Reeves series.

You beat me to the punch. An entire generation grew up watching SUPERMAN on tv . . . without a sign of Lex.

 

[the G-man]

Yes, Clark has a few other villains, but the plain and simple fact is that a general audience is gonna know who Lex Luthor is. No one but comic book fans know who Zod, Brainiac, Metallo, are....

Actually, thanks to Superman 2, Zod is probably at least as famous as Luthor to non-comic book fans.

And, in any event, Nolan was able to make a pretty decent Batman movie with the Scarecrow and Ras, despite their being two of the villains not that well-known to the general public.

 

[Greg Cox]

i looked it up...Robin predates Alfred, while Gordon predates Robin...so i was wrong anyways.

I just assumed Alfred was there from the very beginning.

Nope, the whole idea that Alfred was a faithful family retainer who helped raise young Bruce after his parents died is a fairly modern idea.

Alfred was originally a portly comedy relief character who just showed at the mansion one day, long after Batman and Robin starting fighting crime . . . .