Superman (casting, rumors, pix till release)

[Dusty Ayres]

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

Once again, this middle-aged black dude's going to say it (about Zoe Saldana or any other black actress being Lois)-NO! I want the movie to succeed at the box office and get more Superman movies made, not be derailed by right-wingers and older fans who will be screaming about how 'liberal Hollywood' has caved into political correctness by making a main character of a beloved media property a person of color.

^ If you've seen Megamind, then you've seen Tina as Lois. And bloody good she is too.

She was bloody good, but she's also too bloody old to be Lois now (which goes to show you about the point I made last year in another thread of mine about casting the right actress at the right time.)

 

[Jetfire]

In the 90's an African American Lois Lane would have been ground breaking and interesting...now...it would just smack of desperation on the part of the film makers to get as much attention for their film as possible. It wouldn't hurt the film but the intentions would be less than noble of casting a black Lois...no matter how talented the actress is.

[edit] There has been more than enough time since the Reeve Superman movies to change the ethnicity of Lois and it hasn't been done...really no reason to start now.

 

[Admiral_Young]

There were rumors in the early 2000's that Beyonce was up for Lois Lane.

 

[Jetfire]

Beyonce would have been better than Kate Bosworth.

[edit] Ok, Saw it. Interesting they are filming near Chicago.

 

[Admiral_Young]

I think we will get some casting news this week...not sure what, but I have a haunch another role will get confirmed (I've not heard or read anything) I'm just basing this off the fact that "Sucker Punch" is out now and Zack i think is pretty much done his commitments for the most part. I'm not sure about any overseas openings yet or anything like that.

 

[JacksonArcher]

Interesting they are filming near Chicago.

I'm very glad Superman is heading to Chicago; more accurately Plano, Illinois which is just west of Chicago.

 

[Christopher]

Once again, this middle-aged black dude's going to say it (about Zoe Saldana or any other black actress being Lois)-NO! I want the movie to succeed at the box office and get more Superman movies made, not be derailed by right-wingers and older fans who will be screaming about how 'liberal Hollywood' has caved into political correctness by making a main character of a beloved media property a person of color.

Why would you think that would happen? Nobody complained about Will Smith being cast as characters who were originally white in Men in Black, The Wild Wild West, or I Am Legend. We already had Billy Dee Williams playing Harvey Dent back in the '80s, and we've had Michael Clarke Duncan play the Kingpin in Daredevil. And of course there's Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury in the recent Marvel movies. On television we've had a half-Japanese actor play Superman and a half-Chinese actress play Lana Lang. James Bond's American ally Felix Leiter was played by a black man as far back as 1983, and again in the current Bond films. Heck, we've even had Morgan Freeman play God, which is bound to have been upsetting to racists far beyond comic-book fandom. And yet it didn't harm those movies' popularity.

True, there has been a minor protest over Idris Elba playing the Norse deity Heimdall in the upcoming Thor, but that's just a tiny band of racist fanatics that nobody takes seriously. I don't believe they represent the mainstream of American conservatives. And their objections certainly haven't "derailed" the Thor movie. They were the focus of attention and ridicule for maybe one news cycle and that was it. It didn't hurt the movie, and if anything it helped bring more attention to it.

 

[Jetfire]

On television we've had a half-Japanese actor play Superman and a half-Chinese actress play Lana Lang.

This really isn't the same. Lois being African American is a significant change given the history of the character. I think it would be interesting and could be a wonderful thing as long as the film makers understand the weight of such a change...Lois being black would impact the character...hopefully it would do so in a positive way...but the film makers need to understand that impact. it isn't something that should be taken lightly.

 

[Christopher]

On television we've had a half-Japanese actor play Superman and a half-Chinese actress play Lana Lang.

This really isn't the same.

Which is why they were not my sole examples, but merely low entries in a long list.

 

[JacksonArcher]

I like this quote from Snyder:

Q: Do you imagine doing slow motion flying and fighting?
ZS: I don’t know. I think the thing I’ve been thinking about with this movie is that it’s kind of its own thing in a lot of ways. I guess we’ll see how the action unfolds but the way I talk about Superman, the way I’ve been talking to everyone about shooting it is trying to get Superman to exist in the real world and be a character that lives in our world. So it’s a much more realistic, it’ll probably be the most realistic movie I’ve ever photographed.

Read more here. I'm not a big fan of Snyder's signature speed ramping so I'm glad to hear he's probably going to tone that down for Superman and give the film a more realistic flavor. That approach worked with Nolan's Batman movies and while I don't think Snyder's Superman will be as realistic as Nolan's Batman, I'm glad he's steering away from over-stylizing it.

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

On television we've had a half-Japanese actor play Superman and a half-Chinese actress play Lana Lang.

This really isn't the same. Lois being African American is a significant change given the history of the character.

It is, but it would represent something different in a film set in 21st century America, IMAO, than it does in - for the obvious example - the recent stage revival of the 1960s Superman musical which was set in the 1930s.

 

[flemm]

Casting Zoe Saldana as Lois Lane could be really cool. I'd love to see that.

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

She's just one of my favorite people in these kinds of movies right now. Snyder would be pretty lucky to get her at this point.

Fey, however, would be better - just about perfect, IMAO. Among other things she's really attractive without being an absolute Hollywood sex bomb of some kind. One of the things I enjoyed about Byrne's early run on Superman was his emphasizing at one point that while Lois was pretty good looking it was her character and personality that Clark found so irresistably appealing. I also liked the dynamic - picked up and used to good effect by Levine in the first year of Lois and Clark - that initially Kent is very much the "junior partner" in the professional relationship.

 

[the G-man]

Tina Fey would be great in an animated Superman as the voice of Lois but, right or wrong, they aren't going to cast a 40 year old woman in the part, especially given that the actress playing Ma Kent isn't much older than Fey.

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

Still, it would make the character dynamic more interesting than in almost any of these super-hero movies.

 

[the G-man]

Not probably. It just isn't going to happen. You might as well be wishing for Margot Kidder to be brought back at this point.

 

[flemm]

I agree that Tina Fey would be a good fit in many respects, however unlikely it may be that she is actually cast.

 

[the G-man]

In an incredible coincidence, I just happened to log off here and onto AICN where they've announced that Amy Adams has been signed for Lois.

Works for me.

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

She the chick from Enchanted? I like her. And Nordling's basically right that she's shown a nice range.

Nordling really does try too hard, though, in a noobish sort of way.

Now that she's been cast, it's difficult to think of anyone else playing the part.

Really? Does anyone actually feel that way? Unlike Supes himself, who's always a challenge, the range of possibilities for almost anyone else in his saga really always represent a wonderful range of casting opportunities.

 

[the G-man]

Yep. She's also an Oscar nominee for the Fighter.