Brandon Routh Speaks On Superman: Man Of Steel

well,after Clark is bitten by that Radioactive spider…

isnt it typical in these adaptations
to use the arch enemy of the hero?
Well, for Superman thats Lex!
I am sure they will add tougher villains, and more action but thats hardly a guarantee of financial Success.

personally, I’ve been saying they need to make a Death of Superman movie. I’m not a big fan of Superman either, but the reality is they can’t keep bringing Lex Luthor in over and over again. The Death of Superman is something that might translate into film nicely given Singer’s knack for this stuff. Plus, it’ll set it for a third movie (er..”Superman Returns..again?”). So yeah, I’m riding with Doomsday as well.

I mean let’s face it they can’t put Bizarro or Mxyzptlk into it

(Having said that… ‘Indy IV’ holds the same score. Ugh.)

I just hope there a lot more action and i want to see superman hit someone i hope there are two more villains e.g doomsday and brainic. kill of jason superman’s child i think he’s completely not needed for the superman films.

Kane the average rating for “Superman Returns” is about 3.5/5. That’s good, but not great.

Vic

Big Supes fan. Since you asked, my 1st script would be the following:

Brainiac(Kryptonian A.I.,commonly known as Superman’s second most important villain, following Lex Luthor) in a huge ship coming to Earth following the path of the island Superman threw into space. Brainiac eventually makes his way to Earth, under the pretense of a peaceful exchange of knowledge with the world governments. Brainiac collects all the info and inhabitants of Earth it needs to store about Earth and ask Superman to leave with it to travel the Universe. Superman, however, discovers Brainiac’s true intentions( destroy every civiled planet after collecting enough info to always be the most intelligent and powerful being in the universe) with the help of Luthor. Brainiac fine out about Superman’s son and captures the child to mould/enhance the child to become a weapon of great destrust(Doomsday or Darksied or Mongul). Brianiac sends the ship off with a copy of himself, but leaves an kryptonite extremely armed copy behind to destroy Superman aka Metallo. Epic battle follows with Superman winning, BUT unable to find where the ship has escaped.

That’s my take in a nutshell.

Routh seems like a great guy, he really has respect for Superman. He seems to know what should be in a Superman movie, what the fans want, unlike Singer. They should just let Routh make it.

Honestly tho, I think he has no idea what’s going on with MOS. I feel bad for him. I think he’s just trying to remain optimistic, he’s the only one who’s said anything about the film’s shooting.

What I’d do for the next Superman film is this: REQUEL. I’d keep Routh if I could, tell Singer to get his ass in gear or get a director who cares about Superman, I’d tell a COMPLETELY NEW STORY with no ties to SR or the Reeve films (no bastard child, no Supes leaving a Lois he knocked up and then mind wiped, and NO Richard White) but it wouldn’t be an origin (perhaps the origin would be glanced over briefly in the credits, a la the awesome Incredible Hulk film, or maybe revealed briefly in a scene later in the film), similar to the latest Hulk film (which was GREAT!). I’d have Superman be more of a tough guy who wouldn’t take **** from no one, with a personality more in line with the Byrne era Supes/the JLU cartoons, my Superman would kick some long over due ass. Also, Luthor, if he were in the film, would have a comparatively minor role, he wouldn’t be the central villain this time ’round, and he’d be the evil business man Lex, like the one of the Superman: the animated series cartoons, maybe creating Metallo or something quietly. Both Ma and Pa Kent would both still be living, like the current comics and the afformentioned shows, Clark would more or less be the “real” guy, there’d be some cool flashbacks to Krypton with Jor El and Lara (not Brando, and it’d be a completely different Krypton, like nothing we’ve seen in the movies before), we’d see some of Brainiac there, maybe Doomsday would make a cameo, and Brainiac would be the main villain in the film. Perhaps Superman would face a minor villain for a few minutes at the beginning of the film, like Toyman or Parasite. Strykers Island would appear in it, and as the camera pans thru the prison we’d see some of Superman’s famous rogues, like the Parasite or Bizarro or Toyman or even Live Wire. It’d be an awesome comic book action flick, the only thing it’d have that any previous Superman film had in it would maybe be Routh and the Williams Superman theme. I hope for something like that in MOS.

And in regards to the JLA film comment, I doubt Routh really knows what’s going on with that either, he’s probably just relaying what he read someplace. Altho Common, who was reportedly cast as Green Lantern/John Stewart in the JLA film, doesn’t know what’s up with the film either, but according to this, Justice League is “a go”. Hopefully it happens, hopefully they get their heads in the game and JLA ends up being a good, well casted and directed film, with people who care about the JLA. I’m pro JLA film, I just want it to be a good JLA film.

Yep…..I think I lost it…… :@

Man…I had this big-ass comment I just finshed tying and now it’s gone….!!!!! [angryeyes]

Kel, I found your comment, bro.

For some reason the spam filter keeps catching your long diatribes. I’ll keep teaching it that “Kel is good.”

Sorry about that.

Vic

maybe Superman Returns was good for the real Superman fans. I am not a superman fan, I have read a lot of his stand alone graphic novels, but he has always been on my lame list. unless they do a doomsday movie I really don’t care what happens with The Man Of Steel. in the old movies with reeves Zodd hit him with a bus and everyone thought it was over. in Superman returns Kryptonite doesn’t have much effect on him since he can move giant islands of it. they make him too powerful. the old movies were good though, I loved them as a kid.

Superman III & IV did not have Lex as the villian and Batman used the ScareCrow and Rhas AL Ghul as the villians so that was different but right back to JOker & Two-Face who both have previously featured in earlier incarnations of Batman on film.

Just the words, “Man of Steel” sounds too much to me like the story has something to prove for their to be a super hero team up. Perhaps in a third outing to keep interest high, that way these Justice League problems could be worked out. If the “Avengers stumbles then “Justice League” might go into limbo. “Watchman” might be the wild card that will push the studio to commit! Lets hope..

Brandon is such a great dude.

No matter what, they sure picked a star.
He’s going to be a great actor not just a great supes.

This is hollywood he doesn’t need to bulk up. (Make-up can add bulk in the costume).
There’s a delicate balance between Clark Kent and Superman.

Clark can’t be too buff looking.

First of all, Lex luthor should still be in the film. But he has his girl and maybe 1 hench men. Just like the christopher reeve series. The love between lois lane and superman and superman between his battles should be separate. And the villains i propose would be metallo, braniac, parasite and cyborg superman. First the villains don’t meet. The land in uncertain places and they meet with the man of steel one at a time. Then they meet each other and then they start to gang up on superman. And above all, superman should use all his super powers that the creators of the superman comics had given him. Base the movie on the comics and I’m pretty sure that it will be a total hit. Make the new superman film a film where superman can use all his powers.

I disagree with the first sentence of this article about Routh telling us all of the same. Yes, Routh has been saying they’re supposed to start filming MOS in early 2009, but he’s also always said they’re supposed to START the script sometime. Now he’s saying that the script is being written. Those are two different statements.

Though, I’d be willing to bet that it’s probably just an outline for certain events in the film until official writers come on board to give it a treatment or two.

“I hope that they actually make a Superman movie with Superboy in it. Tom Welling would be perfect for the part of Conner Kent (Kon-El). That would be freaken sweet having that kind of movie!”

I had a girl friend once that had eyes that changed color with her emotions. Seriously, its not that far fetched of an idea.

Reeves edges out Routh, but only slightly.
Personally it was Reeves ability to impart in the Superman character a little extra charisma, that “knowing smile” that tells you, I know the
score and I know you know it too.

That sounds slim, but for me, that’s just how slim it is.

Returns wasn’t bad it just needed a few things…Lois was miscast. The whole attitude thing was wrong….Routh was good because he was basically asked to play Chris Reeve’s Superman and he did….Superman needed to have more emotion. He was way too calm in the movie. He needed to get angry and lose it some….The new movie should explore things that never has been explored such as why do the glasses work as a disguise? How was the suit made? We know Superman is basically indestructible but why does the suit not ever get harmed? And for once, someone create a movie that doesn’t include Krytonite as the way to harm Superman. That’s why an alien with similar powers should face off with him. I could go on and on….

Most people (other than fans) won’t see “The Science of Superman”. I think they should cover things like that in the movie for just the average movie goer and not assume everyone knows it. I mean they don’t have to go into a big ordeal but a little comment or something. There are kids going to see this film with their parents that have no clue what Superman is really about. We know that stuff but I think it’s important to do a movie for everyone. Batman Begins did a great job of doing that. I will say that Superman is harder to write than Batman. I think Singer did a good job for the most part but the movie could have been a little darker and little more faster paced. I went to see Returns 5 times while it was at the theater because I wanted to make sure I did my part to get another one made, as did most true fans. I just want whatever WB does to be the right thing so that we can keep Supe on the big screen. That’s all I’m hoping for. I don’t want to wait another 20+ years to get another one made.

Well I’m at a little bit of a loss…

Paymon: You want a Superman that’s a little darker but more intelligible to kids?? Which would you like to talk to your kids about more, the less intelligible parts,the darker parts or the darker unintelligible parts? Not trying to be flippant but rather curious where you think the line should be drawn?? By the way, welcome to the thread.

@Paymon Those are some of the reasons I really wasn’t a fan of SR.

Vic

Just want to give Singer credit where credit is due because the movie wasn’t all bad. That’s not what I’m saying.
-The airplane rescue was one of the most realistic feeling action scenes I’ve ever seen. Though I wish they would have shown Superman actually fully change when he came out of the bar and show the innitial takeoff and hit “super flight speed” would have been a little more of an adrenalin rush.
-The Clark/Superman change going up the elevator shaft was great.
-The Superman flying up slowly and gaining strength from the sun was also very moving.

Negatives…I’ve mentioned a few of what I didn’t like already but here’s more:
-Movie could have been tighter in its story telling. The story didn’t quite gel right. Too much unnecessary emphasis on the bad guys.
-Leads me to my next beef. Not enough Clark or Superman dialogue. We don’t know if Routh is good enough for this role because he didn’t have a whole lot of time to speak. I felt there was a lot more focus than necessary on Lex’s side of the plot. When we saw Clark/Superman he was either not speaking or peeping in and feeling sorry for himself. I really was disappointed when Superman didn’t sound angry at Lex when he landed on new Krypton. He was TOO calm when speaking to Lex. Though I did get broken up a bit when Lex and his crew were beating up on Supe. But Singer gave no payoff for us seeing him hurt like that. OK so he moved an island and I don’t have the issue some people had with him moving the island even if it had Kryptonite on it. He drilled through a barrier underneath all of it to shield him from it and it eventually broke down and Kryptonite finally broke through it. He also just got a big dose of energy from the sun to be able to do that (Superman on steroids I guess).

I got to rambling some there but I can’t help it. I’m in need of more Superman on the big screen and I guess you guys are too or you wouldn’t be here right?

I recently re-watched Superman Returns and finally got what Singer was trying to do with the majority of the film. I don’t share the gripe the sentiment that the kid was some kind of afront, rather it didn’t really work with the story. It was sort of distracting.

I don’t like the idea of a “super” slugfest Superman movie. Leave the extended action scenes to James Bond, TDK, etc..

They could do a neat Brainiac story, possibly. Perhaps a fortress crystal is still around containing a fragmented knowledge of Krypton. Through some turn of events it begins to infect the Internet and Earth’s computers, trying to turn Earth into a new Krypton. It gains sentience and for the “big fight” Brainiac builds himself a body.

Honestly though the villains aren’t like Batman’s; they aren’t interesting individuals much of the time. They’re merely a way of throwing something at Superman he has to work through, almost as a distraction of simply trying to be “normal”.

I’ve been hoping for this sixty-second montage at the beginning of a movie where Clark reaches for his cup of coffee and then showing Superman save the cat from the tree, raise the sinking ocean liner, catch the falling woman, foil the bank robbers, and saving the commuter trapped on the train tracks, only to return to the same scene of Clark taking a sip of still steaming coffee. That and a less Superman costume-centric movie. Let’s have “Heat” with Superman as one of the characters. Concentrate on Clark the reporter rather than a slugfest. A lot could be done with a great story and a mystery to solve while throwing in amazing feats of strength, demonstration of bulletproofosity and, of course, saving… Lana Lang. Lose the kid and the current Lois Lane.

Hello Everyone:

This is the first time I comment on a Superman post, so please forgive my two-finger typing style. After reading about another reboot of Superpman, I had to say something. I just hope producers can at least keep Brandon Routh on, regardless of what they do. He truly personified the character of Superman well and should not be “punished” needlessly. Brian Singer did a good job oeverall, but I think all of “Superman Returns” flaws would’ve been overlooked had the film had more action, like everyone commented. As a Superman fan (of the comics, cartoons, old George Reeves series, serials, etc.), I just hope they don’t overdo it, because using “The Dark Knight” as a future template when Superman is an entirely different character would be disastrous. Make a new Superman movie, keep Brandon Routh, recast the rest of the characters, ramp up the action 1000%, make us cheer for Superman again and you’ll see big box office numbers. Thanks…

personally, i think the guy that plays aquaman in the smallville series would make a better superman, or iceman for a future x-men movie.

My biggest issue with Superman Returns was that it lacked action, 85% of the movie was Superman/Clark Kent stalking Lois Lane. A more interesting aspect would have been first a villain of equal strength such as those in Superman 2. Lex Luthor provides an evil take over the world aspect which is not relevant unless coupled with a terrorist plot which the whole plot of destroying the East Coast was like the destruction of the West Coast in the first Supes film. Superman today would be a cynical character much like he is portrayed on the Justice League cartoon, he could have done that with this re-boot especially with the “Why the world doesn’t need Superman” article that Lois wrote.

Routh wasn’t the worst thing about Superman Returns and I think he played a great “Reeves-Superman” but he just didn’t have that “WOW, this being is a god” feel that Superman was written to be like. If you look at what the Wachowski’s did with Neo in the Matrix Trilogy, you get an idea of how much adrenaline you get get out of a character with unlimited power/flying/fighting ability. The scene in Matrix Revolutions where Neo saves Morpheus and Key Maker from being caught in the truck fire is EXACTLY the kind of thing I want to see with Superman movies.

So, I think a reboot needs to be a complete reboot with all new cast. We need a Clark Kent who is likable, someone who the audience can relate to and has his fair share of genuine real life problems / dilemma’s (a bit like Peter Parker/Spiderman). It’s the only way this new generation will connect with Clark Kent. Smallville does this very well and looking at the stats/ratings, it proves it’s a hit with today’s market.

On another note, I’d hate for the writers to spend all their time trying to come up with ways to show what Superman can do (we’ve sen it all before) )BUT instead focus on trying to show who Superman IS (his character, depth, emotion, etc). One way of doing this would be to explore the Krypton/Earth connection.

PS - I don’t even mind another origin movie as long as it’s only the 1st part in a trilogy BUT a total reboot of cast or the audience won’t believe it.

You make a good point Rich. I think the key will be to keep Superman and the values that he stands for there but that doesn’t mean that the world around him can’t be dark. He can be the light in the darkness. At the same time Superman needs to lose his temper and punch a wall or something. He can’t be perfect both physically and emotionally. Anyone who truly cares about something gets very angry when someone is trying to take it away or hurt the ones we care about. He simply can’t be a robot. In Returns, Superman barely showed any emotion other than pouty. I want to feel some adrenaline because Superman is about to kick some serious butt. That’s why we need a stronger and darker baddy other than Lex.

Couldn’t agree w/ you more, Paymon and Nick. If the producers could deliver a real villain equal to (if not greater…) than Superman in strength (ex. Braniac or Doomsday), coupled w/ a fun, dramatic, exciting, vibrant and emotional script filled w/ action and great acting (w/ lots of range), and keep the core of Superman true, it will be an epic blockbuster for everyone to enjoy & cheer for. I believe we need a Superman w/ values & a strong (but vulnerable…) character for everyone, especially younger ones, to look up to. I remember seeing Christopher Reeve as Superman as a kid, and the impact was evident, given that I came from a single parent home and a tough neighborhood. ‘Course a Superman movie doesn’t have to be soft or sugary, but it should have core values in a world gone bitter and emotionally cold.