"Super Sunday"

Well as you well know I am a big fan of the Superman Movie Series and for the past 10 years Warner Brothers has been trying to start a new movie series. The project has had quite a few directors attached to it including Kevin Smith, MC G, and Tim Burton. In fact Nick Cage was to play Superman (AWFUL IDEA) under the direction of Burton in the mid 90's. The film got as far as pre-production and various sites in Pittsburgh were being filmed to be the new Metropolis. The project however fell through. Thank God, since Burton wanted the move Superman Reborn to have Superman be moody, and see his powers as a curse. That just isnt Superman. Check out this SUPER link to see some of the many ups and downs of the project.

However, it looks like everything is ago with a June 2006 release. There are already pictures of the Kent farm set being built. The movie being filmed in Australia which I think is terrible idea, considering it looks nothing like America.

What I am going to try to do is launch a new feature here called Super Sunday. This will update my readers on the progress of the film. I will also write about what I would actually like to see in the film, and trace the history of the previous four films. OF course I wont do this ever Sunday, but if I do write about it. Look for it to show on Sunday. The movie now called Superman Returns isn't out till June 2006. So God knows we have plenty of time.

Here is the cast so far:


Superman/CLark Kent: Brandon Routh, an unknown actor who plays in daytime TV shows. He really looks the part( though his eyes are the wrong color), and God knows he has some pretty big boots to fill. I am really glad they went with an unknown here. It came close to being Keenu Reeves.

Lois Lane: Kate Bosworth. Shes fairly hot, but all I know her from is Ads and a that terrible Blue Crush movie.

Ma Kent: Eva Marie Saint she starred opposite Marlon Brando (who played Jorel in Superman: the Movie) in On the Waterfront and with Cary Grant in North by Northwest. Apperently she is still alive and acts. considering that Superman is already an adult I guess Ma Kent would be fairly old. Since they were already 5oish when little Superman crashed on earth.

Lex Luthor: Kevin Spacey, now really he has big shoes to fill in my mind too. I cant see anyone other than Gene Hackman in this role. I guess he will play it like his character in Swimming with SHarks. Hopefully, they don't got the cheesy route of CLarke and Lex knowing each other in Smallville.

Jimmy Olsen: He is being played by this kid named Sam Huntington. He was in Not Another Teen MOvie which I only saw parts of. I guess he is best known playing opposite Tim Allen in the family comedy Jungle 2 Jungle quite a few years back.

ALso in the cast is Kal Pen best known for playing the stoner White Castle MOvie. IF you recall in the previous films Lex always had a comic relief dimwhitted sidekick. The first two flicks it was Ottis played wonderfully by Ned Beaty. In Superman IV: THe Quest for Peace, Jon Cryer played Lex's nephew Lenny. Now I usually like Cryer, but this was right off the filming of the forgotten 80's comedy Hiding Out where he played a straight laced stock brooker hiding out as a punk rocker highschool student. He kept the awful punk hair for his role as Lenny, which was painfully unfunny. Wasn't really Cryer's fault since most of his important plot lines were cut, and the writing sucked. Given Pen's film career I imagine he is playing Lex's goofball.

Also playing this film is Jason Mardsen from X-Men. I am not sure but I think he is playing Perry White's son. HUge Laurie (another name I had to look up he was the father in the Stewart Little films) is playing Perry White the head of the Daily Planet. I think he is way too young for this role, but I guess they dont want him to be really old if they do sequels.

Other names out there are all over the map. I have heard Jud Law will play General Zod, and Daniel Day Lewis (yeah right!) will play Jor-el. Also Kevin Bacon might randomly show up.

The Plot:

Its unclear. Obviously Superman returns from somewhere. Some are saying its a loose sequel to Superman II, just with a different cast. Basically SUperman has been gone for awhile and General Zod and the other two featured in Superman II are running the show. I don't think Warner Brothers would like to sell this as a sequel though.

At any rate at the very least we know Superman is already known to people in this movie, and there might be some flashbacks to make it more clear. However, "something" likely very simliar to the events of Superman II already happened. Any everyone is saying "Where is Superman?" It seems that at this point they are going the route that Pa Kent died when CLark was young and is already gone at this point. There might be some flashbacks though. In the original movie series he died in the first film, and we learn in Superman III that Clark's mother passed away when he returns to Smallville for a class reunion.
Bryan Singer is directing the film, he did the first two X-men films. This makes most people happy except the X-men fans are pissed he left for another comic book movie. No word yet if they will use John Williams classic theme. Or at least a verison of it, he only actually did the first film the sequels were all copy cats with "love themes" for that film in addition to watered down verisions of the famliar Superman theme. I will keep you posted on Sundays, if I feel like it.