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THESE BOOTS WERE MADE FOR FLYING…
Yahoo! talks to the stars and director of the summer's biggest blockbuster Superman Returns.
The
year was 1978. The film was Superman: The Movie and the man in blue lycra was
Christopher Reeve. And so began a series of blistering superhero movies that
ended badly in 1987 with the below-par Superman IV: The Quest For Peace. Getting
back into cinemas after twenty years wasn't an easy job for the Man of Steel.
In the past decade, several sequels and remakes have bitten the dust due to
ballooning budgets and script battles, including one incarnation starring Josh
Hartnett and another with Nicolas Cage. Superman seemed destined to stay on
the small screen, where hit TV spin-offs The New Adventures of Superman and
Smallville had excited a new generation of fans.
When Bryan Singer was finally announced as the director of Superman Returns in 2004, legions of fans crossed their fingers. After all, what the surefooted helmer of the first two X-Men films didn't know about making superhero smash-hits, wasn't worth knowing…
Singer was determined from the start that his Superman wouldn't be a remake of the original. "I always wanted it to be a return story. I didn't really care how… I just knew that the story had to have moved on." And moved on it has. Superman has been missing from Earth for five years, out in deep space searching for survivors from his destroyed home planet, Krypton. In his absence, a lot has changed. His billionaire nemesis Lex Luthor (a bald Kevin Spacey replacing Gene Hackman), is free from prison and hatching a new dastardly plot. And his love life has taken a turn for the worse: Lois Lane (Kate Bosworth, girlfriend of Orlando Bloom) is now a working mother and living with her boyfriend.
Before taking the red-and-blue baton, Singer made two demands: "I had to have a no-name actor and I had to have access to the original John Williams music: the score is as important as his costume." With the spirit-rousing theme in the bag, Singer now had to find his hero.
Newcomer
Brandon Routh's resemblance to the late great Reeve is uncanny. "I know," laughs
the 26-year-old. "The reason my first agent took me on was my similarity to
him… it was amazing putting the costume on for the first time. It is so heavy
but it immediately felt kingly and powerful. I had Superman pajamas when I was
three months old, they didn't have quite the same effect." And how about stepping
into Reeve's big red boots? "Skeptics didn't believe I could ever be as good.
But I never wanted to be 'as good' or even 'better'… I just wanted to continue
the role."
To star alongside rookie Routh, Singer brought Marlon Brando back from the dead. Brando played Superman's father Jor-El in the original 1978 film. For Singer, Brando's presence was vital: "There is something about his voice that just adds weight and emotion to the story." Happily, Warner Bros had enough unused Brando audio recordings in their vaults to enable Singer to regenerate Jor-El saying new dialogue. "It was so eerie bringing Brando back to life. It was like he was actually there. Eva Marie Saint [who plays Martha Kent in the film and worked with Brando in On The Waterfront] told me it would have been Marlon's favourite job. She said 'Are you kidding? Getting paid and not even having to turn up!'"
His
father might be familiar, but Superman's ex-girlfriend, Daily Planet reporter
Lois Lane has changed beyond recognition. The girl he left behind - Margot Kidder's
fast-talking, chain-smoking, go-getting careerist - has got on with her life.
She is now a working mother, living with her boyfriend and, most shockingly,
the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of 'Why The World Doesn't Need Superman'!
For this pivotal role, Singer called in starlet du jour Kate Bosworth. Was she bothered about what fans of Kidder's Lois might say? "I'm not a Superman purist so I wasn't worried about being so different." Besides, Bosworth had Kidder's blessing: "Margot sent me a sweet message on the first day of filming with a couple of pieces of advice." Bosworth was more concerned about not "corpsing" in her scenes with Kevin Spacey. Having starred opposite Spacey in his film Beyond the Sea in 2004, she knew it would be hard to keep a straight face: "Kevin is so funny but he was on a tight schedule so I didn't want to ruin any takes. He had six weeks before he had to be on stage at The Old Vic."
Spacey
spent all his downtime on the Superman set learning Shakespeare's Richard II
for his return to the stage. "I didn't rewatch the Donner films because I'm
too good a mimic," he confesses. "I didn't want to pick up Gene Hackman's Lex
and mess up for Bryan." Spacey first worked with Singer eleven years ago on
The Usual Suspects and was thrilled to repeat the experience: "I'm glad to report
that he is the same director now as he was then. It is still all about character
and relationships… Even on a big movie like this. Walking on to the set, I'd
just be amazed at the size of it all. It was so big it echoed in there!" Spacey
had to pitch his performance carefully: "You think 'how big can I be'? I'd have
to be really, really, really big to be even remotely big enough!'" He was relieved
when he saw the finished film: "Bryan managed to make Lex scary and dangerous;
I was afraid you'd be able to see me mugging from a helicopter!"
Even with sets the size of small towns and special-effects that didn't exist
two years ago, do we really need another Superman? Hasn't society moved on from
a flying hero who is wholesome to the core? "The world has changed drastically
in the thirty years since the first film," admits Singer. "But I think Superman
returning now is a great thing. He's coming back at a time when people have
a real need to sit there for a couple of hours with a big box of popcorn and
have someone sweep them off their feet again. As Lois realises in the movie,
the world does still need Superman."
-- Words: Ben Cobb