Zack Snyder Is Still Geeked For "Superman Starts"

I have to say, I'm not sure that Zack Snyder should be talking about Superman as much as he has, not because I don't like what he's saying, but because I think he is contradicting himself a bit. That is what his wife Deborah is there for, to settle down the fanboyish quotes and present them in a more professional fashion. Courtesy of Hollywood Reporter, here are some more quotes from Zack regarding the realism to be found in "Superman Starts".

"I've stretched this world of abstract reality so far that the awesome thing about Superman is that Superman lives in the real world," he says. "And it probably will be the most 'real' movie I've made. It will more real than even Dawn of the Dead."

Deborah Snyder realizes it's an odd thing to use the term "real" in the context of Superman, but she echoes that it's been the watchword for their new movie.

"It's weird that it's Superman, a guy from outer space, that's flying," she tells us. "But I think it's going to be a definite departure from the things he's done because the idea is to make him relevant in our world today. So the way you do that is you put him in our world exactly how it is and not in a stylized world."

So viewers shouldn't watch Sucker Punch and try to predict the look and feel of Superman?

"Superman will be a documentary compared to this," said Snyder.

I like what the Snyder Duo is saying because I love my heroes grounded in reality, but is it really all that different from what we saw in "Superman Returns"? Wasn't the article being worked on by Lois at the end of "Superman Returns" titled, "Why The World Needs Superman"? In other words, why he is relevant to the people of Metropolis.

I'm not knocking the version that is being worked on now, I'm incredibly excited about it, just pointing out a possible similarity between "Superman Returns" and "Superman Starts"

Bryan Singer Gets Nostalgic On "Superman Returns"

Now that Zack Snyder is rolling forward with "Superman Starts" with a lot of help from The Brothers Nolan and The Brothers Warner, "Superman Returns" seems like it is yesterday's news. Bryan Singer has had a good amount of time to reflect bout his accomplishments & misfires with The Man Of Steel. I have to say, based of his comments he has learned a little bit, but I'm still not sure if he understands why the movie wasn't a hit across the board. Enjoy the interview below courtesy of Voices From Krypton.

VOICES FROM KRYPTON: Were you surprised by people’s reaction to the film?

BRYAN SINGER: It’s hard for me to assess it. My gut response is, “It didn’t do THAT bad.” You know, summer’s a tricky time – I know it’s hard to blame the time, but there’s a bit of an expectation for a summer movie. I think that Superman Returns was a bit nostalgic and romantic, and I don’t think that was what people were expecting, especially in the summer. What I had noticed is that there weren’t a lot of women lining up to see a comic book movie, but they were going to line up to see The Devil Wears Prada, which may have been something I wanted to address. But when you’re making a movie, you’re not thinking about that stuff, you’re thinking, “Wow, I want to make a romantic movie that harkens back to the Richard Donner movie that I loved so much.” And that’s what I did…

VOICES FROM KRYPTON: But focusing on the romantic side of things, especially in a superhero movie, is NOT what people would have expected from you.

BRYAN SINGER: Right, because I was known for the X-Men Pictures, which had been more realistic and edgier. That I think was a big piece of what it was. Plus you had that complicated relationship between the Richard White character and Lois Lane that might have thrown people off. Quentin Tarantino and I had a big conversation about it — he has a fascination with this film and he wrote this whole essay about it, but the Lois Lane part of it has always been a stickler with him. This is me extrapolating, but the relationship in the Donner film was so black and white and here it was complex. Adding to that, of course, was the child that was involved. Again, I really do think I was making the film for that Devil Wears Prada audience of women who wouldn’t normally come to a superhero film.

That’s a tricky thing when you’ve built an audience that likes your comic book films and you deliver a certain tone, and then you bring this completely different tone to them…. You know, I haven’t really talked about this in depth, so I’m just thinking about this off the fly. It’s hard, because I’m proud of it for what it is. I mean, there are a bunch of movies I’ve made where I’m, like, “Yuck, that was weak” or “That could’ve been better,” and I can see why. But with Superman Returns…. If I could go back, I would have tightened the first act. Maybe open with the plane or something.

VOICES FROM KRYPTON: Truthfully, as much as I love Superman: The Movie, it felt like maybe you were paying too much of an homage to it and Richard Donner.

BRYAN SINGER: Oh, absolutely. What’s interesting is that people know I’m a big Trekkie, and they’re always saying, “Why don’t you do a Star Trek?” and I say, “You know, I think I’m TOO big a fan of Star Trek. You’d feel like you were watching Wrath of Khan again." So with Superman, again, it was romantic and nostalgic and NOT a high octane summer movie like Transformers or something like that. I think people would’ve wanted that from me, knowing what I did with the X-Men, where I shed all the comic-ness and tried to make it real. Here, though, I embraced the comic-ness and made this alternate, bucolic Metropolis. Then there was the music and the whole thing. But I am very much in love with the Donner picture, and for me the journey was exciting because I got the chance to reprise those images and explore it. When you’re fascinated by something and you love it, part of making the movie is trying to please everyone and make a successful movie, but part of it is an experimental kind of thing.


VOICES FROM KRYPTON: One final point I’d like to make is the fact that Luthor stabs and nearly kills Superman, but it seemed wrong to me that the two characters never came back together again; that there was no comeuppance for Luthor.

BRYAN SINGER: I’ve always felt that the origin of Superman is the story of Moses – the child sent on a ship to fulfill a destiny. And this was a story about Christ – it’s all about sacrifice: “The world, I hear their cries.” So what happens? He gets the knife in the side and later he falls to the earth in the shape of a crucifix. It was kind of nailing you on the head, but I enjoyed that, because I’ve always found the myth of Christ compelling and moving. So I hoped to do my own take, which is heavy shit for a summer movie. But definitely the nostalgic, romantic aspects of it worked against people’s expectations of it in the climate. And if I was going to do another one, it would be a reboot. I would go back and redo the original, but I only thought of that recently. It would be a much less romantic, more balls-to-the-wall action movie. It would be a very different pace than Superman Returns, which I can say at this point because I have distance from it now.

Superman VS The Law Update

If you can figure out what the hell is going on with Superman versus the long arm of the law then you should be wearing a black robe and pounding a gavel. I certainly can't entirely wrap my head around it, maybe I can have Kathy Bates brought in to explain it to me. Here is the latest from The Hollywood Reporter. I'll let you try to decipher it. You might need The Rosetta Stone.

As Warner Bros.’ big-budget reboot Superman: Man of Steel finally takes off under the guidance of director Zack Snyder and producer Christopher Nolan, the long-running battle over who owns the Man of Steel is entering a new phase.

The nasty dispute between Warners and the heirs of co-creators Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster stems from a 2008 court ruling that the Siegels are entitled to terminate the copyrights to some—but not all—of Superman’s defining characteristics, such as his costume, Clark Kent and his origin story, as described in the first editions of Action Comics.

Throughout years of legal maneuvers (including Warners’ still-pending lawsuit against the heirs’ lawyer Marc Toberoff for allegedly interfering with contracts), it has never been determined whether the Shusters and Siegels can take back other key elements of the Superman mythology, such as Lex Luthor and Kryptonite.

That makes it difficult for Toberoff and his clients to peddle Superman rights to another studio (and pressure Warners into a settlement). So he’s now appealing the limited grant of rights to the 9th Circuit, hoping that the appeals court will finally determine who owns what.

”It’s cutting to the chase,” Toberoff us, adding “it is widely recognized that Judge Larson’s rulings on summary judgment largely favored the Siegels in upholding the validity of their termination as to Action Comics No.1, containing the core Superman format and characters.”

Meanwhile, the clock is ticking on Warner Bros, which could lose certain rights to the character in 2013 (the reboot is scheduled to hit theaters in 2012 but future films would be in jeopardy). The studio and lead lawyer Daniel Petrocelli can breathe easier for awhile, though. The financial issues with the Siegels and Shusters will be on hold pending the latest appeal.

“DC Comics and Warner Bros. are fully confident that the trial court's rulings against the Siegels are correct and will be affirmed on appeal,” the studio tells us in a statement.

Michael Shannon On WB's Mind For Superman

According to TOLDJA! Michael Shannon might take the stroll off the boardwalk through the streets of Metropolis. At least there is a possibility he will. With Diane Lane and Kevin Costner already joining Henry Cavill the search is on for the major villians that Superman will go toe to toe with.

You most likely would have seen Michael Shannon in HBO's "Boardwalk Empire" but I'd be interested in how he deals with taking on an iconic villian like Lex Luthor on.

Thanks to JAK® from the SuperHeroHype Forums for the Shannon manip.

New Superman Villain Candidate Emerges: Edgar Ramirez

He doesn't fit next to fellow candidates Viggo Mortensen (who didn't work out; an issue with scheduling most likely), Daniel Day-Lewis (total pipe-dream as awesome as it would be to nabb him) or Gerald Butler (who knows where that one stands) when you factor in the filmmakers attempt at getting established, name-actors to wrap around the lesser-known Henry Cavill as our defender of truth, justice and the American way.

But like his competitors, Edgar Ramirez looks like he would put up a good fight against Cavill's Superman. This guy could crack some bones, and just fuck people up.

Latino Review reports the actor, coming off his acclaimed leading role in Carlos and whose familiarity with most pin-points to The Bourne Ultimatum, is up for a villain role in Zack Snyder's Superman: The Man of Steel, due out next Christmas. Things are so tight-lipped over on their front, it's a mystery as to what baddie he'd portray were he cast; Zod (who's in the reboot, that much we know), Lex Luthor (everyone's assuming he plays a role) or someone else altogether. Guessing Zod because his passing resemblance to Cavill, and all Kryptonians look alike to me.

While he lacks the marquee name recognition, as El Mayimbe points out Ramirez is familiar with the Warner Brothers/Legendary Pictures bunch as he's currently filming Wrath of the Titans and if you'll remember that sequel's director Jonathan Liebesman was up for the Superman gig before they settled on Snyder. He'd also be considerably cheaper than say Butler or Day-Lewis.

Originally Posted On ThinkMcflyThink.Com