With today’s Amy Adams casting news, we now have many of the principal actors in the new Superman film, “Superman: Man of Steel.”
Diane Lane will play Martha Kent, Kevin Costner will play Jonathan Kent, Adams will play Lois Lane and Henry Cavill will play the title role.
These all sound great, and I’m excited. Even Cavill, who I’ve never seen and has a different look than I was anticipating, I’m giving that a chance.
However, though more important casting looms, such as Perry White and the main villain, the main part that colors this entire film has already been cast: Zac Snyder is directing the movie.
Yeah. Zac Snyder who directed “300,” “Watchmen” and “Sucker Punch.”
“300” was awesome action with little else, “Watchmen” deteriorated as it went on and I walked out on “Sucker Punch.”
And this is the guy directing “Superman,” who’s had no legitimate film in thirty years and is due for a relevant rehash akin to “Spider-Man” and “Batman Begins?”
Snyder was actually one of the final two in contention to direct the film. Darren Aronofsky was the other. What???? Why did they go with Snyder?
Because the film has to come out next year. Warner Brothers films will lose the rights to the Superman franchise if they don’t release a Superman film in 2012. When it came down to that , Arronofsky said he couldn’t make a good film under those deadline constraints.
So from the get-go, Warner Brothers is going with the guy who said “Sure! I can make SOME KIND OF MOVIE by then.”
Snyder has proved to have strong visuals and strong action. These likely will give some good elements to the film.
Yet throughout his directing career, Snyder has never had a realistic or relatable character. Not once.
Superman has been on the film back burner because for decades, no director has been able to create a story with him that is compelling, unlike the aforementioned superhero films that drew audiences all across the world in
So Warner Brothers hires the guy who can’t do characters at all to create a film direly in need of a relatable character.
There are some intangibles. The story was written by David Goyer, the writer of the story for “Batman Begins” and “The Dark Knight.” And the director of those films, Christopher Nolan, is producing the new Superman film.
It’s got a solid cast. But is all that enough to overcompensate for the terrible director they have driving the latest Superman vehicle?
I’m not crazy about the casting. I love Amy Adams, but she’s not right for Lois Lane. She lacks Lois’s hard edge. Kevin Costner isn’t old enough to play Pa Kent (unless you’re following the revisionist “Smallville” model). On the other hand, I like the idea of going for another unknown for the lead role. (Christopher Reeve was also a relative unknown when he took over the role.) When people see Superman, you want them to see Superman – you don’t want them to see a familiar actor and the previous roles/baggage they bring with them. As for the director, he won’t have as much influence as the script will. And the actors. It’s all in the story and the characters.
You are forgetting one thing, Christopher Nolan is writing the script. I have never cared for Superman, I’ve always thought he was the most boring of all superhero’s, but Nolan has always written interesting material. I’m optimistic about the film, even with Sucker Punch being a horrible movie. BTW, Henry Cavill was spectacular in The Tudors. When I watched that series I kept wondering why he wasn’t a major star, now he will finally get his due recognition in the U.S. On the other hand, saying this as a big fan of Amy Adams, I think she’s too old to play Lois Lane.
Watchmen deteriorated as it went on? I’m glad this isn’t a throwback review for Watchmen, because I would have to spew and spew about how great the movie was (From beginning to the end).
You’re welcome to spew if you like. I welcome opinions, even those that are wrong.
If Richard Donner had returned in early 1979 to finish ‘Superman II’, you woudn’t need a new movie, cause Donner and the creative team behind him nailed the heart of the Superman mythology in a way that could never be repeated again, and all Superman adaptations that followed paled in comparison.
I would rather have seen WB take on a proper big-screen adaptation of Judge Dredd, with Tim Burton, Sam Raimi, Terry Gilliam, or even the Coen Brothers directing- but it was left to a British production company to finance a (hopefully) worthy Dredd movie independently whilst the big studios rehash the same old characters for the umpteenth time (Chris Nolan’s Batman movies and Raimi’s Spider-Man movies notwithstanding), the movie industry isn’t half depressing these days…
Oh, one more thing that I failed to mention above- hey Jeffrey Reynoso, you make a very good point about WB probably starting with a release date and prompting everything to make that date, whether it’s developed to it’s fullest potential or not, but the EXACT SAME situation happened with the Donner movie, with the Christmas 1978 release date set long before Donner came on board, and he had a crippling schedule to stick to, not to mention all manner of problems behind the scenes, and yet he delivered an absolute masterpiece that defined a generation (second only to ‘Star Wars’- which also had a set release date, albeit one that Lucas missed, but still), adversity often brings about great art, I have no idea if that’ll happen with this one though, time will tell…
Okay, I loved 300, and Watchmen wasnt that half bad. But I’m a little worried about the powers that be rushing the project so Warner Bros doesnt lose the rights to Superman. This is “The Superhero” of the genre, people and he deserves a film worthy of his mythology. Now Zack is great on visualations but he needs a lot of work on character depth and story. This is why Chris Nolan and David S Goyer are aboard. Nolan pratically took Batman to Shakespeare status. So hopefully we cant go wrong. I’m just hoping for one thing: That this is not a repeat of “Superman Returns”. This is not “Passion of the Clark” or the second coming of Christopher Reeve. The fans dont want to go backward but forward. Do what is current inthe comic books.