Superman Returns

[brockly]

Gotta say I agree with the rk.

[Gamblour.]

Gotta say I agree with me.

I haven't seen the original Superman, mostly because I've never given a shit about Superman, he bores me. Truth, Justice, blah blah. I didn't even know that was Brando doing the voice over (where's he been anyway? </sarcasm>). So this trailer teaser worked for me without the fuzzy nostalgia.

[MacGuffin]

Before 'Superman Returns', TV Documentary To Air

Director Bryan Singer has called upon documentary maker Kevin Burns -- not to be confused with fellow documentary maker Ken Burns -- to make a TV documentary about the origins and evolution of Superman. Burns has made a number of documentaries about Hollywood subjects, including Cleopatra: The Film That Changed Hollywood and Empire of Dreams: The Story of the Star Wars Trilogy. The plan is to complete the new film and put it on the air before the scheduled June 30, 2006 opening of Warner Brothers' Superman Returns, then to package it as an "extra" in the DVD package later in the year.

[©brad]

*sniff*

all I really needed was that shot of the mailbox and that music.

no joke! gave me chills.

pumped i am.

[MacGuffin]

Up, up ... and away
Superman may be quintessentially American, but it's cheaper to film him in Australia.
Source: Los Angeles Times



SYDNEY, Australia — To tell the tale of the greatest American superhero, the producers of "Superman Returns" brought six tons of lumber to a rural parcel on the Breeza Plains of Australia and built a Kansas farmhouse, windmill and an ox-blood red barn. They planted five acres of corn and paved six miles of road to reach their new Midwest homestead. And all of this because, for Hollywood filmmakers today, it makes more money sense to build Smallville USA on a different continent than it does to simply stay home.

"It is quite amazing isn't it? I suppose that's the way things are now," said Guy Hendrix Dyas the production designer for the film, which will reach theaters in June. "The place we found was in a really desolate area about an hour's flight from Sydney. We built an entire working farm. When we were done with the corn we fed it to the cows."
   
There is no bigger popcorn movie for 2006 than "Superman Returns," Warner Bros.' attempt to relaunch the grand old Man of Steel as a heroic 21st century franchise. And the film is all the bigger for having been made in Australia, where the U.S. dollar goes far and the talent pool runs deep. The country is consequently turning into one of the busiest overseas production hubs for Hollywood and perhaps its most user-friendly outpost. The "Superman Returns" budget has been widely reported to be $200 million or higher (studio insiders this week denied recent reports that the total actually went north of $250 million) but whatever the price tag, it will be reduced in the final calculation — government incentives in Australia add up to a 12.5% rebate on its final production costs. Then there are also the advantages of exchange rates and the largesse that Hollywood ventures enjoy (among them expedited permits and discounted hotel rooms) in a nation that has plenty of eager hospitality for visiting American big-spenders.

With the intense risk assessment that accompanies every blockbuster-budget film these days, the savings being offered by Australia (and New Zealand as well) has made it something of a bustling suburb of Hollywood — one that does, however, require a 17-hour commute. It also has the sun-intense weather, surfing and spiky attitude of personal expression that feel familiar to Angelenos.

While Hollywood productions that traipse into Eastern European nations or far-flung exotic Asian locales gamble on what they will find, in Australia and New Zealand they have an established and homegrown film industry (and one that has produced a glut of talented directors, among them Peter Jackson, Peter Weir, Baz Luhrmann, Phillip Noyce, Bruce Beresford and Jane Campion), no language barrier and a considerable amount of existing studio amenities. And then there are those financial breaks....

"The Australian government wants filmmakers and films here and it now has a corner of the business, a busy corner," said "Superman Returns" producer Gilbert Adler, in his office on the sprawling Fox Studios Australia lot in the suburbs of Sydney.

Outside his office are six huge soundstages, cluttered craft shops and wardrobe warehouses and administrative bungalows — all bustling with activity and set on a layout that would be familiar to anyone who has visited the Warner Bros. lot in Burbank.

Last summer, the lot also had a stunning, five-story Daily Planet façade ("It was too big to build inside a soundstage, so we built it to straddle the exteriors of two soundstages," Dyas said); a Fortress of Solitude; an elaborate set of a luxury yacht; a mansion; and assorted stand-ins for Metropolis and other Superman environs.

"This was the place that made the most sense for us and for the picture and it's really as simple as that," Adler said.

On the lot is also an animation house, Animal Logic, with one of the most massive amounts of computer memory under one roof anywhere in the world. That amount of computer muscle is needed to create the new-era animation projects, such as "Happy Feet," another Warner Bros. production that was underway over the summer and is due next fall.

Animal Logic is a visual effects house that has worked on projects such as "The Matrix: Reloaded," "Moulin Rouge!" and "The House of Flying Daggers." With "Happy Feet" — a playful animated musical adventure about penguins that features the voices of Hugh Jackman, Robin Williams and Nicole Kidman — the outfit hopes to catch industry attention by premiering a digital animation approach that brings a deeper realism to backgrounds, surface textures and lighting.

"The Pentagon and Animal Logic are both among the top five buildings in the world when it comes to computer power," said "Happy Feet" director George Miller ("The Witches of Eastwick," "Mad Max"), a Queensland native who said Australia's film artistry prowess has now dovetailed with a considerable amount of Hollywood commerce. "There is quite a bit of work being done here, obviously, and I think it will only increase."

Not everyone is happy with the southward migration of Hollywood productions. The idea of "Superman Returns," for example, a quintessentially American creation, taking flight in a foreign country has not set well with some observers. "Truth, Justice and the Australian Way" was the snide appraisal of the Film & Television Action Committee, a group active in the fight to stem the flow of film production away from the U.S.

There was also the public complaint of the director known as McG, who had been set at one point to work on the film. He left the production for several reasons, one of them the shooting site. In a statement issued when he parted ways with the project, he said the hero belonged on an American skyline: "When I flew to New York to scout, I became enamored with our greatest American city. It was clear to me that this was Metropolis. As a filmmaker, I felt it was inappropriate to try to capture the heart of America on another continent."

Producers of the movie have responded that McG's self-acknowledged fear of flying over bodies of water had more to do with his departure from the project than any sense of sanctity regarding Superman's iconography. But either way, the split highlights some of the downsides of working on a studio lot on the other side of the globe. For most projects, however, the upsides are far more compelling.

The "Lord of the Rings" films, the "Matrix" franchise, the most recent "Star Wars" trilogy, "King Kong," "Peter Pan," "Ghost Rider," "Charlotte's Web," "House of Wax," "Scooby-Doo" and "Stealth" are just some of the recent mainstream Hollywood product made in Australia or New Zealand. All were wooed by aggressive government deals that pull in productions to add amperage to the local economy.

An abstract by the New South Wales Department of State Development, for example, reports that "Superman Returns" injected some $80 million into the local economy, created 800 local jobs and employed as many 10,000 people as it shot on 60 sets on nine stages over eight months. A crowing minister told the Sydney press in November that the movie will be "more powerful than a locomotive at the box office" but that it's "already proven a winner" for the Sydney area.

For the cast and crew who live in Los Angeles and fly down for extended work stays in Australia, the locale and infrastructure make for a fairly comfortable transition. But there are some rough spots. As sheets of rain came down on Fox Studios one day last summer, the "Superman" crew hustled to a lunch tent after shooting a scene at the entrance to the arctic Fortress of Solitude (in this case, a soundstage covered with painted sawdust and faux snowdrifts). The complaint of the day: Weather and catering that fall short of L.A. in every way.

The film's director, Bryan Singer, said shooting in Australia afforded every convenience on the technical side and that the distance from home actually helped to keep the production focused. Not only did the long hours keep the crew on task, when they're cut free the sleepy suburb surrounding the studio was hardly a Sunset Strip of temptations.

Despite the activity there is still a lazy feeling to the Fox Studios Australia complex, especially just beyond the gates of the working lot where a retail hub has been built in the vein of CityWalk at Universal Studios in Los Angeles. Downtown, Sydney is a cosmopolitan and gleaming city by the sea, but the suburbs are not terribly exciting — the exception being the grim recent civil strife that made headlines around the world. The news of racial unrest in some of the beach districts earlier this month was the sort of unpredictable dispatch that can send a shudder through Hollywood producers who never know what new chaos will affect their overseas ventures.

Studio executives say that in planning productions, they consider a range of factors, including shifts in economic policies, changes in government, currency exchange rates, weather and natural disasters, and union and labor issues.

The vagaries of production travel might present sandstorms or packs of wild dogs in some corners of the world, but in Sydney, Hollywood has found a steady sister. The prospect of high predictability always makes accountants and studio executives breathe easier, but sometimes the cast and crews have to stifle a yawn.

One night, for instance, executive producer Chris Lee, screenwriters Michael Dougherty and Dan Harris and a dozen others working on the film struck out for a midnight screening of "War of the Worlds" — because of the international date line, the show at a movie theater adjacent to the Fox Studios lot was one of the first screenings of the film in the world.

The group bought their tickets hours early anticipating a crushing crowd — they ended up, literally, being the only people in the room and chuckling about the different pace of life from L.A.

"It's like summer camp but a really brutal summer camp," Singer said the next day. "The thing is, with the advantages here we can get everything we can out of the budget. Everything is bigger in Australia. Big is bigger in Australia."

[Pubrick]

The group bought their tickets hours early anticipating a crushing crowd — they ended up, literally, being the only people in the room and chuckling about the different pace of life from L.A.

yeah, it's called the luxury of not being smothered by fat americans everywhere you go. jerks.

[Gamblour.]

I think every place has the same ratio of their own "fat Americans" as every place else. But because we have a big population, we have so many more "fat americans". Plus, they're all densely packed into suburban areas, it's all you'll see at times. didn't australia have a bunch of redneck-type racists rioting recently? Or is that something else? I'm not shoving it in your face or defending fat americans (I hate them more than you do), I'm just saying maybe those are your fat americans. like europe, they have the french (zing).

[polkablues]

I think every place has the same ratio of their own "fat Americans" as every place else. But because we have a big population, we have so many more "fat americans". Plus, they're all densely packed into suburban areas, it's all you'll see at times. didn't australia have a bunch of redneck-type racists rioting recently? Or is that something else? I'm not shoving it in your face or defending fat americans (I hate them more than you do), I'm just saying maybe those are your fat americans. like europe, they have the french (zing).

I definitely recall news footage of beefy, sunburned blonde dudes throwing Foster's cans at Arab kids.  I just took it as a sign that "spreading freedom" is contagious.

But anyway.  Back to our regularly scheduled discussion of the upcoming blockbuster, "Superman Repeats".

[Pubrick]

didn't australia have a bunch of redneck-type racists rioting recently?

yeah but that's exactly what it was, redneck idiots with beer cans and nothing better to do on another scorching summer day.

my point was these hollywood types, singer and his cronies or whatever executives the quote i selected was about, they're mocking our lack of crazy midnite-premiere turnout? it said they were expecting a crushing crowd and seemed to have been disappointed that they were the only ppl in the cinema... uh that's a good thing in my book. it's like, "oh wow, a country that actually sleeps at nite." i'd rather have a great nite's sleep and wake up refreshed than be strung out all the time, which is what they're used to. besides, those ppl are clearly not making the most of sydney night-life if they chose to waste their free time on a midnite screening clearly aimed at geeks.

and for the record, one shitty riot is no defense for anything.

[pete]

I think every place has the same ratio of their own "fat Americans" as every place else. But because we have a big population, we have so many more "fat americans". Plus, they're all densely packed into suburban areas, it's all you'll see at times. didn't australia have a bunch of redneck-type racists rioting recently? Or is that something else? I'm not shoving it in your face or defending fat americans (I hate them more than you do), I'm just saying maybe those are your fat americans. like europe, they have the french (zing).

but the "fat Americans" will never riot though.  a fat American isn't violent like a soccer hooligan, desperate like a gypsy, wacky like a Japanese, or snobby like a frenchman, a fat American refers to someone who is complacent in his sheltered bubbly world in America and expects the rest of the world to behave accordingly when he travels abroad.  And I think that's a pretty American phenomena, it's true that every culture probably has some type of people export that it's desperately ashamed of, but fat Americans are definitely uniquel, because only fat Americans can afford that type of virtual insulation from the rest of the world, totally unaware of its abnormal, overwhelming presence into the reaches too far for its own good, and being the world's only superpower.  I mean, in America you don't get a slew of the so-called fat Chinese fat Mexican fat Italian or whatever, though those snobby shallow tourists frequent your big cities everyday.

[Gamblour.]

I think every place has the same ratio of their own "fat Americans" as every place else. But because we have a big population, we have so many more "fat americans". Plus, they're all densely packed into suburban areas, it's all you'll see at times. didn't australia have a bunch of redneck-type racists rioting recently? Or is that something else? I'm not shoving it in your face or defending fat americans (I hate them more than you do), I'm just saying maybe those are your fat americans. like europe, they have the french (zing).

but the "fat Americans" will never riot though.  a fat American isn't violent like a soccer hooligan, desperate like a gypsy, wacky like a Japanese, or snobby like a frenchman, a fat American refers to someone who is complacent in his sheltered bubbly world in America and expects the rest of the world to behave accordingly when he travels abroad.  And I think that's a pretty American phenomena, it's true that every culture probably has some type of people export that it's desperately ashamed of, but fat Americans are definitely uniquel, because only fat Americans can afford that type of virtual insulation from the rest of the world, totally unaware of its abnormal, overwhelming presence into the reaches too far for its own good, and being the world's only superpower.  I mean, in America you don't get a slew of the so-called fat Chinese fat Mexican fat Italian or whatever, though those snobby shallow tourists frequent your big cities everyday.

i think you definitely said it best. but a part of me doesn't want to be so cynical that this is the reality. I want just an inkling of hope. But like you said, it's almost an exercise in isolationism America has, especially in the segregated suburbs. you're point is damn right on.

p, i see what you mean. but what is the nightlife like if the city is really asleep?

[Pubrick]

p, i see what you mean. but what is the nightlife like if the city is really asleep?

it sounds like i contradicted myself so i'll clarify. what i meant was the country is asleep but sydney isn't, but all major eastern cities are sprawling enuff to exhibit both qualities. their fatal flaw was judging the country based on a turnout at a midnite screening. it makes no sense.

[Kal]

Singer Admits to 'Superman' Pressures
By Daniel Fienberg
February 15, 2006

LOS ANGELES (Zap2it.com)- There are filmmakers who embrace convention crowds with humor and enthusiasm, swapping geeky jokes and references with alacrity. Of course, for every Kevin Smith or J.J. Abrams, there must be an equal number of directors who sweat a bit under the intense fan gaze.

"I feel more pressure from the comic book community," admits Bryan Singer backstage after his "Superman Returns" premiere at San Francisco's WonderCon. "I serve the comic book community. The studio understands my responsibilities and supports me 100 percent."

Serving the comic book community means answering the kinds of questions that Alfred Hitchcock or John Ford probably never needed to field. Will Lois Lane (Kate Bosworth) be strong enough? Which villains are being groomed for future films? Is Superman's (Brandon Routh) codpiece stuffed, padded or 100 percent natural? With two "X-Men" films under his belt, Singer is used to the heat, but "Superman Returns" was a bigger endeavor than anything he'd done before.

"The movie was more daunting," Singer told the WonderCon crowd at a panel that began with disappointment over the absence of fresh "Superman Returns" footage, but found momentum with the Routh's unexpected arrival. "It's a much bigger film than either of those."

Exactly how much bigger "Superman Returns" is has been a matter for some debate. Last month, gossip columnists and industry trade papers began speculating that the budget for the film had soared past $250 million with no end in sight. Singer, it seems, takes exception to those reports. The director calls it "the most absurd thing I've ever heard."

"I'll tell you exactly what the budget is, 184.5 million dollars, and with effects it may still be a few million over that, which is still a great deal of money, but by no means what that guy wrote," he says. "It was just an irresponsible journalist at a specific trade that I'm trying not to name. I don't know, maybe he was talking about Australian dollars, or something."

Singer's much more at ease explaining his intentions in making the film, which he's suggested can be slotted between "Superman 2" and "Superman 3" in the hero's mythology.

"The time felt right to re-experience this character," he notes. "It's time to address and celebrate in some way people's connection to Superman, and how the character has evolved from 1938 to now. In some way celebrate that. Some of it will look familiar physically and emotionally, and some of it will be new."

But with so many expectations, can Singer possibly satisfy everybody?

"First of all, my goal is to make a good film and try to be open about the process. We have an Internet presence and I think you begin by working with the core audience, the fans, and work your way up from there. Primarily, the goal is just to make a good film. If the film's good, then the expectations will be met."

"Superman Returns" opens on Friday, June 30.

[MacGuffin]

A Sentimental SUPERMAN
Bryan Singer admits that Superman Returns is easily the most humorous and romantic film he has ever made.
By Pam Grady, FilmStew.com

Superman may be faster than a speeding bullet, but not so Superman Returns, the superhero's belated return to the big screen. Just finding a star, director, and screenwriters turned out to be perhaps the movie's biggest challenge, with any number of people attached to the project over the years.

But on June 30th, Clark Kent's alter ego takes to the skies once again and earlier this week, director Bryan Singer swept into San Francisco's WonderCon comic book convention to unspool tantalizing clips from the work in progress and introduce the new man in tights, Brandon Routh. At one time, Nicolas Cage was set to assume the role, Josh Hartnett turned it down, and other actors in contention for the part included Brendan Fraser, Ashton Kutcher, and Jude Law. But it was the unknown Routh - whose biggest role previously was as a troubled college boy on the soap opera One Life to Live - that Singer wanted.

"A famous actor would have too much baggage," Singer explains. "The character of Superman is so much larger than any particular actor and he has to feel like he's stepped out of your collective memory."

The personable Routh is aware that the opportunity could go a couple of ways. If the blockbuster mojo that Singer brought to X-Men and X-Men 2 holds, then it is overnight stardom. But if Superman Returns fails to return on its $184.5 million budget, then the 26-year-old Des Moines native might be riding the fast track to oblivion.

The actor is betting on his director and the part of a lifetime. "I'm very honored to be the guy who has the opportunity to do this. It felt like the right thing, it felt like the way it was going to happen. Bryan made it very easy for me not to be scared out of my mind," he says.

Routh has some mighty big tights to fill. Superman has been part of the American consciousness for close to 70 years, the comic book character who morphed into novels, cartoons, movies, TV series, radio, and other media. Currently, he is on TV every week in the person of Tom Welling in the series Smallville. There is also the matter of the so-called Superman curse - George Reeves who played him in a pioneering 1950s TV series shot himself (that is the subject of a separate film, Hollywoodland, starring Ben Affleck), while the movies' Christopher Reeve became paralyzed after an equestrian accident.

When the subject comes up at WonderCon, Routh shrugs, "I'm nodding my head, but I'm thinking, what curse? I'm not going to let what happened to someone else stop me."

"Superman is a really great character," he avers. "Actors, artists, he's grown and he grows as each artist puts their own twist on it, but they take what everybody else did. Chris [Reeve] was my biggest influence, there's that presence that's there, he's the guy. My portrayal was based on his as much as his was based on everybody else's."

But a new actor is not the only change to this august superhero in his latest incarnation. He still fights for truth, justice, and the American Way, his alter ego is still reporter Clark Kent, and once again he goes mano-a-mano with Lex Luthor, this time around played by Kevin Spacey. But, as the title implies, he has been away, off considering his purpose in life on this alien planet. When he returns, there are changes in the world that he did not anticipate. The great love of his life, Lois Lane (Kate Bosworth), is engaged to another man and has already had her fiance's baby.

"There's few things with the exception of kryptonite that could form a real obstacle for Superman. He's that powerful," reasons Singer of this new source of conflict. "It's impossible for Superman to navigate around [the fiancé and child]. It's a genuine obstacle."

"It was huge emotionally," adds Routh. "That's the quandary, how do I get around this problem? You can't necessarily. You just have to live your life and be patient. It's an immoveable obstacle."

With that kind of impediment to Superman's true happiness, the cynics may well wonder exactly when and how that pesky fiancé might die, but Singer insists, "in terms of the films I've made, Superman is certainly the most humorous and romantic."

It has been nearly 20 years since Christopher Reeve last donned Superman's cape in Superman IV: The Quest for Peace. Singer, who is already thinking ahead to sequels, is convinced that the time is right for a new franchise. "It kind of felt right to re-experience this character," the director asserts. "My goal is to address and celebrate in some way people's collective memory of the character Superman and how he is evolved from 1938 to now, to in some way celebrate that. Some of it will be a little familiar, physically and emotionally; some of it will be new, but that's the ultimate."

Routh seconds that notion. "There's a lot of discussion about, is it the right time? People who are huge fans of Chris' performances, not wanting anyone else to come in and attempt to re-create that, which is not what we're doing. But with that, I think what's an important thing maybe for everybody to learn, that I've learned anyway, is that there's a time for change, there's always a time for change."

"Superman brings such joy and inspiration to the world," the freshly minted superhero adds. "It's important to have somebody to keep that out in the public eye. I think there's always time for that energy."

[MacGuffin]

'Superman' torch is passed
Source: USA Today

Midway through the filming of Superman Returns, star Brandon Routh received an envelope in the mail.

It contained two pendants and a letter. The pendants, each emblazoned with a red S, said simply, "Go Forward."

The note from Dana Reeve, the widow of Superman Christopher Reeve, said much the same thing.

"She said she thought I'd be a good Superman," says Routh, 26, best known for a guest role on Gilmore Girls. "She wished me luck. I can't tell you what that was like to get her blessing. I was nervous, because I had never heard from the family, and it's frightening trying to fill Christopher Reeve's shoes."

But Routh will attempt just that as Superman swoops into theaters June 30 with more than just a $180 million budget on its shoulders.

The film, which is enjoying one of the most pronounced marketing campaigns at the ShoWest convention of theater owners in Las Vegas, carries the hope of a lucrative summer at the box office - and expectations that people will get excited about going to the movies again.

For Routh and director Bryan Singer, there's also a personal stake in the film doing well.

"From comic books to radio to TV to the movies, everyone knows this character," says Singer, who also is doing a documentary on the history of Superman. "And they have an idea of who he should be. Those can be big expectations."

Routh realized just how awesome when he received the Superman tags from the Christopher Reeve Foundation, an organization that promotes research on paralysis.

Christopher Reeve was paralyzed in a horseback-riding accident in 1995 and died in 2004. His widow, Dana, died of lung cancer last week.

"I wrote her back but never got to speak with her," Routh says. "Still, it was such an honor. And it made me realize how important it is to respect not just the characters in this movie, but the people who were a part of it."

Indeed, the new Superman abounds with legacies.

Singer says he plans to use the late Marlon Brando in the new film. Brando, who played Superman's father, Jor-El, in the 1978 Superman and died in 2004, will return in the same role.

Singer says he found stock footage of Brando shot by director Richard Donner in 1978, which will provide Brando's voice. Special-effects crews will digitally re-create Brando's image, Singer says.

The new film will revisit the origins of the Man of Steel. Singer is well aware he's treading on hallowed ground.

"This isn't just any comic book character. Superman is America. He's as iconic as it gets. That's a pretty awesome responsibility."