Obsessed With Film

Posted by Matt Holmes

For all the many, many problems I had with SUPERMAN RETURNS, barely any of them involved Brandon Routh or his performance as the last son of Krypton.

I thought he was damn solid, in fact quite brilliant as Clark Kent, if a little too washed out to be Superman. I would give his Clark Kent a solid A but his Superman just a B… though I would love to see the young actor have another crack at it.

Even though Warner Bros. are in the reboot mode for one of their most famous characters, the studio might yet hang their hopes on Routh one more time. Speaking to Latino Review, DC head chief Paul Levitz revealed Routh has held talks with them over their new direction…

“Last week Brandon Routh has come around the offices in New York and Los Angeles as of late to talk about Superman and what we want to do”

That new reboot was announced a few weeks ago, with WB actively encouraging writers to pitch their ideas for a new direction, the most vocal being Mark Millar… the comic book writer who wrote the comics WANTED and next year’s KICK-ASS are based on.

It would certainly be easier for Warner Bros. to cast Routh rather than having the mammoth task once again of finding a new actor to play their favourite role. Though at the end of the day, how will they be able to convince us it’s a reboot when it’s the same old face on our screens?

Does the same go for Kate Bosworth as Louis Lane or Kevin Spacey as Lex Luthor, are they coming back too?

It’s one thing rebooting Bond, Batman, Hulk when it’s new actors… but it’s rather hard to do it with the same old face. As much as I like Routh… if your gonna reboot it, you might as well go the whole haul.

categories - Brandon-Routh, Mark-Millar, Movie News, Paul Levitz, Stuff, Superman-Returns, superman

Further Reading

• Brandon Routh the new George Lazenby?

• Routh is still THE MAN OF STEEL

• Brandon Routh Works Again!

• Routh keen to work with Bale for Justice League movie

• 01/07 - The Man of Steel

7 Comments »

1. I think, more than the fact of seeing the same ol’ face, it would be the actual tone PLUS a bunch of other new faces (not to mention a NEW DIRECTOR) that would make this hypothetical reboot actually convincing.

   In my opinion,
   the reboot would pass off as a reboot even if they retain Routh - THEY JUST HAVE TO CHANGE ALL THE OTHER ELEMENTS of the movie.
   Writers, sets, props, FX all included *wink*

   Comment by _N_r_chy | October 10, 2008

2. Yeah, I think they could get away with Brandon Routh, but they should defintely recast Lois Lane,I thought she was terribly miscast in Returns.
   The big thing is changing the director and the tone of the thing except they are now talking “Dark” for the film, I personally think Singers film was way too dark and that was one of the problems,(That sene where they kick and beat the shit out of Superman and then stab him was well over the top in my book.) If the suits at Warners are not careful they’ll fuck it up again and no one wants that! Superman is not Dark!
   I’m starting to hate all this Dark shit,I didn’t have a clue what was going on in Chris Nolan’s “Dark knight” and as a comic book fan that anoys me a bit.

   Comment by The Glove | October 10, 2008

3. i don’t give a damn what they do with this franchise SO LONG AS they keep routh and williams’ theme

   that’s all they need to do. routh. john williams. that’s it. and call it The Man of Steel, without the superman, just to get some of those Dark Knight hopes up.

   they’d be smart if they involved comic book people who respect the sacred cow as well, like favreau did with iron man. imagine geoff johns, mark millar and grant morisson contributing to this beast!

   Comment by fanboy d | October 10, 2008

4. The easiest way I could see to ‘reboot’ the franchise AND use the same cast would be to make a ‘prequel’ movie to Superman Returns.

   With a prequel, you could introduce a super-villain, and also address Superman’s leaving earth in search of his home planet.

   Baring in mind the fact that though Returns was meant to be a continuation of the old series, no real reference was made to the old series at all, and so it would be very easy to fit a prequel movie into the continuity…

   Comment by Craig Sharp | October 10, 2008

5. I say reboot = nothing to do with SR. Nothing. Defies the concept of reboot. And this is Superman, we’re talking about. If the new director keeps him, they’ll just be doing what Singer did. Picking and choosing what elements he liked about the previous films and just using them in his current one. It would be easier to just get someone new.

   Comment by Lencho | October 10, 2008

6. Brandon Routh IS Superman. Bring him back for the reboot!

   http://www.petitiononline.com/BRSupes/petition.html

   Comment by Selina Kyle | October 16, 2008

7. Keep Routh, definitely.

   Comment by Sean | October 17, 2008

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