via www.firstshowing.net

Hopefully this doesn't become a trend after the recent talk of Kevin Costner taking a role in Superman: The Man of Steel came to light, but a couple more names have apparently popped up on Warner Bros. radar as potential cast additions to Zack Snyder's comic book adaptation. Keep in mind that these actors aren't even in talks and their potential involvement should be taken with a grain of salt at this point. First up, Heat Vision reports Viggo Mortensen (The Lord of the Rings) is to play villain General Zod in the flick, while Moviehole seems to have heard that Daniel Day-Lewis (There Will Be Blood) is desired for an unspecified role.

Of course, it's important to note that Mortensen is still in negotiations to take the lead male role in Universal's Snow White and the Huntsman, and if that deal is finalized, it will likely take him out of the running for this new take on Superman unless the studios can work out a schedule for him to do both projects. However, at this point it's not necessarily clear that Mortensen would be playing General Zod. The villain has only been rumored to be in the script, and nothing has been confirmed on that front yet. While the thought is certainly provoking, Mortensen is just one of several names in the running, though he's certainly one of the top contenders.

Meanwhile, with Daniel Day-Lewis, the role that Warner Bros. would like him to take is unknown, though I wouldn't be surprised if it was also for the same villainous role that Mortensen is being courted for as well. Either that or the General Zod rumor could be true and Day-Lewis could be up for playing Non, one of the three intergalactic criminals who took on the Man of Steel in Superman II. That would make sense considering we've also heard that the role Alice Eve, Rosamund Pike and Diane Kruger are in contention just might be the villainous vixen Ursa, another one of the notorious criminals. Considering the actor has never had any interest in taking a part in blockbusters, I'd be willing to bet he won't be joining the project.

Of course these are just two big rumors for the time being and until we hear any official information about the villains or casting, everything is just speculation and hearsay. Hopefully we'll hear something soon as director Zack Snyder is not only meeting with actors for the supporting male characters, but also the filmmaker is meeting with prospective actresses for one of three key female roles as well. Stay tuned as more news on Superman: The Man of Steel arrives.

via www.comicbookmovie.com

Has "Experiment 13" a.k.a "Superboy" arrived in Smallville?

Half and Half

This Friday’s episode of Smallville should bring the entire Kent/Luthor relationship to new heights with the episode entitled “Scion”
According to the preview, the Lex clone is now discovered as having half Luthor and half of Clarks D.N.A. The preview also has him donning the black shirt with the red S, as was worn by Conner Kent (Superboy) in the D.C. comic book world as well as “Teen Titans”

For weeks now, we have seen the Lex clone display hostility towards everything to do with (the future) Superman. We have been given displays of hatred that show us that he is developing into the Lex Luthor that is hell bent on power, pain, and corruption.
Now we have discovered that he is a half-breed, which puts a whole new light on the situation. This is a big twist that could have the Clark/Luthor clone travel a path that a lot of us did not see coming. Could he be Superboy?
According to the history of Superboy, he is a Lex/Clark clone who chooses the path of “Truth and Justice” as he attempts to take the reigns after Superman’s death at the hands of Doomsday.
Conner/Kon-El, was not fond of the newspapers refer to him as “Superboy” and demanded to be called “Superman”

Superboy’s life is filled with constant struggles as the real Lex Luthor uses every maneuver in the book to lure him on to his side.
The history of Conner/Kon-El shows that Lex Luthor did not create him but a man named Paul Westfield of “Project Cadmus” actually developed the clone without the knowledge of Luthor. This clone was developed after several other attempts failed (sound familiar) and was developed as an emergency replacement for the deceased Superman. The clone is to rapidly grow to Superman’s age, then follow a proper Kryptonian aging process.
Once “Superboy” takes flight, Lex Luthor becomes irate when finding the news of the clone.
History also shows that the clone is not perfect. Due to Superman’s incredible strength, they could not get a true sample thus had to rely on scans and guesswork to develop the genetic code.
Could this be the story of the Lex Luthor clone that we are witnessing on Smallville?
Is it possible that this clone is not the ruthless man that is to become Lex Luthor?
Will the real Lex Luthor come out of the shadows once he sees the path Superboy is on?

This Friday’s episode should see the Kent/Luthor battle come head to head as they battle for the “Scion”

Smallville "Scion" airs on Friday at 8/7c on the CW.

via splashpage.mtv.com

General Zod may well be Krypton's most hated villain, but Terence Stamp's appearance in "Superman II" as the escaped Phantom Zone convict also turned him into a fan-favorite character. So it's no surprise that Zack Snyder's upcoming "Superman" reboot could feature the extraterrestrial criminal as a key villain (as was previously rumored) — and Warner Bros. reportedly to have their eye on Viggo Mortensen for the role.

Snyder and producer Christopher Nolan have tagged the "Lord of the Rings" star as a "person of interest," according to anonymous sources speaking to The Hollywood Reporter.

The powers-that-be are still looking at other actors, though Mortensen getting the gig would amount to marquee casting for what we can assume to be one of the film's key roles.

Snyder and Nolan are currently seeing actors for a number of parts. Interestingly, the report notes that the recently cast Kevin Costner isn't actually cast, instead bearing the same "person of interest" status that Mortensen does. The report also reveals that Costner is up for the role of Superman's human dad, Jonathan Kent, as some of our commenters suggested last week.

That's not all for the Nolan/Snyder duo, however. The pair is also said to be still looking at a range of actresses for three female roles. One of which must be Lois Lane, even if she's not the female lead, right?

Are you glad to hear that Zod is the — or at least one — villain in the Superman reboot? Is Mortensen the right guy for the role? Let us know what you think in the comment section or on Twitter!

The secret's out, "Smallville" fans! The boy we thought was simply Lex Luthor's clone (Lucas Grabeel) is more super than we thought. He is, in fact, to become Conner Kent… unless, of course, Lionel Luthor (John Glover) gets his way.

Conner Kent is a character from comic book lore, better known, perhaps, as Superboy. In some stories, he is a hybrid clone that combines DNA from Clark Kent (Tom Welling) and Lex (Michael Rosenbaum).

In Friday's March 4 episode, "Scion," Conner will find himself in a precarious situation as Lionel teaches him the true meaning of the Luthor name. Lois (Erica Durance) is captured by Lionel when she's caught snooping around his office. Because he's a classy guy, he ties her to a chair in a slaughterhouse. What better place for a little father-son outing?

"Trying to scare me into thinking I'll end up like a piece of meat?" Lois asks Lionel, struggling as Conner looks on from the shadows. "I was raised to believe that you risk everything to protect those you love."

And then we see the Luthor parenting philosophy in action once again: "Well," Lionel replies. "That's where we differ. I'd risk my own life, but I'd kill to protect my son. No one will ever take him away from me."

When Lionel holds a gun to Lois's head, will Conner step in and embrace his good side, rather than his Luthor side?

http://www.youtube.com/e/qVkTT6NxYeM
 

The CW’s Smallville this Friday night started showing signs of liftoff during this second half of its final season, registering a 16 percent gain in audience (to 2.55 million viewers) and a 10 percent bump in the demos (to a fourth place-worthy 1.1).

Zack Snyder

Zack Snyder has his Superman now with Henry Cavill all set to leap tall buildings in a single bound, but when the director closes his eyes and thinks about comics, which version of the Man of Steel does he visualize?

Superman U.S. postage stamp from 2006. (U.S. Postal Service)

The director of “300” and “Watchmen” is clearly conversant in funny-book history and the question gave him pause.

“There are so many interpetations, so many artists,” he pointed out, and, yes, that’s absolutely true. There’s the pioneer pencil of Joe Shuster and contemporary drawing board of Frank Quitely and scores of interesting candidates in between. Do you go with the old-school steadiness of Wayne Boring, the mythos-reshaping clarity of John Bryne, the singular sinew and crackle of Neal Adams? Perhaps the polished cosmic tableaus of George Perez or the memorable-moment work of Jerry Ordway?

For Snyder, he narrowed it down to a two-man split decision: Jim Lee and Curt Swan. 

Swan’s work on Superman spanned five decades and there was a sort of noble, even gentle aura to his work and an absence of flash and grit – the bank robbers in Metropolis even wore coats and ties to work — that create a time-capsule vibe now. In the summer of 2006, the U.S. postal service released a new Superman stamp featuring the art of Swan (inked by Sheldon Moldoff ) and the elemental appeal of the image still sticks with Snyder.  

Jim Lee's Superman (DC Comics)

“It’s funny, I have that stamp image — it’s him tearing open his jacket. Its got a retro vibe to it, it’s cool. That’s the background on my iPad. It’s Curt Swan and the way he draws that jawline, it is like Mt. Rushmore, totally, or like ‘The Incredibles.’ Swan is really good.”

Swan is viewed by some as a Norman Rockwell-type figure in DC history and that appeals to Snyder but, on a pure fanboy level, he’s more impassioned by the work of Lee. The artist’s run on the “For Tomorrow” storyline (“Superman” No. 204-215), for instance, captured the brawny and heroic male ideal that, no surprise, resonates powerfully with the director of “300.”   

“My taste level goes to the more, I guess, muscular Superman. The bigger, more muscular Superman, the way Jim draws him. Those tend to be the artists I like in comics. So Jim’s Superman, for sure.  That’s not to say that’s how the movie will be, of course, but as far as the comics. It’s an interesting thing to think about though. There have just been so many incarnations and so many great ones. As a fan you don’t really to have to pick, you can enjoy them all.”

via herocomplex.latimes.com

James Denton is best known as the man of copper piping on Wisteria Lane, but he takes on a new role as the Man of Steel in the DC home-video release “All-Star Superman.” The “Desperate Housewives” star is joined by Anthony LaPaglia (Lex Luthor), Christina Hendricks (Lois Lane) and Ed Asner (Perry White) on the two-disc home-video release, which hits shelves Feb. 22. Denton approached the role with a healthy respect for the actors who had come before him, as he told our Jevon Phillips in this Q&A. 

James Denton in the recording booth. (Gary Miereanu)

JP: So, were you into comics as a kid?

JD: As a kid, I was. I was never a collector, but I saved them. Then, as my parents moved their house as so often happens, everything got dispersed and lost. But I’ve learned that there’s a whole world out there that most people, unless you’re in it, don’t know about and aren’t aware of. Kyle MacLaughlin, who voiced Superman in one of the earlier DVDs, was telling me about how educational it is to do this job and meet those guys that are in that world. It’s really fascinating and it’s kind of addictive. Both of us agreed that I don’t have time for another hobby, but I’ve got to admit that I’m a comic guy. After doing this and meeting people, you really get how it can be addictive!

JP: When you did buy and did read, what were your favorite comics?

JD: I used to buy Superman — I was a Superman guy not a Batman guy — and Spider-Man. I also bought some Rawhide Kid. I was into western comics — Outlaw Kid and Two-Gun Kid and Rawhide Kid. I don’t even know how long they made those. Course I grew up in the South, I’m a redneck, so I gravitated toward the Western comics.

JP: So … Superman?

JD: Of course to me, as much as I hate to admit it, when somebody mentions Superman, the image that pops into my head is of George Reeves standing there with his hands on his hips in black and white with a cape flapping behind him. I’m definitely from the old school.

George Reeves as Superman. (Photo courtesy of the Museum of Radio and Television)

JP: So for you he’s the most memorable Man of Steel?

JD: Obviously the Christopher Reeve movies are so great and they’re more modern, but still for me, it was George Reeves on TV. I guess he was so human, and not all rocked up — he was such a human and normal-seeming guy, and when you’re a little kid, [that sort of thing] sticks with you.

JP: Did that nostalgia influence you when you accepted the role?

JD: I was just honored to be asked.  It was a little bit daunting. Most of us [as actors] don’t have stage fright per se, but I was kind of scared of taking this on. It’s so iconic and there’s so many people waiting for this to come out and the book was so good.  People love Superman and are very protective. So, while I was very honored to be asked, I didn’t ask what they were paying

via herocomplex.latimes.com

via herocomplex.latimes.com

This week, “All-Star Superman” arrived on DVD and Blu-ray amid much acclaim but also wrenching heartache — screenwriter Dwayne McDuffie died Monday at age 49. The animated film is based on the namesake comics series written by Grant Morrison; our Geoff Boucher interviewed Morrison via e-mail last week before McDuffie’s death.

GB: Where and when did you see “All-Star Superman” for the first time? If I remember right, you said you got emotional when he you saw it?

GM: I was given a preview copy of “All-Star Superman” back in October, a day or so before I saw you when I was called upon to burn Gerard Way’s brains out for the “Sing” video. I may be a remorseless slayer of rock stars in my spare time, but I have to admit I choked up a little at the end of the movie when Superman kisses Lois Lane and hurtles into space on his final mission.

GB: There seems to be some new structural freedom in plot — the way we consume information now and the “digital jump” of the post-rewind era makes audiences less thrown-off by a story that starts underway. I was thinking of that during the first few moments of “All-Star Superman,” which doesn’t slow down for traditional introductions, does it?

GM: I don’t know how much that structural freedom has really trickled down to Hollywood yet, but certainly in a world where channel-surfing, YouTube and free-roaming sandbox-style video games are so popular, people are definitely becoming more comfortable with interactive, open-ended or multi-tracked mosaic forms of narrative. They can also handle the idea of being dumped into a story at the height of the action — as in games like “Call of Duty” — and learning on the fly. The first Superman adventure, back in 1938, opened on a scene of this completely new character leaping through the air with a snarling blond in a nightdress under his arm, so he was always ahead of the curve. When text messaging and tweets are the main mode of written communication between people, it seemed extravagant to depict the origin and early life of Superman in “All-Star” using anything more than four drawings and eight words! I went with the assumption that most people have a basic grasp of who Superman is, and if not it’s pretty easy to look him up. I’d imagine most of the people who read the book or see the movie will have access to phones that connect them to a massive global database of information. When everybody has what amounts to a complete reference library in their pockets, there’s no need to spell things out for an audience anymore.

GB: There are so many allusions to the different eras of Superman comics as well as landmark issues (especially “death” issues) and they made me smile. Talk a bit about putting those in the story and the challenge of making sure you don’t slip into medley mode.

GM: The idea with “All-Star” was to condense the different versions of Superman over the decades — the 1930s socialist crusader; the ’40s patriot; the ’50s and ’60s sci-fi dad; the troubled cosmic seeker of the ’70s; the yuppie of the ’80s; and the dead Superman of the ’90s – into one definitive portrayal of the first and best superhero facing mortality. There were a few nods in the direction of classic stories, but what we really wanted to do was tell the story of how it feels to be a man dealing with the end. The best Superman stories are about real human emotions played out on a Paul Bunyan-esque scale.

"All-Star Superman" (DC Comics)

GB: What surprised you most while watching the animated adaptation of “All-Star Superman”? Either about your own work or the work of others?

GM: I was most surprised by how much of the book Dwayne McDuffie managed to condense into animated feature length. If I’d written the screenplay, I’d have probably missed out half the material he found room for, so I was quite delighted when characters like Samson and Atlas showed up. As for elements of my own work, Dwayne used quite a lot of dialogue directly from the book, and it was fascinating to hear it read. I like to write superhero stories with non-naturalistic, composed or heightened dialogue, and I haven’t really heard any of my lines spoken by actors since I was writing plays. I wasn’t sure how it would sound but was very happy with the result.

GB: Was there a particular voice performance that you would like to celebrate?

GM: I’d hate to leave anyone out but I only have a few lines, so the main leads obviously deserve a mention; James Denton gave Superman the calm, quiet strength and stoicism of a Kansas Buddha. Christina Hendricks was especially good in the snappy exchanges with Clark Kent, and they both played the Superman/Lois relationship as refreshingly adult. Anthony LaPaglia took the same approach and wisely steered clear of scene-chewing melodrama with a vocal performance that suggested not only Lex Luthor’s blind hatred but a kind of weary regret. More than anything else it was the actors’ grown-up approach to the material which I most appreciated. And hearing the voice of Ed Asner as Perry White made my day.

GB: When will you give me the 100-page Superman Family special that will make my life complete?

GM: It could be sooner than you think. I still have a few Superman stories I’d like to tell.

– Geoff Boucher

via splashpage.mtv.com

With all the excitement surrounding the various comic book movies these days, the casting rumor mill has seemingly been churning out new names by the hour — particularly with Warner Bros. heavily-hyped "Superman" reboot and "The Dark Knight Rises."

With regard to "The Dark Knight Rises," we've been hearing more about actors rumored to be joining the cast rather than actresses — aside from Anne Hathaway landing the role of Selina Kyle, of course. Still, with director Christopher Nolan reportedly saying there's another female role in "Dark Knight Rises" up for grabs, MTV News caught up with one of the actresses on the rumored contender list, Kate Mara, to find out if she's seen a "Dark Knight Rises" script.

Um, I…unfortunately I never did get to see any sort of script," Mara said during the press day for her upcoming film "happythankyoumoreplease."

"So I wouldn’t be able to tell you a thing. And I wouldn’t even be able to tell you anything about anything about it," she added. "So uh… super boring [answer] on that topic."

Fair enough, we know that all parties involved or even potentially involved in the super-secret world of superhero films are sworn to secrecy. Still, we pressed on… and asked Mara and her "happythankyoumoreplease" co-star Malin Akerman if they'd be game for a role in Snyder's as-yet-untitled "Superman" reboot, since the leading ladies in that film have yet to be cast.

"Do it! Put me in it!" Mara said excitedly.

"Put us in!" Ackerman agreed.

"You know, I think there’s a lot of rumors going around about a lot of different things and you look on the internet and go, ‘Oh really?! I’m in that?'" she said. "Or, 'Attached to that? Cool. Great. I hope my agent calls me and lets me know,' I think there’s a lot of rumors going around. I’d jump at the chance to work with Zack again, but… you know. We’ll see what happens."

Mara, who confessed she reads "all" the rumors, would also be totally on-board for a role in the "Superman" reboot.

"I love superhero movies too," she said. "I’m sort of obsessed."

"They’re fun," Akerman added, citing her time in "Watchmen." "You get to fight crime. I mean I don’t have these muscles for nothing. You know what I mean?"

What do you think about Mara's chances in landing a superhero movie gig? What about Akerman's? Tell us in the comment section or on Twitter!