Singer said Spacey is vital to the film.
"The original movie was credible, and one big reason was casting people like Gene Hackman, Marlon Brando, Jackie Cooper, Glenn Ford -- I felt coming in that we were measured by that yardstick. So we have Kevin and Eva Marie Saint, Parker Posey. This kind of movie requires you to have a strong center, strong actors who don't get lost in it."
For The Record
Los Angeles Times Thursday January 19, 2006 Home Edition Main News Part A Page 2 National Desk 0 inches; 28 words Type of Material: Correction
Comic book convention -- An article in Sunday Calendar about the coming movie "Superman Returns" said the San Diego Comic-Con was held in August. It was in July.
For The Record
Los Angeles Times Sunday January 22, 2006 Home Edition Sunday Calendar Part E Page 2 Calendar Desk 0 inches; 28 words Type of Material: Correction
Comic book convention -- An article last Sunday about the coming movie "Superman Returns" said that the San Diego Comic-Con was held in August. It was in July.
Just as Harrison Ford brought vital humor to the first "Star Wars" franchise, Hackman was the winking presence in the "Superman" movies that helped grown-ups deal with the fact that they were watching a movie about a fellow wearing tights. Now Spacey must be both menacing and funny to keep "Superman Returns" interesting. They say a superhero movie lives and dies by the quality of its villain.
"I've heard that and, certainly, it's fun to play the villain, but I disagree that it's the most important aspect," Spacey said. "This movie is about Superman, and I think it comes down to that costume and the person in it."
SUPER FROM THE SOAPS
BRANDON ROUTH got physically ill the first time he saw a Superman movie. It was Iowa, he was just a kid, and his family took him to see one of the "Superman" sequels (he was too young to see the original at the cinema -- he was born in 1979) and he was so excited he threw up. He shakes his head at the memory. "Isn't that sad?"
Routh, at certain moments, looks remarkably like Reeve, although the young man's features are thicker than the late actor's.
"Watching some of the footage, there was a spot where I turned my head and I looked just like him," Routh said, sounding amazed. He most resembles Reeve in the guise of Clark Kent. "It's nice, actually. It makes me proud."
Like Reeve and other actors who have played Superman, Routh, 26, comes into the project largely as an unknown. That was important to Singer, who was loath to take a well-known face and try to persuade an audience to accept him as the Man of Steel.
Routh, a soap opera veteran, called the physical process of donning the famed suit "humbling and sometimes painful," because of the rigors involved, but he lauds the under-armor and fake musculature. "I recommend it for everyone. Who needs the gym, right?"
He describes as "torture" the entire process of making him fly.
