Are Warner Bros. and Zack Snyder Looking for an Older SUPERMAN?


Prepare to be confused about what direction Superman: The Man of Steel is going. Our previous reports indicated that the new film would be a reboot of sorts. Director Zack Snyder said the new film would “focus on early days of Superman.” There was also a logline that said the new film would have Clark Kent traveling the world and wondering if he should even become Superman. However, screenwriter David Goyer previously indicated that the new film would not be an origin story.

Now comes the baffling report that the production may be looking for an actor that is around “35-40″ to play the Man of Steel. Hit the jump for why Jon Hamm may be smiling.

In an interview with Armie Hammer (The Social Network, right), Vulture mentioned that he was on plenty of fan-casting lists to play Superman in the new film. Here’s the exchange:

You’ve made a lot of people’s Superman fantasy-casting lists. Did you have your people put in a call to Zack Snyder, who’s directing the reboot?

[Laughs.] You know what’s funny? I did talk to my people recently about that for the first time, and I think they’re going a little older with Superman. I hear they’re going 35, 40.

For those wondering, Hammer is only 24 (although if they were/are casting a younger Superman, I think he’d be fantastic).

And while Snyder recently told News of the World that Brandon Routh may not be out of the running, Routh is only 31 (although with age make-up I could see him passing for older). Then you have the 39-year-old Hamm, who told Movieline that he was open to the possibility. But Hamm, Routh, and Hammer are all fan-casting and fans don’t know what kind of movie Snyder, Goyer, and producer Christopher Nolan are going for (beyond setting the film in a “modern context”, whatever that means) and which actor will be right not only for the new Superman, but presumably for the franchise that Warner Bros. is trying to re-invigorate.

It’s not out of the realm of possibility to cast an older actor as Superman. Paramount recently brought on Jeremy Renner (age 39) to the Mission: Impossible franchise with the plan to have him lead future films in the series. However, it is generally better to cast younger simply to keep the same face attached to the franchise as long as possible. Superman as a character poses his own problems because (depending on which comics you read) he doesn’t age since “aging” would be a counter to the whole invincibility thing.

Personally, I’m getting the feeling that wires have been crossed somewhere and that this game of telephone has yielded some erroneous or at least out-of-date info. It’s already happened as it looked liked General Zod would be the villain in the new movie, but then Snyder said that was only a rumor. We’ll keep you updated on this bizarre turn of events that now has the film with an old Superman at the beginning of his career.

It’s a different story. I won’t say there’s a break from the canon or anything like that, but there is definitely an approach that makes you go, ‘Okay, that’s a way to get at it.’ David is very respectful of the canon and stuff like that. It has its roots in the canon and again, like I say, it has a point of view about who he is. I’m being cryptic, I know, but it’s the best I can do.

"Congrats to Zack Snyder on Superman. Can't wait to see it!!!!" tweeted Brett Ratner last month when news broke that the "Watchmen" director would be helming the latest reboot of the DC Comics franchise.

It was an admirable gesture on Ratner's part, considering he spent a year of his life on "Superman" preproduction, only to see the budget balloon and the project collapse. When he stopped by Splash Page HQ to promote "Skyline" recently, Ratner continued to express support for Snyder, but also admitted to some jealously.

"Is there envy? Maybe a little," he told MTV News. "It was a dream of mine to make a Superman movie."

"I think Zack was a good choice, an interesting choice," he added. "I'm going to be the first one in line to see that movie. I can't wait."

The "X-Men: The Last Stand" director went on to pinpoint the challenges of adapting the "Superman" franchise and to explain why Snyder is the right man for the job.

"[Zack is] a great visual director," Ratner said. "It wasn't easy. I was a part of that for about a year. It was a challenge. It's hard to make a guy in tights with a cape relevant right now. It needs an interpretation…. It needs a contemporary, visionary guy who can really take something and reinvent it for a contemporary audience and make it relevant. He's definitely in the zeitgeist. He's a great technical filmmaker, a great storyteller."

Once Ratner got going on the "Superman" tip, he was hard to slow down, launching into recollections of his time working on the franchise. He spoke about his insistence on casting an unknown as the Man of Steel, despite the fact that he screen-tested everyone from Jude Law to Ashton Kutcher.

He talked about the contributions of production designer Arthur Max (Ridley Scott's go-to guy) and costume designer Betsy Heimann ("The A-Team"), and he speculated that his redesign of the "Superman" logo might in fact be the one Snyder ends up using.

"I reinvented the logo, which I think they ended up using," he revealed. "I can't exactly tell, because I don't know if the red they're using is the red I picked. I did this incredible R & D."

In the end, of course, Ratner's version was squashed. And all these years later, he's got nothing but kind words for Snyder.

"I'm really happy for him," he said. "I'm not an envious guy. I love filmmakers."

They are going to total screw this one up.

Everyone on this forum could come up with better ideas than Hollywood.

Superman vs Zod and his gang. At the end Superman would have to send them all to the P. Zone, and he would again feel the great pain of being all alone. Then, he would go back to work and see Lois, then the pain would go away.