Brandon Routh on Batman & "Dark" Superman

Brandon Routh on Batman & "Dark" Superman

A revealing interview with Superman Returns actor Brandon Routh reveals his thoughts on the direction of the Superman movie franchise.

By ComicBookMovie - Oct 30, 2008 04:10 PM EST
Filed Under: Superman 6
Source: IESB.net

Also revealed in this interview is that Bryan Singer has indeed been signed to do the sequel. This from IESB.net

You saw "The Dark Knight?" Did you enjoy it?

Brandon Routh: I did, I did, on many levels, it was really amazing. I thought the movie as a whole was a great ride and I watched the behind the scenes of the first one about the fighting style, so I was really paying attention when I watched this one, I wanted to see more fighting because I really saw how strong and powerful the moves are. It was pretty impressive.

A lot of people don't think Superman can be that dark, or that you could make such a dark Superman film.

BR: I don't know, I don't think the character necessarily has to be darker, I think he is kind of dark in a sense, emotional dark, in Superman Returns, and the movie as a whole was slightly dark, they could have had more prowess in it I suppose, and I think that's one thing that can be done in the sequel, so I don't know how much darker you want to make it necessarily. You make the stakes higher, you make the villain darker, I think that's a way to do it. But I don't think Superman himself needs to be darker. He definitely has to struggle, how does Superman be a part of the world? And does he have to make sacrifices to be a part of that world? To fit in and what purpose does he really play in the world? Those are all kind of dark places to explore. But, I don't think Superman should ever be dark and brooding, that's not is nature. And that's now what people what to see. Like Brainiac or something like that, a situation when the villain is...

Would that be a good, if you had a choice is that the villain you'd like to see in the next Superman?

BR: I think it would certainly be interesting, I think there are a lot of things you could do with Brainiac. He's been given a lot of power and a lot of different abilities over the years in the comics, as far as I understand. I know that DC is working on a Brainiac storyline that they are excited about and I think combining the two and have that flow between the comics and the movie would be a nice thing. I honestly think there are a lot of interesting things you can do with Brainiac. Controlling people, controlling technology, a lot of cool things.

Related:

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potatosacker71
potatosacker71 - 10/30/2008, 6:29 PM
he has a great point. superman will never be dark and brooding like batman, thats just not superman, and the whole thing about them wanting to make him darker is just marketing so they can score off the success of the dark night. let people who know the character write the script.
running
running - 10/30/2008, 7:05 PM
>>I know that DC is working on a Brainiac storyline that they are excited about....

What what what? First time I hear that...
warhatchet
warhatchet - 10/30/2008, 7:57 PM
Make Tom Welling Superman. Routh had his chance and he SUCKED it as hard as he could. Need a new Lois Too.
Scottymagic
Scottymagic - 10/30/2008, 9:18 PM
If the Mike Millar trilogy is true i hope the first one is brainiac-centric, second doomsday and play out the whole death and resurrection thing then darkseid in the finale, love the thought of an epic superman trilogy with a sense of structure and consistancy i just hope i dont have to sit through a tiresome 2 hour origin story with only lex luthor randomplan at the end, theres smarter ways to incorporate lexy boy.
PaPiTai
PaPiTai - 10/31/2008, 3:14 AM
Routh was good as Superman and I think Tom Welling would be good too, so whoever makes it would do a good job. Lois could've been better... As I mentioned before, Braniac could be what we need, a twisted evil villain, with super powers to test Superman physically and a super brain to test him mentally. Bring it on!
watman15
watman15 - 11/2/2008, 9:40 PM
i totally agree welling should stay in smallville he does not physically fits for tha part in a superman movie.
brandon routh was good enought but the story wasnt that good.
schuellerdg
schuellerdg - 11/3/2008, 2:42 PM
yeah I agree. To think that they have based all the movies on Lex Luthor lacks creativity. Every other comic book movie has demonstrated the character growing and at a different point in his life. To have the some villian means that thing have not changed much with the character. Brianiac or Darksied or even Doomsday would show that superman isn't the only alien in the universe that has made his way to earth. That there are other threats in the world other than Lex Luthor.
TheBatman
TheBatman - 11/3/2008, 8:43 PM
I think it would be a mistake to try and make Superman darker. What they need to do is include a dark, perverse , more threatening adversary who would push Superman to his limits. Include Lex but in a darker way as well and forget about "Kumar" and his pals.. Goons are so tacky. And "nay" on the bumbling mistress who ends up getting all gushy over Supes(a la Parker Posey)
parascythe
parascythe - 11/4/2008, 10:09 PM
if they wanted to make superman dark..why just dont they make him a black costume..hahaha

serioulsy,he can never really be that dark but they can make cameos of some justice league....or make a justice league film...just like what marvel will do in the avengers...otherwise make a prologue of the coming of doomsday and kill superman.
warpath15
warpath15 - 11/5/2008, 6:05 PM
If you really want an interesting superman movie, introduce some pink kryptonite into the equation. If you're unfamiliar with pink kryptonite, it causes Superman to become gay.

But then again, that would be rather redundant.
TeenIdol
TeenIdol - 11/8/2008, 6:57 PM
Routh was a great Superman. I don't care what anyone says. The main reason why SR didn't work was because everybody is just so goddamn tired of lame-ass Lex Luthor. He has nothing menacing about him anymore because we've all seem him in a million things doing the same damn thing. Some bald guy just really isn't "evil".
realcomicfan86
realcomicfan86 - 11/12/2008, 2:17 PM
fearless is RETARDED!!! welling is more then physically fit to play superman no offense to routh he was good but they need an actor who can make us believe he can fly like reeves did and so far welling is doing a good job even if they are small flight scenes on a tv show. and the whole 3 movie saga i heard of superman dieing alone on earth is retarted too. they should reboot not continue. us the alex ross art as inspiration for the look and feel of the movie. the kindom come would be a good movie to see but it would go better doing a reboot, then have darksied come kill a few ppl and piss superman off then darksied leaves his army on earth and returns to apokolypse, superman filled with rage destroys the army earth now saved at the moment. mourns the loss along with superman who now hating himself for not saving the fallen, doomsday comes along and we know the rest from there...
shmoo551
shmoo551 - 11/17/2008, 6:45 PM
Im sorry. Superman Returns was horrible and Routh seemed like a giant baby to me. Not superman
Colossus8
Colossus8 - 11/20/2008, 11:58 AM
Routh or Welling would be good choices for superman im leaning towards welling because he has played superman for about a decade he knows what the role is about Routh is still new and Superman Returns wasnt the best of Superman Movies it was ok
i think its time we bring out Brainiac because im tired and i think people would agree with me of seeing Lex Luthor in every superman movie lets get Brainiac on board now that would be a great movie
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