(Following is a summary of the press junket interview with director Bryan Singer - 'Superman Returns')
Los Angeles, CA, USA - Singer chuckles indulgently at suggestions that his is a ‘gay’ Superman, allowing that whatever gets people talking is fine. ‘You can’t pay for that kind of publicity’.
Whether it is or it is not or whether Singer intended it, or did not, the provocative idea was planted and the buzz is deafening.
Whether the gay concept was a p.r. campaign ‘nugget’ or whether it’s an authentic reflection of the film, people are talking.
Perhaps more controversial are the Christian themes present throughout the film. Superman is the dying Christ figure in three pieta sequences. Superman’s father Jor-El is referred to in one, in a voiceover stating that ‘he gave his only son (to save the world)’. He is alone and mythic, with close women friends (Dan Brown notwithstanding) and filled with power.
"The Christian allegory is there, the Christian and Judaic influence (on society) is not lost on me. It’s shown here in a celebratory, meaningful and beautiful way".
So indeed, Superman returns after five years to fight the good fight. He did not rise again from the dead in three days, but the suggestion is clear. He was away five years; he’s not human, and never was.
But according to IMDB, there is a strong personal attachment to Superman for Singer, from the secular world with Christian overtones.
"I identify with Superman. I am adopted, I am an only child, and I love the idea that he comes from another world, that he's the ultimate immigrant. He has all these extraordinary powers, and he has righteousness about him."
"There was a certain history it had before me and will long after me. At the same time, I wanted to bring my own point-of-view to the character. Im not trying to reinvent the wheel, just trying to reinvigorate it."
"Casting is everything. I’ve always viewed Superman as larger than the actor. If a well-known actor played the role, it would be ‘such-and-such as Superman’. I wanted him to step out of your collective consciousness or stepped out of your memory of who that character is."
Singer cast relative unknown Brandon Routh after a casting meeting in a coffee shop. "I kind of rule out things in the first few minutes, but little by little what I started to glean that he had the personality the voice and general and appearance. He could embody the role and I could mine aspects of his own personality that corresponded with the way I saw Superman and this movie."
Marlon Brando returns as Jor-El, thanks to Hollywood fixture Mike Medavoy, who owns rights to the Brando estate. Medavoy granted Singer access and useage of a sequence in which Jor-El counsels Superman in the Fortress of Solitude.
It’s a strange experience watching Brando, so young and virile, twenty-eight years after the fact, and two years after his death, addressing a young, new Superman.
"The way Brando represented himself, particularly in the latter years, I had to go with my gut and think he would find it very amusing to be part of the film. He’d want money for it. But he would have liked the idea. He let them cyberscape his body. I could only go with my gut."
Singer kept web blogs while in Australia, to entertain himself and show the fans that he was serious about the film, but didn’t take himself seriously. He shot special personal footage for use on the eventual DVD, including staging his own firing, and Routh’s innocent response. "Really?”
Some of the footage will be shown on the credits roll on Kevin Burn’s A&E documentary ‘Look, Up into the Sky: the Amazing Story of Superman’ which Singer executive produced. It marries the legend of Superman to contemporary politics and terrorism.
Singer can’t let go of Supe. He is set to produce an as yet untitled ‘Superman Returns’ sequel, to be released in 2009.
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