Bryan Singer did not read comic books as a kid, yet he’s the kingpin of Hollywood superhero adaptations.
After the character-driven tales “The Usual Suspects” and “Apt Pupil,” director Singer began the current phase of artsy comic-book epics with 2000’s “X-Men,” continued with 2003’s sequel “X2: X-Men United,” and now has revived the world’s greatest superhero with “Superman Returns.”
Starring newcomer Brandon Routh in the title role, the film is a hit. Singer chatted with The Associated Press about taking on the Man of Steel.
Q: What drew you to Superman as a boy?
A: I think for me, it was because I was an only child, and I was also adopted. I found I somehow identified with this character and thought, well, what if I had a special heritage and special genes? I love my parents, but somehow, I had that identification with the character.
Q: Did you ever consider taking Superman out of the old blue-and-red tights and giving him a hipper costume, like what the “X-Men” wear?
A: Never. The X-Men, they have powers, but they’re still vulnerable, so they have to have some uniforms, some fighting gear, things like that. Superman is the Man of Steel. Bullets bounce off him, not his suit. So even though his suit is kind of like Kryptonian mithral (sort of an Elven Kevlar in “The Lord of the Rings”)…. the strength comes from the man. Batman needs a suit, Spider-Man needs a mask. Superman, he’s just wearing the Superman suit.
Q: Superman’s outfit has been updated a bit.
A: The only thing I did is I raised the shield on the chest. The reason I did that was because the decal, the silkscreen, felt very cheap. You could cast light onto the raised, etched shield in a cool way. And I took the “S” off the back of the cape, but that was never part of the comic book, anyway.
Q: Has “Superman” director Richard Donner had anything to say about “Superman Returns”?
A: He wrote me a fax. He said, “I want to be within five seats of you at the premiere, so I can either hug you or hit you.”
Q: Your movie seems to fit right in after Donner’s “Superman” and its first sequel.
A: It’s a quasi-sequelization of the first two films. … Once I decided to use those as springboards, I thought it was appropriate to bring in some of the iconography, the John Barry designs and the Fortress of Solitude, and enhance those. And the music, of course. The John Williams music is very important to me. That opening theme has to be there. It’s like “Star Wars.” It has to be there.
Q: Where was the studio at with “Superman” when you came on board with your own story?
A: It was a retelling of the origin story. I was offered it, actually. I was offered it three years ago. I passed on it, not because it was bad. It was a decent script, a good script. It had interesting things in it.
But it departed from the mythology as I knew it so much, and it retold a story that I think for people over the age of 25 they had already been told in the first “Superman” and for people under the age of 25 they had seen on “Smallville.” And I felt if I’m going to tell a story, it simply has to be a return story.
