Man of Steel is the latest incarnation for a character that, for seventy five years, has saved the world from doom while struggling to meet newspaper deadlines.
Warner Bros. are hoping that this franchise reboot will be more successful than their last attempt, the underwhelming Superman Returns.
Released in 2006, with a bloated budget of $270 million, Returns failed to connect with audiences while critics simply shrugged. The film’s director, Bryan Singer, thinks it may have been too hagiographical of Richard Donner’s 1978 original.
In a recent interview with the fan site Voices From Krypton, Singer described it as “romantic and nostalgic and not a high octane summer movie like Transformers or something like that.’
‘…I would go back and redo the original, but I only thought of that recently. It would be a much less romantic, more balls-to-the-wall action movie.”
Singer wasn’t given the chance to atone. Superman slipped back into development hell until a chance conversation during the development of another comic book property, The Dark Knight Rises.
While drafting the script for the Dark Knight’s final instalment, director Christopher Nolan reached a creative impasse with his co-writer, David S. Goyer.
In the midst of writer’s block, Goyer told Nolan how he felt the story of Krypton’s last son should be brought to the screen. Excited by its potential, Nolan told Warner Bros. about Goyer’s idea and began to develop the project with his regular producer and wife, Emma Thomas.
When it came time to choose a director, Nolan declined preferring to produce it while someone else filled the hot seat. In October 2010, Zack Snyder took it on.
Zack Snyder
Snyder, a Wisconsin native and comic book enthusiast, has a fairly chequered back catalogue.
He first found success with Dawn of the Dead (2004), a brilliant remake of George A. Romero’s zombie classic. That was followed by 300 (2006), a film that did extremely well at the box office and became a pop culture sensation.
Unfortunately, he has struggled to replicate those earlier hits.
Watchmen (2009), an adaptation of Alan Moore’s seminal graphic novel, was a complete shambles. Although stylishly shot, it suffered from glacial pacing and a ridiculously convoluted script. Watchmen was savaged by critics and barely broke even worldwide.
Snyder’s strike rate hasn’t recovered thus far. His last two films were the peculiar animation Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole (2010), and the dreadfully received action-fantasy Sucker Punch (2011).
Clearly Warner Bros. are taking a risk on Snyder to recapture his early form. They are also gambling on a new face for the lead role, Henry Cavill.
Cavill is best known to Irish audiences as Charles Brandon in The Tudors. The Brit, born in Jersey, has a reputation as a nearly man. He was in the running to play Batman and James Bond before losing out to Christian Bale and Daniel Craig respectively.
Cavill’s relative inexperience has been balanced by an incredible array of supporting talent that includes Russell Crowe, Kevin Costner, Diane Lane, Michael Shannon and Amy Adams as Lois Lane.
Warner Bros. have invested a lot into the production (approximately $175 million), and have gone to great efforts to find the right people. However, they could be undone by a factor beyond their control, the audience.
Film adaptations of comic book characters can be extremely unpredictable. While Avenger’s Assemble, Iron Man 3, The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Rises have each grossed $1 billion worldwide, Hollywood is littered with the carcasses of The Green Lantern, Dredd and the Incredible Hulk films.
The Dark Knight and Iron Man trilogies in particular, can attribute some of their acclaim to their emphasis on the emotional and physical weakness of humanity. That’s difficult to replicate when your protagonist is virtually indestructible and not of this planet.
Man of Steel needs to revitalise the screen presence of Superman, escape the nostalgia of Christopher Reeve, and resonate with an increasingly fickle audience.
It’s a tough task, over to you Mr. Snyder.
