Christian Bale cast as new Superman!

Up, up and away: Who can play the Man of Steel? James Caviezel rumoured
By Anthony Breznican
LOS ANGELES (AP) — A powerful father from beyond the heavens sends his son on a fateful journey to Earth to become a saviour for humanity.
James Caviezel starred in the biblical version of that story in Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ. Could he play out that premise again under different circumstances? Say, the comic-book version, with blue tights and a cape?
No superhero fits the literary Christ motif as neatly as Superman, so it’s no surprise the soulful, buff and blue-eyed Caviezel is one of the fan favourites to answer a question that has perplexed Hollywood for decades: “Who can play Superman?”
Caviezel’s manager, Beverly Dean, is familiar with the rumour, but calls it speculation.
“Would he like to do it? He loves Superman,” she said. “But the truth is there has been no offer, the script isn’t even finished — but absolutely he’d be interested.”
Bryan Singer, who directed the X-Men movies, took over the Superman project last month, refuelling the rumour machine. He is currently at work on a script, and Warner Bros. says he hasn’t begun the casting process, although it must start soon to make the target 2006 release date.
From little-known soap opera stars to familiar leading men like Brendan Fraser, Jude Law and Josh Hartnett, it seems like nearly every actor between ages 20 and 40 has been draped with the cape at some point.
But playing someone bulletproof has many risks.
“He’s got to have all the qualities you want in your president and your father — a toughness and a sensitivity at the same time,” said Danny Fingeroth, author of the book Superman on the Couch, about the mythical public image of superheroes.
“He has a square-jawed indomitability,” Fingeroth added. “He can be tough with bad guys, yet he’s got the ability to project sincerity and vulnerability that you want Superman to have.”
Some, like Law and Hartnett, considered and then rejected the role, in part out of fear of sight-unseen sequel commitment. Other contenders like Fraser and former Roswell actor Jason Behr are still interested, but not holding their super-freezing breath waiting for Superman to finally come together.
“Everybody is aware of the fact that they’ve been trying to redo that for a long, long time,” Behr told an audience two weeks ago at the Comic-Con International in San Diego. “So, you know, until things happen they happen.”
“Brendan was always interested in the piece, and at this point, with a new director attached, it’s in the hands of the film gods. Basically they’re starting from scratch,” said Fraser spokeswoman Ina Treciokas.
The Man of Steel hasn’t starred in a feature film since 1987’s Superman IV: The Quest for Peace with Christopher Reeve, despite aggressive efforts by Warner Bros. to resurrect the series.
The Reeve movies grossed a total of $318 million US domestically, but each instalment had steadily diminishing returns — from $134.2 million for the 1978 original to a pitiful $15.6 million for the last gasp in 1987.
Superman has had the most success lately as a TV show, Smallville on the WB, which chronicles the pre-superhero life of Clark Kent when he was just a farmboy with strange powers.
Tom Welling, who stars as young Kent, is another actor fans say they’d love to see in the movie Superman — but that’s an extreme long shot.
There were at least three separate films in the works at various points at the studio over the past 10 years, including Superman Lives with Nicolas Cage as the lead and Tim Burton directing before it was aborted in pre-production in 1996 over its ballooning budget.
Warner Bros. considered mixing two popular franchises with Superman Vs. Batman, which Wolfgang Peterson was directing before he dropped out to do Troy.
The third and current Superman project has gone through three directors over the past year.
Last month, Charlie’s Angels filmmaker McG dropped out of the movie, making way for Singer. Before that, Brett Ratner, the director of Rush Hour and Red Dragon, was signed on to make Superman but quit last year, citing “the difficulty of casting the role of Superman.”
Although it would seem to be a natural for any actor, some of the very things that make Superman an ideal role on the surface — massive worldwide exposure, guaranteed sequels and becoming the face of a pop-culture icon — can also be counted as potential drawbacks.
And if fans don’t like the movie, you become their nemesis.
Hartnett was among the final contenders who passed on the role, in part because he would have been locked in to several as-yet-unscripted sequels. “A lot depends on the screenplay and the direction — if those things aren’t good it will be hard for any actor to make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear, or turn Kryptonite into gold,” Fingeroth said.
Anyone who accepts the role can expect to spend the next six to 10 years — the prime of a young star’s career — immersed in gruelling special-effects work, dangling from wires and fighting invisible foes. After that, an actor might spend another 10 years trying to undo their screen image as a do-gooder alien muscleman.
Reeve, who was paralysed from the neck down in a 1995 horse-riding accident, remains ingrained as the image of Superman for millions and leaves a big shadow for the next actor to fill.
Reeve’s spokesman said the actor, who has made several guest appearances on Smallville, is not involved in any way with the new Superman movie, despite Internet rumours to the contrary. Reeve has not seen a screenplay or discussed the project with the studio, and had no comment on who could be his successor.
Matt Damon was mentioned as a potential Man of Steel when Peterson was developing Superman Vs. Batman, but The Bourne Supremacy star was as surprised as anyone to hear that news. “That shocked me completely. I always thought of Superman looking like Christopher Reeve ... That’s not me at all,” Damon told The AP recently.
A Superman movie could be a surefire smash — akin to Spider-Man and Spider-Man 2 — but Damon said that alone would not be enough to persuade him.
“I would not be interested just because it was a comic book or because I thought it would be a big hit. I would do it — I would do anything — if you told me there was a great director and a great script attached. If Kenny Lonergan (screenwriter of 2000’s intimate sibling drama You Can Count on Me) wrote the script and (Traffic Oscar-winner Steven) Soderberg were directing, and it was Superman, yeah I’d do it.”
But getting a big-name actor may not be necessary for the movie to draw an audience. Tobey Maguire was known, but not quite a household name, before Spider-Man. And Reeve was a stranger to moviegoers before he starred in 1979’s Superman.
“I think it will need to be an unknown, a fresh face. A celebrity could be distracting,” said J.J. Abrams, the creator of TV’s Alias and author of the most recent Superman movie draft — which recently was abandoned when Singer came aboard.
A struggling actor also wouldn’t have the typecasting worries of a Damon or Law.
“They may say to themselves, ‘I’m an unknown and they want me to be Superman, but will I be Superman forever?’ ” Fingeroth said. “It still may seem better than waiting tables.”

Some past Superman movies and TV shows:

Superman, 1941-1943. Animators Max and Dave Fleischer defined Man of Steel’s Art Deco look for generations with series of 10-minute short films, Superman’s first screen appearance.

Superman, 1948. Kirk Alyn wore the cape in first live-action adaptation of the comic book, played out in 15 shorts. A sequel shorts-series with Alyn followed in 1950 as Superman vs. Atom Man.

The Adventures of Superman, 1952-1957. TV series starring George Reeves, whose suicide ended show and launched Superman’s Curse legend.

The New Adventures of Superman, 1966-1969. Cartoon series with Bud Collyer (host of the game show To Tell the Truth) as Clark Kent and Superman. Half-hour program featured two six-minute Superman cartoons with one six-minute Superboy short between them.

Superman, 1978. You WILL believe a man can fly was the tag line for the movie that introduced Christopher Reeve as the Man of Steel. Brought then-state-of-the-art special effects to the story of Superman and his efforts to thwart the scheming Lex Luthor (played with camp villainy by Gene Hackman). Marlon Brando had memorable cameo as Superman’s doomed father. Box office: $134.2 million US.

Superman II, 1981. Reeve returns to stop three bad guys from his home planet of Krypton from wreaking havoc on Earth. Box office: $108.2 million.

Superman III, 1983. More silly than super, sequel co-starred Richard Pryor as a computer-programming scientist who creates synthetic Kryptonite. Box office: $60 million.

Superman IV: The Quest for Peace, 1987. The flop that killed the franchise. Pitted Reeve against Nuclear Man in a thinly veiled Cold War-era message about the dangers of nuclear weapons. Box office: $15.6 million.

Superboy, 1988-1992. Live-action syndicated TV series starred Gerard Christopher, who despite being 31 played a teenage Clark Kent studying journalism and fighting villains while in college. Fans still bristle at this show’s nickname, The Boy of Steel.

Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman, 1993-1997. Well-received ABC fantasy series starring Dean Cain as a modern-guy Superman and Teri Hatcher as Lois Lane. Program was notable for focusing not only on weekly villains, but their budding romantic relationship.

Superman: The Animated Series: 1996-2000. WB Network’s after-school cartoon series with Tim Daly (of the sitcom Wings) voicing Superman and Dana Delaney as Lois Lane. A return to colourful animated brawls that live-action could not simulate well with special effects.

Smallville, 2001-Present. Tom Welling stars as farmboy Clark Kent — and the term Superman is never used. Kent cannot yet fly, but has super-strength and is practically indestructible. Hides his abilities to blend in with his high-school friends — among them Lex Luthor (Michael Rosenbaum).