Superman Returns - Trivia, Questions and Fun Facts

[discussimdb]

Fan of Superman Returns or just want to share your movie knowledge? This topic is dedicated to all trivia and questions related to Superman Returns

[charlie]

According to Box Office Mojo, it had a budget of $270 million, making it the most expensive superhero film ever made.

[maureen]

Milliskin, a type of cloth, was used as the material of Superman's suit. Unfortunately, this cloth restricts movement when new. Worse, it sags after being worn, and becomes comfortable. As a result, eighty suits, one hundred capes, thirty boots, and ninety belts were made.

[claude]

Robert Rodriguez turned this down because it wasn't going to be the Superman that he wanted to make. Rodriguez normally gets final cut on all of his movies.

[eli]

Brandon Routh and Christopher Reeve were 26 years old when their first Superman films were released. Unlike Christopher, Brandon only performed as the title character in one film. However, in 2019 He reprised the role in The CW's Crisis on Infinite Earths crossover event.

[stephanie]

Ryan McPartlin auditioned twice for the role.

[norma]

When offered the director's chair, Bryan Singer rejected J.J. Abrams script as too far a departure from the source material. Abrams story re-imagined Superman as a Kryptonian prince sent to earth as a baby to avoid an impending civil war between king Jor-El and his brother Kata-Zor. Raised as Midwestern teen Clark Kent, and in love with his high school sweetheart Lois, Superman becomes humanity's defender when Kata-Zor invades Earth, aided by CIA agent Lex Luthor, who is actually a Kryptonian in disguise. The film ended with Superman returning to Krypton to rule over his people after the death of Jor-El. Singer disagreed with these changes to one of America's most well-known characters, and decided instead to pursue a storyline to act as both a sequel, and a remake, which would honor the character's history, as well as the popular films by Richard Donner.

[amber]

Superman and Lex Luthor meet face to face only in one scene.

[frederick]

Elements of the film are from a 1993 rough-draft screenplay. The same year DC Comics publishes The Death of Superman. As well as the 55th anniversary for the character.

[linda]

Kevin Spacey convinced Bryan Singer to cast Kate Bosworth for the role of Lois Lane after her performance in Beyond the Sea (2004).

[francisco]

In an interview with the Washington Post, Bryan Singer discussed a scene that was in an early draft of the screenplay, but never filmed: "At one point," Bryan recalls, "I had a scene in the script which I never shot, and I probably was never going to shoot, where Superman would be standing - after flying around rescuing people at night - would be standing at dawn at Ground Zero. Sort of standing there, almost as if to say, 'If I had been here, this might not be.'"

[violet]

When Bryan Singer took over this project, he immediately brought over his production staff consisting of cinematographer Newton Thomas Sigel, composer and editor John Ottman, production designer Guy Hendrix Dyas, and writers Dan Harris and Michael Dougherty from X2: X-Men United (2003) to meet Warner Brothers' release date for the film.

[gabriel]

There are numerous references to specific Superman comic books. Superman recreates the cover of Action #1 in one scene where he holds a car above his head, and the entire "Space Plane" sequence was from John Byrne's Man of Steel miniseries in 1986, explaining how he first met Lois Lane.

[carla]

Bryan Singer decided on using stock footage of Marlon Brando, that was originally shot by Superman (1978) director Richard Donner, for the Singer version. Brando and Christopher Reeve were once filmed interacting for Superman II (1980), but due to a lawsuit against the Alexander Salkind and Ilya Salkind for a percentage of the sequel, the scenes were deleted and re-shot with Susannah York as Kal-El's mother Lara.

[chad]

The set design for the offices of The Daily Planet, with its mushroom-shaped columns, were inspired by architect Frank Lloyd Wright's S.C. Johnson Wax building in Racine, Wisconsin.

[veronica]

In the beginning of the film, as Superman returns to the family farm, the radio set juggles about. The close-up shot of the radio dial shows stations:(5) AD, KA, DN, AN, CL (among others). These are Adelaide, South Australia radio stations.

[amber]

Alias (2001) creator and writer J.J. Abrams wrote a complete shooting draft of the script, which both Brett Ratner and McG were planning to shoot when they both left the project for both creative and budget reasons.

[cassandra]

Before this Superman film, there was an attempt to make a Superman film in 1998 called Superman Lives. It was loosely based on The Death of Superman and The Return of Superman. Nicolas Cage was cast as Superman and Tim Burton was hired to direct. Just three weeks away from filming, Warner Brothers forced the film into cancellation due to the failure of Batman & Robin (1997). In 2009, photos began to surface of Nicolas Cage dressed in multiple Superman suits. Cage would later voiced Superman in Teen Titans GO! to the Movies (2018).

[bryan]

The reappearance of Superman in Metropolis by saving a crashing airplane is a direct nod to an episode of Paul Dini's Superman: The Animated Series (1996) cartoons titled: The Last Son of Krypton Part 2, as well as an episode of the Max Fleischer-animated Superman called Japoteurs (1942).

[frances]

Brandon Routh, at 6'2½", is the second tallest actor to play Superman. The tallest actor to play Superman was Christopher Reeve from "Superman" (1978), who stood at 6'4".