Daniel Robert Epstein of Newsarama caught up with SR director Bryan Singer at the recent San Diego Comic Con and got the chance to ask him a few of questions about the movie's all important box office numbers...and about one of those nagging issues I had with the screenplay that I outlined in My Superman Returns Review.
Q: Superman Returns of course, will make plenty of money. The DVD is going to be monstrous. But it seems it's not as successful as everyone wanted it to be or as successful as people wanted it to be.
Bryan Singer: Domestically. Internationally it has so far exceeded our expectations. I was personally surprised because it is an American superhero. Compared to my experiences with the X-Men movies I feel disproportioned. The strangest surprise has definitely been the international gross.
Q: What happened in America?
Singer: In my personal estimation I felt it was an issue with the marketing. You've got a dense summer and you're resurrecting a character. There's a different kind of approach you've got to take when you bring in something new. Even though he's Superman and the character is ubiquitous, a Superman movie is a very new thing and it has to be presented in a new way. So a lot of that burden falls on the kind of presentation it is given.".
Q: I was really surprised that the plot of Superman Returns mirrored the plot of Donner’s Superman movie so much.
BS: It takes you on the same journey that the original one did but as an adult which was quite intentional. Right down to him sinking in the water. It is not remaking the first one but I wanted to take the audience on the same kind of journey as the first one but with a mature guy who’s going through a dilemma that wasn’t in the first one. It’s in the marketing. I don’t know how to specifically qualify but it has to be understood how to present something that hasn’t been around for a while. The last Superman, Superman IV, in its American release made 15 million dollars. It is still something new and it has to be launched on the flip side of the other movies of its ilk.
Q: After he gave up his powers in Superman II, Lois and Superman slept together. I’m going to assume that that’s when he got her pregnant…
BS: Possibly.
Q: Then he gives her the kiss, which made her forget that they even slept together. Was the pregnancy a mystery for her?
BS: I ignored that part. I just assumed she remembered sleeping with him.
It's funny. Whenever there's a story about a film's poor box office, it seems like the marketing of said movie, is always the first to get blamed for the problem...
Everyone who reads this blog on a regular basis, already knows how much I respect the work of Singer, but his answer to that last question really ticked me off. The memory wipe of Supes II, although a bit of a cheat, is still a key component of the film. And if he's gonna structure SR around the first 2 flicks in the series, then he can't just let it slide or assume anything. If Lois remembers that she slept with the last son of Krypton--than does she know his secret identity? Not to mention the fact that the kid Jason displays some of dad's abilities in the film. How is that possible when Clark was human when he slept with Lois? Vague history my eye...Sloppy, just sloppy...
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The Movie Reporter caught up with Michael Thau, the man responsible for overseeing Superman II: The Richard Donner Cut DVD (due on 11/28), and he gave them some info on what we can expect from the release in a video interview.
Giddy as a schoolboy.....
Giddy as a schoolboy.....
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