Bryan Singer Reflects On "Superman Returns"

Empire conducted an extensive interview with director Bryan Singer for the their issue centered on the sequel X-Men: Days of Future Past at Fox. In it--Singer had a few interesting things to say about 2006's "Superman Returns".

After the success of "Batman Begins," the Singer film attempted to relaunch the character with a pseudo-sequel to the director Richard Donner started series.

Using the Donner era as a starting point was not a bad idea per se` but ultimately a few things detracted from what Singer was trying to achieve--At least for me anyway:

Kate Bosworth as Lois was a total mis-cast. I doubt Supes would eavesdrop on Lois and her boyfriend (James Marsden) let alone become a superstalker. The Superkid....

 
 Looking back on it, Singer says he'll never truly understand all the negative buzz the film received at the time:

"Half of that I understand and half of it I never will. It was a movie made for a certain kind of audience. Perhaps more of a female audience. It wasn't what it needed to be, I guess. I think I could lop the first quarter off and start the movie a bit more aggressively and maybe find a way to start the movie with the jet disaster sequence or something. I could have grabbed the audience a little more quickly.I don't know what would have helped. Probably nothing. If I could go again, I would do an origin. I would reboot it."

The plan was to follow "Superman Returns" with a sequel and for that Singer says he thinks Darkseid was going to be the villain and that the film was going to be "pretty world-destroying, actually."

"I ended up having the opportunity to go and make 'Valkyrie,' and I think the studio lost interest at that point. I can't say it was all the studio's fault and I can't say it was all my fault. It just fizzled out."

Current Superman and "Man Of Steel" star Henry Cavill was up for the role as the last son of  Krypton when Singer was casting  "Superman Returns". Cavill lost out to Brandon Routh.

"I think Henry Cavill is great. I knew Henry. He and I were friends years ago. The reason I didn't cast him was because I was making a sequel to Christopher Reeve and I wanted somebody who embodied Reeve more."

Singer's seen the Zack Snyder film and is impressed:

"I saw ['Man of Steel'] when it came out. I am in awe of the world building and the scope of that picture. There were things I might have done a little differently just because of the way I view the character."