NEW NEWYORK POST INTERVIEW ZACK SNYDER AND HENRY CAVILL DISH ON SUPERMAN:MAN OF STEEL! & HENRY CAVILL IN JLA!

'STEEL'THIS MOVIE! Superman and his new director dish on next summer’s reinvention of the world’s first comic-book superhero The final version is a brief-free, all-blue unitard with red boots and a red cape. “If you look at the costume, it’s very modern, but the relationship to the original costume is strong,” Snyder says. “You come onto a project like this, and you hear about modernization and you hear about bringing things forward to today, and all you can do is hope that it’s going to look cool and different from anything you’ve seen before,” Cavill says of the suit, which takes him 15 to 25 minutes to put on. “And I’m pretty sure it does.” To fill out the costume, Cavill worked out intensely for two hours each morning, and consumed as many as 5,000 calories a day. AP Henry Cavill plays Superman in next summer’s update of the famed franchise. “I have been put through the ringer big time,” Cavill says. “An example of the workouts we’ve been doing, it was 100 front squats of body weight. There are kettle-bell workouts. It’s very hard work.” If “Man of Steel” pays off, it will have been worth it. The film is already saddled with gigantic expectations. “I heard one time that the Superman glyph is the second or third most recognizable symbol on Earth after the Christian cross,” Snyder says. “It’s this crazy responsibility.” The film will also be expected to launch a new franchise, which 2006’s lukewarmly received “Superman Returns” failed to do. Cavill confirms he is signed up for three films. Snyder is mum about directing more. “We approach the film as a single endeavor,” he says. “There are a lot of gears that have to turn in the world of commerce and the world of the mythology we create to facilitate more adventures for this character. We’ll see what happens.” What’s perhaps most interesting about “Man of Steel” is that it might serve as the launching point for a DC Comics universe of films in the same way 2008’s “Iron Man” inaugurated Marvel’s interconnected movie world. Warner Bros. is reportedly plowing ahead with “Justice League,” a superteam movie featuring Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman and others, rumored to hit in 2015. Nolan’s Batman trilogy has concluded and bomb “Green Lantern” is likely to be disregarded, making “Man of Steel” the first film set in this new universe. “I don’t know how ‘Justice League’ is going to be handled. Honestly, I don’t,” Snyder says. “But ‘The Man of Steel’ exists, and Superman is in it. I don’t know how you’d move forward without acknowledging that.” When asked whether he had conversations with the studio about integrating “Man of Steel” into a larger superhero universe, Snyder treads carefully. “Um, how can I answer that?” he wonders. “I can’t really say anything to that, because that’s a big spoiler. I will say, yeah, they trust me to keep them on course.” Wildly speculating, it sounds entirely possible that “Man of Steel” will mention another costumed crime-fighter — maybe in a post-credits sequence — that leads into another superhero film. Universe launched. For now, Cavill is focused on this one movie and trying to handle the expectations. “There have been a couple of times where people have been explaining all of these Superman cookies and ice creams . . . and there was a second where I went, ‘Wow, this is massive!’ ” Cavill says. “You’ve got to ignore that and not let it get it to you, otherwise you’ll be focusing so much on the pressure as opposed to dealing with the important thing of doing justice to the character.” Justice will be served June 14.