SUPERMAN Movie Updates: Zack Snyder Rules Out Viggo Mortenson, Debunks CGI Rumors & More

While promoting Sucker Punch at this past weekend's press junket, the 300 director was routinely asked if he could share details and the status of his next film. He couldn't divulge much but did quash a few rumors and talked about production.



Zack Snyder was asked a lot of Superman questions over the last few days in what is sure to be a prelude to any public forums with himself or any other principals involved with the film. Henry Cavill will be next in the firing line as WonderCon is less than two weeks away and the actor is set to appear for Immortals. There were many questions that Snyder could not comment on at this time but did give his overall thoughts on the project.The following highlights are excerpts from various sites. Click on any to hear their full reports.


ScreenRant:
Deborah Snyder (Zack's wife and producing partner) assured that Cavill is already working out hard and "as of April 1st we have him full time with us for all that training." When asked if he would be utilizing some of the dynamic and innovative visual techniques we have come to expect from him as a filmmaker, [Zack] Snyder replied that:

"I think the visual style of “Superman,” though I can’t say for certain as it’s early, but I kind of feel like — and I did say to the studio – that what’s cool for me and interesting, and odd, is that “Superman” is probably going to be the most realistic movie I’ve ever made. It’s kind of fun that the most realistic movie I probably will make is a movie called “Superman.” Which shows how crazy my other movies are. Because I guess for him to be credible… He gets more credible by the reality that you can bring to him, you know emotionally, and visually, I think"


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Latino Review
Snyder stated they were in pre-production now and are going to probably start shooting at the end of the Summer. He could not comment on many casting decisions but did rule out one actor whose name has been mentioned quite a bit.

Okay how about this...Is Viggo Mortensen still a person of interest in Superman now that he’s locked into Snow White?

Zack Snyder: Yeah Viggo is not going to be in the movie let’s say that right now. I can clear that up.

Will this Superman be Luthor-Less?

Zack Snyder: I can’t answer that [laughs].


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io9
Other than Cavill, Diane Lane and Kevin Costner as Superman's parents have been the only actors cast. Snyder wanted to step away from from past incarnations painting the Kents more elderly and stated "My idea was that Superman's parents should be vibrant, like real people, not like some doddering ancient cliché"

Which is what we've sort of seen in the previous Superman movies...

"Yeah, completely. I think the thing you realize when you look at Diane and Kevin, in our decision to cast them so far, you sort of get a sense of how tonally we're looking at the movie, and what you realize is that those guys are serious actors, and we're taking this [crap] fucking seriously in terms of the tone of having those guys. You're talking about having a situation where whatever the action is or whatever the drama of the movie is, our first priority is to make sure it's rendered in the most realistic way we can get at."

We were wondering if you've had a chance to check out the recent animated adaptation of Grant Morrison's All-Star Superman, which has been called the definitive Superman story.

"I have not seen it, I'm happy to see it, I do want to see it, I just haven't had time. Yeah, absolutely. And by the way, I'm a fan of Grant, of All-Star Superman, I think it's cool, although I'd say... that's the big version of Superman, you know that's a stylized world. But awesome, and very sort of telling [about the character]. We're treating the concept of Superman as if there's been no Superman movies up till now, we're trying to take that tack — that this is the first Superman movie and no other ones exist. Not to take anything away from those movies, because they're great, but it's sort of the way you have to do it, otherwise you're really not starting over, you're really just a slave to whatever's happened in the past. But that doesn't mean that we don't respect the canon and we don't understand the canon, that we know what the requirements of Superman are without it also being the same old Superman."


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IGN
In a video interview, the Watchmen director debunked another rumor that arose very early on that Superman would be CGI rendered character or possibly a performance capture technique would be used (such as Ryan Reynolds did for Green Lantern). He also stated the story will not be hampered by any of the legal issues of copyright with DC and the Shuster and Siegel families.

"Yeah, I dunno where that came from anyway. That doesn't make any sense."

"No, I don't know about that. None of the actual story is influenced by the rights issue. But I will say that the way we're approaching it is sort of that we're trying to act as if the other movies dont exist.