Entertainment: The Man Of Steel Flies Again!

So, we all know by now that Zack Snyder is taking the helm of Warner Bros. new Superman film (will likely be titled The Man Of Steel, but it's too early to have that nailed down). But Snyder will not be repeating Bryan Singer's mistakes on Superman Returns. Sure, Returns was a pretty decent flick, but it drew too much from the first batch of Richard Donner/Christopher Reeves movies, instead of looking to the future.

Don’t expect that approach from Zack Snyder, who on Wednesday shared his guiding principle: "Respect the canon but don’t be a slave to the movies." Scheduled to hit theaters December, 2012 (just in time for the end of the world!), Snyder's vision will star Henry Cavill of Tudors fame, with Viggo Mortenson rumoured to play General Zod, Diane Keaton and Kevin Costner to as Martha and Jonathan Kent.

"Literally, the one thing that everyone can start to think about is that we’re making a movie that finally goes with the approach that there’s been no other Superman movies. If you look at  ‘Batman Begins,’ there’s that structure: there’s the canon that we know about and respect, but on other hand there’s this approach that pre-supposes that there haven’t been any other movies.  In every aspect of design and of story, the whole thing is very much from that perspective of ‘Respect the canon but don’t be a slave to the movies.’”

With Singer's movie still so fresh in our minds, and Donner's vision the cemented definition of Superman on film, Snyder has his work cut out for him.

"Superman is the one constant in the universe," Snyder said. "You know that if you do Superman right - or at least if you do him with respect - you know you end up with something great. … [but] in some ways [beyond] that is virgin territory. No one knows what that is. In some ways Superman is the most recognizable superhero on the planet but also the most unknown. Just what he can be? People have preconceived ideas about him but probably all of them are wrong.”