Superman's Identity Revealed--Henry Cavill to Take on the Cape

Superman's Identity Revealed--Henry Cavill to Take on the Cape

Movie News

By our guest blogger, Nick Hanover

The wait is over. Superman has been cast. And it's...a Brit?!

That's right, "Tudors" star Henry Cavill is set to take on the role of America's most iconic hero, according to The Wrap and others. Cavill may not be too known of a commodity just yet stateside but he apparently was memorable enough to Superman producer Christopher Nolan, who first encountered Cavill when he auditioned for the role of Bruce Wayne/Batman way back when Batman Begins was in development. Cavill has a few other projects that are soon to hit American theatres as well, such as the Bruce Willis vehicle The Cold Light of Day and a prominent role in Mickey Rourke's next film, the fantasy epic Immortals.

Wrap sources claim Cavill was not on the list of actors McG was considering for Superman when he was attached to the project but the British actor did audition to be James Bond before Daniel Craig acquired the role. Although the Superman reboot isn't anywhere near production yet (David S. Goyer is still finishing the script), the studio has an optimistic estimate of December 2012 for a release date. Christoper Nolan has been intimately involved with the production, with a producer credit and co-credit for the story, though Zack Snyder will be directing.

The last Superman film, Superman Returns, was largely considered a disappointment by Warner Bros. despite its near $400 million profit; Bryan Singer's directorial effort, for which he left the high-grossing X-Men franchise, was mostly seen as mediocre by critics and cost the studio nearly $300 million to produce. The team of Nolan and Snyder is viewed by WB as their best bet for a revival since the two have had an almost endless string of successes over the past decade. While The Wrap claims Superman Returns' failure was because "fanboys didn't widely accept the casting of Brandon Routh" as Superman, it's far more likely the film failed because it was, well, boring, slow and as pretentiously cerebral as the similar failure that was Ang Lee's Hulk.

With Snyder in the director's chair, it's doubtful that the new Superman will be boring but it remains difficult to tell whether Snyder can handle the more inventive, intelligent side of things that made Nolan's Batman films such a success.