Henry Cavill Cast As Superman!

RUMOR: Impression Of Henry Cavill As Superman In Description Of MAN OF STEEL Scenes

Take this with a grain of salt,but someone claiming to be a visual effects supervisor describes two scenes from Zack Snyder's Man of Steel. The descriptions offer the first impressions of Cavill as Superman and Michael Shannon as Zod. nailbiter111 - 5/15/2012

The always "reliable" IMDB has furnished us with yet another possible description of scenes from the new Superman movie, Man of Steel. I would normally not post something that comes from IMDB, but the descriptions sound pretty believable.

I’m a visual effects supervisor for the upcoming film After.Earth, the M. Night picture. I’ve also done work on Avatar, Iron Man, and Sin City. I’m on IMDb. I’ll admit I check my own page from time to time. It feels good.

I frequent this board often, I’m a huge comic book fan (as shown by the movies I’ve worked on). Last night at a VFX conference there was a sizzle reel shown by Weta. In this sizzle reel there were two beta level(most likely from a trailer) clips shown. One only about 6 seconds long, the other much longer.

The former was Clark Kent grabbing a truck with a crying man inside of it while flying through the middle of a tornado. It looked incredible. Henry Cavill can fly, and he can hold a truck in one arm. Zack Snyder brings his usual visual flair, but somehow is still unlike anything he has made before. It felt like a Superman comic. Real heroism.

The longer clip was even more stunning, but the more I think about it, slightly concerning. The clip consisted of Superman in full costume in a verbal argument with Zod in the center of Smallville with Christopher Meloni yells at them through a megaphone next to a tank. Meloni warns them he will fire if they do not surrender. While he says this Zod sizes Superman up. Shannon looks evil as he can be. Bone chilling even. And is DEFINITELY sporting enhanced muscle. Cavill’s Superman is a wonderful sight to behold in motion. Cavill’s pure size makes him the most believable Superman to date. Zod speaks in Kryptonian “Do you know your native tongue, Kal-el?” Superman looks stunned, and responds in English, “Who are you?” (there isn’t enough Superman dialogue to judge Cavill’s performance fairly, but I’d say he did well. Nothing spectacular from this clip.) Meloni curses, then into a walkie talkie orders the tank to fire. Superman hears this and turns to the tank. Zod takes this opportunity to sucker punch Superman(in Zack Snyder slow-then-fast-mo) then when the tank fires Superman rushes in front of Zod, despite the punch and catches the exploding missile near his stomach. The flames ripple around him, hit his face, his cape, his eyes. The shrapnel hits him and bounces off. The same happens to Zod to a lesser extent. Meloni’s shocked expression when they remain standing, silhouettes in a cloud of smoke, ends the clip.

zack-snyder-man-of-steel-supermanIt was incredible, it really was. And absolutely visually stunning, but my qualm is its typical Zack Snyder. It doesn’t look glossy like his films do. It instead has a more clean cut, colorful look. Like Thor, or Iron Man. But it is the same slow-mo styling that people expect from him. Maybe it just happens in this one scene, but it happens twice. Makes me a bit hesitant, despite the fact it looks phenomenal. - IMDB

After someone posts something like this one of the first reactions must be skepticism. Even the IMDB board has questioned the user about describing scenes that he could've fabricated based on leaked set photos and videos.

His response: "I find it funnier that you don't realize that's intentional on behalf of WB. How better a way to keep things from being spoiled? Show them things they already know happen. On Avengers, one of the first clips released was Thor and Cap fighting aliens, footage we had already seen on a cell phone from when they were filming. Why? to preserve the magic of film."

thecolorsblend wrote:For the moment, let's assume everything up there is completely true. Why does the slow-mo bother people? Comic book panels are impressions that are often designed to imply movement of some kind. It's a static image though. You can't really achieve that in any type of animated medium unless you use some kind of slow-mo effect. I don't think it should be gratuitously used but at the same time this is a comic book and slow-mo works well with those pin up/poster/full page splash moments.

And it looks colorful... and that's a criticism???

As I say, maybe this is all true, maybe it's not, but this guy isn't doing much to convince me that he's some big comics guy if he's complaining about how colorful everything is. Dipshit.

UPDATE: Thanks to Superman: Man of Steel (2013) for the heads up.

I have been given the clear, this information isn't secret, I can disclose what I please. It wasn't a conference, perhaps I was a tad misleading in that regard. It was a gathering, banquet of sorts, of VFX artists on WB payroll. For the poster with ties into the business, ask around, it was a limited invitation event, but someone else out there has got to be able to verify the event took place. It was at the Langham Huntington in Pasadena. We were served a Caesar salad followed by smoked salmon. I can assure you this event took place. WETA presented a long sizzle reel, the Man of Steel clips were just part of it. And finally, the proof you've all be waiting for. My name is Jonathan Rothbart. I've been working in effects my whole life. My first major film was part of a massive team on Empire Strikes Back. I still have my shirt from the film, one that ONLY those involved with the production would have. I did freelance work with ILM for a while early in my career then settled into a great job at an effects house called The Orphanage. I have a great relationship with WB, and I was honored to be invited to the event.

Response from ragstoriches:
Well, I can now confirm this information. Just made a call to someone who also there. Sorry to have doubted you Jonathan, but you know how internet is. It also seems at least one of the two clips will be featured in the upcoming teaser. And this was actually a part of WB's marketing ploy. Expect to learn some new things about MOS from Snyder this friday and new character posters in the coming weeks!

I under skepticism, I do. But you'll see the exact shots I spoke of, to a tee, in the finished film. And I'll come back to these boards and prove it. I guarantee someone else will speak about this footage at some point today, just wait for the news to break.

Stockslivevan wrote:While I think the slo-mo/bullet time effect has been done to death in Hollywood, I make this great exception when it comes to Superman. I have no problem with that method being used in a film about a man who is FASTER THAN A SPEEDING BULLET. Bullet time effect was practically invented for Superman. I had no problem with its used in Smallville. Heck, SUPERMAN RETURNS missed that boat!

So yeah. Bullet time? I'm totally cool with it.

Stockslivevan wrote:Oh right! That was actually one of the few bright spots of SR. I then change my complaint: SR didn't use enough bullet time!

And honestly, fuck bandwagons. I noticed lately there's some serious bitching around here about Nolan-ites and "apologists". Who gives a fuck about fanboys? Let them eat their cake and let us not deviate from more interesting discussions.

Stockslivevan wrote:I noticed lately there's some serious bitching around here about Nolan-ites and "apologists". Who gives a fuck about fanboys? Let them eat their cake and let us not deviate from more interesting discussions.

Apologist Puncher wrote:Just an easy thing to bash Snyder for.

As if no other director uses it.

Apologist Puncher wrote:Yep, because it was so detrimental to 'The Avengers' success.

........Right?

Apologist Puncher wrote:

Stockslivevan wrote:Oh right! That was actually one of the few bright spots of SR. I then change my complaint: SR didn't use enough bullet time!

It could have used it the entire "film".

Still would have sucked.

And honestly, fuck bandwagons. I noticed lately there's some serious bitching around here about Nolan-ites and "apologists". Who gives a fuck about fanboys? Let them eat their cake and let us not deviate from more interesting discussions.

First off, you have to remember all the shit most of us here went thru post-Singerman. It's the main reason we are where we are. So talking about Apologists will ALWAYS be a topic, even just to poke fun or make a point.

Secondly, have you not noticed the Black Hole that is 'Man Of Steel' news??

Stockslivevan wrote:

Apologist Puncher wrote:First off, you have to remember all the shit most of us here went thru post-Singerman. It's the main reason we are where we are. So talking about Apologists will ALWAYS be a topic, even just to poke fun or make a point.

Secondly, have you not noticed the Black Hole that is 'Man Of Steel' news??

I'm aware this site was largely created at the time when SR was released so there were a lot of hard feelings when the flick was still relevant. But at the same time it's been six years and the prospect of Singer's sequel hasn't seen the light of day since THE DARK KNIGHT came out. Continuing to gripe about apologists is like complaining about Joel Shuchmacher's Batman in 2004 when by that point he was long gone and BATMAN BEGINS was just on the horizon.

I just feel it's best to move past all that. I remember when SR was released that a huge majority of fans made up most of the SUPERMAN HOMEPAGE membership. So much heated debate happened on that site between pro-Singer and anti-Singers that it always seemed to get out of control and mean spirited. Recently I revisited the site and it's like a different place. There's little to no discussion about SR, it's like a black memory everyone just wants to forget. But that's really no surprise because SR is no longer a relevant discussion and everyone is too focused on looking forward to a new Superman movie. It's no longer the hostile environment it used to be.

Heck, before joining this site I don't think I talked about SR in such detail in years. It used to be all I ever talked about back in 2006/2007.

Anyway, that's just how I feel about the whole thing. I like talking about movies. They're at least timeless, while fandom is constantly changing. The SR apologists are now just a disgruntled minority. Like I said, fuck em.

UPDATE: After speaking with the head of WETA’s marketing, we can confirm that the sizzle reel mentioned below was not WETAs. Again, this IMDB posting should be taken at arm’s length, and there’s also the possibility that Rothbart got the effects company wrong, but if these scenes are real, they are not the work of WETA. Original posting follows:

webhead2006 wrote:Hmm def like wets to work on film.

We already know that Henry Cavill tried on the original Christopher Reeve Superman costume during auditions for Man of Steel, but in an interview with Art Center Of Design (via @ManofSteel_2013), director Zack Snyder has gone into detail about how seeing the British actor in the iconic suit was all he needed to know that he had his Superman. He also talks briefly about about his relationship with Warner Bros, although you can read the full interview can be read by clicking on the link below.

"We had about 500 guys initially. We did this massive auditioning madness. It got down to the usual suspects in a pretty quick order. Henry Cavill was actually the first one we physically tested on film. We actually tested him in the Christopher Reeves Superman suit. And that was a big deal. That’s a hard suit to pull off. Trust me. If you’re just standing there in that suit, it’s dodgy. It felt like we just bought it a costume shop. Plus, there’s no mask. I’ve been around a few superhero costumes, and it’s weird because when you’re in the Superman costume it’s just you from the neck up. And somebody just combed your hair. But Henry came out of the trailer when we were shooting a test and everybody thought Okay, that’s Superman. He was awesome and did a great job."

"When it comes to a studio wanting to talk to you about how to make your film better—or what in their mind they think is better—having a point of view is really important. Because they can just crush you. And they are paying for the movie. They do have the right to say, Hey, this is crazy, he [Dr. Manhattan from Watchmen] cannot be naked the entire film. That’s when you have to be able to say, Well, yeah, he does, and I don’t know what else to do. Sometimes it’s like a staring contest, and whoever blinks loses."

"For whatever reason, Warner Brothers has been a very supportive studio to me. I’ve been able to make movies over there that have been kind of weird and they have supported by them. It’s been a good relationship."

With any luck, that audition tape will find its way onto the eventual DVD and Blu-ray release. Of course, that's a long way off and fans should expect a lot more on Man of Steel this weekend at the San Diego Comic-Con. With the promise of new artwork from the film (and hopefully new details and footage at the Hall H panel), now is a very exciting time to be a Superman fan. Be sure to stay tuned for much, much more...

James Stocks wrote:Didn't he audition for SR? I know for sure he was one of the finalists for James Bond before Daniel Craig won the title. And I know the auditioning for BATMAN BEGINS is a BS story.