Michael Shannon Cast As Zod

webhead2006 wrote:ya its been confirmed the on farm set photo is shannon. the other guys we seen and the one with the pole attached to head is a completely differennt actor/mo-cap people.

Exclusive: Michael Shannon Talks MAN OF STEEL; Reveals How Director Zack Snyder Offered Him the Role of General Zod
by Adam Chitwood Posted:September 10th, 2011 at 4:48 pm

Michael Shannon is a very good actor. He’s been knocking small supporting character roles out of the park for years, and recently he’s been given the chance to shine in much larger roles. He is decidedly creepy on HBO’s Boardwalk Empire, and he’ll soon be gracing the screen in Marc Forster’s true-life drama Machine Gun Preacher. Steve got the chance to sit down with Shannon this weekend at the Toronto Film Festival to talk about Machine Gun Preacher, but as one would expect the conversation also included a little-known film called Man of Steel.

We’ll have the full interview with Shannon up soon, but we wanted to share what he said about Zack Snyder’s Superman flick today. While he’s barred from getting too specific, Shannon spoke about the how he nabbed the role of villain Genreal Zod, what it was like to screen test with Henry Cavill, and he also commented on all those set photos that seem to be leaking daily. Hit the jump to see what he had to say.

Steve: I, of course, have to ask you about certain other high profile project. I know you can’t talk about the story and I am not even going to ask.

Shannon: The Smurfs movie?

The Smurfs sequel actually.

Shannon: Yeah. I can’t talk about it.

But could you talk a little bit about how Zack (Snyder) offered you the role of General Zod in Man of Steel?

Shannon: He reached out to me and he asked me to come out to Pasadena. I went and met him at his house. He lives in Pasadena in the hills and the view from his house is stunningly beautiful. He basically sat there and he ran through the whole…it was almost like he was pitching it to me, which I found to be a little bizarre. I felt like the tables should be turned and I should be on my hands and knees trying to get the part. But he was like, “Yeah, doesn’t it sound great? Then this is going to happen! And then this is going to happen!” I said, “Yeah. That all sounds wonderful.” Then we stood up and shook hands. He took me down and showed me some artwork, storyboards, and stuff. I just remember that the whole time he was pitching the movie there were these hummingbirds behind him in the window flying around. It was one of the most surreal mornings. It was in the morning too right at the beginning of the day. I had just flown in the night before and I was little jetlagged. So it was just very…but then I went back when it was going to go further. I did a test with Henry [Cavill] and we did a scene together. That was intense and my palms started sweating a little bit. After the test, a couple of weeks went by and I was at the grocery store with my family when my phone rang. It was a private number and I didn’t even know who it was. I answered it and he says, “Hey, this is Zack. Want to be General Zod?” I was like, “Yeah. Let me just get these cookies over here. Who is this again?” The whole thing was a real trip.

Are you a little bit surprised by the extreme level of interest in the property and this project?

Shannon: It is surprising that people are snapping photos and stuff and then putting them on the internet. For me, it is like, “Why would you want to do that?” It would be like knowing what your Christmas presents were before Christmas morning. It is taking all of the fun out of it. I know it is a long wait. The film isn’t coming out till 2013. I just keep promising everybody that I will talk about this film a lot after this film has come out. I will give you my number and you can call me up. We’ll have a long conversation about it, but for right now I have to zip the lips.

Speaking to indieWire Shannon revealed the following:

On whether his General Zod will be the same as the one in the Richard Donner film:

“I found his performance [Terrence Stamp] so powerful that I would be overwhelmed by it if I tried to incorporate it into what I’m doing. There’s no reason to try and replicate it cos it’s perfect the way it is. I’m just trying to go down a different road with it, the script’s a little bit different than the original script. It’s going to have a different look and feel to it, visually. I’m looking forward to really settling into it, and playing with it.”

On how many scenes he's filmed thus far:

Despite having only filmed one sequence (the actor told us that “The majority of my filming is in Vancouver, and they’re still in Illinois right now. So, the lion’s share of it is between now and Christmas”).

On whether we will see lots of action in the film:

“It’s fascinating to watch, the process of making a movie like this, it’s very intricate. There’s going to be a lot of CGI and whatnot. I think anytime an actor does one of these movies for the first time, they’re a little thrown off by it. You always hear actors talking about it, like ‘I was wearing this funny suit, nothing I was supposed to be reacting to was really there.’ To me it encourages… it’s actually very childlike, it’s like being in your backyard and imagining you’re on a space station or something. It goes back to the original impulse of play, which is pretty funny to think about when you fathom all the money that’s involved, hundreds of millions of dollars to do what you did when you were a kid.”

thecolorsblend wrote:...

Holy crap, did you read the last bit? I mean, am I the only one tired of actors whining about green screens and mo-cap and whatnot? This dude just gave the best line an actor can ever give in these types of movies. "It's all make believe anyway. We played pretend as children and I'm doing it again now. Bigger budget, same thing."

I'm guess Shannon isn't from the method school and they tend not to do too well with these sorts of effects-driven movies.

Is it sad that it's refreshing to see an interview with an actor where he's serious about the role but doesn't whine about the fundamentals of this type of filmmaking?

“I found his performance [Terrence Stamp] so powerful that I would be overwhelmed by it if I tried to incorporate it into what I’m doing. There’s no reason to try and replicate it cos it’s perfect the way it is. I’m just trying to go down a different road with it, the script’s a little bit different than the original script. It’s going to have a different look and feel to it, visually. I’m looking forward to really settling into it, and playing with it.”

thecolorsblend wrote:I dunno but, if it was possible, Shannon's cred just went *WAY* up in *MY* book.

"We’re going back to square one. I guess you could call it a reboot,", Michael Shannon revealed in a recent interview with Movie Fanatic. "I’m excited to be doing that with Zack Snyder who did such a wonderful job with the Watchman and 300." As we already know, he'll be playing General Zod in the highly anticipated movie, and when asked whether he found it fun to play the iconic villain, he replied: "I do, although I feel a lot of responsibility."

"It’s a big movie. I’ve just started working on it, so I’m not quite into the swing of it yet. I’m trying to wrap my head around it," he added when quizzed about his experience working on Man of Steel so far. "There are a lot of different elements that I’ve never experienced -- like the CGI. You always hear about actors when they run into that for the first time are a little thrown by it. I’m looking to getting a little more comfortable and getting into a rhythm and then I think I’ll start having some real fun with it."

thecolorsblend wrote:Didn't someone around here suggest that Superman's outfit is based on Kryptonian military gear or something? Guess we answered that one.

webhead2006 wrote:Well just saw the shannon photos. Didn't know he was going to be during the chicago shoot. Also I guess we can say the superman suit is kryptonian with zod sporting a black outfit of simular looks. Also he is sporting a gotaee.

webhead2006 wrote:Lol I know ap I was just stating my thoughts about the matter since I just saw the photos myself.

non_amos wrote:Hey AP, about the facial hair thing on Zod, at least 'Comic Book Dude' will be happy, right?

But I tend to disagree with it. Shannon said that he wasn't gonna 'ape' Terrance Stamp (in so many words) yet Snyder gives him a similar look?! Gimme a break! I personally wanted them to go with the 'military' look as Zod was originally presented in the comics, clean-shaven & all. However, I should've known this was coming. After seeing Antje Traue on the Facebook page the other day, I noticed that her appearance was 'aping' Sarah Douglas, I kid you not! There was this pic of her, Shannon, & Cavill filming a scene with some destruction or something & she had the black outfit & short hair just like Sarah Douglas! So yeah, should've seen this one coming. I guess the Donner films marked Zod & company for life!

non_amos wrote:Yeah, you're right, but interestingly that pic from the comics you posted is the same one that Comic Book Dude has been using to support his argument. He'll really be beside himself now! I guess it won't help his rating though which I see has hit 'triple-digits'.

And neat touch there with 'Spock's beard'. That's from one of my all-time favorite episodes MIRROR, MIRROR. And yeah, they didn't call it a goatee, which it actually was, but rather a beard. Like when alt-Kirk questioned Spock-Prime, "WHERE'S YOUR BEARD?!"

Apologist Puncher wrote: