New Superman Update: Man of Steel Wraps in 'Smallville' and Flies to 'Metropolis'; Michael Shannon Will "Reinvent" Zod
Posted 09.07.11 by BrentJS
It seems appropriate that production on Zack Snyder's Superman franchise reboot, Man of Steel, seems to be following the trajectory of Superman's (Henry Cavill) own life experiences on Earth. The production recently spent several weeks in and around Plano, Ill., which doubled as Clark Kent's (Superman's human name, in case you didn't know) childhood home of Smallville. Now, the production has moved to downtown Chicago, which will double for Metropolis, the fictional mega-city that adult Clark calls his home as a reporter for The Daily Planet and which serves as Superman's superhero "beat." According to Chicago's WGN TV, Man of Steel will shoot for ten days in Chicago, with The Chicago Board of Trade building serving as the exterior of The Daily Planet and the floors of the Willis Tower serving as the interiors of the newspaper office. After Chicago, the Man of Steel production will move on to Vancouver, B.C.
In related Man of Steel news, MTV recently caught up with Academy Award-nominated actor Michael Shannon (Revolutionary Road) to discuss his role in the movie, that of the Kryptonian supervillain General Zod. In a previous interview, Shannon said that he's "not worthy" of being compared to original Zod actor, Terence Stamp, who played the character in Superman and Superman II. In the interview with MTV, Shannon admitted that he's "nervous" about the inevitable comparisons between the two performances, but said that he plans to "reinvent" Zod for a new audience.
I'm not going to impersonate Terence Stamp. I'm not going to have a British accent or anything. I'm still getting my foot into it, into the pool. I just started working on it, and all I can say is it's very well written and there's a lot of great opportunities to reinvent it for myself. The challenge is for me to do that. There's nothing holding me back. I think they're counting on me to give my interpretation so I'll do the best I can.
Shannon said that what interested him about playing a comic book supervillain was not Zod's super powers, but the fact that he is a general.
To me, that's such a fascinating, kind of iconoclastic character. I mean, I can't imagine being a sergeant, let alone a general. He's in charge of the entire military of Krypton. That's going to take every little shred of imagination that I have, you know. It's a good challenge because it's a big distance to have to go.
Next Showing: Man of Steel opens June 14, 2013