Robert Downey Jr. Would Have Been Lex Luther in McG's Superman
Posted 02.20.12 by Chris
Director McG's This Means War is currently in theaters but given that the spy romantic flick debuted in fourth place and got some rather scathing reviews (including Reelz's Richard Roeper giving it a D-), it's not surprising that McG is talking about other projects. Or even projects that never happened.
In an interview with Indiewire, McG reveals that when he was attached to direct a Superman reboot nearly a decade ago, he had Robert Downey Jr. in mind to play not Superman but his arch nemesis.
We had Robert Downey Jr. locked up to be Lex Luthor, which I think would have been extraordinary.
This was before Downey Jr.'s comeback role in Iron Man. If McG's Superman had taken off, Downey Jr. most likely wouldn't have been in the Marvel movie. Funny to think . . .
And for Superman, McG claims he had Henry Cavill in mind, yes, the same Cavill playing Superman in Zack Synder's upcoming Man of Steel.
Ironically, we liked Henry Cavill a lot, but we hadn’t cast him yet.
The McG/Superman project was written by none other than J.J. Abrams, who reportedly made fundamental changes in the origins of Superman. So why did this promising project never see the light of day? Because of McG's fear of flying. McG left the project when the studio was adamant about shooting in Australia. Ironically, McG's next project was We Are Marshall, about a college football team that dies in a plane crash.
J.J. wrote the script, and we got that to a really good place in the end. But I’m to blame for [the film not happening].