(MACKENZIE - 2009)STEELY MANBy Sean SmithSurely th

(MACKENZIE - 2009)

STEELY MAN

By Sean Smith

 

Surely they're not going to kill Superman. Inside a soundstae in Sydney, Australia, Brandon Routh, as the Man of Steel, crawls across a black, wet wasteland, pursued by the evil Lex Luthor (Kevin Spacey) and Luthor's three henchmen. Of the thugs grabs Superman by this hair and shoves his face into a dark puddle, holding the hero's head underwater as he struggles for air. Luthor strides up behind Superman, stabs him in the back with some sort of Kryptonite shiv and whispers a sentence so ___ (I) ___ (and, for now, top secret) into his ear that Superman cries out in agony. 

He staggers to his feet, stumbles and topples backward over a cliff. Luthor walks to the edge, looks down into the abyss and sneers, “So long, Superman.” Playing this scene just once would be rough. Routh will be beaten and ___( II )___ for hours. “He’s very heroic ___( III )___ ,” says director Bryan Singer, sipping an iced vanilla latte. “You just happened to catch him on a bad day.”

By the time “Superman Returns” lands in theaters next summer, it will have taken Warner Bros. 11 torturous years to get the movie off the ground. At one point in the mid-1990s, Tim Burton was going to direct Nicolas Cage as the man in tights. The next big plan was “Superman vs. Batman”, directed by Wolfgang Petersen. Then, a few years ago J. J. Abrams, creator of the shows “Alias” and “Lost”, chipped in a “Superman” script that whipped up a frenzy around the lot. It was teeming with huge action sequences, but altered the Superman myth. (In Abrams’s version, the planet Krypton survived.) Director McG was dying to direct it, but couldn’t because he had committed to make “Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle.” Brett Ratner signed on, but tussled with the studio over the budget – at one point it was estimated at more than $200 million – and left after six months. McG then stepped back in to direct, but location became a problem. By shooting in Australia, the studio could shave about $30 million off the budget. McG refused to fly, so the studio showed him the door.

(Adapted from Newsweek)

 

The words which properly fill in blanks I, II and III in the text are: