Brandon Routh in Superman Films, Articles, Photos, about Superman Comics
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Brandon Routh & Superman Posters, Prints, Photos, Framed, Mounted Images
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1938: Superman is launched in Action Comics #?, the culmination Df years of pitching by writer Jerry Siegel and artist Joe Shuster. They are paid $130 for the story and the rights to the character. Today, a mint copy of the issue is worth upwards of $450,000.
1940: The Adventures of Superman radio show begins its 11-year run.
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1941: Animation producer Max Fleischer, whose studio brought Betty Boop and Popeye to the screen, releases the first Superman cartoon to theaters. The short earns an Oscar nod, and the series produces 16 more cartoons.
1947: Siegel and Shuster sue DC Comics for the copyright to Superman plus $5 million in damages. The courts reject the bid a year later; the pair subsequently sign an agreement to surrender all claims to Superman and Superboy for $100,000.
1948: Man of Reel: Superman goes live-action, in the first of two movie serials starring dancer Kirk Alyn.
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1952: TV's The Adventures of Superman, starring George Reeves, begins its 104-episode run. a year and a half after his show ends production.
1959: Reeves, 45, is found dead of a gunshot wound. Although his death is ruled a suicide, rumors of foul play (addressed in an upcoming film starring Adrien Brody and Ben Affleck] abound.
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1966: The musical comedy Its a Bird, It's a Plane, It's Superman opens on Broadway. The show closes after 128 performances.
1974-1976: Producers Alexander and llya Salkind begin development on Superman: The Movie. Marlon Brando is cast as Superman's father, Jor-EI; Gene Hackman signs on as Lex Lutbor. James Bond veteran Guy Hamilton hired to direct. When the Salkinds decide to shoot in England instead of Italy, British tax exile Hamilton drops out and is replaced by Richard Dormer. The Salkinds are thinking about Robert Redf ord as their lead; Donner casts Christopher Reeve.
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1975 Further litigation by Siegel [left] and Shuster is dropped in a settlement with Warner Communications, now DCs parent company. Siegel, in poor health, works as a civil service clerk in Los Angeles; Shuster, also out of comics, is legally blind. Warner agrees to pay them each 520,000 annually for life, and to give them a "created tay" credit on all Superman comics, movies, and TV shows. The property's reported value: $1 billion.
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1977 Production on the movie begins. The shoot lasts 19 months, and includes work on portions of Superman II.
Marlon Brando punches in for work.
Brando punches out, hightails it to the bank to cash his $3.7 million check.
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1978 DC publishes the tabloid-size event comic Superman vs. Muhammad Ali - in which Ali actually beats the Man of Steel [who, fans will note, was weakened by a dose of red sunlight],
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1978 The 555 million film opens, earning $134 million. On all-time box office charts, only seven pre-1980 releases have grossed more.
1981 Superman 2 opens. Richard Lester is credited as sole director despite the contributions of Donner, fired by the Salkinds after the first film's release.
1983 Superman 3 released, costarring " Richard Pryor as bumbling computer wonk Gus Gorman.
1987 Supermon 4; The Quest for Peace released by Warner, although it was produced by 8-movie house Cannon Films. Gross: $15.6 million.
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1988 Superman is featured in a Time cover story marking his 50th anniversary. Ironically, the piece follows an effort by DC to boost sluggish sales by dumping that half-century of continuity and rebooting the character.
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1993 Superman is "killed" in the widely publicized January 1993 issue, which sells six million copies. He's resurrected eight months later.
1993 Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of " Superman debuts on ABC, ranking 62nd in the Nielsens for the season.
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1995 Christopher Reeve is paralyzed in a horse riding accident.
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1996 Clark Kent and Lois Lane get married, both on ABC's show and, consequently, in the comics.
1996 Kevin Smith is hired by Warner Bros, and producer Jon Peters to write the fifth movie installment. Superman Reborn [later Supermon Lives], targeted for a summer '98 release.
1997 Nicolas Cage signs on for the movie, as does director Tim Burton; 5mith's script is tossed.
1997 DC gives Superman a radical makeover complete with blue skin and new, electrically based powers. The fallowing year, the superhero's 60th anniversary, he reverts to Superman Classic.
1998 With the budget for Superman Lives reportedly climbing as high as $190 million and the script still not jelling, Warner shelves the project.
2000 Wolfgang Petersen signs on for a proposed Batman vs. Supermon crossover, while McG [pictured] of Charlies Angels fame is hired to direct a relaunch scripted by J.J. Abrams (.Alias). The studio ultimately decides to go with the McC project.
2001 Smallville premieres on the WB,
2002 McC runs into a super scheduling with Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle; director Brett Ratner [Red Dragon] steps in, sends out a holiday card with his face superimposed on an image of Superman.
2003 Ratner quits when Warner balks at the - budget - reportedly hovering around $240 million—as well as his casting choice, unknown soap actor Matthew Bomer. McG returns.
2004 McG again quits, unwilling to fly to Australia to shoot the film. Bryan Singer is lured away from the X-Men franchise to direct, from a script by his X2 writers. Singer casts Brandon Routh—an unknown soap actor—as his lead.
2004 Reeve dies of heart failure at 52.
2005 Proving that he's no fair-weather Super-fan, Cage names his newborn son Kai-EI, Superman's Kryptonian moniker.
2006 Superman Returns scheduled to open.
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