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Russell Crowe is in talks to play Jor-El in Man Of Steel, taking the cameo role of Superman’s father that was played by Marlon Brando in the Richard Donner-directed 1978 Superman. Kevin Costner plays Pa Kent, the earthbound patriarch of Clark Kent. Henry Cavill, Amy Adams, Diane Lane and Michael Shannon are also starring. No deal yet, but Crowe brings presence to the film. Still waiting to see if he ends up making his directorial debut in 77, the David Matthews-scripted LAPD cop drama. Crowe, who last starred in The Next Three Days, most recently wrapped The Man With The Iron Fists. WME reps Crowe.
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Now that is some GREAT, GREAT NEWS!!!! Crowe is an amazing actor, so siked to hear this!
“Siked”…. haha. You lose credibility mate, when you make such a silly typo. It is “psyched”
Crowe can do it. The only problem with re-doing Superman is giving him a blue leotard suit with red cloak and making it not look camp and daggy.
Go, Russ, Go!
I know what you’re saying there
WTF does “daggy” mean??
Oh…you meant “draggy”. You lose credibility mate, when you make such a silly typo.
No, the word is actually “daggy”. It’s just not U.S. slang, that’s all.
“siked” is urban or slang spelling of psyched.
I will never forget Brando, but I will happily forget Russell Crowe and so have most industry executives after the series of bombs he’s been in–thus being relegated to supporting roles.
Oh dear poor baby, something tells me you’re a little jealous.
something tells me you can’t read
American Gangster was not a bomb, that was a damn good film and Robin Hood was not bad. Body Of Lies was a good film also. Don’t know what crack your smoking.
This is cool, but not as inspiring as Viggo. Wish they could have snagged him instead.
Yes, but the Viggo rumor was to play the villain, Zod, not Jor-El.
Very appropo casting. Pick one once-amazing actor who has chosen to spend the twilight of his career stuffing himself with Twinkies and DingDongs with another actor with the same life tendencies.
Ahahahahaha!
You win.
briliantly done -
I agree…Viggo would have been outstanding.
Whatever one thinks of Crowe, he takes his work seriously, so he’s bound to do more with Jor-El than Brando, who just cashed the paycheck and wore a white wig left over from “This Island Earth.” I would’ve said that Crowe could just phone it in, but even then he would probably throw it at a hotel employee instead.
More great casting news. I’m stoked!
Why you would call this a “cameo,” though, is beyond me.
That would be Russ-El.
But will he show up to set at 300+lbs.? THAT’S Method.
And so Russell Crowe is officially begins the next stage of his career as a supporting player. Time for a new agent, Russell.
Cameo, not supporting. Even lower. Ha ha. Guess his career hasn’t recovered from ROBIN HOOD.
That’s a smart move – He hasn’t done a high concept, commercial movie of this scope in awhile (ever?) and his last few films haven’t performed well. Playing an interesting supporting part in a film like this will hopefully put him back on the map and perhaps open up other opportunities.
“He hasn’t done a high concept, commercial movie of this scope in awhile (ever?)”
Um, what was “Robin Hood”?
RH wasn’t as commercial as this movie will be…
Zach “bomb squad” Snyder is still commercial?! LOL.
Robin Hood was a high budget movie with zero character development, bad acting and poor dialogue. Not to mention the fact that they tried to establish a romance between and Blanchette simply through a few lingering looks and no real growth or bonding between the two characters
Maybe Crowe took this one to be a part of a classic franchise. Maybe he wanted to put his stamp on a role originated by one of his heroes. Maybe even for his kids. Can’t exactly sit the kids in front of the tele and pop in ROMPER STOMPER. Maybe he loved the script.
Nevertheless, Crowe is no where NEAR being “relegated to supporting roles”. He is still a top box office draw despite his last few movies not doing as well as one would like. When you are one of the best working actors in Hollywood (I’m talking skills) you are never considered “over” or on your way down just because you had a couple of misses at the box office. You all deem people’s careers as over far too quickly.
He will turn in many more oscar worthy performances as his career continues.
Regardless of the fact that you may think he is an a$$ or were offended by his circumcision tweets, he is an incredibly skilled actor who buries himself in his work and shows the craft the proper respect it deserves. In the land of Twilight, Beiber-Fever, and Jersey Shore, I’m glad we still have performers like him that always make me feel like I got my money’s worth just by seeing what he did with character and script.
You really think he’ll be getting paid minimum wage for this?
There’s a difference between supporting player and star cameo……………..and its probably the number of zeros after the main number on his paycheck.
I WAS a Russell Crowe for years… until I started following him on Twitter and discovered he was a total d-bag. I always knew he was full of himself but an outright a-hole is a whole lot worse!
How do I get to be one of those?
Wasn’t there a Jon Hamm rumor for Jor-El (in my mind he is silver age Superman to the t)?
Crowe is an interesting choice. Hopefully Zack Snyder will not put him in a campy outfit (he has done so with plenty of respected actors) that hopefully does not touch the white wig and jumpsuit Brando wore in the Donner movie (which Singer had to sadly remind us in Superman Returns- it never looked serious in any era or planet).
Russell Crowe is a good choice for this part and he will make it interesting,no doubt.Also Robin of the Hood is correct about the high concept/commercial Robin Hood movie.Sometimes the collective movie memory of bloggers is off.
how about getting a new director, PLEASE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Amen.
Crowe’s Jor-El could fly around the earth to turn back time and prevent millions of circumcisions.
At 47 Crowe looks 57 and hence can be a father to an adult Superman.
Why are they making another Superman movie anyway. No imagination. Just easy remakes endlessly.
Hope the special effects are better looking than Crowe.
Is the new superman super looking. Not worthwhile unless he is a stud.
I can only imagine the lucky “stud” that gets to come home and listen to your fascinating observations every night. You should put them all in a book. And then burn it.
Great actor bait. “Hey Russell, I want you to play the Marlon Brando role in the new Superman.” Same manipulation used on Anthony Hopkins to play Supe’s dad when Brett Ratner was developing. Smart way to get the guy you really want for the role.
What is all this about “circumcision tweets”?
Crowe has certainly swelled to blimpish Jor-El dimensions, I’ll give him that. Would have preferred Jon Hamm, but he knew enough to keep away from this mess I guess.
I hope Chris Nolan shuts Zack Snyder down every time he finds the urge to use gratuitous CGI with a stern “How about we try to achieve this effect in camera.” YES, I said it, dammit!
Nolan needs to give him notes with simple rules:
No rock soundtrack, especially covers. Either keep the John Williams score or get the best person in the business be it Clint Mansell, Hans Zimmer, or Alexandre Desplat.
No sepia coloring. It is ugly to look at and looks especially terrible with Superman’s color. I will give you Wally Pfister to do photography if necessary.
No slow-motion action sequences. If you want to make it slow but not gratuitous think of that good build-up of tension with the opening and closing door in your film Watchmen when Rorschach killed that dwarf in prison. That’s a good scene. The action sequences are not good.
Diane Lane and Amy Adams are both beautiful, good actresses and are now playing legendary canon characters as Martha Kent and Lois Lane. Do not sully their characters and their acting by putting them in a gratuitous sex scenes like you seem to do with your actresses going back to Sarah Polley in Dawn of the Dead. You know what worse than a slow-moving action sequence? A slow sex scene to terrible rock music that does not fit at all and could arguably be taken out of the film.
Henry Cavill by that extension should not be in a sex scene since that really made Superman 2 take a bad turn. Christian Bale’s relationships as Bruce Wayne/Batman is downright chaste and that guy is considered a playboy. Superman is both an alien in one life and a nerd as his alter ego. Those guys are not supposed to get laid! He is supposed to be married to his job.
Lots of Jewish folks and foreskin-hating all-American types got their undies in major twists because Russell Crowe tweeted recently that circumcision was barbaric and that human babies were beautiful and perfect straight out of the womb and did not need cosmetic butchering regardless of what ancient Middle Eastern tribal mythology called for.
Go figure.
I’m still dubious that this movie will actually happen. I think first comes the announcement of a postponement and two months later the whole thing folds.
I heard that instead of launching the rocket containing baby Kal-El he just tosses it at a hotel worker that annoys him.