Watching the Superman anthology on Blu-ray last week gave me a new appreciation for Marlon Brando’s stunt casting in the Richard Donner films.

He was naturally very good as Jor-El, the Kryptionian scientist who cassandra’d his way into the mythology of Superman by predicting the imminent destruction of his home planet, and placing his gravitas at the head of the film told audiences: This Is Serious.

Now Warners Bros and the Capefather Christopher Nolan have apparently found a suitable inheritor of Brando’s crown – Russell Crowe.  Variety are reporting that Crowe beat out Sean Penn and Clive Owen and is now in negotiations for the role. Crowe joins Amy Adams, Kevin Costner and Michael Shannon as well as the new Man of Steel himself Henry Cavill, and Snyder certainly has a fun cast to play around with – though seeing one of Crowe’s menacing stares in Snyder-so-mo would be too terrifying to contemplate.

In Donner’s films Brando made the most of his relatively scant screen time  as Superman’s father and there’s no telling how big the role will be in Snyder’s film but having Russell Crowe involved curiously makes me look forward to this one a little more.

 

Russell Crowe as Jor-El. Yesterday. Not really.