A supervillain should always have an entourage of monkeys.
The Playlist interviewed director McG, whose real name is Joseph McGinty Nichol but that’s not director-y enough. He talked about not liking the happier ending the studio convinced him to give to Terminator: Salvation, which you can read about over there. What we really want to get to is the time McG almost rebooted Superman:
In the early aughts, McG was attached to “Flyby,” a rebooting of the “Superman” series that, thanks to a boldly different take from screenwriter J.J. Abrams, would have made wholesale changes to the origins of Superman, his home planet Krypton, and his main nemesis Lex Luthor. McG ended up exiting the project when the studio was adamant about shooting in Australia. He blames his fear of flying for being “thrown off” that project, calling it his “rock-bottom” moment, which would eventually lead him to taking on his next film, the plane-crash drama “We Are Marshall,” as a catharsis. [The Playlist]
And here we thought McG’s rock-bottom moment was when Bill Murray headbutted him. Anyway, McG says they were considering Henry Cavill as a potential Superman. Cavill is playing Superman in the movie currently in production (relevant shirtless set photos here). He also reveals they had an actor locked to play Lex Luthor: the Iron Man and sexy pinup girl known as Robert Downey Jr. Holy crap, Robert Downey Jr. as Lex Luthor? That’s either entirely awesome and/or batsh-t insane. The only way to know for sure is to let Joss Whedon make that version. YES, THAT’S THE ONLY WAY. I’M NOT BEING SELFISH.
[Banner picture via ONTD.]