Would Christopher Reeve been a good Jor-El in STM?

[atp]

In the comics, I believe Jor-El was generally depicted as looking like Superman, rather than an old man with white hair.

Would it have worked for Christopher Reeve to have played Jor-El in STM? They could have made him up to look older - perhaps around 40 or so.





It would have been quite interesting to watch Reeve speaking to himself in the fortress scenes.

Also, they would have avoided all the problems with getting Brando back as Jor-El in S2, as Reeve would have done it.

[Valentine Smith]

I might be imagining this, but I think at one point (perhaps before Reeve was even cast), they might have considered having the same actor play both parts, for the very reason you mentioned.

I think it would have been a bad idea, regardless of who did it.

[atp]

Why a bad idea?

In fact, I wish Reeve had played not only Jor-El, but also Jeff East's role too.

He definitely had the acting ability to play people ranging from 18 up to 40.

[Valentine Smith]

I think the idea of an actor playing the father and son would be disorienting to an audience. And it's pretty hack-y any time you have an actor playing against himself in a scene.

He probably could have pulled off the young Clark stuff, though. I'm really surprised that they didn't go for that.

[atp]

Jan 26, 2013 9:57:08 GMT -5 Valentine Smith said:

I think the idea of an actor playing the father and son would be disorienting to an audience.

But the son becomes the father and the father becomes the son...

[Valentine Smith]

(sigh)

I guess I deserved that.

[Jimbo]

*golf clap*

[Kirok]

I always wanted to see the younger, Superman-esque Jor-El of the comics in live action. Russell Crowe is a good compromise between that and the Brando type, but Jim Caviezel was my ideal choice before MOS.

But to answer the question at hand, Reeve could have done it yes, but the whole point of getting Brando was the star power to sell the movie. Now if Reeve hadn't been in his accident he would have been a perfect choice for any further incarnation of Jor-El, for sure.

"Smallville" dropped the ball on their casting of young Jor-El. Ex-Superboy Gerard Christopher would have been the perfect compliment for ex-Supergirl Helen Slater as Lara. Julian Sands? Not so much...

[Jack Tripper]

I don't like the idea of Reeve as Jor-El, but I would've preferred Reeve as young Clark. As fine as Jeff East was, there was no reason to cast him. They should've just filmed Reeve before he worked out.

[atp]

Jan 26, 2013 16:22:24 GMT -5 Kirok said:

"Smallville" dropped the ball on their casting of young Jor-El. Ex-Superboy Gerard Christopher would have been the perfect compliment for ex-Supergirl Helen Slater as Lara. Julian Sands? Not so much...

Who exactly is this Julian Sands guy anyway? Has he been in anything of note?

[Shane]

CRAP

[crazy_asian_man]

I think the idea of an actor playing the father and son would be disorienting to an audience. And it's pretty hack-y any time you have an actor playing against himself in a scene.

He probably could have pulled off the young Clark stuff, though. I'm really surprised that they didn't go for that.

I also read that initially the plan was to have the same actor play father and son- so that way, the audience wouldn't have to wait so long to see the leading man.

After seeing the underwhelming "Backdraft" (although the Hans Zimmer score is amazing, I must say)- where Kurt Russell played the father and son in the movie--- it IS too distracting and hacky.

Although there have been a suprising amount of real life cases where I've seen a son or a daughter grow up to look identical to a parent--- I think it is too distracting for a movie- unless there was enough of a difference or makeup (or even cgi) to alter the actor enough playing one role or the other.

On the other hand, if there's enough screen time and acting ability to differentiate the two characters--- well, Sir Anthony Hopkins looked NOTHING like Nixon- even with makeup, and he was nominated for an Academy Award for it, so....

Maybe... but the actor has to be fantastic to do so.

[crazy_asian_man]

It would have been quite interesting to watch Reeve speaking to himself in the fortress scenes.

Considering how much he tortured himself over one line reading "Who am I?"when doing the voice for Jeff East in the FOS .... imagine how much torture he might have given himself playing against himself in that scene!

[Jor-L5150]

1) yes. but it's way way way better that we had brando and so forth.
reeve ended up a superb (and criminally underrated) actor, but i think he was too young and having brando brought a LOT (practically all) the gravitas the film needed.

2) would have LOVED to see him play Jor-EL in a later version.
if the series had continued, i could almost see him as the ghost of Jor with gerard christopher going to him to discuss a crisis.

--------------------

personally, i've always had this superman filmin my mind, and i could script it and storyboard the prolog if i had the time.

going back- way back- when we were still checking our collective fanboy body to see if that tim burton bullet winged us, i fantasised about a relaunch of superman that had nods/homages to previous versions (but that did not get mired in it like SR).

if you think back to the time, after "superman lives" and around the abrams treatment and so on, the comics were still based on john byrnes version.
there had been some commercial- cant remember what for, i'll look for it, where someone had cgi'd reeve's face on a tall man walking (this WAS done with reeves blessing, it was to convey the idea of technology curing people and so on).

so imagine krypton as byrne did, a barren landscape, and we fly over the terrain and we see that there are tremors and earthkrypton quakes and some of the giant mega-towers are damaged or collapsing, volcanoes eruption- the end is near.
we hear the script of brando's "father son" speech as a voice over as we approach a tower (the house of EL) and we go interior and see a man hurriedly scurrying around with computers and tools and so on- his face obscured as we hear what he is recording for Kal-El.

we use, for the first and only time in this version, the krypton theme by williams.

as the space pod is being assembled by robots, lara is off to the side quietly crying, and we hear the bit where Jor says "they can be a great people kal-el...they wish to be..."

and we zoom in tight on the baby, and see Jor and Lara approach, as the lid to the pod is descending, Jor turns, almost to the camera (NOT in a break-the-fourth-wall-wink-wink way- he just turns so that there is no mistaking who it is- it is reeve) and we hear:

"..i have sent them you- my only son"

and BAM!
huge huge pan backwards at incredible speed, backtracking the slower pan we started with but much much faster and we see buildings collapse faster and tectonic plates separate untill we pan out ward and see the planet explode, and JUST before the shockwave hits "the camera eye" the kal-el space pod zips by juuuust ahead of the debris!
cue williams main theme title march for the first and only time in the film, and williams theme to be used sparingly in the film proper and sequels. (of which i planned 7).

[Jor-L5150]