The web site for the San Francisco Chronicle, SFGate.com, is featuring an AP story about the new guy who is about to don Superman's cape in the new movie Superman Returns which opens in theaters on June 30th. Brandon Routh is a relative newcomer to the big screen, and that's exactly the way that director Bryan Singer wanted it:

"A known actor comes with baggage, and Superman as a character is much larger than any actor," said "Superman Returns" director Bryan Singer, who settled on Routh, an actor with just a soap-opera stint and a handful of television guest spots. "He looked like he stepped out of a comic book. Brandon's an extremely fine actor, but he also needed to have the physical presence of someone who steps out of the collective perception of who Superman is."

With last year's success of Batman Begins, it's possible that this latest movie could revive the franchise and spawn a series of new movies (a sequel to this latest one is already in the planning stage for a 2009 release). I'm looking forward to more Batman movies if they do them like the last one, and I think people are ready to watch enjoyable versions of these characters and storylines instead of the less-than-spectacular attempts in past years (the last Superman movie was "Superman IV: The Quest for Peace" in 1987). Click the read link below to read the entire article, plus check out our Photo Gallery for Superman Returns to see the man of steel and judge for yourself whether he can fill the role and attract audiences.