** Brandon Routh in Superman Returns, who emulated Reeve's performance.

This was followed nearly two decades later by a fifth film called Superman Returns with Brandon Routh giving a performance very similar to Reeve's.

In addition to comics, it was designed for DC properties in other media, which was used for movies since Batman Begins, Superman Returns, and the TV series Smallville, Justice League Unlimited and The Batman, as well as for collectibles and other merchandise.

Confidential, Pay It Forward, K-PAX, and Superman Returns in a career which has earned him several Emmy and Golden Globe nominations.

In 2006, Spacey played Lex Luthor in the Bryan Singer – directed superhero film, Superman Returns.

Kevin Spacey as Lex Luthor in Superman Returns

In the 2006 film Superman Returns, Luthor is portrayed by Kevin Spacey, set sometime after the events of Superman II.

Two years after Brando's death, he " reprised " the role of Jor-El in the 2006 " loose sequel " Superman Returns, in which both used and unused archive footage of him as Jor-El from the first two Superman films was remastered for a scene in the Fortress of Solitude, and Brando's voice-overs were used throughout the film.

The result was Batman Returns which featured Michael Keaton returning as the Dark Knight, and a new triad of villains: Danny DeVito ( as the Penguin ), Michelle Pfeiffer ( as Catwoman ) and Christopher Walken as Max Shreck, an evil corporate tycoon and original character created for the film ( similar to Superman IIIs Ross Webster ).

Framestore was also nominated for Oscars in 2007 ( Superman Returns ), in 2009 ( The Dark Knight ) and again in 2010 ( Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1 ).

* Superman Returns

These virtual versions of both Jor-El and Lara remain as constructs within the Fortress throughout the series ( until the alternate continuity of Superman Returns, see below ).

The 2006 movie Superman Returns presents a version of Krypton almost identical to Superman ( since Superman Returns is more or less set in the same continuity as Superman: The Movie.

Superman Returns extends the crystalline Kryptonian technology from Superman which allowed young Clark Kent to " grow " the Fortress of Solitude.

He has a cameo appearance in several films: Around the World in 80 Days ( 2004 ), where he played a hot-air balloon operator ; Superman Returns, where he was credited as a ' Shuttle Engineer ' and appeared alongside his son, Sam, with a Virgin Galactic-style commercial suborbital shuttle at the centre of his storyline.

Director Bryan Singer stated at the 2006 Comic-Con that he favored the three-persona concept, stating that there was Clark Kent on the farm, the bumbling Metropolis Clark, and Superman, the Last Son of Krypton.

More recently, a slightly different take on the re-cutting of films was seen in a 2006 revision of the 1980 film Superman II.

However, after Brando's death, the footage was reincorporated into the 2006 re-cut of the film, Superman II: The Richard Donner Cut.

The latter two titles are now owned by WB for all media, but Superman IV is still part of Paramount's library for over-the-air TV and digital rights ( though WB did handle these rights for a three-year license 2006 – 09 );

** Volume 1: reprints issues # 1-13 ; New York World's Fair Comics # 1 ; Superman # 1 ; January 2006 ; ISBN 978-1-4012-0764-9

* Superman in the Eighties, includes issues # 507-508, 554, 595, 600, 644 ; April 2006 ; ISBN 978-1-4012-0952-0

Ratner was under consideration to direct X-Men ( 2000 ) and Superman Returns ( 2006 ), although both were eventually directed by Bryan Singer.

After Singer left the X-Men franchise to direct Superman Returns, Ratner became director of X-Men: The Last Stand ( 2006 ).

A third ( and more " official ") compilation using restored and remastered materials was released in November 2006 by Warner Home Video as part of their DVD box set of Superman films.

Recently, Warner gave these Superman shorts their own stand-alone DVD release using the same remasters as in 2006.

In November 2006, Donner's footage was reedited into Superman II: The Richard Donner Cut, consisting primarily of his footage with Lester's footage used only for scenes not shot during Donner's principal photography.

* Superman II: The Richard Donner Cut ( uncredited, 2006 )

In 2006, he appeared as Zod once again in Superman II: The Richard Donner Cut ( a re-tooled version of the 1980 film which predominantly features footage shot by Donner, the film's original director ).

Her film career also includes roles in Raintree County ( 1957 ), Exodus ( 1960 ), Because of Winn-Dixie ( 2005 ), and Superman Returns ( 2006 ).

* The Phantom Zone appears in Richard Donner's cut of Superman II, released in November 2006.

In 1992, Superman co-creator Joe Shuster told the Toronto Star that the name derived from 1930's cinematic leading men Clark Gable and Kent Taylor, but the persona from bespectacled silent film comic Harold Lloyd and himself.

** Christopher Reeve in the Superman film series, who was praised for making the disguise's effectiveness credible to audiences, portrayed Clark Kent as massively clumsy, paranoid, and, of course, mild mannered.

Since the shorts were produced during the rise of film noir in cinema, the change was usually represented as a stylized sequence: Clark Kent's silhouette is clearly seen behind a closed door's pebble glass window ( or a shadow thrown across a wall ) as he strips to his Superman costume.

Later in the film, when the need to change is more urgent ( as he believes the city is about to be poisoned by Lex Luthor ), he simply jumps out a window of the Daily Planet offices, changing at super-speed as he falls ( the film merely shows the falling Kent blurring into a falling Superman ) and flies off.

In the film serials Superman ( 1948 ) and Atom Man vs. Superman ( 1950 ), Kirk Alyn portrays Clark as a mild-mannered reporter who comes to Metropolis and secures a job at the Daily Planet, following the death of his foster parents.

Reeves, who first appeared as the character in the 1951 film Superman and the Mole Men, was older than subsequent Superman actors.

In 1978, the first of four Superman films was made in which Clark Kent and Superman were portrayed by Christopher Reeve ( with teenage Kent played by Jeff East in the first film ).

The film has a fair amount of quasi-Biblical imagery suggestive of Superman as a sort of Christ-figure sent by Jor-El " to show humans the way.

" ( See also Superman ( film )# Themes ).

The indirect " Christianization " of Superman in the Reeve films ( admitted by film producer Pierre Spengler on the DVD commentaries ) has provoked comment on the Jewish origins of Superman.

However the new version of the second Superman film ( known as The Richard Donner Cut ) restores as much of the original director's conception as possible, making it a considerably different picture.

More than half of the footage filmed for Superman II by the originally credited director ( Richard Lester ) has been removed from the film and replaced with Donner footage shot during the original principal photography from 1977 – 1978.

In 2009, the story of Luthor's rise and fall as U. S. President was adapted as a direct-to-video animated film entitled Superman / Batman: Public Enemies.

Lyle Talbot was the first actor to portray the character in a live-action film, appearing in the 1950 serial Atom Man vs. Superman.

He is regularly captured by Superman and sent to prison, only to escape — in a manner similar to the comics — at the opening of the next film.

Gene Hackman portrays Lex Luthor in the 1978 Superman film, along with two of its sequels, Superman II ( 1980 ) and Superman IV: The Quest for Peace ( 1987 ).