Superman in film that in his absence Lois Lane has given birth to a son and become engaged. Singer chose to follow Donner's lead by casting relatively unknown Brandon Routh as Superman, who resembled Christopher Reeve somewhat, and more high-profile actors in supporting roles, such as Kevin Spacey as Lex Luthor. Singer brought his entire crew from "X2" to work on the film. Via digitally-enhanced archive footage, the late Marlon Brando appeared in the film as Jor-El. "Superman Returns" received positive reviews and grossed approximately $391 million worldwide. In February 2006, four months before the release of "Superman Returns", Warner Bros. announced a
Superman in film At this point in production, Warner Bros had spent $30 million on developing the film. Burton, citing various differences with Peters and the studio, said, "I basically wasted a year. A year is a long time to be working with somebody that you don't really want to be working with." Disappointed by the lack of progress on the film's production, aspiring screenwriter/comic book fan Alex Ford was able to have a script of his (titled "Superman: The Man of Steel") accepted at the studio's offices in September 1998. Ford pitched his idea for a film series consisting of seven installments,