Fair warning to anyone who thinks they can avoid a certain piece of information regarding who exactly Michael Shannon plays in the upcoming Superman film Man of Steel… this new teaser confirms something that’s been rumored for a while. So stop reading now if you’re still hoping to steer clear of that reveal. WB has released a new teaser for Zack Snyder‘s darker-looking continuation/reboot of the Superman films, but instead of including new footage (or any footage at all) they’re going the viral route a la Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight marketing. But just because we’re not seeing anything doesn’t mean there isn’t something to hear. Check out the teaser for Man of Steel below.

Today was basically Godzilla day on the Internet. All sorts of news regarding Legendary Pictures’ reboot of the big green guy’s film series broke, and some of it involves casting. THR broke the news that Joseph Gordon-Levitt was being looked at to star, but one of their writers, Borys Kit, was then quick to point out that his potential involvement in the film is long dead. Variety writer Justin Kroll then jumped in with the news that a few names that are still possibilities for the project are Henry Cavill, Scoot McNairy, and Caleb Landry Jones. All of this news comes with a special thanks to /Film, who compiled all the chatter into a tight little narrative. Even though things between Gordon-Levitt and Godzilla didn’t work out, don’t let that make you think that he’s going to go an entire week without being attached to a high profile project. In more Gordon-Levitt news, Deadline has word that the in-demand actor has just signed on to play a big role in Robert Rodriguez‘s Sin City sequel, Sin City: A Dame to Kill For. Apparently he’s going to be playing Johnny, a role that was meant to go to Johnny Depp at one point, and that is said to be a core character in the overlapping parts of the film’s story lines. This comes at the same time as news that Gordon-Levitt’s possible involvement in Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy isn’t going to end up happening, which is essential information if you happen to be exhaustively journaling all

It’s been over a decade since Tarzan graced the big screen in Disney’s animated adaptation and over three since the jungle hero was sexed up by Bo Derek in Tarzan the Ape Man. Between those two we’ve seen Christopher Lambert go ape in Greystoke, the Legend of Tarzan…and that’s about it. But Edgar Rice Burroughs‘ high-flying hero looks set to be a hot property in the next couple of years. First up will be a motion-captured adventure starring Twilight‘s Kellan Lutz, but it’s probably safe to call that one a bomb right now. The much safer bet is the big budget reboot coming from WB. David Yates has been rumored to take on the directing gig for a few months now, but the veteran Harry Potter-helmer seemed to be in no rush to jump into another possible franchise. Per Vulture though, it looks like Yates has finally signed on the dotted line. The question now becomes who will be cast in the high profile but somewhat risky role of Tarzan?

Superman doesn’t look all that happy in these first two (near identical) teasers for Zack Snyder‘s Man of Steel. If you thought Bryan Singer‘s Superman was an unbearable mope, wait until you get a peak at Snyder’s, who has apparently made one of our greatest heroes in the galaxy a bearded, lonely and sad fisherman. You can’t get more “gritty” and “real” than that shocking transformation. Check both teasers out below, one with Kevin Costner narrating and one featuring Russell Crowe’s melodic grumbling.

UPDATE: After speaking with the head of WETA’s marketing, we can confirm that the sizzle reel mentioned below was not WETAs. Again, this IMDB posting should be taken at arm’s length, and there’s also the possibility that Rothbart got the effects company wrong, but if these scenes are real, they are not the work of WETA. Original posting follows: There was never much doubt that Man of Steel would have a comic book feel. It was only slightly less guaranteed than it looking like a Zack Snyder movie. The Warners mulligan on Clark Kent is set for theaters in June of 2013, but apparently WETA just showed two scenes as part of a sizzle reel that played at a fancy gathering with smoked salmon and a bunch of visual effects artists. Allegedly, one of those effects wizards, Jonathan Rothbart (Avatar, Priest, Iron Man), posted a description of the scenes on the film’s IMDB message board. He was pretty excited. Here’s what he (spoilerifically) had to say:

Fans of sword-and-sandal action flicks have plenty of options these days. Whether they’re watching Spartacus or Game of Thrones on television or anticipating the upcoming Wrath of the Titans this spring, there’s a lot of CGI bloodshed happening. The latest thing to hit DVD and Blu-ray is Immortals, which was a surprise hit at the box office last November. Telling the story of commoner Theseus who goes up against King Hyperion to earn his people freedom, this film can also be seen as Superman facing off against Whiplash from Iron Man 2. It can also be seen as a big, oily orgy of abs and nipples. And anyone interested in a big, oily orgy of abs and nipples should really have a few drinks during the experience.

One of my favorite experiences at Comic-Con this year was interviewing Tarsem. I was never scheduled to speak with the man one-on-one, and was only meant to participate in the roundtables for Immortals. Luckily, after the roundtables were coming to an end, I noticed Tarsem standing alone by himself. He mentioned how most people find The Fall to be the biggest piece of shit or the best thing ever made, and I fall heavily in the latter, so I decided to tell him that. Tarsem was so receptive to a basic compliment, he gave me an interview on the spot. Whenever a publicist tried to drag him away, he’d basically tell them to buzz off since I said I love The Fall. I left that encounter with a big grin on my face, to say the least. This time around, my chat with Tarsem started off on the same fun note as our previous encounter, but ended on a more disappointing note. Last week when we spoke, I had not seen Immortals. That type of interview is never ideal, but I didn’t want to miss the chance to speak with Tarsem again, who I guessed was knee-deep in Mirror, Mirror. Once he found at I hadn’t seen the film, he demanded the publicist to reschedule… which, unfortunately, didn’t happen, for one reason or another. Currently, I’m left with another hundred questions left I wanted to ask Tarsem. Then again, any amount of time with the fast-talking director is more than appreciated. Here’s what Tarsem

This week, Fat Guy Kevin Carr goes to war. He strips down to his muscular awesomeness and shimmies into a codpiece. After applying a solid gold breastplate, he’s too exhausted to actually go to war, so he heads to the local movie cinema to catch Immortals, wondering if Isabel Lucas has ever eaten a carbohydrate in her life. Then he slips into a housedress and sneaks into an early screening of J. Edgar. After a quick nap, he tries to escape the horror that is Jack and Jill, but alas, that did not happen. You can send him care packages now, courtesy of his local mental institution.

Oh, Tarsem, that one-name wonder. Tarsem blew the doors off with his first film, the 2000 thriller The Cell, starring Jennifer Lopez of all people. He brought his music video past and introduced the film world to his visually striking signature style. While you’d be hard-pressed to find someone who’d call The Cell a great film, you’d be just as hard-pressed to find someone who wouldn’t give at least some credit to the visuals. The Cell presents the inside of a killer’s mind with incredible flair. It is nightmarish and enveloping, and when Tarsem decided to write and direct his next feature, we knew what to expect. The Fall certainly lived up to those expectations, pairing Tarsem’s skill in painting visual portraits with a compelling story. So there are certainly more expectations going into Tarsem’s third feature film, this weekend’s Immortals.

Director Tarsem Singh (or, as he tends to go by, just the single and crazy chic “Tarsem”) has just two features under his belt (The Cell and The Fall), yet he is already known for his distinct visual style that places a premium on color and costuming. It seemed like a no-brainer that the helmer would get picked up for a 300-styled flick with a historical setting. Thus, Immortals. We got a look at the film’s teaser back in April, then Tarsem himself talked to Jack about it during Comic-Con, but the actual plot of Immortals has remained relatively veiled. Tarsem told Jack that the film is “a big epic journey,” but what the hell does that actually mean?

Hopefully the spoiler warning is loud and clear enough here, and, yes, I still take them seriously. Even if a fancy scientific study shows that we like things that are familiar, there’s still no replacement for being surprised or awe-struck with the wonder of newness. So if you’re avoiding information about Superman: Man of Steel, you can stop reading now. And if you keep reading, simply know that all of this might be untrue – it’s the work of an “insider” with the production that scoop site Comic Book Movie trusts. Their track record is pretty stellar, but nothing is confirmed until it’s truly confirmed.

Here’s a nice little surprise to start your Thursday morning. Warner Bros. has released a first look image of Henry Cavill as Superman in Zack Snyder’s upcoming reboot, Man of Steel. At first glance, it all looks a little darker and broodier than the Sups men of the past. Even Brandon Routh’s stoic demeanor didn’t look quite as menacing. Cavill’s version, based on this one lone image, looks a little like Danny Zuko crossed with Clark Kent, with something potentially sinister mixed in. Are we sure they’re not doing a remake of Superman III with evil Superman? Also, that suit has a little grunge thing going on. It’s a fascinating indicator as to what sort of style Zack Snyder will be delivering. After the jump you can see the official press release (with no mention of Danny Zuko) and an image you can make full size. Now just try and imagine it all moving in slow-motion.

“Coming this fall: an action event from the director of The Cell and The Fall.” Yeah, it still sounds odd to me, too. Once it was announced that Tarsem would be tackling a big swords and sandals epic, it elicited a feeling of both excitement and confusion. As for the exciting part — wouldn’t it be interesting to see how such a visionary can put a spin on this genre and what he could do with an action beat? As for the confusion — isn’t this a big studio picture? With epics such as this, directors have countless people to answer to. But Tarsem didn’t seem interested in answering to those people. This a director that couldn’t have a greater distaste for by-the-numbers filmmaking. As he says below, he’s a polarizing filmmaker. Both The Cell and The Fall received both wild appraise and heaps of venom. Can Tarsem still bring that interesting polarization to a sizable fall release? From the sound of it, yes, he can. When I approached Tarsem to discuss The Fall and wish him luck on Immortals, the very funny and honest filmmaker ended up giving me a quick and unplanned 1-on-1 about not dealing with studio suits, his work ethic with actors, and the methods of Mickey Rourke.

The comparisons to 300 will be inevitable, so let’s just get them out of the way. Yes, the teaser for Immortals makes it look an awful lot like 300 (and the “From the Producers of 300” bit only amplifies it), but it looks like a far more visually dynamic version. Snyder’s movie looked amazing, but Singh has a more varied palette and a bigger paint brush, so everything here seems a bit more vibrant instead of automatically being washed out in sepia tones and blood reds. Those are definitely still there, though. This teaser is intense, and it showcases Singh’s best strengths as a filmmaker: his eye for production design. Check it out for yourself and get your blood flowing:

Warner Bros. has announced the second bit of casting news for their upcoming reboot of the Superman franchise via press release. First they announced that the relatively unknown Henry Cavill was cast as Clark Kent, and now comes the news that veteran screen hotty Diane Lane has signed on to play his mother Martha. That’s right; Diane Lane is playing Clark Kent’s kindly old farmhouse mother. I never thought I would say this, but I can’t wait to oogle Superman’s mom in some patented Zack Snyder slo-mo. Immediately I’m picturing a sequence where a pie is taken out of an oven, a finger dips in for a test, and then some piping hot pie filling is sucked off. Slowly. Probably Clark will fly in through the kitchen window at this point and the rush of wind will cause her hair to blow around. Slowly. Snyder states in the press release, “This was a very important piece of casting for me because Martha Kent is the woman whose values helped shape the man we know as Superman. We are thrilled to have Diane in the role because she can convey the wisdom and the wonder of a woman whose son has powers beyond her imagination.” Values and wisdom? Has he seen Unfaithful? But in all seriousness, Lane is a great actress and I’m sure she’ll do well with the part. I’m excited to see that this take on Superman is drawing an A-lister. That’s a good sign, and it does nothing

So that one guy from that one show is going to be playing The Man of Steel, and it’s big news. However, since we live in a beautiful age of information, we can also daydream about the movies that might have been if only that one other guy had been cast instead. In the case of the new Superman, Henry Cavill is taking on the tights, which happens to leave four other actors back out looking for work. Who are they, and would it have mattered who got the job?

What is Movie News After Dark? This is a question that I am almost never asked, but I will answer it for you anyway. Movie News After Dark is FSR’s newest late-night secretion, a column dedicated to all of the news stories that slip past our daytime editorial staff and make it into my curiously chubby RSS ‘flagged’ box. It will (but is not guaranteed to) include relevant movie news, links to insightful commentary and other film-related shenanigans. I may also throw in a link to something TV-related here or there. It will also serve as my place of record for being both charming and sharp-witted, but most likely I will be neither of the two. I write this stuff late at night, what do you expect?

Mixed-up hip-hop lyrics aside, Henry Cavill (who you may remember from The Tudors, Stardust, and Tristan + Isolde) has scored the highly coveted role of Clark Kent who (spoiler alert) is Superman. Superman: Man of Steel, directed by Zack Snyder, now has its star. The positives are clear: he’s a young actor who’s just well known enough to be recognizable, but not nearly well known enough to overshadow the role with his stardom. Plus, he’s just about as square-jawed as they come. The negatives are really just questions. He does a strong job as Charles Brandon on The Tudors, but it’s a radically different role from Supes. It’s unclear what kind of job he’ll do, but he clearly showed something to the casting team, and he’ll be surrounded by the Warners machine, Snyder, and Christopher Nolan. Not a bad group to have in your huddle. Thus, Jon Hamm has been passed over for the role and a 27-year-old will be playing an ace reporter that’s risen through the ranks in the big city. Also, Nicolas Cage will yet again not be playing Superman. Rejoice and lament in equal measure. [Deadline Missionville]