If Brandon Routh were in charge of the next superhero adaptation, he’s go light on the dark and heavy on the fun.
Routh, who joined the exclusive superhero club courtesy of his lead role in 2006’s “Superman Returns,” says he thinks the modern crop of super flicks discard the source material‘s “levity and excitement.”
“A lot of the comic book movies dealing with superheroes, in an effort to make it real, get bogged down in ‘realness,‘” Routh says. “There are many examples, maybe even my film.”
Routh shared his thoughts on the bustling genre while chatting up another comic to screen adaptation, “Scott Pilgrim vs. the World.” The new film, starring Michael Cera, Mary Elizabeth Winstead and Routh, is based on an edgy graphic novel featuring characters with some pretty special powers.
Cera plays Scott, a nerdy bass player who falls for a groovy chick (Winstead) with seven ex-boyfriends – all of whom want a piece of Scott. Routh plays Todd, a vegan-powered ex who looks nothing like the actor’s most famous role to date.
Routh, so All American in person he seems like he stepped out of an Iowa corn field, told WWTW the project came at precisely the right point in his career.
“I was definitely looking for a role that would make a splash and set me apart from the role of Superman and Clark Kent,” he says. He doesn’t fly quite as high here as he did in his breakthrough film, but he does get to play a mean bass guitar.
“Michael Cera is a much better bass player than I am,” says the actor, who had to learn the instrument from scratch for the part.
Routh’s career hasn’t caught fire since his Super debut, and it’s still unknown if he’ll be asked to resume the role in the Christopher Nolan-produced “Superman” reboot. But his work in “Scott Pilgrim” could give him another iconic role. It’s a lark of a performance in a movie that could really hit the comic-com zeitgeist.
That part of the project caught him by surprise.
“I didn’t realize going in it would be as much ‘for this generation,’” as it is, he says. “It speaks to the nostalgia of the video games, the technology we expect and the fast pace of our life. It all combined to make this film.”
Routh understands that some comic adaptations may need to go dark and dreary these days given the troubling times we live in. “Maybe that’s what we need to do to excise those emotions,” he says. But he embraces the “Scott Pilgrim” effect – movies which put the emphasis on joy, not despair.
“Film is about entertainment. Yes, you can learn from it and grow and there can be a message, but it’s about entertainment and escapism,” he says. “That’s what this movie does tenfold.”
Oh, and it also lets audience members embrace their inner nerd.
“It tells people it’s OK to be different. It celebrates the geek and the nerd within us. I certainly am all those things, but I can have a nice conversation as well,” he says with a grin.
(Photo: Brandon Routh goes blond to play Todd, one of seven villainous ex-boyfriends in “Scott Pilgrim vs. the World. Universal Pictures”
Related posts:
on 
on 
