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July 9, 2005: Spoilers and More On-Set Photos from “Superman Returns”

I discovered late this week that filming on "Superman Returns" was actually going to take place today (July 9th) in front of St Mary's Cathedral in Sydney. So I headed down by train with my sister Carol (Car-El), and arrived at the scene of the set at around 10am.

Below are photos of what took place while we were there. I also managed to take one short movie clip of one of the scenes they were filming. We spoke to a few people and discovered a few tidbits of information about what scenes were being filmed. Be warned the paragraphs following the photos do contain Spoilers.


2nd Unit Filming (July 9 2005)	2nd Unit Filming (July 9 2005)	2nd Unit Filming (July 9 2005)	School Bus [2nd Unit Filming (July 9 2005)]

Cars Abandoned After Earth Tremor [2nd Unit Filming (July 9 2005)]	People Look Up [2nd Unit Filming (July 9 2005)]	2nd Unit Filming (July 9 2005)	2nd Unit Filming (July 9 2005)

Young Boy [2nd Unit Filming (July 9 2005)]	2nd Unit Filming (July 9 2005)	Crowd Looks Up in the Sky [2nd Unit Filming (July 9 2005)]	2nd Unit Filming (July 9 2005)

2nd Unit Filming (July 9 2005)	Young Boy Points to the Sky [2nd Unit Filming (July 9 2005)]	Young Boy Points to the Sky [2nd Unit Filming (July 9 2005)]	Young Actor Aaron on a break [2nd Unit Filming (July 9 2005)]

Metropolis Museum Banner [2nd Unit Filming (July 9 2005)]	Store Front used for Electronics store (in the movie the window is filled with TV screens)	The alley Clark Kent runs into at one point of the movie	The street where Clark Kent runs across from seeing an emergency on TVs in an Electronics Store

The awning and building front used for Metropolis General Hospital (in real life it's the entry to Wynyard Train Station)

The scenes being filmed did not involve any of the major cast. 2nd Unit Director Dan Bradley was in control of the filming.

Here's what I managed to piece together about the scenes being filmed today... Supposedly, Superman falls from space. He's accompanied by a kryptonite meteor. He's either trying to stop it, carry it, or has been hit by it. We're not exactly sure. Either way, Superman's plummet to earth is so damaging, that it causes the earth to tremor. An early scene (filmed before we arrived) had actors and stunt men driving cars that skidded to a halt when the tremor hits, and people jump out of the cars running in panic.

The scene being shot as we arrived was in front of a huge green screen with extras milling around, and then all looking up towards the sky.

Later, there was a young boy (his real name is Aaron) who is the center of the camera's focus. The young boy (with dog at his side) looks up in the sky, and is the first to see Superman plummeting to earth. He points up, people walking by him look to where he's pointing, until the whole crowd is shielding their eyes looking up into the sky. This shot was done using a camera crane looking down on the boy, and then pulling back to take in the larger crowd. I captured this scene as a small movie clip (2.7mb Quicktime file).

This fall and the kryptonite meteor is supposedly what lands Superman in hospital (as seen in the photos I took on April 9th).

I also managed to find out that within Fox Studios they've built a huge miniature replica of the entire city of Metropolis. The miniature set includes railway trains, boats, helicopter (suspended from fine wires) and the entire cityscape. They've also got various scale models of railway trains and boats.

I should report that scheduled filming for tomorrow (Sunday July 10th) in the same location has reportedly been cancelled.

In other "Superman Returns" news, Noel Neill has flown back to L.A. this morning, having been in Sydney for the past 10 days filming her role in the movie. Reportedly her role as a minor character is very pivotal to the plot of the movie, and involves Lex Luthor.

Steve Younis

2005 Movie News

Listed below are all the Movie News items archived for 2005 organized into 5 categories:

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July 9, 2005: Spoilers and More On-Set Photos from “Superman Returns”

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