2011 Movie News Archives

November 24, 2011: An Interview with "Superman: Requiem" Director Gene Fallaize

Superman Requiem As promised, the Superman Homepage contacted Gene Fallaize, director/creator of the "Superman: Requiem" fan film and put to him a series of questions submitted by you, the members of this website. I'd like to personally thank Gene for responding so quickly and for answering these (sometimes tough) questions.

The following questions were submitted by readers of the Superman Homepage, and therefore do not necessarily reflect the views of the Superman Homepage itself. Wording of the questions has been edited for various reasons, but the gist of each question remains as submitted.

Gene Fallaize: I've tried to be open-minded in my responses, but obviously we were severely restricted to what we had to make the film, and until people actually get out there and make one themselves it's almost impossible to understand some of the issues we faced, but hopefully I've explained it all well enough.

What was your goal in this project? What made you decide to make this film? Can you talk about the events that lead up to your deciding to move forward and start the project?

Gene: Having been a massive Superman fan since I was a little boy, I've always aspired to one day be involved in a Superman production. Having been a professional filmmaker for several years, my investors for another project that I'm due to direct tasked me to direct a project of my choosing to prove my directorial abilities, so I immediately decided that it would need to be something I would remain unwaveringly passionate about, and that would also push both my personal limits, and the limits set by my peers, to prove that it could be done.

How long did "Superman: Requiem" take to make, from concept to completion? What was the most challenging aspect of the entire production?

Gene: The total process took just over 19 months up to and including the date of release, though continual marketing and promotion of the project will give it a total pre-production/production/post/release/marketing time frame of around 22 months of full-time work on it by our team.

With all the criticsm "Superman Returns" received for continuing on the "Donnerverse", why did you decide to essentially create a sequel to that universe?

Gene: I don't think it was the idea of a 'Donner-verse' sequel that caused all the criticism that "Superman Returns" received, as that film had it's own issues, but all films do, there is no perfect film, and you can't please everyone all of the time. I personally enjoyed "Superman Returns" - sure, we could all say how we would have made it differently, but we didn't, so I'm going to be the last person in the world to criticize Singer's work, as like it or not, he made a great film that is and will always be a huge part of the Superman mythos.

I was curious about the decision to replace Lois Lane and Lex Luthor in the movie. They are mentioned, and Lois is seen briefly from the back, but we are introduced to Ali and Lex's son. Why the decision to use these characters instead of the originals?

Gene: Right from the start I wanted to make a sequel to the Donner-verse, mainly from a story point of view, as let's face it the origin story has been done, done and done again, and audiences don't want someone else's take on how it started, they want to see things they haven't seen, so a continuation of what we've seen before meant all the characters and plot elements were already in place so that we could literally just pickup the story where the others left off. The issue I had though, was replacing all the key characters with new actors. I mean, look at the reaction the fanboys have had to our casting of Superman - imagine if we'd have re-cast all the key characters! By moving those characters to one side, audiences can buy into the new characters in their own right and not get hung up on how a particular actor or actress is or isn't perfect as their respective character. Obviously we needed to keep a few key ones, like Superman and Perry White, but others we moved to the side to allow the story to be the focus, not the faces of the actors within it.

It is mentioned that Lex Luthor is dead. Did you have a background story on what happened to him in your version? Why go that route rather than use him or another Superman related villian?

Gene: In keeping with the Donner-verse, Lex Luthor is the ultimate bad guy. A man with an evil mind, in my opinion, is far more dangerous to the most powerful man in the Universe than a monster or other villain, so a Luthor story was the way I wanted to go, but again, I didn't want audiences to get overly hung up on how a particular actor looks as a character, so by making an almost alternate version meant that audiences could just watch the film and buy into the characters right away. As for a backstory, it is mentioned in the film as to what happened at a basic level, but I think the details are a whole other chapter that could one day be explored...

Was the actor Martin Richardson asked to bulk up for the role of Superman? Obviously, acting is the most important thing, however, you found certain aspects of the character's physical appearance necessary such as: height, blue eyes, dark hair, spit curl, etc. Why not the physical build?

Gene: When casting for Superman, I wanted an actor that could comfortably pull off the emotional side of the characters, and we had thousands of applications for the role when it was advertised, before screen testing the best ones, at which time we realised very quickly that there were many that had the physical appearance but that couldn't act well, and others that looked totally wrong but were able to pull off everything else, but when Martin walked in the room I knew, and my producers knew, because Martin does have many of the key distinguishing features of Superman, but more importantly he had the talent and ability to achieve the emotional and human-side of Superman that we haven't seen before, which is exactly what I wanted. Audiences can tell it's Superman - the costume, the attitude, everything, so we achieved that, but on top we were able to give the world a Superman it's never seen before, so in every way I'd prefer a Superman that can be believable in terms of emotions than in terms of looks, as the costume does most of the work for the look anyway, so if I were to do it all again knowing what I know now, I'd have still cast Martin unquestionably.

I read an interview that you gave where you admitted that you felt it would be just too hard to follow the canon from the Donnerverse which is why you didn't include Lois. However, don't you feel that it was slightly disrespectful to tell a story within the canon from the Richard Donner verse - a canon where Lois was so incredibly important - and then proceed to cut Lois and the entire emotional impact of her relationship with Superman (including their child) out of the narrative?

Gene: That's not quite right, the whole film is a tribute to the Donner-verse, so shying away from it was never an option or something I'd want to do anyway. What I did say, was that I wanted audiences to buy into the story, as that's the most important thing, and if they're hung up on if an actress looks or doesn't look like Lois Lane, that all goes out of the window. As for being disrespectful, it's all a story. These aren't real people, we didn't actually hurt anyone or kill anyone off, we simply moved certain fictional characters to one side to help audiences realise the story. These characters are all a figment of people's imagination - fictional people with fictional lives, so moving them or killing them off isn't disrespectful - it's a way to make a story.

There seems to be a conflict in continuity with your film that I was hoping you could clarify. Lara said that Jor-El had sacrificed his soul to save Superman in the past. This would have been the event in "Superman II" when Superman wanted to restore his powers to defeat General Zod. Your film also makes references to "Superman Returns" such as Richard White and even using newspaper art in the opening credits. In "Superman Returns", Jor-El is seen again. If he had sacrificed his soul or being for Superman in "Superman II", he wouldn't have appeared in "Superman Returns". Wouldn't that theory then become invalid in your film?

Gene: If you're talking about fictional story continuity, we picked and selected key parts of the previous Superman mythos that best suited our story - it would have been impossible to keep all fictional continuity fluid, for the very reason that the mythos itself is not continuous and has changed and evolved through the life of the characters.

Ali seemed to be able to handle knowing Clark is Superman and was supportive to him from the beginning and even gave him ideas to help him regain who he was to be. Why would you end that bond by letting Superman give her the "Kiss that makes you forget"?

Gene: Because he loves Ali, and it's not about trust, it's about burden. Imagine being someone that loved and knew Superman - you'd be alone at home half the time worried sick about what he was doing and if he was okay, and in our story Ali saw Superman at his weakest, so she would understandably worry every time he went out, which would almost certainly weigh heavily on their relationship, so by giving her the amnesia-kiss he is taking the burden away and putting the world right again, as the point of the film is that it all goes wrong before being put right again, so it was an end we wanted to tie off cleanly.

Superman's secret identity is clearly exposed to the Daily Planet technician in a scene that is obviously supposed to be comical, yet nothing is done with the piece of information and this character is just allowed to go off with this knowledge unhampered. Yet Ali is made to forget. What was the point of this moment and this character?

Gene: In all screen tests and screenings the scene was well received in the comical way it was designed, to lighten the scene, because we needed to lighten it occasionally. As for what happened, we decided to leave it open, just in case...

Why didn't Clark use his superspeed more? It was quite clear in the film that superspeed was one ability he retained, yet during the scene where Ali is shot and Alex escapes this ability is not utilized. He simply lets Alex get away, and then makes a phone call to 911 and waits for an ambulance instead of superspeeding Ali to the hospital himself. Was this just an oversight in the script or was this an intentional ommission to highten the drama?

Gene: After 19 months in the making, and literally hundreds of years of combined film industry experience and knowledge from our cast and crew, oversights in the script are things that are more difficult to do than not to - it was very much a plot device to heighten the tension, because if he just used his super speed it would be a pretty boring story. We have to still be able to make creative decisions to make the story work, but that's all part of the art of storytelling - if the simplest answer was always the action, most stories throughout time would be much less interesting!

Superman in the end at the hospital tells that he only saved a life before because of his powers and that Ali was the first time he saved a life without it. What did you mean by this? One of Superman's defining characteristics is that he is Superman not only because of his powers but because of his upbringing and quest for what is good in this world. Superman saves people because he chooses to do what is right, powerless or not. Wouldn't that scene in the hospital be considered an out-of-character moment?

Gene: No, not at all, the point is that Superman - the man alone - has never saved anyone, they have all been a direct result of his powers. We're talking about physical powers and ability only - we never questioned his intentions, which have always been ideal, but the physical ability and struggles involved in saving a life without the use of any of his powers.

Superman is a character that was always aimed at kids. This movie is pretty violent with a lot of blood spilling shots. Did you consider the impact this creative choice would have on a younger audience?

Gene: No, in our extensive audience research in pre-production we discovered that the vast majority of Superman fans are males aged between 24-35, so aiming it at children or youths particularly would have alienated our key target audience, and the audience data so far since release have showed that audiences under 24 are significantly less than those older, because like all audiences, Superman fans grow up and evolve, and even kids nowadays are more used to violence more than ever before.

Now that the film is completed, if you could do anything different, what would it be? Was there anything you wanted to do but couldn't due to time or budgetary constraints?

Gene: No, after 19 months of the hardest work I've ever done, I'm the proudest I could possibly be of my film, and of my entire cast and crew for the work they did. Sure, if we had a big budget things would have been different, but we didn't, and I will always be proud of the film and all of our achievements on it, because people said it couldn't be done, and we showed that it could by doing it, and making something that really has broken new ground and stands in it's own place in the fan-film genre.

Are you aware that someone is deleting negative comments from the film's Facebook page? If so, do you believe this is the correct thing to do?

Gene: Our entire producer unit and marketing team are actively monitoring many platforms and forums, and the Facebook page, as the main official source, is a key place for lots of jealous and outspoken people to try and get their opinion across, however if all that anyone has to say is something negative, that doesn't benefit or have a point to the film and is based 9 times out of 10 on mis-understanding, lack of knowledge or pure jealousy, those comments will be removed as they are pointless. We had a saying on set that was aimed directly at those kind of people that would find a problem with anything, that inspired us all to try even harder.

Do you have any plans for another Superman or superhero movie?

Gene: Not a fan-film, no.

Will "Superman: Requiem" be available for download or on DVD?

Gene: The film will be available for full HD download in December, but there are currently no plans to release on DVD because it is a fan-film.

While many of the questions in this interview have been of a somewhat critical note, there's no doubt that a huge amount of love and respect for Superman went into the making of "Superman: Requiem". Is there anything you'd like to state or anyone you'd like to thank as a final note to this interview?

Gene: Well I'm delighted that overall the response has been overwhelmingly positive, but I think that most of the others seem to forget that we only had a small budget - much smaller in fact than many other Superman fan films in the past that have all been short films - whereas we've made a full feature-length Superman fan film with all the same restrictions, problems and other issues that other fan films have had, so by comparison to most of those, it's easy to see why the response has been mostly good, and to all those people I'd just like to say thank you. It was made for all you guys, and without you we'd have no film, and no point in making the film. We had to treat the making of this film like any of our normal bigger budget projects, and just work hard and hope that fans enjoyed it, so having so many great responses and nice messages has meant the world to us. Remember we don't have studio backing, we don't have a big budget, we don't have any P&A for the film - it's just been made by fans in the hope that other fans enjoy it, so I'm always grateful to those that offer support or constructive criticism, as it means that we did good. Of course, we don't claim it's a perfect film - far from it, but it was honestly the hardest project I've ever worked on, and we all did the absolute best we could with what we had, and when I consider that, I don't think I could be any happier with it.

Thanks Gene! We really appreciate you taking the time out to answer some tough questions.

Gene: No problem, always happy to communicate with fans, because without them, there would be nothing to work for!



2011 Movie News

Listed below are all the Movie News items archived for 2011 organized into various categories:

New Movie News:

Justice League Movie News: Direct-to-DVD Animated Movie News: Christopher Reeve Movie News: Other Movie News:

Back to the News Archive Contents page.

Back to the Latest News page.