COME FLY WITH ME MAN OF STEEL LOOKING FOR LIVE IN `SUPERMAN RETURNS'.

Byline: Glenn Whipp Film Writer

For the Man of Steel, there have been only two things deadlier than kryptonite - ``Superman III'' and ``Superman IV: The Quest for Peace.''

Even those two 1980s stinkers couldn't kill off America's most beloved superhero. Sure, the movies stopped, but Superman kept flying on TV with the long-running series ``Lois and Clark'' and the current ``Smallville.'' Pop artists spanning the spectrum from the Flaming Lips to Eminem and Sufjan Stevens have sung about him. Basketball star Shaquille O'Neal has the Superman logo tattooed on his arm.

``He has endured for 70 years through all kinds of exposure and politics, good representations and bad,'' says Bryan Singer, director of the new latest Superman movie, ``Superman Returns.'' ``He's the ultimate immigrant, and I think that's why he connects to American culture. He came from a foreign land but was raised in the heartland of America with the ideals and values that Americans aspire to. He's virtuous and powerful and fights for these values. And he flies. Don't underestimate the flying thing.''

Warner Bros. has never underestimated that - or the value of the Superman franchise. Another Superman movie has been in the works since W's daddy was in the White House. One package had Nicolas Cage playing Superman with Tim Burton directing from a Kevin Smith screenplay. Later, Oliver Stone was attached for a minute or two. Wolfgang Petersen (``Troy'') was going to make a movie that pitted Superman against Batman. That fizzled, too.

Singer came on board two years ago after McG (``Charlie's Angels'') left the project because, ironically, he was afraid to fly overseas to the Sydney, Australia, shooting locale. Singer immediately ditched a screenplay written by J.J. Abrams (``Alias'') that would have rehashed the Man of Steel's origins. Instead, ``Superman Returns'' picks up as Superman returns to Earth after a mysterious absence of several years.

``It's about Superman finding his place in the universe,'' says Brandon Routh, the 26-year-old unknown cast in the lead role.

`He didn't say goodbye as he should have, and now Lois has moved on. She is engaged. She has a kid. So where does Superman go from there?''

Says Singer: ``I felt like the older audience would know the story of Superman's origins from the first Christopher Reeve Superman movie. And younger audiences might know it from `Smallville.' So why go there again? I'd always wanted to do a homecoming story, and it's quite different than anything people have seen before.

``When you look at the huge history of Superman, for all the stories of action and Lex Luthor, the heart of thing is the relationship between Superman and Lois Lane,'' Singer continues.

``So for Superman, what would be something that would be just as disabling as kryptonite? What would happen if the love of his life moved on?''

In the lead-up to the film's June 30 opening, the focus hasn't been on the story as much as the movie's budget (the biggest ever?) and the Man of Steel's, um, manhood. Singer says the film is coming in at cost, rumored to be $180 million.

And as for the tight-fitting costume? ``We did discuss it in depth before starting the movie,'' Singer says. ``You don't want to take anything out of the film. But he is a super man, so you have to take that into consideration, too.''

Says Iowa native Routh, who's as polite and accommodating as Clark Kent: ``It is a little strange, that kind of focus. But the costume goes with the character. You can't escape it.''

Singer doesn't remember the same sort of attention being placed on Christopher Reeve's privates back when ``Superman: The Movie'' came out in 1978. But then, he was only 13. And he caught the movie with his mom at a twilight show at a theater in Princeton, N.J.

``The thing I remember being most concerned about was that the theater wasn't completely full,'' Singer says. ``But it was a twilight show. Dinner time. When we left, there was a line around the theater. And I thought, `Whew. Good. Superman's going to be OK.' I guess even then I was looking out after him.''

Glenn Whipp, [phone]

glenn.whipp(at)dailynews.com

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`Superman Returns'

June 30