Jude Law On How He Nearly Played Superman

By Simon Brew

Brett Ratner wanted Jude Law to play Superman - and Law got as far as trying the costume on…

One of the many attempts to bring Superman to the screen that never quite got there was Brett Ratner’s proposed Man Of Steel movie. He was set to take on the project in the early 2000s before Warner Bros handed the job of rebooting Superman to Bryan Singer with Superman Returns. Working from a screenplay from JJ Abrams, just over a decade ago Ratner was gearing up to make the film, and his first choice to play Superman was Jude Law.

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Law has now been talking about being offered the role of Superman, and why he turned it down.

"At the time I didn’t really want to", he told MTV. "I didn’t want to spend the rest of my life being the guy who played Superman", said the actor, who plays Watson in the Sherlock Holmes movies.

Above: Brandon Routh in ‘Superman Returns’

He got a little way down the road, though, as he was convinced by Brett Ratner to at least try the iconic costume on. Don’t start doing a Google image search, though: you won’t be finding any pictures. “I go in the bathroom, put it on and look in the mirror and suddenly, I am Superman”, Law recalled.

"That was it. I got it out of my system, I took it off, put it in the bag" and he decided there and then he wasn’t taking the role on. "No need for the rest of the world to see me", he said of his minute or two as Superman.

Brandon Routh would eventually land the role, and would appear just once, before passing the mantle onto current incumbent, Henry Cavill. He’ll next appear as Superman in Zack Snyder’s Batman V Superman: Dawn Of Justice in March 2016.

The full piece with Jude Law can be found here, at MTV’s website.

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