Brandon Routh as Superman.

LOS ANGELES -- This is about the return of Superman, from the far reaches of space and the fringes of our collective consciousness. It begins, oddly enough, on a tennis court in Cannes.

For Bryan Singer -- the man who brought Superman Returns to the screen after at least five other directors failed -- the defining moment took place in 1995. The place was Cannes' Hotel du Cap, where the then-twentysomething was debuting his eventual Oscar-bait film The Usual Suspects.

"Christopher Reeve was at a table next to me. And later I took a walk around the hotel grounds and there was a tennis court, and I watched him play tennis for about a half hour." A nut about Richard Donner's 1978 Superman film, Singer was compelled to watch "this actor, who was such a natural athlete."

"A week later, I was back in L.A. and I got the news about his accident (the equestrian fall that left Reeve a quadriplegic). It was like, 'But I just saw him play tennis!' "

Singer, still considered an "art house" director, had yet to earn his fanboy stripes directing the first two The X-Men movies. But the image of the athletic Man of Steel stuck in his head. When he finally did shoot X-Men in Toronto, "we had a five-hour bootleg version of Richard Donner's Superman: The Movie that we would watch every day on the set for inspiration."

Later, that athletic image would come full circle, when he inherited the long, troubled Superman project from Warners and, at an L.A coffee shop, met one of the leading "unknowns" in the running for the role. It was a kid from Iowa named Brandon Routh, who'd been told all his life he looked like Christopher Reeve (Reeve died just before filming started, and his widow Dana -- who herself succumbed tragically to lung cancer earlier this year -- sent an e-mail to Routh wishing him luck and noting that he "looks like Chris").

Says Singer: "I got us some coffee and I said, 'Did you want to sit outside?' Brandon said, 'Yeah' and stood up ... and up and up. He had this frame that you just knew could inhabit a suit. Not everyone has the physical prowess to wear tights."

True enough. Singer famously vetoed tights for the X-Men in favour of black leather. And he actually seems to get a kick out of the widespread "package" rumour, which has him either digitally enhancing or reducing what God gave Routh, depending on the gossip source.

"Obviously we did not digitally alter his package," Singer says. "It's a great rumour, you always need one. But, in reality, it was a real wardrobe discussion. You're balancing two things. You want some modesty. But at the same time he is Superman. How much and how little was a function of taste. And I just applied my taste."

But the throughline from Reeve to Routh was key. Singer's intent was always to make a Superman that was essentially a sequel to Donner's Superman II (forget that third one with Richard Pryor or the fourth one with the nuclear villain who looked like the lead singer for a Scandinavian rock band).

You remember Superman II? The one where Supes and Lois "hooked up" in the Fortress Of Solitude? Make note of that plot point. No, I can't tell you why.

Singer even ran his idea past Donner at a hotel room in Texas, where he was supposed to be talking to Donner's wife, X-Men producer Lauren Shuler Donner about mutants.

"I told him, 'I'd like to make a sequelization of the first two movies. It wouldn't be a remake of your movies, I would have Superman be gone. He might be on a farm, he might be somewhere else, but he'd be gone and he'd have to reclaim his place in the world.' He said, 'That would be awesome.' That was the day I decided if I had a chance, I'd go for it."

So it is that Superman Returns is literally that. Superman has been away in space for five years seeking the remains of the planet Krypton, and an angry Lois (Kate Bosworth), miffed that he never said goodbye, has won a Pulitzer for writing an article called "Why The World Doesn't Need Superman." And oh yeah, she's living with Perry White's nephew Richard (James Marsden) and has a 5-year-old son.

And, oh yeah again, Clark Kent has been away five years, on an ashram or something. Not that there's a connection.

In any case, it has been an interesting five years (the original script had a scene where a contemplative Superman visits 9/11 ground zero, but it was dropped for being too specific a timeframe). "There is a scene in the movie where he watches the news and there's a sense of 'This is what happens when I'm not around,' " Singer says.

And in no time, between trying to make things up to Lois, Superman is back doing what he does best: Foiling bank robberies, saving lives when a radical new shuttle launch platform goes awry ... and dealing with the latest evil plot from Lex Luthor (Kevin Spacey) -- one involving the use of stolen Kryptonian technology to create a continent that never existed before.

The story more or less hammered itself out in a weekend in Hawaii, where Singer and his X-Men writers of choice, Dan Harris and Michael Dougherty, took a working vacation two years ago to decide whether their next project was going to be X-Men 3, a remake of the sci-fi film Logan's Run or Superman (McG of Charlie's Angels fame, had walked from Superman and Singer had finally been approached to take over).

"Over the course of a weekend, we talked about X3 a little, and then we talked about Superman and the excitement level just kept growing and growing," says Harris. "When we made the decision, it was hard to leave X-Men. I mean, I live with Pyro (actor Aaron Stanford) and Mike lives with Iceman (Shawn Ashmore) as roommates.

Says Dougherty, "It's like telling your friends you're being transferred to another school. It was great, but I'm going to Superman school now."

Literally, he says, "we quickly surrounded ourselves with piles of comic books and DC encyclopedias."

The $185-million movie (more if you count the many millions wasted on the Superman non-starters -- see sidebar) is obviously a gamble, albeit a flashy one, with a 3-D Imax component (check your listings).

Can a mythic, old school, boy scout-ish D.C. superhero like Superman hold his own against the angst-ridden Marvel Comics protagonists of The X-Men and Spider-Man movies that currently rule the box office?

But if there's such a thing as orthodox Superman-ism, Singer is a practitioner. "I produced this little documentary (the terrific Up, Up & Away: The True Story Of Superman, which debuted at Toronto's Hot Docs fest), and saw close-up all the changes in the culture and incarnations.

"But there's something about Superman, I don't know whether it's because he's the first superhero, the strength, the flight, the idealism. Something about him makes him the father of all superheroes. And in the 20th Century, these were our mythologies. And in 500 years, these guys will be the Apollos.

"This character has meaning to people whether he's in and out of the media. Look around you, don't we need someone like him more than ever?"

SUPER WHAT-IFS?

It's one thing for a superhero to travel light years from Krypton to Earth. It's another for his story to make it from comic book to cineplex.

DC Comics CEO Paul Levitz knows about waiting. He confirms, "It was about seven years between the contract for the first Donner movie and that one coming out (1978's Superman with Christopher Reeve). And it was 91/2 years between the contract for the first Tim Burton Batman movie and that one coming out.

"But once it's out, it no longer matters that there was a lot of false starts."

So before we forget, here's a rundown of men who would be Supermen and men who'd have scripted-directed them.

Ivan Reitman: Who ya gonna call? Lex Busters! Levitz confirms that when Warner's reacquired rights to Superman in 1994, "Ivan was the director for about an hour or so."

Kevin Smith: The director of Clerks was brought in to write a script based on the Death Of Superman comic series (to be called Superman Lives). His script survived until the hiring of a new director ...

Tim Burton: His first act as director was to fire Kevin Smith and bring in his own writers. His version was, yes, very dark, with a neurotic, insecure hero. His Superman of choice was ...

Nicolas Cage: The noted comic book geek was determined. Unfortunately, a reel of him in tights reportedly elicited laughter. Singer has seen it and would only say, "it was about more than the tights. It was, um, interesting." Both Cage and Burton quit for essentially the same official reason -- Superman was taking too long to get off the ground.

Brett Ratner: The guy behind the Rush Hour movies was in play for a couple of years, with a script by J.J. Abrams (Mission: Impossible III). "We were filming a civil war on Krypton," Ratner told the Sun. "We had to build a planet, which was a little expensive ($250 million) -- especially if we were going to cast an unknown. And I just couldn't see myself filming Tom Cruise's Superman." The studio did consider several box office draws, among them ...

Jake Gyllenhaal: In fact, he tested for two different Superman directors, Ratner and McG. "That's the stuff dreams are made of," he told the Calgary Sun.

Paul Walker: "I just didn't want to do it," he said. "I could have made a cagillion. You probably think I'm insane." He said Abrams' script was "One of those things you read and go, 'Wow.' But I was like, 'Who's going to want to be Superman?' "

Josh Hartnett: "I tried on the tights, I did everything," Hartnett told us. "I talked to Brett Ratner and J.J. Abrams and all those guys. I took it very seriously 'cause they were taking it seriously. So I went in and they said, 'We should see what you'd look like.' It just wasn't my bag. In the end they offered me the world (a reported $10 mil)."

Wolfgang Petersen: In early 2004, the director of Das Boot was on the verge of a Batman Vs. Superman movie a la DC's World's Finest comic-book series (reported to the public as a done deal). Peterson finally passed on tights in favour of togas, directing Brad Pitt in Troy. "I still think the Superman/Batman clash would be absolutely fantastic ... the dark Batman and goody goody Superman," Petersen said recently.

McG: Though he auditioned big stars, the project was moving toward an unknown (Brandon Routh read for the part at this point). McG's cast choices reportedly included Scarlett Johansson as Lois Lane, Johnny Depp as Lex Luthor and Shia LaBeouf as Jimmy Olsen).

Michael Bay: Between McG quitting over budget restraints and Bryan Singer being hired, the director of Armageddon was approached. But Dreamworks wouldn't let him quit filming The Island.

All we can say is that Superman probably would have blowed up real good.

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