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Courier-Mail
13-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Courier-Mail
Curse hanging over Superman franchise as new film soars at box office
Don't miss out on the headlines from Movies. Followed categories will be added to My News. Forget Lex Luthor. Red Son. Or even Kryptonite. If urban myth is to be believed, the curse hanging over the Superman franchise poses more of a threat to those who play the Man of Steel than any plot line James Gunn could conjure up for the latest spin on the hero. The Guardians Of The Galaxy director has been charged with breathing new life into the DC Comics hero, casting David Corenswet as the Kryptonian, Rachel Brosnahan as his Lois Lane and Nicholas Hoult in the role of Lex Luthor. The new Superman film stars David Corenswet (right) as the Man of Steel, Rachel Brosnahan as his Lois Lane, and Nicholas Hoult (left) as Lex Luthor. Picture: MayaGunn's reboot comes after a series of box office disappointments with Henry Cavill's stint in the suit. Although Cavill's name is now in the mix to play James Bond, he expressed his disappointment about Gunn's recasting on Instagram in 2022, saying the news wasn't the easiest. X Learn More SUBSCRIBER ONLY 'But the changing of the guard is something that happens. I respect that,' he wrote. Talk of a curse began way before Cavill was sent packing. Or even Zack Snyder's troubled Justice League film in 2017, and Bryan Singer's snooze-worthy Superman Returns a decade before that. It all started with TV Superman George Reeves' mysterious death in 1959. Found shot dead – ruled suicide but speculated to be murder – Reeves' disillusionment with superhero fame and subsequent alcoholism was detailed in the 2006 film Hollywoodland starring Ben Affleck. Corenswet in a scene from the new Superman film, which raked in a whopping $US210 million worldwide on its opening weekend. Picture: Warner Bros Pictures via AP Henry Cavill was the last to play Superman on screen. Picture: Warner Bros Affleck, who had played Daredevil before shooting Hollywoodland, told he understood Reeves' frustrations with the superhero genre. 'I knew how ridiculous you feel in a red suit,' Affleck laughed. 'You feel – even if these movies work – very, very silly.' Likewise, Affleck understood the downsides of fame. 'The modern form of typecasting, you don't get typecast as a certain character you get typecast as yourself, and with George they couldn't see past the Superman character,' Affleck explained. 'Nowadays the danger is that people don't see past what they read in the tabloids, and that can be as damaging if not more so than the other type of typecasting. I certainly can tell you from experience it's bad. It's bad psychologically, bad for your career.' Superman director James Gunn with Corenswet, Brosnahan and attend at CinemaCon 2025 in April in Las Vegas. Picture: Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images for CinemaCon Of course, Reeves wasn't the only actor whose career never really took flight after playing Superman. Dean Cain (who starred alongside Teri Hatcher in '90s TV series Lois & Clark), Brandon Routh (Superman Returns) and Tom Welling (who played a teenage Clark Kent in long-running TV show Smallville) also struggled after hanging up their capes. Perhaps the saddest example of the so-called curse came from the 1978 classic Superman, when its star Christopher Reeve was left paralysed from the neck down in 1995 after a horseriding accident. He died in 2004, aged 52. George Reeves, who played Superman in the 1950s TV series with Noel Neill as Lois Lane, died under mysterious circumstances in 1959. Adding to that tragedy, Reeve's co-star Margot Kidder (who played the feisty Lois Lane) took her own life in 2018 after a long struggle with bipolar disorder, and Gene Hackman (Lex Luthor) was found dead in his home alongside his wife and dog in February this year. Lee John Quigley, who played Kal-El (aka baby Superman) in the same film, died when he was just 14. Before her death, Kidder shrugged off talk of a curse, telling The Telegraph in 2002: 'The idea cracks me up. What about the luck of Superman? 'When my car crashed this August, if I hadn't hit a telegraph pole after rolling three times, I would have dropped down a 50- to 60-foot ravine. Why don't people focus on that?' Need to talk to someone? Don't go it alone. Please reach out for help. Lifeline: 13 11 14 or Beyond Blue: 1300 22 4636 or Kids Helpline: 1800 55 1800 or Headspace: 1800 650 890 or 13YARN: Speak to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander crisis supporter on 13 92 76 or visit Are you anxious? Take the Beyond Blue quiz to see how you're tracking and whether you could benefit from support So, should the stars of James Gunn's reboot be quaking in their super suits? Josh Hartnett certainly thinks so. But not necessarily because of any curse. The Black Hawk Down star told The Guardian last year that he turned down the role of Superman twice because he didn't want to be swallowed up by the fame that came with playing a superhero. 'And you saw what happened to some people back then. They got obliterated by it. I didn't want that for myself,' he said. Likewise, in the documentary I Am Paul Walker, The Fast And The Furious actor's longtime pal and stunt double Oakley Lehman revealed Walker was in line to play Superman before he died. According to Walker's manager Matt Luber, he took one look at himself in the suit and thought: 'I've got an S on, I got a cape, boots, tights … this is not me. I'm getting the f*** out of here.' Brandon Routh played the superhero in the 2006 offering Superman Returns. Tom Welling shared in the TV series Smallville, which followed Clark Kent's high school adventures. Certainly, anyone who takes on the mantle of Superman has big boots to fill. And Corenswet will have his work cut out for him living up to some of his predecessor's work. As will Superman's writer and director Gunn, who fans expect to save their hero from the super scrapheap. Gunn seems confident he's found the right blend of cheesy nostalgia and tongue-in-cheek humour to make Superman soar once more. Speaking on the DC Studios Official Podcast, Gunn said his latest foray into the superhero genre wouldn't rely as heavily on catchy tunes and wisecracking characters as Guardians Of The Galaxy or Suicide Squad. Dean Cain and Teri Hatcher starred on the series Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman. Christopher Reeve and Margot Kidder in 1978 film. 'Anything I do is going to be different, but it isn't about that, it's not relying on that, it's not relying on the songs, it's about this pure good, beautiful guy, who is trying to get by in a world that isn't those things and just happens to have superpowers, right?' he said. Celebrate the film's cinematic release on July 10 with a trip down Superman memory lane on Tubi. Adventures Of Superman: The Lost Episode: Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it's Reeves in a lost episode of the classic series that never made it to TV. Airplane vs Volcano: Ex-Superman Dean Cain is among the everyday heroes trying to stay alive when the plane they're on flies into a ring of erupting volcanoes. The Great Escape II: The Untold Story: In his bid to be taken seriously as an actor post-Superman, Reeve plays a former prisoner of war who leads a manhunt to bring his captors to justice. Now streaming on Tubi Originally published as Curse hanging over Superman franchise as new film soars at box office
BBC News
07-07-2025
- Entertainment
- BBC News
Why Alice Cooper saved the Hollywood sign
For more than 100 years, the sign has been a Los Angeles landmark both in real life and on the silver screen. In 1978, Alice Cooper told the BBC why he was helping to restore the dilapidated icon. Perched high on Mount Lee overlooking Los Angeles, the Hollywood sign is one of America's most instantly recognisable cultural icons. "[It] is like our London Bridge, our Big Ben," US shock rocker Alice Cooper said on a BBC music show, The Old Grey Whistle Test, in 1978. "In Hollywood, we don't have a landmark except for the Hollywood sign." The exact date the monument went up is contested, but its official centenary was celebrated on 13 July 2023, making it 102 years old this week. It has now become synonymous with the film industry, but it wasn't originally intended to be. In fact, it wasn't even meant to last longer than 18 months. The sign was designed as a short-lived billboard, advertising a new housing development in the Hollywood Hills. It consisted of 13 enormous capital letters, each 30ft (9m) wide and 45ft (14m) tall, that spelt out HOLLYWOODLAND – the name of the real estate group selling the properties. Made of wood and sheet metal and held up by a framework of telephone poles, the structure cost more than $23,000 (about $430,000 or £300,000 today) to build. To ensure it was especially eye-catching, it was illuminated with almost 4,000 lights that would flash the different sections of the sign, HOLLY, WOOD and LAND, consecutively. A handyman, Albert Koeth, was hired to keep the sign in good order and replace the bulbs as they burnt out. The idea was to promote an aspirational lifestyle choice to LA citizens rather than to act as some sort of endorsement of the entertainment industry. Over the following decade, as LA and the film business grew, the sign stayed in place. But as the depression of the 1930s began to bite, its upkeep was cut back, and it quickly fell into disrepair. The songwriter Eden Ahbez, an early proponent of living the hippie lifestyle, camped for a time underneath the first L of the sign. Ahbez would later find fame for writing the 1948 Nat King Cole hit single Nature Boy. The sign also began to achieve some unwelcome notoriety: its association with the death of aspiring Hollywood star Peg Entwistle linked it to the darker side of Tinseltown's allure. The 24-year-old Welsh-born actress had left a successful Broadway career to move to LA with dreams of becoming a film star. But after struggling to find success, on the night of 16 September 1932 Entwistle climbed a maintenance ladder to the top of the letter H and jumped to her death. As the sign continued to rust and deteriorate, in 1944 the real estate company decided to donate it to the city, along with the remaining 425 acres of undeveloped land, for a token price of $1. By this time, a severe storm had already knocked down the letter H and many residents had come to regard the dilapidated sign as something of an eyesore. In 1949, a decision was reached to tear the whole thing down, but the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce managed to get the decision reversed on the proviso that they footed the bill to refurbish the crumbling sign and replace the missing letter. They shortened it, removing the LAND part, and a cultural icon was born. But by the mid-1970s, through a combination of neglect, weather damage and vandalism, the now 50-year-old sign was falling apart again. By the time the BBC's Bob Harris came to interview Cooper in 1978, a severe storm had further disfigured it, breaking off part of the first O and sending a second O tumbling down the side of Mount Lee, leaving the sign to read HuLLYWO D. The 'Save the Sign' campaign "Nobody will take the responsibility for restoring it or anything," Cooper told the BBC. "The poor old thing is up there, dear to our hearts, and dying right in front of us. And I figured it would cost say $40,000 or $50,000 to restore. So I suggested that we would go and do a concert somewhere and just give them all the money," he said. It would turn out that to bring the sign back to its former glory would cost considerably more than that. After compiling a structural report, the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce found that repairing the sign was impossible. It would need to be completely replaced. And to ensure it could withstand the winds on Mount Lee, the new steel letters would need to be supported by steel columns sunken into a concrete foundation. The price tag for this project would be $250,000. A "Save the Sign" campaign was launched in May 1978, and the following month Hugh Hefner, founder of the international adult magazine Playboy, hosted a star-studded fundraiser at his mansion to raise money for the new sign. Cooper was the first person to sponsor a letter. "We figured it was $27,000 a piece, and I figured that would spark other people," he said. The rocker paid for the final O, which he dedicated to his friend, the comedian and film star Groucho Marx, who had died the previous year. "And Andy Williams [the US singer known for his version of the song Moon River] donated a letter, and Warner Brothers of course did, and Gene Autry [famous as 'the Singing Cowboy'] and some really neat people did," said Cooper. "We more or less kicked it off, and I still believe that everybody in the world owes Hollywood a dollar at least for all the entertainment that comes out of Hollywood – and if we can't take care of it, the ones that live here, that's kind of silly." The old sign was demolished, and a new 450ft (137m) long sign weighing 240 tonnes erected in its place. It has become the symbol of the city and the seductive promise of the film business. "When you look at the Hollywood sign, you think of Hollywood glamour. We know glamour isn't real, but it seems real," film researcher and journalist Karen Krizanovich told David Willis on the BBC's podcast H-O-L-L-Y-W-O-O-D in 2023. "When you see the Hollywood sign, you think it's real. This whole fantasy about Hollywood is real, because of that sign." More like this:• How a child star saved a Hollywood studio from bankruptcy• The only X-rated winner of the best picture Oscar• The cinema classic that made Clint Eastwood a star And the silver screen has responded in kind. Over the years, the Hollywood sign has featured in a myriad of films, starring alongside Charlton Heston in Earthquake (1974), Robert Downey Jr in Chaplin (1992) and Mila Kunis in Friends with Benefits (2011). But when it does turn up in films, such as Superman: The Movie (1978), The Day After Tomorrow (2004) and San Andreas (2015), it often doesn't make it out unscathed. Over the years, it has been altered to reflect the times. In 1976, student Danny Finegood used curtains to make it read HOLLYWeeD to coincide with the relaxing of marijuana laws. The prank would happen again in 2017. When Pope John Paul II visited LA in 1987, it was altered to read HOLYWOOD. And the same year it was changed to OLLYWOOD in reference to Colonel Oliver North's testimony in the Iran-Contra scandal. On 31 December 1999 the new sign – which didn't have bulbs like the original – was lit up again for the first time in 60 years in a blaze of colours to celebrate the new millennium. During the closing ceremony of last year's Paris Olympics, its two Os were used to create the bottom two rings of the Olympic symbol in a nod to LA hosting the Games in 2028. Speaking in 1978, Cooper, himself no stranger to theatricality, was comfortable with this dressing up of LA's most iconic monument. "I think they should have neon and flashing lights and everything on it," he said. -- For more stories and never-before-published radio scripts to your inbox, sign up to the In History newsletter, while The Essential List delivers a handpicked selection of features and insights twice a week. For more Culture stories from the BBC, follow us on Facebook, X and Instagram.
