{"id":276304,"date":"2025-11-21T23:50:07","date_gmt":"2025-11-21T23:50:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/276304\/"},"modified":"2025-11-21T23:50:07","modified_gmt":"2025-11-21T23:50:07","slug":"flyby-reveals-x-men-3-director-helmed-his-screen-test","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/276304\/","title":{"rendered":"FLYBY; Reveals X-MEN 3 Director Helmed His Screen Test"},"content":{"rendered":"

Superman has had a complex cinematic history. For the\u00a0many projects\u00a0as he’s starred in, there are also many more that failed to come to fruition. In the early 2000s, for example, Warner Bros. was developing Superman: Flyby<\/a>. Produced by J.J. Abrams and directed by Brett Ratner, the movie was meant to be a more sci-fi take on the Man of Steel. The film considered a variety of actors to play Kal-El, including Matt Bomer, Ashton Kutcher, Paul Walker, Henry Cavill and Brendan Fraser.<\/p>\n

Fraser\u2014a bankable star following roles in George of the Jungle, The Mummy and Bedazzled\u2014was one of the top contenders for the part. Fraser\u00a0playing Superman has remained\u00a0an interesting\u00a0“what if?” in the Man of Steel’s Hollywood career; so much so, that it remains a topic of conversation to this day. Now, the actor\u00a0has provided more details regarding his involvement in the project.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The actor recently made an appearance on Josh Horowitz’ Happy Sad Confused<\/a> podcast. The host brought up Superman, stating he believed Fraser had worn the hero’s signature\u00a0costume. Fraser confirmed he had, and revealed Brett Ratner\u2014director of Rush Hour and X-Men: The Last Stand\u2014was the one who directed his screen test. Ratner was, at one point, set to helm the film. Praising the screenplay, Fraser began recounting how tight security was around the project:\u00a0<\/p>\n

“Oh, I loved that screenplay. They let me read it. They locked me in an empty office in, I don’t know, some studio lot. [I]\u00a0signed an NDA. It was printed black, on crimson paper, so you couldn’t photocopy it or sneak it out the door inscospicuously.”<\/p>\n

The actor further praised the movie’s script, and revealed he did, indeed, suit up as the Last Son of Krypton:\u00a0“I mean, it was Shakespeare in space. It was a really good screenplay. It really was. But, yes, I was considered. I did do a screen test. I did wear the big guy’s suit.”\u00a0Unfortunately, he\u00a0revealed\u00a0he didn’t have a picture of himself in the suit, as he had been instructed\u00a0not to take them.\u00a0<\/p>\n

When asked if he had felt excitement during the audition process, Fraser revealed he was, for the most part, anxious. He also felt reluctant to accept\u00a0the possibility of being linked to the Man of Steel for the rest of his career:\u00a0<\/p>\n

“If I think about it, I can remember feeling… you know, you feel a little\u00a0certain anxiety anyway, when you’re going up on\u00a0some big job. But I also remember thinking, ‘Hm, if I do get this job, then, well, I think ‘Superman’s gonna be chipped on my gravestone,’ you know?\u00a0There’s an element of, ‘You are that for the rest of your days. Your career.’ And that’s not a bad thing. I’m not saying that’s gonna kill me anytime soon, but, you know, it is something that becomes part of your entire brand. Who you are.”<\/p>\n

Fraser further said he wasn’t sure if he was ready to take on such a big role: “I don’t know if I was ready to take that on then. I mean, I felt I was, because, you know, big opportunity and excitement, et cetera, et cetera. But, I don’t know. Like [director Terry George] once said, ‘If it’s not for you, then it’ll pass you by […] and it wasn’t for me.”<\/p>\n

This isn’t the first time Fraser has discussed his near-involvement in the film. In 2023, during an interview on The Howard Stern Show<\/a>, The Mummy star also talked about\u00a0his past association with the Last Son of Krypton: “Everyone in town was reading for Superman. Like, again, we’re testing I think, like\u00a0six or seven guys in 2002-3. […] I remember\u00a0Paul Walker\u00a0was before me. They were like the usual suspects.”<\/p>\n

Fraser similarly brought up\u00a0his reluctance toward being professionally\u00a0connected to Superman in perpetuity.\u00a0While expressing his disappointment at the time for not getting the role, he acknowledged he was not completely into the part, and he believes Warner Bros. noticed it: “I felt disappointed that there was an amazing opportunity, and it didn’t come to fruition. It had to do a lot with some shenanigans and studio politics. And probably, inherently, in my screen test. I think that\u2019s why you test,\u00a0they could kind of see I was only there like 98%.”<\/p>\n

Would you have liked to see Brendan Fraser as Superman? What are your thoughts on the canceled Superman: Flyby?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Superman has had a complex cinematic history. For the\u00a0many projects\u00a0as he’s starred in, there are also many more…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":276305,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[57386,113159,100015,947,49856,96,113158,112957,950,2839,11944,951,113157,112798,56,54,55,18199],"class_list":["post-276304","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-brendan-fraser","tag-brett-ratner","tag-clark-kent","tag-dc","tag-dc-comics","tag-entertainment","tag-j-j-abrams","tag-kal-el","tag-man-of-steel","tag-movies","tag-superheroes","tag-superman","tag-superman-flyby","tag-the-mummy","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom","tag-warner-bros"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276304","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=276304"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276304\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/276305"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=276304"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=276304"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=276304"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}