By Dennis O’Neil Br>Staff Writer
Superman Returns
Director: Bryan Singer
Starring: Brandon Routh, Kevin Spacey, Kate Bosworth
Rated: PG-13
Release date: June 30, 2006
On the comic book adaptation front, the Man of Steel looks to be sitting pretty for a sizeable summer hit. Bryan Singer passed on the third installment of the “X-Men” series to take up directing duties for “Superman Returns,” a project that has been in development at Warner Brothers for more than a decade.
By the looks of the film’s trailer, Singer has remained true to the campy spirit of the Superman universe. He has professed in interviews that it was never his intention to re-conceptualize the Superman story, but to use Richard Donner’s 1978 original – which Singer says inspired him to become a filmmaker – as the starting point.
The plot of the film is still highly secret, but we do know that Superman/Clark Kent (Brandon Routh) has returned to Earth after five years in space to find mankind still in a state of freefall. He sets out to rekindle old passions with now-single mom Lois Lane (Kate Bosworth) and do battle with his old nemesis, Lex Luthor (Kevin Spacey).
A Prairie Home Companion
Director: Robert Altman
Starring: Garrison Keilor, Meryl Streep, Lindsay Lohan
Rated: PG-13
Run time: 105 minutes
Release date: June 9, 2006
Summer is never an easy season for eccentric comedies, but Robert Altman’s “A Prairie Home Companion” looks to defy that tradition.
Altman, responsible for multi-character romps like “Nashville” and “Short Cuts,” takes on another such story here as he navigates the last few hours of the beloved Minnesota radio program of the film’s title.
“A Prairie Home Companion” is a real radio show that has been running out of St. Paul for almost three decades. With a cult following already, the radio program has set the bar very high for the film. Fans are eager to see if Keillor’s characteristic wit and humor translate from speakers to the big screen.
Garrison Keillor, the show’s host, simulates its demise as the film’s premise. Keillor, who wrote the film and plays himself, joins the gallery of oddball characters who populate the show’s cast and backstage personnel.
As strange but poignant events unfold throughout the story, the film’s star-studded cast emerges. We meet John C. Reilly and Woody Harrelson as a pair of cowboys, Tommy Lee Jones as the Texas CEO set to pull the show’s plug, Lily Tomlin and Meryl Streep as a sister-songbird act, and, in her independent film debut, Lindsey Lohan as Streep’s amateur poet daughter.
In a summer where a good dramedy will be hard to come by, “A Prairie Home Companion,” set for release on June 9, seems prepared to delight audiences everywhere.
