Leno had to ask Cavill about Superman’s new look in Zack Snyder’s film. Specifically, the talk show host wondered why the Man of Steel’s signature red shorts appear to be missing from the new costume.

“Why wear underpants when you can be far more revealing?” Cavill answered with a grin.

Cavill also recounted an interesting story where he appeared as a background actor on Russell Crowe’s “Proof of Life.” He met Crowe and asked him for acting advice. The next day, Crowe sent Cavill an autographed photo which read, “The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” Years later, Crowe now plays Jor-El alongside Cavill’s Superman. Circle of life.

As for his involvement in other high-profile franchises, Cavill told Leno that the decision to cast the new Bond in the rebooted “Casino Royale” came down to he and Daniel Craig, and he also was looked at for “Twilight” but was considered “too old” for the roles, even though Stephenie Meyer reportedly liked him.

The Hulu video from last night is having technical hiccups, but if you’d like to see Cavill talk “Man of Steel” on Leno last night, it should be available online at some point today.

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Though his red-and-blue pajamas are noticeably absent from these set photos that were snapped during a helicopter action shot (surrounded by miles of green screen) and shared with Superhero Hype. Check out the full gallery here.

Cavill plays Superman in a franchise reboot that stars Michael Shannon as chief antagonist General Zod and Amy Adams as intrepid Daily Planet reporter Lois Lane. Beyond that, however, details are scarce. We don’t know if Snyder’s going to reset Superman’s origin, or pick up from a spot where movie fans might recognize and build from there.

The director has promised more action, after Bryan Singer’s introspective “Superman Returns.” But we have a long while to wait until we see what becomes of “Man of Steel.” The potential blockbuster had its release date shifted back to June 14, 2013, giving Snyder and his crew more time to perfect Superman’s return to theaters. In the meantime, set photos and leaked images will have to do.

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But now we see three new images on Cavill shooting scenes, and we’re confused for so many reasons.

First, it’s the beard. Superman with a beard?!?! I didn’t even know that was possible. Then we see the torn pants and lack of shirt, and we wonder what happened to the Blue Boyscout to get him in this shape.

And speaking of shape … damn, Cavill. Did you have to get so cut? Can’t you leave a few of the ladies for the rest of us?

See for yourself. The images (from CraveOnline) raise more questions than answers, but that’s probably a good thing. We have a long way to go before “Man of Steel” reaches theaters on June 14, 2013. Maybe by then, someone can find Supes a shirt.

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The opening casting call is taking place in Vancouver, and as Warner recruits fresh faces, they released a sheet (obtained by ComicBookMovie) asking for “local people to work as background artists in scenes to be filmed in early October.” The gigs are paid, and some extras will receive speaking parts as filming in Vancouver extends through January 2012.

But here’s the part we find interesting: The description of Snyder’s film … which is beginning to sound more and more like he’s planning yet another origin story for the Man of Steel.

“In the pantheon of superheroes, Superman is the most recognized and revered character of all time. Clark Kent/Kal-El (Henry Cavill) is a young twentysomething journalist who feels alienated by powers beyond anyone’s imagination. Transported to Earth years ago from Krypton, an advanced alien planet, Clark struggles with the ultimate question – Why am I here? Shaped by the values of his adoptive parents Martha (Diane Lane) and Jonathan Kent (Kevin Costner), Clark soon discovers that having super abilities means making very difficult decisions. But when the world needs stability the most, it comes under attack. Will his abilities be used to maintain peace or ultimately used to divide and conquer? Clark must become the hero known as “Superman,” not only to shine as the world’s last beacon of hope but to protect the ones he loves.”

While that could suggest Snyder plans to reboot Superman with an early story of the hero accepting his identity, I’m betting this is just a description to let people know the character’s back story in case they’ve been living on the planet Krypton this whole time and have no clue who Superman is.

There’s no way they’d let the plot synopsis slip in a casting call, which they knew would arrive online … right?

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But then Laurence Fishburne joined the cast as Perry White, Henry Cavill started talking about what it felt like to first try on the costume, and Warner Bros. jumped the gun (in a good way) to give us our first look at the blue boy scout in costume.

Um, wow!

By showing Superman in what looks like the middle of a fight, Snyder appears to be addressing the concern right off the bat that we haven’t seen the Man of Steel physically fighting anyone in quite some. The costume looks amazing. Cavill appears to be a great fit, visually. And even if this shot isn’t in the finished product, at least we know Snyder intends on putting him in the thick of some action.

Now we have to wait. “Man of Steel” will be in theaters June 2013. Doesn’t that seem like an eternity away this morning?

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David Goyer penned the script and developed the story with Christopher Nolan, who has kept plot details under wraps. Henry Cavill, who plays Superman in Snyder’s upcoming film, visited San Diego Comic-Con’s Hall H to talk about his new film “Immortals” and was asked about the release date change by moderator Geoff Boucher of The Los Angeles Times.

Cavill declined to comment.

“There’s nothing I can say,” Cavill admitted, “other than it’s one of the best scripts I’ve ever read. … I can’t wait to get started.”

Of course, what was Cavill going to say? That the script rivaled “Spider-Man 3” or Schumacher’s “Batman & Robin” in terms emotional depth and artistic vision?

Of course he’s going to hail the script as a brilliant piece of writing — but then again, with the minds behind “Batman Begins” and “The Dark Knight” involved, there’s a chance Snyder’s Superman movie could actually be great. Unfortunately we’ll have to wait six more months to see if that’s the case.

DigitalSpy suggests the schedule change is to avoid clashes (and diminished box office returns) with Warner Bros’ other huge December release, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, which will be released on December 14, 2012.

The holiday season for 2012 is already packed with major releases, including “The Lone Ranger, and Quentin Tarantino ‘s hotly anticipated “Django Unchained.” Even with “Man of Steel” moving to 2013, 2012 will still be another huge year for the superhero sub-genre, thanks to tent-pole releases like Marc Webb’s “The Amazing Spider-Man,” Joss Whedon’s “The Avengers” and most importantly, Christopher Nolan’s epic conclusion to the Dark Knight legend, “The Dark Knight Rises.”

“Man of Steel” stars Henry Cavill, Amy Adams, Kevin Costner, Diane Lane, Michael Shannon and Russell Crowe, who’s set to play Jor-El, Superman’s biological father from Krypton.

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Christopher Meloni, who left “Special Victims Unit” after 12 seasons, reportedly is circling an unidentified part in Zack Snyder’s “Man of Steel,” according to THR. Sources tell the trade Meloni would “shoot scenes with Henry Cavill, the actor who plays Superman and Clark Kent” in the film.

Earlier in the, we learned that Julia Ormond had been cast as Superman’s Kryptonian mother. She and Meloni would join a cast that already includes Russell Crowe, Kevin Costner, Diane Lane, Michael Shannon, and Amy Adams.

THR says “Man of Steel” will film in the fall. It’s targeting a December 2012 release date.

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By Scott Mendelson

HollywoodNews.com: Obvious spoiler warning: I’m not going to get into every plot detail of last night’s Smallville finale. The big climactic moments were disappointing for two reasons. First, as usual with television superhero shows, the big action climax was painfully puny, especially for the payoff of ten years of mythology. Basically, Clark flies through a possessed Lionel Luther (does that count as murder?) and then a CGI blue thing that is supposed to be Superman quickly flies into Apokolips and quickly moves it about three inches to the left, saving Earth. The most emotionally potent moment of the finale was its opening and closing bookends, which had Allison Mack reading a comic book to her young child seven years into the future, a four-color tale of how Clark Kent became Superman and saved the world. It’s a weird breaking the fourth wall moment, but it served as a reminder of just how potent, primal, and powerful the Superman mythology really is.

The climactic Lex Luthor monologue (dear god was there a ton of ‘monologuing’ last night, the episode seemed pitched to those who had never watched an episode of the show and/or had no understanding of the Superman mythos at all) hit all of the expected notes, but it felt like an inferior and less emotionally powerful version of the finale of Unbreakable (‘Now that we know who you are, I know what I am!”). But the bigger problem is that Clark has basically been acting as Superman for at least the last few years of the show, if not the entire series run, so his ‘transformation’ into Superman is merely a case of getting a new set of duds and a new nickname. So here’s the million dollar question: Why didn’t we get to actually see him wear those duds? Sure we get a few CGI far-away shots of Superman. And we get a few closeups of Tom Welling’s face with a cape billowing behind him. But we did not get a single full-body shot of Tom Welling dressed as Superman. Any guesses as to why this was? Was Warner Bros so worried that fans would be ‘confused’ with the new Superman: Man of Steel movie coming out next year that they forbade the show from showing Welling in costume? Please share your guesses below, because I’m at a loss as to why the show’s producers would cheat the fans out of the very iconic moment that they have been waiting for over the last ten years. Screen grabs from Comic Book Movie of just what I’m talking about are below (obvious spoilers).

To read more go to Scott Mendelson

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Even Singer, himself, has come out and said that the picture – a sensitive, respectful tribute to Richard Donner’s films first, and the Superman lore second – didn’t connect with the audience the way he had planned.

“I think that ‘Superman Returns’ was a bit nostalgic and romantic, and I don’t think that was what people were expecting, especially in the summer,” Singer said in an interview with VoicesFromKrypton.com.

“What I had noticed is that there weren’t a lot of women lining up to see a comic book movie, but they were going to line up to see ‘The Devil Wears Prada,’ which may have been something I wanted to address. But when you’re making a movie, you’re not thinking about that stuff, you’re thinking, ‘Wow, I want to make a romantic movie that harkens back to the Richard Donner movie that I loved so much.’ And that’s what I did.”

All of this matters because a new “Superman” is in development with Zack Snyder at the helm. Given the fact that Snyder helmed “300” and “Sucker Punch,” the latter being dismissed as misogynistic by many reviewers, I’m guessing the last thing we’ll see is a “romantic” Man of Steel.

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Photo courtesy of PRPhotos.com.

Smallville Dominion

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With Clark’s powers gone, the two are immediately captured by the Zoners who take them to their new leader, Zod (Callum Blue), who is thirsting for revenge on Clark for banishing him to this Kryptonian jail.

Meanwhile, Lois (Erica Durance) learns Clark trusted Tess with a secret, but didn’t tell Lois. Justin Hartley directed with story by John Chisholm.

Photos by CW
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