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1 March 1953: Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin suffers a stroke and collapses; he dies four days later. (Source)

It's official! Ben Affleck has been cast as Bruce Wayne/Batman in Zack Snyder's still untitled Batman/Superman sequel to this past summer's Man of Steel. The announcement was made today by Greg Silverman, President, Creative Development and Worldwide Production, and Sue Kroll, President, Worldwide Marketing and International Distribution, Warner Bros. Pictures. The studio has slated the film to open worldwide on July 17, 2015. Last month’s surprise announcement of the new movie featuring both Superman and Batman created a wave of excitement and immediately fueled discussion and debate—among fans as well as in the media—about who would put on the cape...

In this month's issue of "Justice League," the Kryptonian hero of the comic book apparently follows the example set by the controversial climax of "Man of Steel." DC Entertainment The climactic battle in Man of Steel proved to be particularly divisive for many longtime comic book fans, with some going as far as to say that the Superman on show in Zack Snyder and David Goyer's movie wasn't the real thing because of certain choices the character made that the comic book incarnation would find some way to avoid. In a comic released Wednesday, DC Entertainment appears to have...

As we walked into the Man Of Steel movie, my wife and I ran into two groups of friends who had just seen the movie and were leaving the theater. One group was Christian, the other group was not. Our Christian friends agreed with what we had heard, that there were several Christian themes and images in the movie. Our non-Christian friends told us that they had not noticed any Christian messages at all. This fits the definition of a dog whistle, a message broadcast to all but heard only by certain ears. And we Christians are the dogs. But...

It’s not exactly a spoiler that “Man of Steel,” Zach Snyder’s new Superman movie, culminates in a giant, destructive battle between our hero and his Kryptonian rival, General Zod (who you know is evil because he’s played by Michael Shannon), which wreaks havoc on the city of Metropolis.How much havoc, exactly? Jordan Zakarin of Buzzfeed, being a genius, asked disaster expert Charles Watson and his crew at Watson Technical Consulting andKinetic Analysis Corp. to prepare estimates. Watson’s conclusion: Superman’s battle killed 129,000 people and injured 1 million, an impact on the scale of the nuclear attack on Nagasaki. It caused $750 billion...

Conservatives have embraced Man of Steel, and rightly so, turning it into a cash cow for Warner Bros. The film is open about its religious aspects and has the kind of conservative leanings that we haven't seen in major blockbusters since The Dark Knight Trilogy. With a sequel already greenlit, reporters are asking the filmmakers for any and all details about their future plans. Conservatives that have embraced the patriotic origin story may be a little disappointed in what director Zack Snyder had to say about the film's patriotism and his plans for the sequel. When asked by BBC Radio...

The Gospel According to ‘Man of Steel’ By Kevin Williamson Superman is an object of dispute — at least comic-book-nerd dispute — between Judaism and Christianity. One camp sees Superman as Moses in tights: an infant sent away by his parents to avoid certain death, discovered by members of an alien culture who adopt him as their own, who eventually discovers his true identity, whose characteristic activity is delivering his people to safety. They note that Superman was created by Jewish artists (writer Jerry Siegel and artist Joe Shuster) at a time of Jewish crisis (1933), and that as an...

Han Zimmer's soundtrack could debut in the top five on the chart; meanwhile vocal quartet Big Time Rush could sell around 45,000 copies during the tracking week. Big Time Rush and the Man of Steel film soundtrack are heading for top 10 debuts on the Billboard 200 albums chart next week. Industry sources suggest Big Time Rush's new 24/Seven album could sell around 45,000 copies by the end of the tracking week on Sunday, June 16. The Man of Steel soundtrack -- an instrumental score album by Hans Zimmer -- might move around 30,000.

Official site Wikipedia IMDb Man Of Steel - Official Teaser Trailer Man of Steel - Official Trailer #2 Man of Steel - Official Trailer #3The movie opened today. Here are some reviews: Rotten Tomatoes Metacritic E Online: Man of Steel Reviews Are In-Superman Flies High With Critics Yahoo: First Reviews Are In: Is 'Man of Steel' Too Dark, Too Big, Too Much? The Independent (UK): Man of Steel: Reviews round-up - S is for Serious not Superman as Henry Cavill dons the tights CBS News: "Man of Steel" critics' reviews: Film wallows in sorrow more than soars New York Post:...

It’s a bird. It’s a plane. No, it’s … Jesus? When Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster created their iconic comic book hero Superman in 1938, their character wasn’t just a representation of “Truth, Justice and the American Way,” but for many, a metaphor for Jewish immigrants in 1930s America. Created by two young Jewish men, Superman was an allusion to the Jewish faith and history, from his baby Moses-like origins to his golem-esque invincibility, to his outcast status and his ultimate struggle to assimilate in a new land. But somewhere along his journey since 1938, Kal-El converted to Christianity, which...

A group supporting an open-borders policy on immigration is trying to use the nationwide release of Man of Steel to further its cause. We Are the American Way, a project from Define American, has a new site dubbed "Superman Is an Immigrant" meant to piggyback on the cultural conversation around the superhero film. "Superman is an American. Like Superman, we are the American way," the site's sub-head reads. Born on Krypton, he came to this country with the promise of Hope - the symbol he bears on his chest. Many of our families also have a history of immigration. We...

In the latest edition, it seems like Superman joins... a UNION?! What is this country coming to?

EXCLUSIVE: Warner Bros and Legendary Pictures have found their new Man of Steel. Deadline had been hearing for the past weeks that British actor Henry Cavill was the frontrunner for the much coveted Clark Kent/Superman role in this much anticipated reboot. But as of last week, Warner Bros film chief Jeff Robinov hadn't seen Cavill's or the other screentests and made his decision in recent days. Repped by CAA, Cavill, known for his portrayal of Charles Brandon on Showtime's The Tudors, just wrapped production on The Cold Light of Day and stars in the upcoming Immortals opening this fall. Directed...

With all the unofficial set photos that have been popping online from the sets of The Dark Knight Rises and Zack Snyder‘s Man of Steel, Warner Bros. has jumped the gun and provided our very first, official, look at Henry Cavill as Superman in the June 14, 2013 film. Check out the full, high-resolution version, after the jump. Choosing this image, Superman protecting a smokey safe, as our first official look at the film says a lot about what Snyder is going for here. What does it say exactly? That’ll I’ll leave to you all to discuss. Superman’s hair is...

The actor was snapped taking a quick smoke break on the set of Zack Snyder's Superman reboot in his character's costume. This is our first glimpse of how he will look as Jor El.

Man of Steel - Official Trailer #2 [HD]

Ever since Man of Steel was announced as being written by David S. Goyer and executive produced by Christopher Nolan, the claims of the film being a case of Superman getting ‘the Dark Knight influence’ have persisted. Even though the two men come from, literally, entirely different worlds.But according to Goyer, this incarnation of Superman (Henry Cavill) isn’t going to be trading realism for fantasy, or hard questions for special effects. In fact, Man of Steel isn’t being approached as a comic book movie at all. While Marvel may have found success developing comic books into movies without removing...

The latest trailer for Man of Steel, the glossy reboot of the fabled Superman franchise, may look as dark as most modern comic book sagas. It's got producer Christopher Nolan's fingerprints all over it, from the haunting score to the oh, so serious tone.Yet our final glimpse at the film before its June 14 release reminds us why we cared about the man in blue in the first place. He's a force for good, and no amount of rebooting apparently will change that.

Seventy-five years ago someone walking up to a newsstand in Cleveland might have seen something new -- a gaudy, yellow-covered comic book with a man dressed in a circus outfit lifting a car. The magazine bore the equally gaudy title of "Action Comics." A perfect copy of that 10-cent comic recently sold for $1.2 million, but at the time just seeing that book on display would have meant more than money to the two young Glenville men who created the character. Superman, the character Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster created five years earlier while still in high school, had finally...

s it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it’s Jesus. Everyone knows Superman is just a thinly veiled treatise on the life of the Son of God, but by Kryptonite does new Supes movie Man of Steel hammer that message home. Well, Jesus WAS a carpenter. I caught up with director Zack Synder in Los Angeles to find out why Kal-El has so much religious baggage.