With news coming previously that Diana Lane would take on the role of Superman’s adoptive mom, Martha Kent, in Zack Snyder’s upcoming reboot of the franchise, a lingering question of who would be his father remained. Of course, there’s been speculation and rumors that Kevin Costner was in negotiations for the role, but those were just rumors.

That is, until now. According to reports, Costner is definitely being cast in the part of Superman’s adoptive father Jonathan Kent. The actor will join Henry Cavill, who is playing the title role.

The casting of Costner is quite a big deal as Snyder has seemingly gone for lesser-known actors for most of his films. However, the cast of this one seems to be featuring quite a few names, at least so far. Granted, Henry Cavill isn’t exactly a household name, but obviously Costner and Lane are.

With these roles done we can now turn to speculation on who will play other characters in the film including Lex Luthor, General Zod and Lois Lane. Although, as we don’t know the exact story of the film yet, it may be premature to even speculate on those roles because they may not be in the film at all. Still, it is kinda fun.

Let the speculation continue!

We’ve heard names like Kevin Costner for Jonathan Kent and Viggo Mortensen for General Zod being thrown around for Zack Snyder’s upcoming reboot of the Superman franchise, but they are not for sure yet. However, we do officially have another name to add to the cast alongside Henry Cavill as the title character. That name? Diane Lane, who is now set to play Clark Kent’s mom, Martha Kent.

The news was broken by THR late yesterday.

Warner Bros. Pictures and Legendary Pictures said late Wednesday that the actress is set as “the only mother Clark Kent has ever known.”

“This was a very important piece of casting for me because Martha Kent is the woman whose values helped shape the man we know as Superman,” Snyder said in a statement. “We are thrilled to have Diane in the role because she can convey the wisdom and the wonder of a woman whose son has powers beyond her imagination.”

Considering names like Phyllis Thaxter, K Callan, and Eva Marie Saint have played the character in the past, we’re expecting Snyder to take a drastic turn with Martha, as Lane is only 56. Lane is the second name to be cast in the film, after word came in earlier this year that The Tudors star Henry Cavill was to take the lead as the Man of Steel.

Snyder, who’s normally known for casting relative unknowns who pull off amazing performances, seems to be taking to the higher-profile names for this film. Could it be pressure from WB to compete with Nolan’s all-star supporting cast of Michael Caine, Morgan Freeman, and Gary Oldman for the Batman films?

We’re hoping to get some solid casting announcements in the coming weeks that will prove that theory.

Now that we have a relative unknown with Henry Cavill playing Superman in Zack Snyder’s upcoming film for Warner Bros, it seems that Snyder and the studio are taking more of an “over the top” direction when it comes to the supporting cast. Two weeks ago, it was announced that Kevin Costner was being approached as a “person of interest” to play Jonathan Kent. As if that wasn’t a big enough name, The Road star Viggo Mortensen is now being approached to play the Kryptonian villain General Zod in the film.

From Heat Vision:

Mortensen, who is still in negotiations for Universal’s Snow White and the Huntsman, is said to be at the top of the list to play General Zod, the evil and super-powered scientist who was portrayed by Terrence Stamp in 1980′s Superman II.

If Mortensen’s Snow White deal doesn’t close, that would potentially free him up to make Superman. Or Universal and Warner Bros. could work out his schedule and enable him to do both.

So given what we know about Snyder’s previous work with Warners, we know that there will be plenty of slow-motion scenes and that he does tend to go for talent over “names.” Mortensen could just be the talent to take over for Terrence Stamp’s iconic character.

While all of this Superman news has been surfacing for Zack Snyder, most should remember that between now and then, we’ve got a full world of cerebral kung fu and militant battle sequences to look forward to with Sucker Punch.

For those who don’t know, Snyder’s world of hot chicks with guns has a pretty intricate plot. Here’s a synopsis:

Set In The 1950′s into the vivid imagination of a young girl placed at a mental institution by her step-father some time after her mother died, with only her dreams providing the ultimate escape from her darker reality. Unrestrained by the boundaries of time and place, she is free to go where her mind takes her, and her incredible adventures blur the lines between what’s real and what is imaginary.

Between the chick-heavy, star-studded cast, Inception-style plot, and tons of machine guns, dragons, and robots, this is setting up to be one of the most fan-friendly films in theaters for quite some time.

Take a look at the new trailer after the jump, and catch Sucker Punch in theaters on March 25th.

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Now that Henry Cavill has been cast as the Man of Steel, there is a good sigh of relief that WB has made a (hopefully) decent choice in casting. But what about the rest of the fictional world? There are still plenty of meaty parts in the Superverse that have yet to be cast, and apparently Kevin Costner is in the running for one of them.

From Deadline.

I’m told that there is heightened interest in Kevin Costner for a key role in the Superman reboot that is being directed by Zack Snyder for Warner Bros and Legendary Pictures. I’m not exactly sure what role Costner is likely to play, but he has certainly been in good guy mode lately.

With films like 300 and Watchmen under Snyder’s belt, we know that he’s no stranger to how picky fans can get about their casting. The only role we can see Costner filling is Jonathan Kent, but maybe Snyder and the brothers Warner have something more “out of the box” in mind. Zod? Perry White?

We’re hoping to have answers in the coming weeks on this and other casting news for the project.

This week on The Flickcast brings more insight, innovation and innuendo from your favorite co-hosts. That’s right, Chris and Matt are back and discussing all sorts of new and returning topics. Yeah, we copied that into from last week, what of it?

Some of those topics include the recent Superman casting of Henry Cavill, Spartacus: Gods of the Arena, Call of Duty: Black Ops Map Packs, the new PSP 2, 3D movie madness, how English actors are taking over Hollywood and much more.

Chris and Matt also made new picks this week including Matt’s pick of the Mel Brooks classic Silent Movie and Chris’ pick of the John Woo action classic The Killer.

As always, if you have comments, questions, critiques, offers of sponsorship or whatever, feel free to hit us up in the comments, on Twitter, at Facebook and MySpace or via email.

We’ve been speculating about this for a long time now and even more so once Zach Snyder was confirmed as the director for the reboot of the Superman big screen franchise. Of course I’m talking about the question of who would play the new “Man of Steel.”

Well, according to AICN, that question has been answered. The new Superman? Henry Cavill. Don’t worry if you can’t place the name immediately as Cavill is probably best known for playing the role of Charles Brandon in the Showtime series The Tudors but hasn’t exactly broken out as a star in his own right. Obviously, that’s about to change.

He’s also been seen in Hellraiser: Hellworld, Tristan + Isolde and Stardust, so he’s got some acting credits behind him. According to the report, everyone involved with the casting of the new Superman is thrilled with Cavill’s take on the character, so that’s a good thing.

The new film begins shooting in four months with a planned release in December of 2012. So, how do we feel about this development? Are you disappointed that Tom Welling, or your favorite choice, didn’t make the cut?

We saw a teaser trailer a few months back, but Zack Snyder’s eagerly anticipated Sucker Punch got an official full-length trailer release.  The trailer has Snyder’s fingerprints all over it.  It is highly stylized, dark, and features lots of his signature slow and fast motion sequences.

If you are already a fan of Snyder’s work, you will probably be pleased, but this movie probably won’t convert any naysayers. Snyder previously directed 300, Watchmen, and Legends of the Guardians.

Snyder wrote and directed the action movie, which stars a bevy of beauties: Emily Browning, Abbie Cornish, Jena Malone, Vanessa Hudgens, Jamie Chung, and Carla Gugino.

Galliantly trying to offset all that estrogen will be Scott Glen and  Jon Hamm. The film looks like a trippy fantasy ride partially taking place in a prison, but it looks like all sorts of creatures show up in the movie.

Official syynopsis from Warner Brothers: Sucker Punch is an epic action fantasy that takes us into the vivid imagination of a young girl whose dream world provides the ultimate escape from her darker reality.  Unrestrained by the boundaries of time and place, she is free to go where her mind takes her, and her incredible adventures blur the lines between what’s real and what is imaginary.

The film is slated to open on March 25, 2011, but you can check out the brand new trailer after the jump. Enjoy!

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This week on The Flickcast Chris and Matt are together again and ready to tackle a whole bunch of new and exciting topics. This week those topics include Zack Snyder as the director of Superman, more about True Grit and what Aaron Sorkin should write next.

In addition, they discussed casting news from Spider-Man, more TV show cancellations, The Social Network, Boardwalk Empire and the classic Mark Hamill film Corvette Summer. Finally, the boys made some picks again this week including Matt’s pick of the movie Monsters and Chris’ pick of Season 1.5 of Caprica.

As always, if you have comments, questions, critiques, offers of sponsorship or whatever, feel free to hit us up in the comments, on Twitter, at Facebook and MySpace or via email.

Well Superman fans, the search for the person to take on directing the Christoper Nolan produced Superman reboot is at an end. Of course, as you can tell from the headline for this post, that director will be none other than Zack Snyder.

In case you’re not aware for some reason, Snyder has quite the track record with comic to film adaptations having both 300 and Watchmen under his belt so far. Because of this and his long relationship with Warner Bros., he was on a short list of directors reportedly in consideration for the gig. Others on that list included Tony Scott, Matt Reeves, Jonathan Liebesman, and Duncan Jones. However, Snyder got the nod and is as you would imagine, pretty excited about it.

“I’ve been a big fan of the character for a long time, he’s definitely the king of all superheroes, he’s the one,” said Snyder about the decision. “It’s early yet, but I can tell you that what David and Chris have done with the story so far definitely has given me a great insight into a way to make him feel modern. I’ve always felt he was kind of awesome. I’ll finish Sucker Punch and get right at it.”

I’m sure some will argue that Snyder isn’t the right choice for a Superman film but I’m a fan so I feel he will do an excellent job. He’s capable of bringing amazing visuals to the screen and knows his way around action. Plus, he’s also good with actors — traits a Superman director must have.

Now that Snyder is on board the real fun can begin like who will play the Man of Steel, Lois Lane and what the story will be. What do you guys think? Who should be Superman in the new film?

Just in case you thought nobody would go see a sequel to a 1987 Oliver Stone flick, the director pulled a rabbit out of his hat and helped the film release at #1 at the box office with an estimated $19 Million opening weekend. Zack Snyder’s Legend of the Guardians, which also opened on Friday, came in a close second with $16.5 Million.

Many may feel like $19 Million isn’t much of a take for a film of Wall Street’s caliber, but if you were to compare it to the film’s predecessor, it made nearly half of the all-time domestic gross of the original film in it’s first weekend alone. That’s right, 1987′s Wall Street only made $44 Million to date, and a laughable (By today’s standards) $4 Million in it’s first weekend. So $19 Million may not be considered big money in today’s scheme of things, but it’s quite a step up from $4 Million.

One notable piece of news from the weekend box office is what a massive flop that You Again turned out to be. The film stars Kristen Bell, Jaime Lee Curtis, Sigourney Weaver, and the thought to be bankable Betty White. With an estimate production budget of $20 Million, the film greatly underwhelmed both critics and moviegoers, as it only pulled in $8.3 Million for the weekend and came in at #5.

In other films, Affleck’s The Town took an $8 Million cut from last weekend’s $23 Million at #3. Screen Gems’ Easy A took slightly more of a hit, only making under $11 Million this weekend.

Next weekend, we’re expecting a much bigger box office take, as Sony’s The Social Network opens in 2,700 screens. Horror remake Let Me In starring Kick-Ass star Chloe Moretz hits 2,000 screens from Overture Films, and Buena Vista’s Secretariat sneaks across the country in nearly 500 screens.

Welcome to this week’s On the Radar where we delve into all corners of the entertainment, tech and geek Internets for news, views and whatnot that may have escaped our regular coverage this week. Let is know if we missed something interesting. Otherwise, on to the links!

• You asked for it, (or maybe you didn’t). Either way, here’s the list of the Top 10 Most Ridiculous Character-Branded Products.

• If you find yourself asking if a poster would be too nerdy to put in your room…Chances are you probably know the answer.

• If you caught last night’s Community, then you’re most definitely going to want to go back and read the Twittersodes leading up to the airing. Trust us.

• In prepping for his epically animated Owl Fighting movie, Zack Snyder admits that he had people dress up in owl suits to choreograph the fight scenes.

• Katy Perry recorded a spoof of her song and sang it alongside Elmo on Sesame Street. The song was immediately pulled from the episode before airing. What’s the world coming to when a girl can’t sing about kissing other girls on a show with Muppets?

• A student dressed like The Hulk smashed a car and is now getting in trouble for it. The real crime? The fact that there wasn’t a camera rolling the entire time.

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