HI!
Hope everyone's been well... if you ever want to say hi, feel free to write in! A bit of news today regarding "Smallville" and finally a little more "L&C" stuff, too.

Also... KryptonSite has just been redesigned yet again (the Smallville part at least)... go to http://www.kryptonsite.com and tell me what you think! See you soon!

-- Craig Byrne
Editor of Planet Krypton

"SMALLVILLE" STAYING IN CANADA
Smallville will indeed be remaining in Vancouver when shooting resumes in July. Thanks to "Chloe" for letting us know!

TOM WELLING AT "SWORDFISH" PREMIERE
Smallville actor Tom Welling (who will be playing Clark Kent on the Fall WB series) was spotted at the Hollywood premiere for the new movie "Swordfish."

You can find a photo of Tom there at KryptonSite at http://www.kryptonsite.com.

"SMALLVILLE" LANDS ON AUSTRALIAN TELEVISION
The WB won't be the only place that Smallville will be showing up.

Australia's "Nine Network" has picked up Smallville to show some time in 2002. They've also picked up such Fall 2001 series as Thieves and Maybe I'm Adopted.

For more information, consult "news.com.au"'s news site at http://entertainment.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,4459,2085791%5E10431%5E%5Enbv,00.html

NEW YORK POST FEATURES A PIECE ON "SMALLVILLE"
The New York Post's Don Kaplan recently did a feature on Smallville, where he talked to Smallville executive producers Mike Tollin and Brian Robbins. The article talked about many things, especially the expectations on Smallville and its important role of filling Buffy's shoes on the WB. "We like to say, ‘No flights, no tights'," was one of the things Tollin revealed about the show.

On the pressure on Smallville to 'fly', Robbins said "there's a lot of pressure on this show. Obviously because of the [Buffy] reason, but there's also pressure because it is the Superman property - it's a very valuable franchise and we're treating it with a great deal of respect."

You can find the article at http://www.newyorkpost.com/entertainment/31769.htm

MORE REVIEWS OF THE "SMALLVILLE" PILOT
Here are two more reviews of the "Smallville" pilot... one pro, one con... from two more folks who managed to see the episode early. Be warned there are SPOILERS below, and for that very reason, from this point on we won't be running any more "advance" reviews here in the Planet Krypton newsletter.

You're welcomed to still send them in for posting on KryptonSite (http://www.kryptonsite.com), or you're welcome to post your reviews and thoughts on the KryptonSite Smallville Forum at http://pub61.ezboard.com/fkryptonsitefrm1. Thanks!

Here are the two reviews, from Superclark69 and Nexus Zero...

GREAT ENTERTAINMENT!
A Review by Superclark69

I had the privilege, with the help of a friend on the Superman Cinema message board, to see in advance the pilot of the upcoming hit show that will be broadcast on The WB, Smallville. Smallville is a show about the life of the young, adolescent Clark Kent before he becomes the ultimate superhero, Superman!

I have to say that I’m very impressed with the quality of the show. I know it’s only the pilot, but by looking at it, we can see that the Superman subject is taken seriously and with good care. For that, I think that we can thank the Writer Alfred Gough, and Director David Nutter. In the past, many were impressed with the pilot of Lois & Clark, but were, in the future, very disappointed with the material presented, but I think that with Smallville, we will have something great!

Some spoilers could be seen in the next lines, if you want to stop, that’s your right. To resume quickly the pilot, it starts with the crash of baby Clark on Earth. After that, we can see why Lex Luthor becomes bald, as well as why Lana Lang becomes an orphan. The plot of the pilot is around the football team...where we meet Clark’s first nemesis...if we can call him that! Scarecrow is the nickname given to that villain. We can also see some relationships being drawn between Clark and the other members of the crew, particularly Lana.

Here are the points I retained:

The resemblance with the comics and the Superman movies

Well, to be frank, I don’t know much about the comics, because I never read any. Pre-Crisis, Post-Crisis...I have no idea where the idea comes from! But what I know is what Superman should represent, and I think that they are in the right track. As for the resemblance to the Superman movies with Christopher Reeve...I think it’s there...actually more than the resemblance with Lois & Clark. For example, the Daily Planet logo is the same as in the movies, the crash is looking exactly like the one in Superman: The Movie...with a little bit more Special FX...I know that STM is very good in terms of effects, but wait to see the pilot and you’ll understand! It looks like they want a show that we’ll remember, just like STM for its epic quality.

The characters

Clark is Clark...he kind of looks like a mix between Christopher Reeve, Jeff East and Gerard Christopher. If you ask me if they have found the next Superman...well, I think that they might have just found him!!! Tom Welling seems to be a very good actor. He gives a fair performance and really is a freak show to Lana! Some may complain about his built, but in a scene where we can see him shirtless, he shows us that he doesn’t have to lift a lot of weights to have THE built! I was impressed by his abs! He has as much a tender look as a dominant look showing that he is the man...Superman! Good qualities to play the role.

Lana Lang doesn’t have a red head like we might expect, plus she has an Asian look that gives her charm. I kind of already fell in love with her...WOW!!! Tender, good looking and she can make me believe that she cares for Clark, even though she is the prettiest girl in school!! Kristin Kreuk...I give her two thumbs up!!!

Lex Luthor is what he his...evil! We don’t see it yet, but we can sense it!! He will be, in the future, as evil as you think he will be. Michael Rosenbaum is Lex Luthor material...his eyes give him the role. Like in the comics or in the Superman movies, he’s all about money and domination.

Jonathan Kent or Pa Kent, as we like to call him is well represented. John Schneider takes his role seriously by showing us a smart and wise man. His first advice to Clark is to save people and not thinking that he deserves something in exchange. Some will find it hard to believe that a Duke of Hazzard is Pa Kent, but I didn’t. He’s a man with experience and it shows.

As for the other characters, we don’t see them as much as the others, but I can say some things! Martha Kent is well represented by Silence Of The Lambs' Cynthia Ettinger, but she looks a little bit older than Pa Kent. Allison Mack makes a great Chloe Sullivan...she kind of made me think about Lois Lane. Sam Jones III’s Pete Ross is the only character that really looks his age... Eric Johnson’s Whitney Fordman didn’t really make me believe he hated Clark... more that he’s jealous of him! I would have preferred Brad as in Superman III... and finally Lionel Luthor...not much to say except for that we know why Lex will turn out to be evil!!!

The music and special effects

Well, the music is kind of good. The entire show brings us a mix of original material and pop/rock music. The entire list is on Craig’s Kryptonsite. As for the original material...nothing epic like, just good. What intrigued me is why there were no opening credits and main theme for the show...maybe because it’s a test screening...my guess is that we’ll have to wait until this fall.

The special effects. I’m not an FX Wizard like Ahem, from the Superman Cinema message board, so the only thing I’m gonna say is that wait and see, and you’ll be amazed. The crash is exactly like in the movie Armageddon...very great for a TV show. As for the powers displayed by Clark...they are few. We can see that he has super strength, speed, and that’s about it...only thing that scared me is that we can’t see Clark displaying his powers, like in Lois & Clark...we can imagine them!!! For example, we can see Clark’s trail when he gets into super speed! A thing that I found weird is that Clark is supposed to have super vision and in the pilot he uses a telescope. Maybe the reason is that he didn’t develop it yet...we’ll have to wait!! I noticed something about Clark’s ability to fly. The director said that Clark won’t fly, but when Pa Kent tells Clark the reason of his powers, Clark dash off and Pa Kent looks at the sky...hmmm...weird!!!

The reference to Superman

They are many. From beginning to end...all we see and hear is Superman here, Superman there!!! The director and writer are teasing us with Superman...very good, because it’ll make us come back the next week to see if we’ll finally see Tom Welling in the suit! Quite clever. I’ll give you examples, so these are spoilers. The "S" shield for the football team. Lana asks Clark: "Are you a man or a Superman?". Lex talking with Clark about how he became bald by saying: "Clark! Do you believe a man can fly?". These are good examples of what may come.

Finally, I think this show will be awesome, not only because I love everything about Superman, but because the subject that matters is taken with good care. Maybe Tom Welling is gonna be our next Superman...like Clark answered to Pa Kent’s question if he’s ok after finding the truth about himself: "I’ll answer in about 5 years!"

SMALLVILLE: I DON'T THINK SO.
A Review by Nexus Zero

"In order for Superman to work, there can be no Superboy" - John Byrne

After viewing the pilot about a month ago and after reading the Craig Byrne review of the WB’s Smallville, I was prompted to write this review. I developed mixed feelings about the entire project. Sadly I have to say that I was somewhat disappointed by Warner Brothers decision to do the Young Clark Kent rather than the Young Bruce Wayne. It’s not that I like one hero over the other (I’m actually more partial to Superman) but I thought Young Bruce Wayne would be easier to do and you could play with it a lot more. I also cant understand why Warner didn't utilize production talents that are a little closer to the characters. Someone like Paul Dini, Richard Donner or even Kevin Smith have a certain passion for the characters (Much Like My Own) that I just didn't feel watching the pilot. (Paul Dini is incredible just take a look at the animated series and tell me I’m wrong.) Ultimately I believe that the producers (Davola, Gough, Millar, Robbins, and Tollin) took way too many liberties with the characters (We donut need to see Lex Luthor now! Even though Michael Rosenbaum played him magnificently.)

I have to agree with Craig that while Tom Welling cannot pass for 15 years old you can definitely see that this guy is Superman or is going to be. This is the best casting of Superman since Christopher Reeves. Unfortunately he just isn't a 15 year old. I have to give it to Joss and his people, you really believed that the cast of Buffy were kids in the beginning even though Charisma Carpenter was just turning twenty at the beginning.

Is Smallville a rip off of Roswell? Well, yes and no. How can Roswell vainly claim originality when they are a rip-off of Starman? And if anybody should feel cheated It’s Dawson’s Creek and Buffy: The Vampire Slayer because this show kinda reminded me of them both. I did like the small town location and you can definitely see that this is a Midwestern, Middle-American football-loving town (Sorta Like Varsity Blues).

I too am curious as to what kinds of foes Clark will meet in the future.

Lex Luthor. In the Pre-Crisis DC Universe Lex Luthor was a good guy until Superboy accidentally caused him to loose his hair however In the Post-Crisis John Byrne reality, Lex Luthor is a Gazillionare and an old man. I would have opted not to bring Luthor in this early or maybe not even at all. "This" is Smallville "That" is Metropolis. If anything by bringing Luthor in like this they have totally screwed up reality. Ten years from now is Lex Luthor supposed to say: "Hey that guy in tights looks sort of familiar... But he can't be because Clark Kent wears glasses now and Superman definitely does not wear glasses." There are hundreds if not thousands of other Villains in the DC universe that could have been utilized in this series(Did you know that an alien race sleeps deep beneath Smallville and have been subconsciously manipulating Lana Lang since childhood? And that one day they would rise to try and take over the world? This would have been far better exploited.) but oh no it had to be him. A better idea would have been for them to meet during Clarks College years but even that would be pushing.

Clark’s friends. Willow and Xander...er uhm... I mean Lois and Jimmy... D’oh! Chloe and Pete are Clark’s inner circle of friends who also have an X-Files/ Eerie, Indiana set up in the school basement. It would have been better to let these characters grow into these roles rather than Shazam! There you are! Character Growth is something that a lot of new shows are terrified of. Donut have Pete in love with Chloe right away and donut have Chloe as a pre-Lois Lane at first. These characters need to be brought together not thrown together. Very Disappointing. Craig is also correct about Sam Jones as Pete Ross. He IS the only character who really looks like he could be 15!

The Villains. Whitney Redmond and Jeremy Creek were okay. I too felt sorry about the fact that the murders and Jeremy Creek were about as week as Superman in an all kryptonite jump suit (Okay bad analogy but you know what I mean). In a town like Smallville, the deaths of three people would have been big news and yet they played it very Sunnydale(Twenty people were mysteriously killed today in Sunnydale... So what else is new?) this Episode should have played it more like say "Pickett Fences". Whitney on the other hand was to much of an average bully( lets pick on the nice guy, Dumb Jock, Hangs with a Dumb Jock crowd, My girlfriend does my homework, Etc. ) Too cliche.

I did care about the Lana character a little and I love how they had Clark keep day dreaming about her. Kristin Kreuk is cute and seems to be a promising actress. Lana Lang is literally the girl next door but I think she may be a little too cool. And I was a little perturbed by the graveyard scene (It was a direct rip-off of Batman: Mask of The Phantasm). And yes I noticed that the horse was left at the graveyard. (D’oh!) I didn’t like the Kryptonite necklace thing, infact I can hear the doctor’s diagnosis now: I’m sorry Miss Lang, at age 9 you are the youngest female ever diagnosed with breast cancer. Hello! Kryptonite is radioactive! Don’t these people read the source material? Not to mention that much of a quantity of Kryptonite if indeed all of the asteroids were Kryptonite would have killed Clark long ago! Hell it'd be in the water table! One sip of Smallville water and your dead! But as far as Lana is concerned this argument goes right back to character growth: How does an incoming freshman become Homecoming Queen? How does her Freshman boyfriend become star quarterback? See what I mean? No room to grow. A good example of this is Spider-man... The comic:
Clark/Peter Parker
Pete/Harry Osborn
Chloe/Betty Brant
Whitney/Flash Thompson
Lana/Gwen Stacy
Same scenario---Peter’s first true love was Gwen Stacy who "grew" from a minor character to one of the most beloved characters in the Marvel universe. Ultimately the growth of this character created a love from the readers, which climaxed when she died. In Smallville the same thing has to happen, the climax being when Lana and Clark break-up. To further prove my point on Hollywoods fear of Character Growth is the Spiderman Movie now in production. They opted to use a safe character like Mary Jane Watson rather than a complex character like Gwen Stacy. Can you imagine the what type of character growth would come from a story where the hero does not get the girl because she dies and he couldn't save her? The studio just doesn't have the balls to do it. Hell the only one's I can think of would be: James Cameron's: Titanic and Steven Spielberg's Young Sherlock Holmes.

The producers did NOT do their DC Comics homework, with the newspapers and WebPages mentioning a blond teen as the "Fastest man alive"---Barry Allen was a cop who was exposed to chemicals and struck by lightning! "Queen Industries CEO Presumed Dead."---Well okay, I’ll give them that.

The Kents. John Schneider as John Kent is kinda cool although seeing him in overalls kind makes me imagine John Kent jumping creeks, burning the road, straightening the curves and someday the mountain might get him but the law never will.---Okay Lame I Know This, but I couldn't help it. The Kents have to make all the right decisions on this series without being preachy. After all the morals of truth, justice and the American way have to come from them. I like how the writers dealt with the Luthor buying Clark the truck thing. Especially the part where John refuses to let him have the truck:
Clark: He (Luthor) gave it to me for saving his life!
John: So is that it? You have to be rewarded?
Clark: No...
This scene is important because it shows how the Kents have instilled morals into Clark. There is also a small part about how a man should always keep his word. I really think they should have played with the "This is how we really found you scene." This scene was done correctly in the John Byrne-Man Of Steel comic, The Animated Series and Lois and Clark. If I was writing for this series I would have had Clarks powers developing slowly like puberty because up until then he'd have been somewhat normal. Can you imagine the first day you learn that you have X-Ray vision? Could he control it? Also I wouldn't have told him how the Kents found him until maybe episode 5.

I love the day dreaming even though I know Craig didn’t. Clark's daydreaming is the only thing that keeps him sane! All these things I can do and I can tell no one? Clarks daydreaming is very analogous to the Richard Donner version of young Clark Kent Kicking the hell out of that football and then racing trains.

I too was not impressed by this show and I cannot in good conscience give it an A- or an A for that matter. C+ and I’m being kind. As a writer I understand that in making an adaptation there are certain things that are going to be lost and gained in the translation. However as a reader I’m tired of Hollywood trashing my legends in the name of ratings, toy sales, or the opening weekend! Superman is over 60 years old! X-men over 40! And even the new guys (Like Image) have had about ten years to get feet. If you have a 60 year history you got to be doing something right!
Well, that's all I have to say for now.

Sincerely,
Nexus Zero

[Nexus Zero’s secret Identity is that of a Screen/Comic-BookWriter, Superman Fan And Student at California State University Long Beach.]

DEAN CAIN FILMING "THE GLOW"
ZENtertainment reports that Dean Cain is currently in Toronto shooting a Fox TV-movie titled "The Glow." Portia de Rossi of "Ally McBeal" fame plays Dean's wife, and the two of them have a "chance meeting with some elderly benefactors with a dramatic secret," according to ZEN.

SMALLVILLE IN "LOIS & CLARK"
A recent issue of Planet Krypton asked fans about their favorite Smallville moments on "L&C." Here's what a few of you had to say:

Gumball3: "I think my favorite Smallville moment in L&C is probably shared by many other FoLC's - the one in which Clark finds the right "super-suit" for him, made by none other than Martha."

Vicki: "Believe it or not, but the best Smallville memory I have, never actually happened -- outside of my mind and the internet, anyway. It was the episode in the fifth year that never was. Lois and Clark visit the old homestead and come in contact with some mutant kryptonite. Remember? Whoever wrote that was so good. I could visualize everything in my head, and after a while, it was even confusing because I couldn't remember what I actually saw on TV, and what was only in my mind. What a great year that was!"

Sharon: "What "Smallville" moment did I like the most from the "Lois & Clark" series? I think I'd have to say that the first one sticks out most in my mind. Which one was that? The Green Green Glow of Home? Where they first meet up w/Kryptonite. I liked that 1 cuz it showed Lois and Clark easing up to one another. It showed, to me, a little glimpse of what the future would look like w/Lois and Clark. That's what I liked about that one."

Sheila: "My two favorite moments in Smallville, was when Clark one a prize for Lois and she had to pick which one she wanted, a teddy bear or a Superman doll, and she picked the teddy bear. And where Lois and Clark were doing the electric slide on the dance floor;)"

TRIVIA

What did female fans notice most about Clark's black costume in the "L&C" episode "Big Girls Don't Fly?"

Send your answers to PlanetKrypton@aol.com! The answer to last issue's trivia: The original "Lois & Clark" cast member who was replaced by a different actress when she returned in the episode "Metallo" was Elizabeth Barondes, who played "Lucy Lane" in early episodes only to be replaced by Roxana Zal when Lucy returned in "Metallo." Lucy was never seen again after that.

STAFF
Krypton Club President/Planet Krypton Editor: Craig Byrne
SUBSCRIBE! http://groups.yahoo.com/group/PlanetKrypton/join

PLANET KRYPTON, Issue 290, June 11, 2001. The newsletter of the online Krypton Club. Copyright (c) 2001 Planet Krypton Productions. All rights reserved. Any material within is property of the Krypton Club and/or respective individuals unless otherwise noted as coming from elsewhere. Any opinions within belong solely to the individuals who express them. Copying or any unauthorized publication of material from this newsletter without permission is illegal. "Lois & Clark" and "Smallville" are copyright (c) 2001 Warner Bros., DC Comics, and whichever other respective owners.
www.kryptonsite.com ONLY 10 ISSUES TO GO TO #300 -- CAN YOU BELIEVE IT?

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