This was the third film with Hackman""s villain Lex Luthor.And it was the second film with a super-villain (the other wasSuperman II (1980)).Superman Returns (2006)d.Bryan Singer, 154 minutesFilm Plot SummaryThe action-adventure fantasy film opened with a background foreword:On the doomed Planet Krypton, a wise scientist placed his infant son into a spacecraft and launched him to Earth.Scriptwriter Sidney Howard wrote the screenplay based upon his 1934 stage adaptation of Sinclair Lewis"" 1929 novel of the same name.Ford also cast his brother Francis (a silent film actor and director) in a cameo role as patriarch Dan Tobin - an ailing, white-bearded elderly man who refuses to die before witnessing he donnybrook fist fight in the finale.She had been invited to relocate and live with her male cousin Beverly or "Bev" (Edward Earle) in a dust-bowl town at his Sweet Water ranch.To her surprise, he had become much more affectionate to her - even though she didn""t quite trust him at first: "Of course, I didn""t believe him at first, but he meant it, all right.