Bryan Singer was giving a lecture as part of a series dedicated to the late Christopher Reeve at Princeton last week, when he spoke in some depth about his upcoming Superman Returns in the wake of a mostly positive reception to the official teaser trailer.

Some of what I'm about to reveal to you could be considered *MILD SPOILER MATERIAL* so consider yourself warned.

Singer spoke briefly about Lex Luthor, possibly the biggest character we've heard least about so far. Smallville fans in the audience who are still clinging to some misguided hope that the movie will have something to do with their successful but horribly unfaithful spin-off series, pushed for the hope that he is following the cringeworthy "once-were-friends" mythos between Lex and Clark. Singer tactfully spurned them by saying that the movie "doesn't tread one way or another over Smallville". Which is a subtle way of saying "No, shut up". Singer simply said that in Returns, Luthor is "fresh out of jail" and that he has some kind of history with the man in blue tights. Which is, unsurprisingly, more in line with Superman II than anything in Smallville.

Singer also hinted on questions which would be addressed throughout the movie, these include;

• The oh-so-controversial raised 'S'
• Hints as to the origins of the costume
• Superman's ability to breathe in space or underwater (Singer considers these things beyond the remit of suspension of disbelief)

However, the biggest news he let slip and the one thing which originally had me most apprehensive when reading an old interview with Superman Returns composer John Ottman is this; John Williams' Superman March WILL be used in the opening credits. He also says Ottmans score will incorporate many of the old themes into his original score. This is great news. No matter what was said about the greatness of Batman Begins one consistant complaint about it seemed to be that, in the wake of Danny Elfman's memorable score, while the work in Begins was not necessarily bad, it felt bland and anonymous. Spider-Man too suffered the fate of being denied any kind of signature tune, the one thing that bugged me about the wall-crawling movies. So for Superman to retain and honor one of Williams' top three scores of all time is just brilliant. Could any original score really have brought the impact Williams work does? There's no better feeling than coming out of a great movie that has a theme you can um or whistle all the way back home. And there hasn't been many of those in recent years. In fact Harry Potter and Jurassic Park (both also Williams) are the only really memorable recent scores I can recall.

As if that isn't enough, rumour also has it that the opening credits will feature flashbacks to footage from Superman: The Movie, presumably similar to the opening of Superman II.

Superman Returns is without a doubt my most anticipated movie of 2006. It should be yours too.