Venerable actress, Diane Lane is one of the few people cast in director Zack Snyder’s ‘Superman: Man of Steel.’ In the film, she’s to play Martha Kent, the adoptive mother of the titled hero, who’s played by Henry Cavill. Speaking with E! Online, Lane revealed that she has in fact read the script, and she even hints at the film’s structure. She said:

“I read the script under lock and key. I was locked in a room with the script and was only allowed three hours with it. I nailed it into my memory. I’m really excited. I’m really not allowed to talk much about it, I think, but it does cover the entire range of years, from infancy on.”

This definitely suggests that ‘Man of Steel’ is an origin story similar to Christopher Nolan’s ‘Batman Begins.’ With the popular television series, ‘Smallville’ — which focuses on the younger years of Clark Kent — coming to a close, it looks like Snyder’s film is going to take its place in terms of beginning the legend. How long ‘Man of Steel’ spends on the younger years of Clark obviously isn’t known. It could be a classic case of him being a baby during the opening scene and then it fast-forwards to him flying through the skies of Metropolis in his traditional garb a couple of scenes after. Either that or it could dwell on a certain time period, opening up the possibility for sequels.

In addition to Lane and Cavill, ‘Superman: Man of Steel’ features Amy Adams as Lois Lane, Kevin Costner as Jonathan Kent, and the newly announced Michael Shannon as villain, General Zod. The film currently has a tentative release date of December, 2012. [Source]