Trivia: Just after the Jet "lands" in the stadium, the film shoots back over to Lex and his gang at the mansion. We see a closeup of the battered miniature town and there is a downed sign showing the name of the model railroad city, "Smallville."
Trivia: The two writers of the movie make a cameo appearance as the two teens in the museum who are told it's time to leave and they are a bit "man-handled."
Trivia: A meteorite at the Metropolis museum is labeled as being from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. This was the location of the chunk of kryptonite Luthor got his hands on in the '78 movie. (The year of its discovery is listed on the sign as 1978).
Trivia: One of the shuttle engineers is (Sir) Richard Branson, owner of Virgin Galactic, which is funding the successors to the Spaceship One program. Spaceship One was the first privately-funded space flight. The craft was launched from an airplane, similar to the shuttle in the film. "Virgin Galactic" also appears on the monitors.
Trivia: Bo the bartender when Jimmy Olsen takes Clark Kent to the bar is played by Jack Larson who also played Jimmy in the original T.V. series and also guest starred as an old Jimmy in the Lois and Clark series.
Trivia: While meeting with director Bryan Singer, Brandon Routh spilled coffee on him. Brandon believed that this incident would not get him the part of Clark Kent/Superman. However, Bryan Singer saw Clark Kent's clumsiness in Brandon and offered him the role.
Trivia: When Clark is at the Kent home talking with his mother, she walks to the window near a piano. On the piano are sheet music and a number of framed photos. One is a very young Eva Marie Saint (the actress who plays Martha Kent). Another is Glenn Ford (the actor who portrayed Jonathan Kent in the 1978 movie).
Trivia: When Superman rescues the plane and lands it on the baseball field and goes into the plane. He says "I hope this incident hasn't turned you off flying. Statistically speaking, it's still the safest way to travel." This was what he said to Lois Lane after he rescues her from the helicopter in the original movie.
Trivia: For several years after release, director Bryan Singer attempted to get a sequel made, which would have been far more action-packed and moody and would have had the title "Man of Steel." The film was never made in part because Singer became attached to other projects, co-star Brandon Routh's contract expiring and an impending writer's strike. Somewhat ironically, the next Superman film was a reboot that used the title "Man of Steel" and was notable for being much more action-packed and moody in tone, similar to how Singer wanted to approach his sequel.
Trivia: One of the reasons a sequel wasn't fast-tracked is because the film made about $400 million worldwide against a budget of around an estimated $200 million. Though the film subsequently became quite profitable on DVD and Blu-Ray and was one of the top rentals and sellers for both 2006 and 2007, studio executives got cold feet, as they had initially hoped the film would hit the $500 million mark in theaters. Director Bryan Singer in an interview once half-jokingly but mostly seriously exclaimed: "That movie made $400 million! I don't know what constitutes under-performing these days."
Trivia: Bryan Singer became attached to the project as he was a massive fan of the original Richard Donner film from the 70's. He sought Donner's approval and aimed to make this film a "true" sequel to Donner's film and Donner's original vision of "Superman II", disregarding the third and fourth films.
Trivia: Due to the exposure and revamped interest this film gave to the prior "Superman" movies, original "Superman" director Richard Donner was able to finally complete and release a "director's cut" of "Superman II"- a project which he filmed a great portion of before being fired and replaced with Richard Lester. Donner's cut of the film however had to get creative and use archival footage from the other films and screen-test footage to fill in the gaps for incomplete scenes.
Trivia: Bryan Singer claimed he would not make the film if he could not have access to John Williams' Superman themes.
Answer: There are two stories: a) the suit was made by Martha Kent from the blankets which came with Superman when he was a child and these blankets got superstrenght from the sun too. b) Superman generates an aura which protects him and his suit against such forces. Both stories can be true: either the suit itself is weakend by the kryptonite or Superman's aura was weakend by it. Currently it is said that the blanket-story is the correct one. Also, they don't actually cut it off him - it appears to open along a predefined line (coupled with someone exclaiming "got it!"), presumably the method Superman uses to get into the suit himself.
Bjoern_Buller