One of the early complaints about director Zack Snyder's upcoming Superman film reboot/relaunch/whatever project, Man of Steel, was the announcement of General Zod (played by Michael Shannon) as the film's central villain instead of bringing in Brainiac, Mongul or some other Superman villain that's never appeared on screen before. Well, if this buried item posted yesterday on Latino Review is legit, the Phantom Zone criminal may have another ally besides Faora in his fight against Superman.
In their article detailing the film's official plot synopsis, Latino Review mentions that this synopsis was the very same one that first appeared back in April from a movie news site cleverly titled Movie Newz. Although initially dismissed as an unsubstantiated rumor to boost site traffic, the confirmation of the plot synopsis featured in Movie Newz's article makes their other Man of Steel news in that same article a bit more credible. Here's what they wrote in addition to the plot synopsis:
General Sam Lane, the father of Lois Lane, is a central figure in director Zack Snyder’s Superman reboot. This really is as Zack described in several interviews about the film, a “real world” Superman. I’m told that when Superman arrives on the scene; people don’t know what to think. He’s an alien from another planet. What are his real intentions? He’s not human and that scares a lot of people. Here’s a guy who can fly, see through walls, is bullet proof and can lift a tank. The military views him as a potential threat to national security. They find Kryptonite, pieces of his home planet, and discover its radioactive elements can be harnessed as a near unlimited source of power, both literally and figuratively. It’s a brand new form of energy that is secretly developed by the government. The military, under the direction of General Sam Lane, uses kryptonite to power an experimental cyborg super soldier named Metallo. He’s ultimately exploited as a weapon against Superman.
Obviously, it's possible that plans for using Metallo could've been scrapped in favor of General Zod, but it's also possible that Metallo could appear somewhere in the film's second act as something of a preliminary bout before the main event with General Zod and Faora. There's no listing yet for either General Sam Lane or Metallo/John Corben on IMDb's page for the film, but there is a "General Swanwick" to be played by actor Harry Lennix and a "Colonel Hardy" played by Law & Order: Special Victims Unit star Christopher Meloni. That certainly means some form of military presence will be featured in the film, even if Lois Lane's father Sam doesn't turn out to be part of it.
It should also be noted that Metallo appeared in the recent 6-part DC Comics mini-series Superman: Secret Origin, written by Geoff Johns and drawn by Gary Frank. The 12-part maxi-series Superman: Birthright by Mark Waid and Leinil Francis Yu has been rumored as the framework for the film's script, but elements from other Superman origin tales such as Secret Origin could be incorporated as well.