There is no shiny kiss curl on his forehead, no yellow belt and — oh sacrilege! — no red undies over his trousers, either. The new Superman, as played by British actor Henry Cavill, throbs with wholesome, earnest heroism.

And Cavill, 30, takes playing the man in tights deadly seriously — as you would imagine when starring in an immense behemoth of a film, with a £150 million budget and a further £100 million to be spent on plugging it worldwide.

He is all chiselled jaw and spectacular physique. As director Zack Snyder says approvingly of his performance: ‘I want my Superman not to be faking it.’

Every boy’s dream: Henry Cavill playing Superman in the new blockbuster Man Of Steel

It transpires that Cavill rose at 3am for months so that he could perform intense workouts before filming Man Of Steel. At one point his thighs got so large he split the seams on his suit.

Indeed, everything about the film is rather larger than life — the Mail’s critic Chris Tookey calls it the noisiest Superman film he has seen — including the publicity. Man Of Steel , which is released in the UK today, is being hyped as this summer’s biggest blockbuster, and Warner Bros is praying it will be a colossal hit (not least to help them survive the expected financial  fall-out from World War Z).

However, it is a curious irony that Superman, the quintessential American superhero, is coming back to life with the help of two sprigs of the British public school system.

The film’s star Cavill went to Stowe School in Buckinghamshire, where fees are £30,975 a year, while producer Christopher Nolan — who also directed the Batman films — went to Haileybury College in Hertfordshire (fees £28,341 a year).

Nolan is hoping to lay to rest memories of the very disappointing 2006 flick Superman Returns with this reboot.

Seven years ago, Superman Returns appeared to be a sure-fire smash, with respected director Bryan Singer and no less than Kevin Spacey as Lex Luthor. However it was judged dull and slow and sent its be-tighted star, Brandon Routh, straight back to obscurity amid talk of a ‘Superman curse’.

This time around, thanks mostly to the clout of Christopher Nolan, there seems to be an expectation that this will make Cavill a star and pave the way for a franchise of Justice League films, based on the DC comics’ heroes, to rival The Avengers films which have been such massive moneyspinners for their comic book rivals Marvel.

So who is the new man of steel?

Cavill is living between homes in London and Los Angeles with his super-glamorous American girlfriend Gina Carano, a model turned martial arts champion turned actress.

Bullies: Henry Cavill admits he was nicknamed ‘Fatty’ at Stowe School because he was overweight

She was in the U.S. version of TV show Gladiators, appears in the Fast And Furious films and is tipped to play Wonder Woman to Henry’s Superman. They have been dating since September last year.

Cavill was raised on the Channel Island of Jersey, the second youngest of five brothers born to stockbroker Colin Cavill and his wife Marianne, a housewife. After attending a local primary school, at the age of 13 he left the island to go to Stowe School — he said earlier this year he had been ‘itching to leave Jersey, it felt very small’.

However, once there he felt terribly homesick and called his mother several times a day for the next two years, until she told him to stop. He says he was bullied and nicknamed: ‘Fatty Cavill.’

‘I was overweight when I went to school. In fact, I was overweight when I left, just taller. Fatty Cavill was the nickname. I mean, no one wants to be Fatty Cavill. I was bullied, but I’m not going to sit here and say: “Woe is me.” It’s never easy when you are homesick. I wasn’t part of a big group. Kids are kids. Kids are mean.’

Expressing himself through school drama productions made sense, though, and he immersed himself in those.

And at a formative moment in his life, aged 16, he had an encounter with the actor Russell Crowe, who was making the film Proof Of Life, and some scenes were being filmed at Stowe School. Cavill was among a group of boys who stood watching, enthralled.

He recalls: ‘I thought we kind of looked ridiculous standing there, looking over at this famous actor. And I wanted to be an actor. So I thought I may as well go over and ask this guy about it.’

So Cavill held out his hand and said: ‘Hi, my name’s Henry. I want to be an actor. What’s it like?’

And so Crowe told him — about the good bits, the not-so-good bits — and then said: ‘But if you want to go for it, then really go for it. Commit.’

The other kids then began to mob the Gladiator actor, asking him to sign autographs, while Cavill shouted: ‘Quick, run!’ to his  new friend.

Two days later, Cavill received a package in the post. It contained some local Jersey sweets (Cavill mentioned where he’d grown up), a jar of Vegemite, a CD of Crowe’s band (30 Odd Foot Of Grunts), and a picture of Crowe in the film Gladiator, with a signed message. It said: ‘Dear Henry, a journey of 1,000 miles begins in a single step. Russell.’

By stupendous chance, 11 years later Crowe was cast as Cavill’s father from the planet Krypton, Jor-El. When they met, Cavill reminded him of that cold afternoon at Stowe — and Crowe said he remembered it.

Soon after that encounter, when Cavill was only 17, he was cast in the 2002 film version of The Count Of Monte Cristo. That bit of early success persuaded him not to follow a family tradition of joining the Armed Forces — a decision which left his family somewhat underwhelmed.

In one now comical moment, a former Stowe headteacher wrote to the young actor’s parents to express his pride in Cavill’s success. Less-than-impressed Colin Cavill replied wearily, describing his son’s career choice as ‘a precarious business’, but added: ‘Henry is keen to give it his best shot.’ A pillar of respectability and security, Cavill’s father Colin had been in the Navy before becoming a stockbroker and his older brothers, Piers and Nick, were also in the Armed Forces.

Man of Steel: After narrowly missing out on roles as James Bond and Superman in 2006, Henry Cavill has finally got his big break

Piers was an officer in the British Army for a decade and Nick is a Royal Marine who has served in Sierra Leone, Iraq and completed three tours of Afghanistan. Nick was made MBE last year for his outstanding leadership in the field in Afghanistan.

Henry says he seriously considered following them. ‘There’s an honesty to the job. It’s something my heart and soul sing to. Getting stuck in and the camaraderie between soldiers . . . there’s just something about it that feels natural to me. You know, whenever I see those “Be The Best” Army adverts, a part of me goes: “I wish . . .” ’

However, a period of modest acting success followed. He secured a role in The Tudors, where he was cast as Charles Brandon, the Duke of Suffolk, a part he played for three years. More recently he starred in the Greek epic film Immortals.

He also acquired a reputation as being one of the ‘nearly men’ of British acting, reportedly missing out on playing James Bond, Batman and Edmund in Twilight — and Superman in the 2006 film.

He denies ever having been in the running for Twilight. It seems that although author Stephenie Meyer thought he would be ‘perfect’, film-makers felt him too old for the role which made Robert Pattinson a star.

He also says he was never considered for Batman. He did audition for Bond, when he was only 22, and lost out to Daniel Craig. Perhaps surprisingly, he seems to have come close to landing that role — being called for auditions in America and the UK, and a screen test. Insiders say it came down to a two-horse race between him and Craig.

Cavill says: ‘I waited to hear, and sadly it was a no. I mean, it was crazy, considering my age.

‘People say: “You must be so depressed that you didn’t get Bond.” Well, no, because I got as far as the screen test for Bond. There’s a lot of other people out there who don’t even get through the door.’

Cavill still harbours ambitions over that role. ‘If people don’t just see me as Superman, and they could see me as Bond then yeah, I’d love to do it.’

His career-making turn as Superman has been nearly a decade in arriving. He was initially cast in a film version titled Superman: Flyby, to be directed by Joseph McGinty, known as McG, who directed Charlie’s Angels. The project failed before going into production because McG was afraid of flying and Warners wanted to shoot in Australia.

The studio then brought in director Bryan Singer. And Singer chose Brandon Routh as his man in tights. Cavill says: ‘The roles I almost had are the ones that kept me going. Almost getting Bond or the previous Superman were a sign I should keep plugging away. I was right. Putting on those red boots and wearing a cape is every kid’s fantasy, and now I get paid to play it out as an adult.’

Will it work this time around? The first thing to be conceded is that Warners have not gone for an original take on the story.

It is about Superman, sent to earth from Krypton, who has to save the world from baddie General Zod. Zack Snyder says they treated the film as if previous versions didn’t exist.

(That said, when Cavill did the screen test for Man Of Steel, they didn’t have a costume to put him in, so they found Christopher Reeve’s old outfit in the Warner archives and asked him to wear it. Snyder says: ‘It’s literally made of spandex. It looks like a Halloween costume. It’s really not impressive.’)

The 2013 suit is armour, and the tone of the film is tougher and darker than its predecessors. It’s very much about Superman’s journey and his choices about how to use his gifts.

The film took 162 days to shoot, at a location near Vancouver, Canada.

Cavill, who is 6ft 1in, worked out incessantly to get buff enough to fill out the suit. He told an interviewer in Details magazine last month that he would look at himself in the mirror every day and ask: ‘Is it enough?’

Actress Amy Adams, who plays Lois Lane, says: ‘Henry’s commitment was legendary. He would get up to work out at 3am every day so he’d look right in the suit all day.’

Trainer Mark Twight, a speed alpinist who has become something of a legend in Hollywood for reshaping bodies, had him eat 5,000 calories a day and perform high-intensity Tabata workouts for up to an hour-and-a-half a day.

Cavill is waiting to see how the end result is received — as he has agreed to play Superman in two more sequels if it is successful. ‘I cannot wait for this film to come out,’ he says. ‘The studio just showed me the completed cut. I asked to watch it twice in a row. I’m so excited. I want to show it to the world.’