DC Cinematic Universe ( The James Gunn era)

[Christopher]

Sounds like a really slowed down version of the Reeve theme.

Yes, undoubtedly. I hope they're not just doing a new arrangement of it for this movie's theme; I like it when new composers get to add to the long tradition of Superman themes (which did not begin with Williams, but with Sammy Timberg and Leon Klatzkin, whose marches Williams was homaging with his own). On the other hand, if they do interestingly different variations on the Williams march like this, that will be an improvement on how John Ottman in Superman Returns just did needle drops, essentially, of the unaltered Williams march every time Superman went into action.

 

[Commander Troi]

Aquaman, Shazam, Blue Beetle, Black Adam… never seen these movies.

The first Aquaman, first Shazam, and Blue Beetle are all pretty fun.

 

[BillJ]

The first Aquaman, first Shazam, and Blue Beetle are all pretty fun.

I thought Blue Beetle ended up being the best of the bunch.

 

[Mudd]

Aquaman and Wonder Woman - both first movies were very good, with WW being one of my favorite superhero movies of the modern era. The script had depth to it.

Black Adam had its points as entertainment, and an actual surprise or two. But not a great movie.

 

[M.A.C.O.]

I’m gonna save my comments till Thursday when the teaser trailer is released. No point commenting on a teaser for the teaser that’s “coming soon”.

 

[Nerys Myk]

I’m gonna save my comments till Thursday when the teaser trailer is released. No point commenting on a teaser for the teaser that’s “coming soon”.

Are you new?

 

[M.A.C.O.]

Are you new?

I saw this being shared around earlier. Teaser for a teaser trailer.

Haha

 

[StarTrek1701]

I’m gonna save my comments till Thursday when the teaser trailer is released. No point commenting on a teaser for the teaser that’s “coming soon”.

You're doing it wrong.

 

[Mudd]

 

[Mudd]

James Gunn's 'Superman' Takes Flight: No Universe-Building, 'Top Gun'-Style Action and Why the Trunks Won Out

The Wrap visited the Cleveland set of "Superman" this past June, where director James Gunn sat with reporters to talk about making the film.

www.thewrap.com

With just days to go before the worldwide launch of the first teaser trailer, The Wrap visited the Cleveland set of “Superman” this past June, where director James Gunn was battling the elements to bring his vision of DC’s Boy Scout to life. Between takes, Gunn sat with a bunch of reporters and revealed his approach to the Man of Steel – one that focuses solely on Superman’s story without getting bogged down in larger universe-building.

“Zero,” Gunn emphatically stated when asked how much of the movie is dedicated to setting up other characters or future DC projects. “I mean, maybe two little things, two moments, but basically if something’s there just to set up something else, f–k it.”


For Gunn, this philosophy extends beyond just this film. “Everything needs to stand by itself. I don’t want somebody to have to go see this movie and be relying on anything else,” Gunn said. “If this sets up stuff in ‘Peacemaker,’ which it does, then that’s great. But that is never, ever, ever, with me, going to be something that I’m going to sacrifice even a moment or a beat in a story for, especially a movie.”

Good job.

The film starts with Superman already established in his world, with existing relationships with both Lois Lane and Lex Luthor. “We just start in the middle of the action,” Gunn said. “Superman’s already existing. Lois and Clark already know each other. Lex hates Superman’s guts from the beginning, although they don’t know each other personally.”

Gunn’s vision for the film draws from various influences while maintaining its own identity. “All previous DC media influenced me,” Gunn said. “I think that obviously the original Donner movie influenced me, but there’s also a lot of things that this isn’t, like I’m not just making a Donner type movie. It’s very different from that.” Gunn specifically cited “All-Star Superman” as a major comic book influence, noting its Silver Age feel and science fiction approach.

For the action sequences, particularly the aerial scenes, Gunn and his team are taking inspiration from “Top Gun: Maverick.” They’re using drones to capture Superman’s flight scenes. “We shoot a lot of our action with actual drones flying in and around Superman and the people that he’s flying with, Engineer, whoever else, that he’s fighting up in the air.” Gunn said. “We got these really small, crazy drones now. We’ve got some of the best flyers in the world here who are working with it.”

 

[The Realist]

Some beautiful music to my ears here:

Diving a bit deeper into what makes this Clark/Lois relationship different from the ones we've seen previously, Gunn stated:

"It's a complicated relationship, and we really get into it and there's long scenes that are about their relationship and the way they relate and what it would be like for a person who's this incredibly intelligent, strong-headed, stubborn, skeptical journalist to have a relationship with someone who can lift a skyscraper."

Gunn continued that Lois also "knows who Superman is." In addition to throwing us right into the action, and with these characters established in this world, it's also exciting that Gunn seems to be moving past the dynamic of whether Lois will find out Superman's true identity or not and focusing more on the deeper relationship details of Lois and Clark.

https://collider.com/james-gunn-superman-set-visit/

Yes, yes, yes to all of this. The more this movie centers Clois, the better it'll be. My sig says it all.

(And there go certain people's hopes that Gunn will sideline Lois.)

 

[Set Harth]

"We're not doing any larger universe-building, that's why I included this immense cast of supporting superhero characters."

?????

 

[The Realist]

This is great, too, also from the Collider article:

And David [Corenswet] said something to me that really affected me. We were trying on all these different versions, and we screened tested with trunks and no trunks. And one of the things David said is that Superman wants kids to not be afraid of him. He's an alien. He's got these incredible powers. He shoots beams out of his eyes, can blow the truck over. He's this incredibly powerful, could be considered scary individual and he wants people to like him. He wants to be a symbol of hope and positivity. So he dresses like a professional wrestler, he dresses in a way that makes people unafraid of him, that shows that. And I was like, that really clicked in for me. And I think trying to pretend that Superman's costume doesn't have some frivolity to it at its base, trying to make it look serious is silly because he is a superhero. He's the first one, brightly colored and that's who he is. And so that's where we landed and eventually we all came to a place where almost all of us agreed on the trunks.

Spot fucking on. Also really encouraging that Corenswet has such understanding of the character. I'm feeling better by the second about this movie.

 

[TREK_GOD_1]

"We're not doing any larger universe-building, that's why I included this immense cast of supporting superhero characters."

?????

Exactly. No modern era superhero movie has ever introduced either a number of other superhero characters and/or any of significance to the universe without the intention of spring-boarding to other projects--IOW, building a film universe.

 

[Ovation]

"We're not doing any larger universe-building, that's why I included this immense cast of supporting superhero characters."

?????

Both things can be true simultaneously. The characters are in the movie but the story is not meant as a cog within a larger story that doesn’t stand on its own. It’s the difference between a character guesting in a story that is self contained and a story that must be followed in another movie where Superman, in this case, would be a secondary character.

 

[Mudd]

I think what Gunn objects to is the thing that several Marvel directors disliked - the requirement that various interstitial incidents and plot elements be included in a film to support the franchise metastory.

There's no indication that many, if any, of the other superbeings in this one are setting up their own films. In fact, it's a little odd that there doesn't seem to be much similarity between Gardner's GL and the series being launched on MAX.

 

[JD]

Yeah, I didn't read the Collider story, but IGN was part of that same group interview and the impression I got from their article is that there is stuff in Superman that will be used in other parts DCU, but nothing is in it just the set up a future movie or show. Everything in it is there because it needed to be part of the story of the movie.

 

[Nerys Myk]

I think what Gunn objects to is the thing that several Marvel directors disliked - the requirement that various interstitial incidents and plot elements be included in a film to support the franchise metastory.

There's no indication that many, if any, of the other superbeings in this one are setting up their own films. In fact, it's a little odd that there doesn't seem to be much similarity between Gardner's GL and the series being launched on MAX.

I assume the other super heroes are there to give this world some weight. We're entering in medias res, not at the start of the "heroic age" as was the case in the MCU and DCEU.

 

[Mudd]

Plus, I'm not sure what Gunn would do with a story that only had one weirdo in it.

 

[Mudd]

I liked what Gunn said about not worrying about whether every film by evey director reflects the same world visually - that another movie's Metropolis might not match up with the one in Superman, for example. The focus on the minutiae of continuity, visual and otherwise, is a blight on modern fantasy media.

Watching the last episodes of Superman and Lois, I was struck that the continual revisions and liberties with continuity that have been taken over the very, very long and improvised comic book history of DC comics have given license to writers and directors to significantly diverge and recreate the character in each project.

It does Superman no harm that one version of his story ends with a peaceful death in the town where he grew up, while another may treat him as functionally immortal.