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  • 10 hours ago
The Superman director and DCU lead talks about his interpretation of the iconic comic book character, how it differs to his Marvel work, and why Superman wears glasses as Clark Kent.
Transcript
00:00Hi, I'm Molly from GamesRadar. It's lovely to meet you.
00:02You too.
00:03I just want to start by saying I love the film.
00:05Oh, thank you.
00:06It's fun. I was smiling so much.
00:08And one thing I was really interested in is that the movie feels very self-contained,
00:12even though there are a lot of references to a broader universe, too.
00:15So why did you want to go in that direction for the first ever DCU movie?
00:23I think that in terms of the DCU in general,
00:27I want the movies and the TV shows to be mostly self-contained.
00:31I don't want everything to have to lean on each other.
00:34I don't think of this so much as, you know,
00:36one long story where everybody has to take in every little piece.
00:40I think of this as creating a universe,
00:42and then people are able to jump in and tell little pieces of that story
00:47from all around that universe.
00:49There will be some connected stories throughout the time,
00:52and in fact, Peacemaker Season 2 is very connected to Superman.
00:55Yeah. But it doesn't need to be that way,
00:59and I want people to be able to enjoy
01:00any specific piece of entertainment by itself.
01:03Definitely.
01:04And obviously, you know, you have experience making superhero movies with Marvel,
01:08but this time you're also co-CEO of DC Studios.
01:11So in that context,
01:12was there anything about making Superman
01:14that you were kind of surprised by
01:15compared to your experience on Guardians,
01:18especially where, since, you know,
01:19you're kind of like Kevin Feige and the director rolled into one?
01:22Yes. Yeah, that's true.
01:24Except for Kevin has to do a lot of stuff that Peter does,
01:27and Peter takes care of a lot of things for me, my partner.
01:31Yeah, I think it was interesting.
01:32You know, in one way, though, it's weird,
01:34because you say I've made superhero movies with Marvel,
01:36but I really didn't.
01:37Guardians were space adventurers.
01:39They really weren't superheroes.
01:41They didn't have secret identities or masks or costumes.
01:44They had superpowers, but they weren't really superpowers.
01:47They were just the powers of wherever they were from.
01:50So I think that really, in a lot of ways,
01:52this is my first superhero movie,
01:54because even the Suicide Squad were supervillains.
01:58So that brought in a bunch of challenges in itself,
02:02because, you know, superheroes,
02:04everything I do comes from a place of,
02:06well, what if this was real?
02:08You know, if I started telling the story of Rocket Raccoon,
02:11what if Rocket Raccoon was real?
02:12How would he exist? Where would he come from?
02:14And with this, what if Superman was real?
02:17What are his beliefs?
02:18What is his relationship with his girlfriend like?
02:20What is his relationship to the government like?
02:22So it really was coming from that place.
02:26That absolutely did not answer your question.
02:29But by this time, I've forgotten where we started.
02:33No, that's fine. That's perfect.
02:35Speaking about the broader DCU universe,
02:38we've had a lot of updates on,
02:40or the DCU universe, actually.
02:41We've had a lot of updates on the Batman 2 lately.
02:43But I think my most anticipated project
02:45is The Brave and the Bold.
02:47So I really want to know, like, how is that coming along?
02:49Are there any updates you can share?
02:50There's really no new updates.
02:52I mean, we're working on a script.
02:54We, you know, have a screenwriter
02:57who's hammering away at it.
02:59I'm very involved.
03:00And so, you know, we'll see what happens next.
03:04I wish I had more news for you, but I don't.
03:06But luckily, I've got the Batman 2 script in my backpack,
03:09and I'm about to read it.
03:11Amazing.
03:12And considering Superman has, like, such a rich comics history,
03:16you had so much inspiration to draw from.
03:18So how did you decide on what to include in this story
03:20as it feels like maybe you've gone for some more deep cuts
03:23than you've seen before, like the hypno-glasses?
03:25Yeah.
03:25Well, again, it comes from the place of,
03:27what if Superman was real?
03:28Like, for me, even as a little kid,
03:30I'm always like, what's with the glasses?
03:33How is that in disguise?
03:34Now, I know some people are like,
03:35well, it's suspension of disbelief.
03:37He's a superhero.
03:38He has a cape.
03:38But I'm like, I don't know.
03:40I think there's a reason for the cape.
03:41It's because he looks cool.
03:43You know, what's the reason?
03:44You know, how do glasses hide his identity?
03:46And I said that to Tom King in our, you know,
03:49we have this group of writers who we met with
03:52to sort of plan out some of the beginning stages of the DCU.
03:56And Tom is like, well, you know, there's a can...
03:58I was saying, I'm upset about the glasses.
04:00And Tom's like, there's a reason, canonically, for the glasses.
04:03I'm like, there is.
04:05And he's like, yes, they're hypnoglasses.
04:07It's Kryptonian glass.
04:09And they make his face look different.
04:11I'm like, really?
04:12Well, now that makes sense to me.
04:14Hypnoglasses, now it's silly, but it also makes sense.
04:17And so, yeah, that just simply comes from
04:19giving people a reason to believe
04:21he can actually pull that off.
04:22Definitely.
04:23And I think that's all our times.
04:25Oh, no!
04:25Thank you so much.
04:26It's really interesting.
04:27I just want to chat to you.
04:28Thank you so much.
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