He was born on the planet Krypton. But the Man of Steel comes to life in California, inside an edit room in Burbank. It’s there that James Gunn is reviewing a scene from what Warner Brothers hopes is a summer blockbuster: “Superman.” With a reported budget of at least $225 million, it arrives in theaters July 11.
It’s the first feature from DC Studios, a division of Warner Brothers. Gunn is not only the film’s director; he wrote the screenplay, and he’s DC’s CEO.
“I feel good about the movie,” he said. “And I’m excited about that. And I think we’ve done something that’s different.”
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Among those differences: “My Superman is not indestructible,” Gunn said. “We see him bleed, immediately. At times, I’ve thought, ‘He’s too strong.’ You don’t want him to be able to punch a planet in half or, for that matter, go around a planet a billion times and make time go backwards, you know? I wanted a Superman who was a little bit more down-to-Earth.”
And few things are more down-to-Earth than a dog. “The dog is the whole reason – [it] was the start of the movie for me, a thousand percent,” Gunn said. “I adopted a dog. His name is Ozu. And he didn’t want to be touched, he had never known human beings. He chewed up all our furniture. He was, you know, chasing the cat, and just being the worst dog you can imagine. And I thought, ‘Wow. What if this terrible dog had super powers? I’d really be screwed!'”
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The first Superman feature film came in 1951 with George Reeves, who later played the role on TV. In this century, Superman has been played by Brandon Routh and Henry Cavill. But in the last 75 years, only one big screen Superman has fully captured the audience’s imagination: Christopher Reeve.
Trained in the theater, Reeve was a graduate of the Juilliard School in New York – as is the new Superman, David Corenswet. He is 31 – seven years older than Reeve was when he made his debut in 1978. “I don’t think there’s any way or reason to try to sort of live up to Christopher Reeve,” Corenswet said. “I just feel grateful to get to play that character that he embodied and put into the public consciousness in such a positive and strong way.”
We met Corenswet at the Arden Theatre in Philadelphia. It’s Corenswet’s hometown, where he still lives, and it’s at the Arden where he landed his first paid gig, when he was nine years old: “All My Sons” by Arthur Miller.
Like his Superman, Corenswet is immediately disarming, as well as vulnerable, as in a scene with Superman’s girlfriend, reporter Lois Lane (played by Rachel Brosnahan).
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“He is definitively different from everybody else on Earth,” Corenswet said. “He is not human. He’s an alien, and he has these powers that nobody else has. And at the same time, he wants desperately to be a part of humanity. So ultimately, the dramatic stakes of Superman as a character is that he is lonely and he doesn’t want to be.”
He also has a sense of humor about those red shorts. “Without the trunks, the uniform can look very military,” Corenswet said. “So he puts the red underwear on, a) so that everybody can see him, against the blue sky you can see the red trunks, b) so that everybody knows he doesn’t take himself too seriously. He’s not trying to look cool.
“Now, that doesn’t in any way undermine how badass and cool he is when he’s up in the sky fighting the bad guys. But once he touches down, he wants to be the one that people can laugh or make fun of, because he can take it.”
Superman has been saving the world for nearly nine decades. Created by Jerry Siegel and drawn by Joe Shuster, he first appeared in a comic in 1938.
Asked if Superman represents the signature American movie character, critic and filmmaker Elvis Mitchell said, “I think he’s bigger than that. Spider-Man is tortured. You know, he has to support himself and his aunt, and he’s responsible for the death of his uncle. And Batman’s responsible for the death of everybody in his line of sight. They’re all sufferers.
“But Superman, he stands tall, and there’s a pride of authorship, literally, in the character. ‘Cause he’s creating his own narrative as his alter ego. People want to see that. They want to believe that you can create your own narrative in a way that is benevolent, even if you have all the power in the world. It’s wrong of you to turn away from people who need your help.”
Asked what he wants audiences around the world to take away from his Superman, Gunn said, “I think, just culturally, being able to place a little bit more importance on being a good human being. I think we’re surrounded by a lot of meanness. I think Superman is surrounded by a lot of meanness in the movie. But he stands against that grain. And that’s what makes him rebellious.
“And in a way, I think today, in today’s world, Superman’s the edgier, more rebellious character because he’s the one who’s standing up for the values that most people are not,” he said.
Corenswet is embracing the challenge, fully aware that success could mean Superman defines his career. He said, “When you take a role that’s gonna be this visible and this iconic, even just visually iconic, and it’s your face and the underwear, yeah, I wanted to be prepared for the possibility that it wouldn’t lead to a bunch of other things, that this would be the thing.
“And I felt really lucky that when I asked myself that question the answer came back, somebody’s gotta play this part, and if you’re the person to play it and you give up everything else to do it, it would be worth doing.”
EXTENDED INTERVIEW: David Corenswet on becoming Superman (Video)
To watch a trailer for “Superman,” click on the video player below:
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Story produced by Gabriel Falcon. Editor: Jason Schmidt.
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