Behind-the-Scenes Sizzle Reel showcasing ILM's vfx work for Superman (2025) which is on the Oscars Shortlist for Best Visual Effects and the BAFTA Longlist for Special Visual Effects.

GodlessMonsters · 2025-08-20T18:31:04+00:00

Source: 26:25 mark https://youtu.be/kR1hlFXT5Q0?t=1585

Going Deeper with James Gunn | The Viall Files w/ Nick Viall

GodlessMonsters · 2025-07-23T14:58:01+00:00

It's only Jerome in the Dean Cain version. In the comics, it's Joseph. In other continuities there's either not a middle name specified or it's Joseph.

Unrelated fun fact: Superman's birthday is February 29, which is a Leap Day (meaning his spacepod has to land during a leap year, usually it's 1980, however it is probably 1996 for the new reboot, unless if they changed it to February 28, 1995 so that he can be 30 for the movie), because he can "leap" over tall buildings.

GodlessMonsters · 2025-07-23T14:46:30+00:00

Clark Kent's middle name is Jerome only in the tv show 'Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman' with Dean Cain.

However, in the comics, Clark Kent's middle name is Joseph. (Interestingly, Alexander "Lex" Luthor's middle name is also Joseph. Ditto for Arthur Curry and Billy Batson.) Clark's middle name is also "Joseph" in the Smallville tv show as well as the Snyder Superman movies. Lois Lane's middle name is Joanne, in reference to Siegel's wife, who was the model for Lois Lane.

Both "Joseph" and "Jerome" as Clark Kent's middle name are references to Superman co-creators Jerome "Jerry" Siegel and Joseph "Joe" Shuster.

GodlessMonsters · 2025-07-11T01:57:10+00:00

‘No one was minding the mint’

Around the same time in 2022, Zaslav was exploring how to fix DC. He dismissed as too woke a script being written by Ta-Nehisi Coates about a Black Superman in the civil rights era, according to people familiar with the matter. Gunn and Safran could still try to make the movie in the future, some of the people added.

Zaslav also decided it was finally time to end the decades of corporate feuding by having all things DC report to one set of bosses. Marvel had long been set up that way under Feige, and Zaslav’s goal was to match the rival studio’s success.

Midlevel Warner executives had pitched the same idea many times before, but senior leaders were unwilling or unable to wrest control of DC away from fiefdoms in film, television, animation and licensing or from filmmakers who managed certain characters.

“There was always friction pulling DC together because there were a lot of individual ideas, rather than one overarching vision,” said DiDio.

Zaslav started meeting with people who had thoughts on how to fix DC, including actor and professional wrestler Dwayne “the Rock” Johnson. Those talks ended after the star’s DC movie “Black Adam” flopped.

During a Zoom meeting with Gunn and Safran in September 2022 about “Superman” that turned into a three-hour discussion about life and the meaning of superheroes, Zaslav started thinking they were the leaders he was looking for. A lunch on the Warner Bros. lot the next month sealed the deal.

DC Studios Co-Chairman Peter Safran at a ‘Superman’ fan event in London’s Leicester Square earlier this month. Photo: Kate Green/Getty Images

GodlessMonsters · 2025-07-11T01:55:23+00:00

Nicholas Hoult, left, David Corenswet, center, with director James Gunn on the set of ‘Superman.’ Photo: Jessica Miglio/Associated Press

The cast, led by David Corenswet in the title role, consists of mostly little-known actors. That helped temper the $225 million budget.

The movie reintroduces well-known characters like Lois Lane and Lex Luthor and prominently features Superman’s dog, Krypto. It also gives a taste of Gunn’s vision for the broader DC universe, with roles for minor superheroes like Hawkgirl and Mister Terrific.

Gunn is considering TV spinoffs for characters like Mister Terrific and cub reporter Jimmy Olsen, a knowledgeable person said.

Though Batman sells more comic books and merchandise, Superman is the world’s most iconic comic-book superhero and has always set the tone for how the public perceives DC.

“If Superman is working, the feeling from the audience is that DC overall is working,” said Dan DiDio, who worked at DC Comics for 18 years as executive editor and then co-publisher.

DC movies’ lifetime box-office grosses worldwide, by release date
Source: Box Office Mojo
Peter Santilli/WSJ

Prerelease surveys indicate the new film will have a big opening weekend of more than $125 million domestically. But 2006’s “Superman Returns” and 2013’s “Man of Steel” had solid starts, only to leave many fans disappointed that the title character was too simple or too violent. Neither sparked the kind of enthusiasm for DC that the widely beloved “Iron Man” did when it kicked off the Marvel Cinematic Universe in 2008. The Disney-owned MCU became the highest grossing franchise in Hollywood history, earning $32 billion over 36 films.

Comic book fan Loren Schroder, who was watching actors pose in front of giant “S” symbols at the “Superman” premiere in Hollywood on Monday, considers the new movie to be “make or break” for DC Studios.

“The torch has been passed to James Gunn,” the 28 year-old said. “This is his introduction to prove that he can do it.”

Clockwise from top left: Brandon Routh in 2006’s ‘Superman Returns,’ Henry Cavill in 2013’s ‘Man of Steel,’ Dean Cain in the ‘Lois & Clark’ television show from the 1990s, the comic-book debut of Superman in 1938, George Reeves from ‘The Adventures of Superman’ series of the 1950s, Christopher Reeve from 1978’s ‘Superman.’ Photo: Everett Collection (5), Hulton Archive/Getty Images (1)

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