"Look! Up in the sky! It's a bird! It's a plane! It's Superman!"
For decades, this iconic phrase has been associated with the arrival of the Man of Steel, the first widely celebrated superhero in American comic book history. With his red cape billowing in the wind, the superhero has always been portrayed as indestructible.
However, 87 years after the first Superman tale appeared in Action Comics magazine in 1938, he now returns to the silver screen in a disheveled state: injured and lying in the Arctic snow. The situation worsens when Krypto, Superman's pet Superdog, comes running like a bullet after being whistled for — only to pounce on his bloodied body, seemingly adding to his suffering.
This is the opening scene of Superman, DC Studios' first feature film, which was simultaneously released in Chinese mainland and North America on July 11.
Recently, James Gunn, the film's director and screenwriter, alongside producer Peter Safran, traveled to Beijing to promote the new Hollywood blockbuster, sharing behind-the-scenes stories with Chinese fans and media outlets.
Interestingly, the new Superman film has a notable connection to China, as Gunn revealed during the movie's Beijing premiere. "Superman is a movie for everybody across the world, and it's especially for the people of China," he says.
Calling China one of the most important influences on his filmmaking, Gunn credited the country as the place where he discovered how — and why — he wanted to make movies. The 58-year-old director cites some Chinese films and filmmakers as formative inspirations, including Stephen Chow's Kung Fu Hustle, Johnnie To's The Heroic Trio, and classics starring action giant Jet Li or directed by Hong Kong art house auteur Wong Kar-wai.
Well known to Chinese audiences for his work on the Guardians of the Galaxy trilogy, the director reveals that his inspiration for writing Superman stemmed from a deep childhood connection to the comic book version of the character — one he says he loved even more than the versions seen in most films or television shows.
"I started with the question: What if Superman were real? What would his relationship with Lois Lane be like? What would his flaws be? Where would he be a little too cocky? A little too proud? A little too stubborn to get his way?" Gunn recalls.
