Another thing I want to thank you for, and I’m kind of thanking you for this in advance, but you’ve shown it in this film: the “LexCorp” signs seem to imply that we’re getting Lex Luthor, the head of a corporation, somewhere down the line. As opposed to Lex Luthor, subterranean dweller obsessed with real estate.
Yeah.
Was that in the script at all, that they would have these LexCorp signs everywhere?
Yes. [Laughs] So Zack has said that, clearly, Lex Luthor is in this world, as is Wayne Industries, because you see – it’s only there for a second – but [the Wayne Industries logo] is on the satellite that Zod destroys.
Same thing. If Lex is going to exist in the world, we would presumably have to give him the same treatment that we gave Lois Lane in the first film, which is make him a credible character. He’s the corollary to being a good love interest; he’s gotta be a man of incredible intelligence, and presumably a man of incredible wealth and incredible resources.
Do you have a favorite interpretation of Lex Luthor so far? I was always a fan of the Bruce Timm animated one, with Clancy Brown.
Look, I think the work that Timm’s done in the animated world has been some of the best adaptations of the DC characters period.
There’s a sense of enormity to this movie, from the opening first big shots of Krypton to even the death of Pa Kent. In the original movie he just collapses on the ground. Here it’s a huge, epic sequence. Were you ever concerned about making it too big?
No.
Was that even possible?
It’s Superman. He’s the granddaddy of all the characters. It needs to be an epic. Every aspect of it needs to be epic, so it was very important to us that we need to pitch Krypton as a fully-realized alien world. And I wanted Pa Kent’s death to be meaningful in terms of the story. I wanted it to figure into why Clark decides whether or not to reveal himself to the world. I wanted it to be not just something that happens and is incidental. I wanted it to be part and parcel of the movie’s theme.
Thank you for making it big. Was there ever anything that was too big, that you had to scale back? Or was Warner Bros. just throwing money at this movie?
[Laughs] Look, no matter how much money you have it’s never quite enough. We did have to make some budgetary cuts…
What do you miss? What do you feel like is the most tragic loss, that was in the script?
At the end of the day, I don’t think there’s really a tragic loss. I think the movie is absolutely massive, so… It’s funny, it’s not like when Zack came on he added more action. We actually trimmed down a little bit of action. The only place where we trimmed down some action was when Zod and the Kryptonians arrived, he actually kind of did a demonstration of their might. But it was too much. Everyone agreed it was too much.
I can see that. It could accelerate the threat too early.
Yeah. Yeah.
You said originally that you didn’t necessarily want to do a Superman movie.
Yeah.
Now that you’re doing a Superman movie, if you’re in it for the long haul, is there any aspect of Superman that you want to say right now, that we’ll never see? Like Mr. Mxyzptlk or something? Is there anything we should just not get our hopes up for?
You know, it’s hard to imagine that character – and I’m not even going to attempt to pronounce it, because I always get it wrong – it’s hard to imagine that character in this iteration of the film we’ve made. But I learned me lesson by saying I would never do a Superman man film: never say never, because here we are.
Is there any chance of reviving your adaptation of The Flash?
It’s possible! It’s still a script that people like, and I think a lot depends on how well this movie does over the next few weeks.
You can’t go back from that. Are you still producing Y: The Last Man?
I am. We’ve got a script that’s as close as it’s ever been, so knock on wood.
I’m knocking on wood right now.
Yeah, that could go into production next year.
Can that be condensed into one movie? Is that going to be your plan? It’s got to be a journey…
The first movie is meant to function as a standalone, but hopefully continue. Hopefully there will be others.
William Bibbiani is the editor of CraveOnline’s Film Channel and co-host of The B-Movies Podcast. Follow him on Twitter at @WilliamBibbiani.
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