Speaker 1: This is smallcy Surgery.
Speaker 2: The brand new Superman movie is out in cinemas everywhere tomorrow.
Speaker 2: Right now, let's catch up to the man, the creative
Speaker 2: genius behind the new Superman movie. He is also now
Speaker 2: the CEO of d the DC universe is famous for
Speaker 2: the Guardians of the Galaxy movies and the Suicide Squad.
Speaker 2: It is James Gunn. Let's welcome him to the show.
Speaker 1: Hey, I'm Breter, Director James Gunn. No matter what you
Speaker 1: do to me, Luthor, your plans a lot of work,
Speaker 1: rap it up. Good luck with that.
Speaker 2: Hello, CEO, mister James gun How Hello, how are you?
Speaker 2: Congratulations on just what an epic masterpiece?
Speaker 1: Oh? Thank you so much.
Speaker 2: How are you feeling? Because it's like Superman is like
Speaker 2: one of like the most beloved superhero characters of all time. Yeah,
Speaker 2: and to take and you know, there's a lot of
Speaker 2: responsibility that comes along with, you know, telling his story
Speaker 2: on the big screen.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, listen, I think the responsibility is to
Speaker 1: myself first and foremost. I'm a huge Superman fan. I'm
Speaker 1: a fan of the of the character and all of
Speaker 1: the characters that surround Superman since I was a kid.
Speaker 1: So yeah, so definitely I felt that pressure when I
Speaker 1: took this on.
Speaker 2: Did you have your little pinch yourself moment though, on
Speaker 2: the first day on set when you may well maybe
Speaker 2: working towards it so you sort of started to see
Speaker 2: like the images and you could feel it coming along.
Speaker 1: I think, yes, I think it was. It was before
Speaker 1: the first day. It was the first day of shooting
Speaker 1: the screen tests and just seeing David start wearing the costume,
Speaker 1: you know, and you realize, oh my gosh, this is Superman.
Speaker 1: This is going to be Superman to many kids, as
Speaker 1: Christopher Reeve was Supervild to me, and that was that
Speaker 1: was wild because he looked like Superman.
Speaker 2: Now he'll think he's the star of the movie, you know,
Speaker 2: Rachel thinks she's a star, and Nicholas will think he's
Speaker 2: a star.
Speaker 1: But the dog is the real The dog is the
Speaker 1: star of the movie. There's no doubt that this is
Speaker 1: Crypto's movie. And and I'm happy that we get to
Speaker 1: bring this terrible, terrible dog.
Speaker 2: To the world. Are you you're a dog man? Right?
Speaker 1: I'm a dog I can do you know what I think?
Speaker 2: When you if you are if you are a dog
Speaker 2: man or a dog lady, you can see it.
Speaker 1: Do you have a dog, I have two dogs and
Speaker 1: a cat. Well, my dog is Cryptos. So I have
Speaker 1: a dog named Ozu, who I rescued from a He
Speaker 1: was in a hoarding situation a woman's backyard that was
Speaker 1: about twelve by twelve feet. There were sixty dogs. They
Speaker 1: were sleeping on top of each other. And I saw
Speaker 1: this one dog there that had an ear sticking up
Speaker 1: like a beacon, and I said, I want that funny one,
Speaker 1: and I rescued him. He wanted nothing to do with
Speaker 1: me or my wife had never known humans.
Speaker 2: So.
Speaker 1: He didn't want to be touched. And he was just
Speaker 1: destroyed my entire apartment. And I was like, well, thank
Speaker 1: god he doesn't have superpower.
Speaker 2: Absolutely. And then the other dog you have.
Speaker 1: Is a little puggle and her name is Lola and
Speaker 1: she's fifteen years old, but she's trucking along. Yeah.
Speaker 2: Does she sleep on the bad?
Speaker 1: They all sleep on the bait? I love that, you
Speaker 1: know what.
Speaker 2: I'm like, dogs live are too short not to sleep
Speaker 2: on the bed. Yeah, Cryptos sleep on the bad. Do
Speaker 2: you think if, like if if Superman had to, well,
Speaker 2: he does sleep, but you know, would would he share
Speaker 2: the bid?
Speaker 1: I think that Crypto would share the bed with whomever
Speaker 1: he chooses to shoot you, you know, share the bed
Speaker 1: with because he's got superpowers and who's going to kick
Speaker 1: him out of bed? This is true.
Speaker 2: How many cuts did you make when you're when you're
Speaker 2: putting it like on on, when you when you're putting
Speaker 2: it down and you're doing the final edit, there's a thousand.
Speaker 1: I mean it took.
Speaker 2: I mean like he's there, he's there, like a three
Speaker 2: hour version, then a sharpened two and a half hour.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, yeah, I mean I think the first cut,
Speaker 1: so first comes in the assembly, which is the editors
Speaker 1: just basically putting together all the pieces. And this is
Speaker 1: after I've been working on those separate pieces. So that
Speaker 1: was probably two forty five okay, and then the next
Speaker 1: one was you know, two and a half, and then
Speaker 1: we got it down to two fifteen, and then eventually
Speaker 1: it's a basically you know, the credits are nine minutes.
Speaker 1: It's it's basically the two hour mark.
Speaker 2: And do you do you get pressure from anyone or
Speaker 2: does who guards you? Is it you'r Do you sit
Speaker 2: there like in your lex luthorth's making your own decision
Speaker 2: or do you have a team of people around you
Speaker 2: that you like.
Speaker 1: I have a team of people who I trust, you know,
Speaker 1: who I listen to. You know. I have Fred Raskin,
Speaker 1: who's been my editor for a long time, who's worked
Speaker 1: as a consultant. I have my editors, you know, you
Speaker 1: know who worked on this movie. I have Peter Saffren.
Speaker 1: I have my wife Jen. So these are all people
Speaker 1: I show every cut to that you know, give me
Speaker 1: you know, notes, and I'm like, they know I want it.
Speaker 1: I want them to be honest, and sometimes they are.
Speaker 1: Sometimes they're brutally honest, but I know.
Speaker 2: That you have to be that honest. I mean, I
Speaker 2: know I wanted honesty.
Speaker 1: But not that honestly. No, No, I do want it
Speaker 1: because it's like I want to make the movie. I'd
Speaker 1: rather have them be you know, honest with me. Then
Speaker 1: then audiences are critics being honest with me down the line. Yeah, true,
Speaker 1: I like that.
Speaker 2: What about Easter eggs? And did you did you pepper
Speaker 2: any through?
Speaker 1: There's so many Easter eggs in this movie, it's crazy.
Speaker 1: So first of all, every street name in the entire
Speaker 1: movie is named after like a great comic book writer
Speaker 1: or artist, whether it's you know, Wade Street, after Mark
Speaker 1: or you know, Moore Street after Alan Moore, and then
Speaker 1: all the businesses, most of them are named after comic
Speaker 1: book you know, writers and artists. Frank quietly has his
Speaker 1: own electronics store obviously, and then and then also, I mean,
Speaker 1: I think the most fun Easter egg is really when
Speaker 1: you go into the the just the Hall of Justice,
Speaker 1: you know, which is actually what the it's it's the
Speaker 1: old train building in Cincinnati. It's actually what the Hall
Speaker 1: of Justice in the comics and the cartoons has been
Speaker 1: based upon. Okay, we actually shot there for the first time,
Speaker 1: so that in itself is an Easter egg. But inside
Speaker 1: in the actual train station, there's this mural that is
Speaker 1: of the history of Cincinnati, and we turned it into
Speaker 1: a mural of the history of meta humans in the DCU,
Speaker 1: and so we can see lots of uh, sort of
Speaker 1: famous characters.
Speaker 2: The obvious ones. Are there any other ones in there
Speaker 2: that you bury just for family and friends that if
Speaker 2: you know, you know, and if you don't, you don't.
Speaker 1: Yeah, the famous, the most the one that's in almost
Speaker 1: every movie is there's always a vehicle with the license
Speaker 1: plate PZM five six nine. That's an Eastrike. Just from
Speaker 1: my brother Patrick and me because that was our license
Speaker 1: plate when we were in high school. And every every
Speaker 1: single movie I have practically as a five six nine.
Speaker 2: Last question, real life kryptonot Do you have one for me?
Speaker 2: It's a movie snack like peanut M and m's or popcorn,
Speaker 2: camel popcorn.
Speaker 1: That's my Oh like things, you like things? I like
Speaker 1: it a bad form. I thought it was like something
Speaker 1: I don't like. I don't like heights. That's my crypto.
Speaker 1: I don't know what we're doing here. I don't either.
Speaker 1: I don't know. I walked in here and I'm like,
Speaker 1: why am I here? But but my kryptonite is Cashew's.
Speaker 1: Like if you talk about what I can't stop eating, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I call them trigger foods, cashews, barbecue potato chips. Oh
Speaker 1: those are those are my father?
Speaker 2: You are a man out of my hot congradulations on
Speaker 2: the film.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much. Thank you. You're listening to the
Speaker 1: Smallsy Surgery podcast here.
Speaker 2: More from Smallsy Live weeknights from eight only on Nova