James Gunn has opened up about the movies that served as influences for his new Superman movie.
The director shared insight into the making of Superman ahead of the release of the film’s first trailer this Thursday, revealing the surprising influences behind his vision for DC Studios’ reboot.
In a recent interview, Gunn explained how Top Gun: Maverick devised his approach to shooting action sequences in the air for the superhero film.
“I wrote the process and our philosophy… this big document about keeping it alive in the air as well as on the ground,” Gunn told Comic Book.
“It’s really hard to be able to shoot things in the sky like that,” he said, explaining the challenge of capturing realistic flight scenes.
Gunn credits Top Gun: Maverick as a major influence.
“We shoot a lot of our action with real drones flying in and around Superman and with the people he’s flying with, the engineer, whoever, that’s in the air. Fighting… We’ve got these really small, crazy drones now.”
Gunn added that some of the world’s top drone pilots are working on the film to bring his vision to life.
When Top Gun shaped the action, Gunn shared that his Superman was inspired by a wide range of DC media, including Zack Snyder’s Man of Steel, the animated DC universe, and the comic book series All-Star Superman. are
“I think all the previous DC media influenced me,” Gunn said in an IGN report.
“Obviously, the original Donor movie inspired me, but there’s a lot of things that aren’t, like I’m just making a Donor-type movie. It’s very different from that. Zach [Snyder] Did some great things.”
He cited All-Star Superman as a major inspiration:
“To take that kind of Silver Age feel, to have that kind of science fiction with gadgets… Lex. [Luthor] Really magical in a way. He is a scientist, but he is very good at science… I think of him as a magician.”