GUNNING FOR THE GREATEST

A Superman film wasn't in James Gunn's sights (at first)

- KYLE BUCHANAN

Today I have my wits about me," James Gunn said. "I was going to die yesterday, I was so tired.

It was two weeks before the release of Superman, and I had met Gunn at the film's Los Angeles press junket, just one stop on the director's whirlwind, worldwide media tour. At the time, he was hopeful that the movie would connect with audiences, and it certainly has: Superman opened with US$125 million (4 billion baht) at the domestic box office and earned an ACinemaScore from audiences.

Still, that success barely affords Gunn the opportunity to sleep any easier.

"Because this is our first DC movie and I'm also the head of the studio," he said. "I haven't had a day off work for months."

Best known for directing Marvel's Guardians Of The Galaxy movies, Gunn was initially lured to DC Studios in 2018, when Marvel fired the filmmaker over resurfaced tweets. Though he was eventually rehired to finish the Guardians trilogy, his work on DC projects like The Suicide Squad and Peacemaker impressed Warner Bros Discovery CEO David Zaslav, who tapped Gunn to run DC Studios alongside producer Peter Safran.

"I've always had this desire to create a fictional universe," said Gunn, 58. "I got hints of that with Guardians and the cosmic universe of Marvel, but since I took on DC I knew that I was just going to have to go crazy for the first few years."

That commitment meant juggling many major projects simultaneously. At one point, Gunn was filming both Superman (with David Corenswet in the title role) and the second season of Peacemaker (starring John Cena and Gunn's wife, Jennifer Holland) while also overseeing forthcoming DC projects like the film Supergirl: Woman Of Tomorrow, out next year from director Craig Gillespie.

You've said that Superman is the toughest movie you've ever made.