CAPED CANINE

What Superman's pet owes to a badly behaved rescue dog

- ESTHER ZUCKERMAN

About three years ago, director James Gunn was trying to figure out the arc of what would become his new blockbuster Superman. Then he adopted a dog.

He named the scruffy rescue Ozu, after Yasujirō Ozu, the Japanese filmmaker known for his serene works. At about eight months old, Ozu the dog was not at all peaceful.

After surviving a hoarding situation, Ozu was fearful of humans and intensely destructive. He chewed up furniture, shoes and even a US$10,000 (325,000 baht) computer. He also ate one of Gunn's wife's tampons out of a wastebasket, necessitating a trip to the vet. Gunn realised that if Ozu had been superpowered, the damage would have been even worse.

"It was where the movie came together for me," he said in a video call.

Gunn decided that his version of Superman would have not just a dog, but a bad dog who could fly. He wrote the opening sequence in which Superman (David Corenswet), defeated for the first time ever, calls out to the canine Krypto to help drag him to the Fortress of Solitude. Krypto who, like Ozu, is poorly behaved jumps all over his master, seemingly causing more pain before doing his duty.

"The universe we normally see Superman living in in movies is usually this lone, serious superhero and then people and then that's it," Gunn said. "This Superman exists in a different sort of universe where there are flying dogs."