How TOP GUN: MAVERICK Inspired SUPERMAN Director
By Movieguide® Contributor
With SUPERMAN releasing in roughly seven months, director James Gunn shared what movies from the past inspired his filmmaking.
“I wrote up this big document on action and what our philosophy is of action and how we shoot it and what it is, and keeping it alive in the air, as well as on the ground,” Gunn told ComicBook. “And to be able to shoot stuff in the sky as if we were shooting it… Because everything was rougher, like, it’s in GUARDIANS [OF THE GALAXY], like it’s in SUICIDE SQUAD. And being able to shoot stuff in the sky like that is really hard.”
“So we took a lot from films like TOP GUN: MAVERICK, which, we are shooting flying things,” Gunn continued. “We shot a lot of our action with actual drones flying in and around Superman and the people that he’s flying with, The Engineer, whoever else, that he’s fighting up in the air, and we did that on sound stages.”
“We got these really small, crazy drones now. We’ve got some of the best flyers in the world here who are working with it,” he added. “And so we use those guys a lot and everything’s planned out with me, as it always is. But at the same time, I’ve gotten even more into finding new stuff on the set and new moments and exploring that stuff, finding magic where it is.”
READ MORE: JAMES GUNN WRAPS SUPERMAN, FIRST MOVIE IN HIS DC UNIVERSE
Gunn also took inspiration from previous work within the DC universe, though not from where fans may expect.
“I think that all previous DC media influenced me. I think that obviously the original Donner movie influenced me, but there’s also a lot of things that this isn’t, like I’m [not] just making a Donner-type movie. It’s very different from that” Gunn told IGN.
“Zack [Snyder] did some excellent stuff. So there’s a lot of ways that influenced me,” he continued. “There’s a lot of ways in which the DC animated universe [influenced me], and then there’s a lot of stuff from the comic books — above and beyond anything else, All-Star Superman — that influenced me more than anything. To take that sort of Silver Age feel, that sort of science-fiction approach to it with gadgets, Lex [Luthor] is really a sort of sorcerer in a way. He’s a really good scientist, but he’s so good at science and I think of him as like a sorcerer.”
DC just released the first trailer for the movie yesterday:
SUPERMAN kicks off the new DC Universe on July 11, 2025.
READ MORE: JAMES GUNN REVEALS HIS NEW ANGLE ON SUPERMAN FOR UPCOMING MOVIE