James Gunn on making 'Superman': Pressure, what pressure?

Superman is one of the most recognisable faces in the superhero genre. So, it’s expected that a creator who is making the film would say he was under pressure. But that was not the case with James Gunn.

In his appearance on The Happy Sad Confused podcast, he said he did not feel any pressure when he was developing his version of Man of Steel.

"I have a strange way of approaching work. When I'm working, when I'm filming or writing, I really don't feel pressure- I'm having fun, that's my relief valve. That's a relieving time for me,” he said.

However, the filmmaker acknowledged the pressure that mounted on him when the next phase began after filming finished. “But then outside of that, yeah, I felt a lot of pressure. I mean, there was a lot riding on this,” the director shared.

Further, he expanded on the reasons for this. "When I feel pressure, the first pressure is from all the people that worked on this movie- the department heads and the actors that believe in it so much and Peter Safran, they all believed in this project so much.”

The 58-year-old continued, “From the beginning, everyone was just wholeheartedly, 100% in, and if it comes out and it's crap, that just sucks."

The stakes, James explained, were higher because his Superman was billed as the launch of a new DCU, which his partner, Peter Safran, and he had planned for the franchise.

“Also, we have Craig Gillespie working on Supergirl, Chris, Damon and Tom working on Lanterns, and James with Clayface so there's all these other people, working on these other projects that could have been bolstered or hampered by this movie, and thank God, they've all been bolstered by it," he added.

Superman is running in cinemas.