The Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow News and Discussion Thread

[flickchick85]

If Superman is a success (and I think it will be) there's no reason it wouldn't pan out, at least the first projects.

I’m one of the biggest Supes fans on this board, but even I have to say that movie’s success feels far from guaranteed at this stage.

 

[Invader Joker]

I’m one of the biggest Supes fans on this board, but even I have to say that movie’s success feels far from guaranteed at this stage.

All it needs is for it to be as good as any of James Guardians films and it'll leg out extremely well (GoTG 1 and 3 had ridiculous legs, 2 not as much but mostly because it opened so astronomically high). I think 90-100 million dollar opening is guaranteed seeing how historically Superman films have opened, so it gets that and it's actually really not that hard for it to do 700+ million or so.

 

[flickchick85]

All it needs is for it to be as good as any of James Guardians films and it'll leg out extremely well (GoTG 1 and 3 had ridiculous legs, 2 not as much but mostly because it opened so astronomically high). I think 90-100 million dollar opening is guaranteed seeing how historically Superman films have opened, so it gets that and it's actually really not that hard for it to do 700+ million or so.

I sincerely hope you are correct!

 

[Comicbookguy339]

All it needs is for it to be as good as any of James Guardians films and it'll leg out extremely well (GoTG 1 and 3 had ridiculous legs, 2 not as much but mostly because it opened so astronomically high). I think 90-100 million dollar opening is guaranteed seeing how historically Superman films have opened, so it gets that and it's actually really not that hard for it to do 700+ million or so.

90-100M OW is absolutely not guaranteed in today's movie-going climate. I'd consider an 80M opening a big success because I think it could easily open lower.

 

[SwordOfMorning]

The audience doesn’t care about Superman. At all. It’s a cast of almost total randos without a single box office draw among them and no marketable hooks. It’s a deeply damaged brand. It has to be both amazing, incredibly well marketed and also lucky frankly.

 

[Invader Joker]

The audience doesn’t care about Superman. At all. It’s a cast of almost total randos without a single box office draw among them and no marketable hooks. It’s a deeply damaged brand. It has to be both amazing, incredibly well marketed and also lucky frankly.

Completely anecdotal but the amount of social media engagement I've seen for Gunn's Superman movie so far is extremely, extremely comparable to the engagement I saw for The Batman 5 years ago. Far more tweets and stuff with 100K+ likes than I expected especially in regards to casting announcements. His symbol trended #1 if I recall correctly and Supergirl casting also trended. I think audiences are ready for a new Superman film.

 

[SwordOfMorning]

Completely anecdotal but the amount of social media engagement I've seen for Gunn's Superman movie so far is extremely, extremely comparable to the engagement I saw for The Batman 5 years ago. Far more tweets and stuff with 100K+ likes than I expected especially in regards to casting announcements. His symbol trended #1 if I recall correctly and Supergirl casting also trended.

I’d love to be wrong but it’s almost impossible for me to imagine a Superman movie starring no one anyone cares about that is inherently a much more conventional superhero movie in an era where that’s not a great thing to be developing similar hype to a Batman movie starring Pattinson who is ****ing gigantic among certain demographics even if he isn’t like a Tom Cruise.

For the record, I think despite my cynicism I’ll like it more than a lot of people here will if Gunn makes a Gunn movie.

 

[Comicbookguy339]

I’d love to be wrong but it’s almost impossible for me to imagine a Superman movie starring no one anyone cares about that is inherently a much more conventional superhero movie in an era where that’s not a great thing to be developing similar hype to a Batman movie starring Pattinson who is ****ing gigantic among certain demographics even if he isn’t like a Tom Cruise.

For the record, I think despite my cynicism I’ll like it more than a lot of people here will if Gunn makes a Gunn movie.

I think we're long past comic book movies (or blockbusters in general) needing a big name in order to be successful. People show up for the character, not the actor. As for Superman, I wouldn't say that it specifically is a damaged brand. I worry more about people just being over superhero movies in general. Asking audiences to invest in yet another connected universe this late in the game might be too much.

 

[Invader Joker]

I’d love to be wrong but it’s almost impossible for me to imagine a Superman movie starring no one anyone cares about that is inherently a much more conventional superhero movie in an era where that’s not a great thing to be developing similar hype to a Batman movie starring Pattinson who is ****ing gigantic among certain demographics even if he isn’t like a Tom Cruise.

Well you better imagine it because like I said, it's already happening. The hype regarding this movie reminds me /a lot/ of the one I saw for The Batman, and it'll only grow from here. If the marketing nails it then I do think it'll be a big event.
Just look at the numbers here.

 

[SwordOfMorning]

The best thing they can do is frame it as an Event, something like Barbie or Dune. I feel like if it has too much of the stink of a shared universe pilot episode it’s not gonna go over well.

 

[Black Narcissus]

So many great female director choices out there and we go with wonderbread. I don't hate this choice, but way better choices out there. Eh.

 

[Comicbookguy339]

So many great female director choices out there and we go with wonderbread. I don't hate this choice, but way better choices out there. Eh.

Are there? Outside of indie directors, that is?

 

[Invader Joker]

The best thing they can do is frame it as an Event, something like Barbie or Dune. I feel like if it has too much of the stink of a shared universe pilot episode it’s not gonna go over well.

I do think that as far as the audience is concerned, this is just a Superman movie right now anyway. At this stage it's actually not that different from The Batman in a way. Iconic superhero everybody knows tackled by a filmmaker who may not be a brand yet but whose done films that the general audience likes which makes them curious how they'll tackle the property.

Also honestly don't think there is any evidence whatsoever that audiences are actually turned off the concept of cinematic universes lol. Quantumania opened really big, the same year that The Batman came out it was still outgrossed by Dr. Strange precisely because it was a cinematic universe movie. I think they just got tired of the old DCEU which had no direction or cohesion. I do think it being the start of a cinematic universe will help it make it an event for curiosity sake, as well as just being a Superman movie. But primarily I expect it to be marketed as a Superman movie anyway.

 

[Black Narcissus]

Are there? Outside of indie directors, that is?

Gerwig was considered an indie director, till she wasn't. WW was Jenkins first big budget film. Jennifer Kent has stated that she is interested in studio flicks, but doesn't get those calls. I fully expect bald Feige to at the very least have a meeting with Rose Glass.

 

[Comicbookguy339]

Gerwig was considered an indie director, till she wasn't. WW was Jenkins first big budget film. Jennifer Kent has stated that she is interested in studio flicks, but doesn't get those calls. I fully expect bald Feige to at the very least have a meeting with Rose Glass.

But are there any female indie directors out there to whom you could immediately point to as being a great fit for Supergirl? And sure, you could get a Greta Gerwig or a Patty Jenkins (although based on WW84 I don't think she's very good) but you could also get a director who's in way over his or her head. Invader Joker made a good point about how the safest bet is to get a journeyman director who has experience with big studio movies. And outside of Kathryn Bigelow I can't really think of any women that fall under that category.

 

[Invader Joker]

But are there any female indie directors out there to whom you could immediately point to as being a great fit for Supergirl? And sure, you could get a Greta Gerwig or a Patty Jenkins (although based on WW84 I don't think she's very good) but you could also get a director who's in way over his or her head. Invader Joker made a good point about how the safest bet is to get a journeyman director who has experience with big studio movies. And outside of Kathryn Bigelow I can't really think of any women that fall under that category.

Gina Prince-Bythewood does too but she's busy with another film. Niki Caro too but I have a hard time believing she'd be any better than Craig.

 

[Comicbookguy339]

Gina Prince-Bythewood does too but she's busy with another film. Niki Caro too but I have a hard time believing she'd be any better than Craig.

Can't comment on Gina Prince-Bythewood because I haven't seen any of her films but Caro's Mulan live action remake was just awful.

 

[Black Narcissus]

But are there any female indie directors out there to whom you could immediately point to as being a great fit for Supergirl? And sure, you could get a Greta Gerwig or a Patty Jenkins (although based on WW84 I don't think she's very good) but you could also get a director who's in way over his or her head. Invader Joker made a good point about how the safest bet is to get a journeyman director who has experience with big studio movies. And outside of Kathryn Bigelow I can't really think of any women that fall under that category.

Son, one of the main reasons we don't have any other women directors that easily fits onto your Bigelow criteria is for this very reason youre kinda against it in the first place. They don' t get the same opportunities to go up and take a swing. Not for lack of talent. Rumors are the script is great, so I'd easily put money on most of the indie filmmakers not screwing this up.

 

[Luigi]

I'd like to throw Nida Manzoor into the conversation. Polite Society was one of my favorites from 2023. She did a job balancing the teenage angst with the action beats.

 

[Invader Joker]

Son, one of the main reasons we don't have any other women directors that easily fits onto your Bigelow criteria is for this very reason youre kinda against it in the first place. They don' t get the same opportunities to go up and take a swing. Not for lack of talent. Rumors are the script is great, so I'd easily put money on most of the indie filmmakers not screwing this up.

I’m a VFX Artist, and I’m Tired of Getting ‘Pixel-F–ked’ by Marvel

What’s it like to work as a visual-effects artist for the MCU? “I’ve had co-workers sit next to me, break down, and start crying.”

www.vulture.com

The main problem is most of Marvel’s directors aren’t familiar with working with visual effects. A lot of them have just done little indies at the Sundance Film Festival and have never worked with VFX. They don’t know how to visualize something that’s not there yet, that’s not on set with them. So Marvel often starts asking for what we call “final renders.” As we’re working through a movie, we’ll send work-in-progress images that are not pretty but show where we’re at. Marvel often asks for them to be delivered at a much higher quality very early on, and that takes a lot of time. Marvel does that because its directors don’t know how to look at the rough images early on and make judgment calls. But that is the way the industry has to work. You can’t show something super pretty when the basics are still being fleshed out.

Hiring indie filmmakers that don't have any sort of experience directing VFX-heavy films is one of the main reasons the output has become so ****ed and unmanageable the last couple years, not to mention as the article states, one of the reasons VFX artists become overworked with poor results. You need a certain skillset to manage a film of a scale as large as this one with very specific technical requirements, just like you'd any other job.

 

[Comicbookguy339]

I’m a VFX Artist, and I’m Tired of Getting ‘Pixel-F–ked’ by Marvel

What’s it like to work as a visual-effects artist for the MCU? “I’ve had co-workers sit next to me, break down, and start crying.”

www.vulture.com

The main problem is most of Marvel’s directors aren’t familiar with working with visual effects. A lot of them have just done little indies at the Sundance Film Festival and have never worked with VFX. They don’t know how to visualize something that’s not there yet, that’s not on set with them. So Marvel often starts asking for what we call “final renders.” As we’re working through a movie, we’ll send work-in-progress images that are not pretty but show where we’re at. Marvel often asks for them to be delivered at a much higher quality very early on, and that takes a lot of time. Marvel does that because its directors don’t know how to look at the rough images early on and make judgment calls. But that is the way the industry has to work. You can’t show something super pretty when the basics are still being fleshed out.

Hiring indie filmmakers that don't have any sort of experience directing VFX-heavy films is one of the main reasons the output has become so ****ed and unmanageable the last couple years, not to mention as the article states, one of the reasons VFX artists become overworked with poor results. You need a certain skillset to manage a film of a scale as large as this one with very specific technical requirements, just like you'd any other job.

This. DC is in a very vulnerable place right now and gambling it all on unproven indie directors (male or female) is not worth the risk.

 

[Black Narcissus]

Nah, its mostly a combo of things all together. The cb genre has gone downhill mostly recently due to bad scripts. Most folks will usually let bad cgi slide. Muschietti wasn't a hack by any means either and look what he delivered. lawd.

 

[Invader Joker]

Nah, its mostly a combo of things all together. The cb genre had gone downhill mostly recently due to bad script and awful directing. Most folks will usually let bad cgi slide.

This fact may be surprising: The bad CGI, just as that article by a VFX artist states, is a result of awful directing.

 

[Black Narcissus]

This fact may be surprising: The bad CGI, just as that article by a VFX artist states, is a result of awful directing.

This fact might blow your mind and get you another month ban, but we can't get another Bigelow without taking chances on unknown directors. Take that as you want it, chief.

 

[Invader Joker]

This fact might blow your mind and get you another month ban, but we can't get another Bigelow without taking chances on unknown directors. Take that as you want it, chief.

Of course there needs to be more opportunities for chances to be taken, but at the same time, you can't just grab a any random indie director that only has low budget movies under their belt with pretty much no VFX and suddenly throw them to a 200 million dollar VFX extravaganza. There has to be a ladder to these things. Low budget to mid budget and what have you. The real problem here is that there aren't enough mid budget films getting made for people to climb that ladder, but that has nothing to do with what Gunn and Safran should do with this film.