Warner Bros. Pictures Co-chairs Pam Abdy And Michael De Luca Give A Seal Of Approval To James Gunn’s ‘Superman,’ Saying “DC Is In Great Hands”
Despite the growing skepticism about Superman, James Gunn has his fans and he is winning more people to his side all the time, especially where it counts. Warner Bros. inside players and Gunn colleagues Pam Abdy and Michael De Luca have seen the film, and they are putting their faith firmly behind Gunn’s vision and stewardship.
“We’ve seen an early cut of Superman, and I don’t want to bury the lede, there’s a lot of marketing about to roll out on the way to its release, but he really understood the assignment,” De Luca said on the podcast known as Smartless. “His heart’s in the right place, his aim is true, and we’re really excited about their new version of DC.”
De Luca also had praise for Gunn’s co-president, Peter Safran, and the job the two are doing. “I used to chase James as a producer when he did Slither and started with his low-budget movies. He’s really unique and I think DC is in great hands with the two of them,” he said.
Amid his effusive praise, the Warner Bros. Pictures Chairman had to clarify that Gunn and Safran report directly to CEO David Zaslav, not him and Abdy. “We actually have to stipulate: DC reports directly to David Zaslav, we don’t oversee it, but we were big supporters of Peter and James taking the job,” De Luca said. “Our advice when we were asked was it doesn’t need another career executive, it needs a storyteller in charge.
This could be a good sign for Superman, opening July 11th, or it could be spin and damage control. Reports of mutant monkeys with keyboards and a fake news campaign being part of the plot are leaving people confused. The tone might be too silly for the film’s own good, and Gunn may draw too heavily from his own experiences.
There are also issues with the source. Abdy and De Luca okayed Joker: Folie a Deux, and we know how that worked out. They are also the heads of a film division at a studio conglomerate that thought Batman & Robin and Wonder Woman: 1984 were good ideas. Not much about Superman, so far, indicates they’ve learned anything.
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