The first full length trailer to
Man of Steel is a little over a week away, debuting on the big screen with
The Hobbit on December 14th. At New York Comic Con, I had the opportunity to participate in a round table interview with writer/director/producer/actor/and fan boy icon Kevin Smith to talk up his hit show
Comic Book Men, which just wrapped up its second season on AMC last Sunday.
As always, Smith was laid back, chatty, good natured and fun, and held nothing back while chatting up us online reporters. I have had several audiences with him over the years through Access Hollywood, including New York City press junket interviews for
Dogma and
Jersey Girl, and it's refreshing to see he has not changed. At NYCC, he had a lot to say about a lot of things, some directly related to his show, and some not.
Knowing his history with Warner Bros. regarding the aborted Tim Burton big screen reboot of Superman that was to star Nicholas Cage (yep), for which Smith wrote a discarded early draft for (check out the video below for his version of the ordeal), I snuck in the very last question before our slot was up to inquire about what his thoughts were on the Zack Snyder's upcoming
Man of Steel starring Henry Cavill. As of this writing, all we have seen is the artsy teaser trailer, scant official images and a slew of paparazzi shots from the film set.
But here is Smith's reaction, prediction, hopes, and advice regarding Warners choice of Snyder to take the reigns of the world's most iconic superhero (and although broken up into sections here, this was a single answer to my final question).
"I trust Zack Snyder with my wife’s life and my child’s life if I had to. He’s a talented individual who knows how to tell a story."
"I saw the first teaser for the movie and I thought I was watching a fucking Irish Spring commercial. But then all of a sudden I said ‘Oh I see what you’re going for here.’"
"I trust him man. I think he’s amazing. He’s the dude like just how you know Marvel has Joss (Whedon) now and stuff. DC should just put a harness around Zack Snyder and be like ‘Do every one of these big books. Every one of the DC books.'"
"I think he did a great job with
Watchmen. I think he did a great job (I know its not a DC book), with
300. I think he’ll do a great job with Superman. I think obviously DC’s New 52 loosened us all up about what Superman is, because Grant Morrison has redefined it a few times at this point, but even most recently with the new books."
"You won't have so many people now going 'Where’s that Dick Donner Superman??” you know? A lot of our generation, that’s what we were looking for. We thought we wanted it on the last movie and that’s what Bryan Singer gave us. And when he gave us exactly what we all thought we wanted, a lot of people bitched or yawned, or something like that."
"So it’s nice to see Zack coming in with a shakeup take that isn't the same fucking story we've seen in film. I trust that he knows what he’s doing and that it will be really fucking cool. And I’m not even a Superman guy. Like when it comes to those characters, he’s not way up on my list. But he's a icon, I am a DC guy and I hope they do him well 'cause that means we get one step closer to doing Justice League."
"Like if I’m DC right now and Warner Bros., I’m stealing every idea from Marvel films. I’m not even being fucking shy about it. I'm being like 'Oh, that’s how you make a billion dollars or more? Fuck it, lets go!" Just steal their plan. It’s a great plan. You start making your movies separately, bring ‘em all together in a fucking team movie, go back out to separates, come back in to the team movie."
"Hopefully they pick up on it soon. There’s no such thing as like ‘Can't steal a good idea.' Shit that’s what this country, half the world, is founded on: Take a good idea, make it just a little bit like your own. Let them do that, DC and Warner. If they ape the Marvel model, I know every fan boy in this room will be happy, and I think the box office will be a lot happier too."
"I'm not going to say it begins with Zack Snyder, because I’m not gonna put the pressure on him for this
Man of Steel flick, but he’d be my choice. Him, or I tell ya, fuck it Timur (Bekmambetov), the guy who did
Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter. Give
that guy a
Justice League movie. Holy shit, just visually arresting. He knows fucking what to do with that camera. Brings you into the story right away. He did
Wanted, so he already knows how to do a comic book movie with villains and heroes and shit."
"So I don’t know, thats what I’d like to see, and I know nobody asked."
"I look forward to Superman."
I hope we will all be looking forward to Superman in
Man of Steel after the new trailer hits.
