James Gunn refused to cut Superman's 'hotly debated' squirrel scene that baffled test audiences, Entertainment News
In the new blockbuster, the Man of Steel — played by David Corenswet — is shown rescuing a squirrel while the city of Metropolis is being attacked by a giant monster and the 58-year-old director has admitted it was one of the movie's "most hotly debated" scenes but he decided to keep it in the film despite guests at test screenings declaring they "did not like the squirrel".
Gunn told Rolling Stone magazine: "It was probably the second- or third-most hotly debated moment in the movie.
"Because we showed it to test audiences and some people did not like the squirrel.
"They're like: 'Why the f*** is he saving a squirrel? Why is he taking time out, saving a squirrel?'
"There was a cut where I cut it out and I'm like: 'I really miss the squirrel. He's gotta save the squirrel.'
"In addition, there were also some geographic problems with where he ended up if I didn't have him fly over with the squirrel. So I put the squirrel back in despite the protestations of some of my people on my crew."
The moviemaker expanded on the squirrel controversy in an interview with The New York Times, explaining: "A lot of people were anti-squirrel. They thought it was too much. And I think it really comes down to, do you like squirrels or not? ...
"I love squirrels. If a monster's tail was coming at the squirrel, I would save the squirrel if I could. I've done it before: Every day, I'm honking at squirrels on the road."
He added of test screenings: "When you test movies, almost always, especially in the early test screenings, one of the main questions they ask is: 'Is it too slow? Is it too fast? Is it just right?'
"And my movies have always had an overabundance of 'too fast' compared to 'too slow'. Because I'm not indulgent.
"I just don't give a s*** about my little precious moments that are so important to me in making a movie. I want to create something that's as streamlined as possible, and if that means I go too fast, sometimes I do. And so it really is about pulling back."
Leading man Corenswet also recently opened up about the squirrel scene — insisting it was good for the film to show the smaller moments.
During an interview on Phase Hero, he explained: "In movies, a lot of the time, you cut over, you cut out that stuff, you cut out the boring stuff, and you just skip to the exciting bits.
"And in real life, you know that they're they're these, these this, this commitment and this stamina that, that, that actually saves the day.
"So, it was fun to get to play with that in the movie of just Superman has to keep putting on his boots and going to work and you don't just cut to the most exciting save.
"You also see that he's got to get the squirrel out of the tree so the squirrel doesn't get smushed."
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While writing his early plays, he supported himself by teaching acting and movement classes in Summit, New Jersey, where one day, in 1968, he saw an altercation between a police officer and a young black man, Raymond Andrews, who was deaf and mute and unable to defend himself. Wilson took the teenager under his wing, appearing in court on his behalf and eventually adopting him. Wilson collaborated with Andrews on Deafman Glance (1971), which he described as a 'silent opera'. By then, he had attracted notice with his first mature work, The King Of Spain (1969). Seeing this three-hour, plot-free play, Harvey Lichtenstein, director of the Brooklyn Academy of Music, commissioned Wilson's next work, The Life And Times Of Sigmund Freud (1969). Einstein On The Beach In 1975, shortly after producing A Letter For Queen Victoria and The $ Value Of Man, Wilson disbanded his Byrd ensemble and – after two years of discussion about a subject – began work with Glass on Einstein On The Beach. 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He also worked several times with singer-songwriter Lady Gaga, including one work at the Louvre in Paris in 2013 involving what he called Video Portraits of her, posing her in the guise of subjects of historic paintings. Wilson's other creative partners included actors Brad Pitt, Winona Ryder, Renee Fleming, Alan Cumming and several animals – i ncluding a porcupine and a snowy owl – all of whom sat for Video Portraits he produced in 2004. The series has been screened at more than 50 museums and galleries around the world, as well as in Times Square. 'My theatre is formal. It's different from the way most directors work,' Wilson told Texas Monthly in 2020. 'It's another world I create; it's not a world that you see wherever you are, if you're in your office or if you're on the streets or at home. This is a different world. 'It's a world that's created for a stage. Light is different. The space is different. The way you walk is different. 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