Latest news with #LoisLane
Gizmodo
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Gizmodo
I Love That ‘Superman' Loves Journalism
James Gunn's Superman operates on a litany of fantasies: a world where superpowered individuals have existed for centuries and roam among us, a world where the public almost universally loves a singular alien who has come to planet Earth to uplift and protect humanity's greatest ideals in the name of a better tomorrow. Those are key suspensions of disbelief for practically every superhero movie. But in stark contrast to that, its other key pillar in that suspension is much more down to earth: that modern journalism can be universally accepted to save the day as much as any superhero between all the pocket universe destruction, Kryptonian drama, and superhuman scrapping, Superman is perhaps one of the most surprisingly effective pop culture movies about journalism in a very long time. Comic book characters have long had a history with working in the news industry, from alter egos like Clark himself to Peter Parker, or human allies like Vicki Vale, Lois Lane, Ben Urich, Robbie Robertson, and many more, but more often than not their journalistic backgrounds have to take a backstep to the necessity of a superhero story (especially for heroes themselves, when ethical concerns come into play). Superman does play with the tension of this conflict briefly, although largely to similarly ignore it as the comics do—both Clark and Lois touch upon the conflicts of interest they have in both dating each other and their knowledge of Superman's secret identity; Jimmy Olsen's huge report on Lex Luthor's connection to the Boravian invasion of Jarhanpur is predicated on damning evidence from a source he was previously romantically involved with, information he exchanges on the promise of a weekend-length date with said source. We never know if the latter's report discloses that fact, and it seems Lois never runs anything from her bombshell interview with Clark in the opening act of the film—presumably because in an ideal world she would have to disclose or recuse herself from reporting on it given her personal relationship with the subject. But the fact that Superman even remotely cares about that speaks to its broader interest in journalism, and in particular journalism as a tool of public good. Clark and Lois' first major scene together in the film takes place over an interview at the latter's apartment, after Lois chides Clark that laundering his reputation as the Daily Planet's premiere Superman reporter means just giving himself easy, uninteresting questions to answer. It's a delightful scene to watch from a journalism perspective, even putting aside the hypocrisy of Lois knocking Clark for reporting on himself before proceeding to interview her own romantic partner. Both Clark and Lois take on personas here: the former stops being Clark and 'becomes' Superman, both talking about himself in the third person and adopting the body language and tone he has when he is in costume. But just as importantly, Lois separates herself from being a flirtatious girlfriend (as much as she can outside of, again, removing herself from the interview entirely as a conflict of interest) and becomes 'Ms. Lane,' investigative reporter at the Daily Planet. Aside from including the most concise explanation of how being 'on the record' works with a reporter to ever hit a superhero movie (whenever Superman hits home release, I yearn to clip and send that soundbite to half the contacts in my inbox), the back-and-forth between Lois and Clark frames their interview as, rightfully, Lois speaking truth to Superman's power as a superhuman, godlike entity on the level of nation states like Boravia or corporations like LutherCorp. And that is what Superman is, she argues much to Clark's frustration, if he is going to make unilateral decisions to intervene in international conflicts: a power that a good reporter will question and hold to account. The scene even subtly has Lois navigate the thorny compromise of conducting this interview from a detached perspective, even if the framing of her questions doesn't necessarily align with her own personal beliefs. As she says to Clark at one point, she can't trust Boravia's claims of wanting to liberate Jarhanpur from an authoritarian regime, but as a reporter, she has to allow for that claim to be as valid as Superman's claim that his intervention was the only alternative to save lives. It's a fascinating acknowledgement of public criticism of media impartiality in our own world, an especially delicate act to balance given readings of Superman's Boravia-Jarhanpur conflict as a parallel to the likes of the Russian invasion of Ukraine or Israel's occupation of Gaza (and in particular for that latter reading, criticism of the media's failure to report on Israel's campaign as a genocide). And this is in a superhero movie where a questionably-haircutted Nathan Fillion fights a giant kaiju and summons emerald constructs of pure will in the shape of one-finger salutes! But the reality of journalism on display in that scene between Lois and Clark isn't really the fantasy that sits along the comic book fantasy of superheroes in Superman. Amidst the chaos of the movie's third act of Metropolis being torn apart by Lex Luthor's pocket universe rift, the real stakes of the movie coalesce around Lois and Jimmy's report on Luthor's relationship with the Boravian president, Vasil Ghurkos. Literally filing directly into the Daily Planet's CMS (that's a Content Management System, for those not in the know—from one CMS writer to another, kudos to Mr. Olsen for living the risk of not drafting in the DC equivalent of Google Docs!), from Mr. Terrific's ship, the Planet team launches their article with immediate impact. The report is all over the news and has as much, if not more, sway in turning public opinion back in Superman's favor as Clark literally whizzing around saving lives and trying to stop Metropolis from splitting in half does. The report has direct consequences leading to Lex Luthor's arrest: the Daily Planet is arguably as crucial to saving the day in Superman's finale as the titular hero himself is. In a modern journalism environment where outlets across the industry are shuttering every day, battling the rise of generative AI, or simply trying to navigate a sociopolitical environment that has become increasingly siloed in the echo chambers of a 'post-truth' world, the fact that the Daily Planet survives and thrives in the importance of its mission perhaps requires as much suspension of disbelief as a man who's faster than a speeding bullet and can leap buildings in a single bound. (And that any reporter at what appears to be a primarily print media news organization can afford either Lois Lane's or Clark Kent's apartments, but that's beside the point). Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what's next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Watch: Rachel Brosnahan's 'travel curse' nearly cost her 'Superman' audition
July 17 (UPI) -- Superman actress Rachel Brosnahan says she had a "travel curse" that nearly caused her to miss the audition to portray the iconic Lois Lane. The former Marvelous Mrs. Maisel star, 35, discussed the curse, and how she broke it, when she stopped by The Tonight Show starring Jimmy Fallon Wednesday. "This is a good example of the curse," she said, referring to her Superman audition. Brosnahan was in New York City doing a show on Broadway and was attempting to make it to Los Angeles for the audition. "We got offstage at like 11:00 p.m. The only flight that would get me there in time was at 6 a.m. So, I got to the airport. I got there early, and the flight starts getting delayed and I just had a bad feeling about it, because curse," she explained. The flight was ultimately canceled and she ran back and forth across the airport trying to book another flight. "I got there and honestly I feel like the chaos that came with me after what I'd been through that morning must have felt so Lois Lane-coded or something because it worked out just fine," she said. She added that her curse is so bad she hired a witch to break it ahead of the Superman promotional tour. "I got really desperate and I started asking people if anyone knew like an energy healer or like a past-life reader... And so I called a witch and brought her to my house," she said. "...She brought a wishing well and a wand and she signed an NDA." Brosnahan reports her travel curse has since been lifted. Superman raked in some $122 million at the box office over the weekend. The film stars David Corenswet as the titular hero.
Time of India
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- Time of India
'Superman': Mikaela Hoover recalls the reactions being real for 'T-Craft' scene; reveals cast had no idea
The 'Superman' cast had an unprecedented and amusing work day when they got to experience the magic of high-tech flying T-Craft, possibly in the most authentic way. Mikaela Hoover , who plays a colleague of Lois Lane (Rachel Brosnahan), revealed that the entire cast didn't know anything about the T-Craft before filming the scene, making all the reactions quite genuine. 'Superman' cast members gave real reactions to T-Craft According to People, the fictional aircraft, which is played by the character Mister Terrific ( Edi Gathegi ), is used by Lois Lane at the end of the film. She invites her colleagues at the Daily Planet newspaper on board, one of whom is the gossip columnist Cat Grant (Mikaela Hoover). Revealing the behind-the-scenes drama, Hoover said that no one from the cast knew about T-Craft. 'When we got in there and we buckled our seat belts, we had no idea that [the T-Craft] was really going to lift up or go down or right or left,' she claimed, before adding, 'We didn't know what was going to happen. So all of those reactions we had in the T-Craft are real." Mikaela Hoover's high-tech roller coaster ride Furthermore, the 41-year-old compared her feelings to being on a roller coaster ride or a topsy-turvy ride. Recalling the day, she said, 'One of the cast members has a weak stomach and was like, 'I'm gonna be sick.' It was quite the experience,' adding that the specific T-Craft scene with the Daily Planet employees was shot for an entire day. 'We were in there for a long time, and there were a lot of takes, but we got the hang of what was going to happen,' Hoover said. She continued that it was the initial time when they had no idea about how bumpy it would be or what was going to happen to all of them.
India Today
5 days ago
- General
- India Today
Flight AI171 loss aches, yet data shows air travel the safest in India
A series of escalating disasters in Metropolis. One of them is a helicopter fallen from the sky and dangling barely from the top of a skyscraper, about to fall. Also dangling in the air is one of the passengers—Lois Lane. It's chaos on the ground. A tragedy is swoops the red-caped hero. He flies up and catches Lois midair. And then, with just one hand, he also grabs the wrecked helicopter and stops it from falling on the people on the ground. 'Statistically speaking, of course, it is still the safest way to travel,' he tells a shocked Lois and flies was the first Superman movie, in 1978. That line, statistically speaking, was true then. Almost five decades later, it still 12, 2025 turned out to be an unfortunate day to be airborne. Minutes after take-off from Ahmedabad, Air India Flight AI171—a formidable Boeing Dreamliner—went down; 260 lives lost and a lone surviving passenger. Images of the wreckage, grieving relatives and search-and-rescue work splashed across the globe. It was the type of tragedy that makes a country stop and mourn. But as the dust settles, a more sobering aspect remains true. Flying is safer than it has ever been in India. It is still statistically the safest way to travel in the country—better than by road or what hard data says. Take 2023, for instance. Not a single accident per million flight departures took place in Indian civil aviation. For a country as large and disordered, as packed with people, as India, this was no mean feat. And it's been validated was ranked 48th in a recent assessment by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), which audits countries for aviation safety. The country was 102 in 2018. Yet, any step-up in the rankings is more than it's cracked up to be: India's Effective Implementation (EI) Score, essentially how well it enforces aviation safety standards, is 85.65 per cent. In key areas, it's better than of the United States and China. In the sub-category of airworthiness—perhaps the most important of the lot—India got 97.06 per of this is intended to say that air travel is free of risk. Few things in life are. But the chances of things fatally going wrong on a flight are minuscule, especially when compared with the for instance, the roads. Over 460,000 road accidents are reported in India every year. Nearly 170,000 people died in 2022-23—close to 470 a day. Most of those deaths never make news. They happen on highways, in cities and in distant corners of the country. They snuff out children, students, workers, the elderly, often families in travel has had its share of tragedies. In 2023-24, the railways reported 40 major accidents, which killed over 330 people and injured over 800. Indeed, that is a small number when compared with the millions of people who take a train every day. Nevertheless, they are fatalities. And buses? They kill more than 5,600 people on Indian roads each year. That's approximately 3-4 per cent of all road traffic while no one noticed, aviation did its boring thing—quietly carrying millions of people without a single commercial aviation accident in 2023. That's not luck. It is the product of something much more profound—long-term investment in safety, training and infrastructure. For half a decade now, India's aviation stakeholders—regulators, airlines, airport operators—have been ratcheting up the pressure, keeping vigilant, even if not particularly Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has overhauled pilot training, stepped up inspections and introduced a more assertive approach to surveillance. The numbers say it all. India achieved a 25 per cent drop in high-risk 'airprox' incidents (when planes come too close to each other in the air) in 2023, a 92 per cent drop in ground-proximity (potential collisions of aircraft with terrain or obstacles) alerts, and 23 per cent fewer poorly-stabilised landings. It's not perfect. But it's what makes the AI171 crash such a jolt. According to the initial cockpit voice recordings, the fuel-control switches for both engines were somehow shut off in flight, which caused the aircraft to lose all power. Investigators are still trying to work out what occurred—whether it was a freak mechanical failure, human error or a series of events that no one could foresee. What is clear is that the fatal crash was the first for a Boeing 787, which began flying in is also, crucially, a statistical outlier. But in the public imagination, little factoids like that can be obscured by the emotional crush of a disaster. Airplane crashes, as rare as they are, have a tendency to lodge in the mind in a way road accidents do not. Maybe it is the magnitude of the tragedy or the speed of it or even the thought of how helpless passengers are when a plane goes for all sorts of reasons, one plane crash seems to incite infinitely more public outrage than thousands of deaths each year from vehicles on the road. For the past 10 years, Union road transport and highways minister Nitin Gadkari has been highlighting everywhere, even in Parliament, that road accidents take more lives than wars and terrorism. By now, the analogy barely fact, India accounts for almost 10 per cent of global road fatalities. Among the young—between the ages of 5 to 29—road accident injuries are the top cause of death, government data shows. And yet, hashtags and headlines and desperate calls for change are all too disconnect matters. When perception and reality don't remotely sync, policy follows the sound, not the demand. But if there's anything Indian aviation's safety record demonstrates, it is that the unglamorous work can pay the world is taking note. Now, several nations are looking to India's model of aviation safeguards—with its mix of state capacity, public-private partnerships and a convergence with global norms. India has adopted the ICAO's National Aviation Safety Plan template; it actively engages in worldwide safety discussions and seems to want to be up to speed with the current global conversations on air of this changes the terrible loss of Flight AI171. When people die, no amount of data can mean anything to their families and friends. But for the millions still flying every day—to work, to family, to opportunity, it may be worthwhile to know what bigger picture really still looks is why, late on July 17, the Indian government's Aircraft Accidents Investigation Bureau, uncharacteristically issued a statement criticising 'a section of the international media' and remarked: 'While the accident of this dimension has drawn public attention and shock, it needs to be appreciated that this is not the time to create public anxiety or angst towards safety of the Indian aviation industry, particularly on the basis of unfounded facts.'One terrible day does not define the skies. The real measure is how safely passengers travel on all the other days. On that count, India's skies are not just open. They are still among the safest in the to India Today Magazine- EndsMust Watch
New York Times
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- New York Times
How Superman Handles a Lois Lane Interview
In 'Anatomy of a Scene,' we ask directors to reveal the secrets that go into making key scenes in their movies. See new episodes in the series on Fridays. You can also watch our collection of more than 150 videos on YouTube and subscribe to our YouTube channel. A budding relationship gets in the way of dogged journalism in this scene from 'Superman.' The film's screenwriter and director, James Gunn, narrates the sequence in the above video, which involves a conversation between Lois Lane (Rachel Brosnahan) and Superman, a.k.a. Clark Kent (David Corenswet) in Lois's apartment. The two are dating, and Clark agrees to be interviewed as Superman by Lois. She asks him about a recent incident in which he prevented one fictional country in the DC universe, Boravia, from invading another, Jarhanpur. 'I think the fun thing about the scene, what I really love about it, is that it addresses so many different things in so many ways,' Gunn said during an interview in New York. 'We're talking about Lois and Clark's relationship in a way that we've never seen it. But we're also getting to know them as human beings more and seeing what their belief systems are, which is important for a movie like this. And also, we're saying, if somebody like Superman did exist, how he could affect world politics in such an incredible and strange way.' 'I just wanted to keep things simultaneously grounded, but also fast paced,' Gunn said. 'There is a little bit of 'His Girl Friday,' 'It Happened One Night' in the dialogue, but also keep everything as real as we possibly can and make it a surprise for 'Superman' viewers.' Read the 'Superman' review. Sign up for the Movies Update newsletter and get a roundup of reviews, news, Critics' Picks and more.
