There is a key moment in James Gunn’s Superman where the superhero saves a small squirrel while it is being attacked by a rampaging Kaiju monster in Metropolis - a moment that the first screening test audience hated.
In a recent interview with Rolling Stone, Gunn revealed that he fought to put the scene back on because according to him, it showed the empathetic and kind side of the Man of Steel.
“It was probably the second or third most hotly debated moment in the movie.” Gunn said. “We showed it to test audiences and some people did not like the squirrel. They asked, ‘Why is he saving a squirrel? Why is he taking time out, saving a squirrel?’”
Gunn shared, “There was a cut where I cut it out and I’m like, ‘I really miss the squirrel. He’s got to 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 protests of some people on my crew.”
Previously in an interview with the New York Times, Gunn had said, “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?”
Test screen audiences have also regularly complained that the pacing in Gunn’s films is “too fast”.
“When you test movies, 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',” revealed the director.
Defending his choices, Gunn explained, “I’m not indulgent. I just don’t care 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.”
Test screenings have become a regular process for studio films. However, they do not always reflect public taste. For example, Marvel director Kevin Feige once hyped up Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania by commenting, “Jonathan Majors, playing the villain Kang, was the highest-testing villain we’ve ever had in any of our ‘friends and families’ [screenings].’”
Despite this, the theatre audience remained unimpressed. The film flopped at the box office with $476 million worldwide and became one of Marvel’s lowest grossers.
Have something to add to the story? Share it in the comments below.
COMMENTS
Comments are moderated and generally will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive.
For more information, please see our Comments FAQ