Zack Snyder’s Introduction For Man of Steel.

This piece was I scanned and OCRed from “Man of Steel: Inside the Legendary World of Superman ”, which is one of my favorite Zack’s article about how and why he decided to remake a modern version of this Iconic character and Greatest Superhero of all time.

THE SINGLE POINT AT WHICH everything we know and everything we question exist in one place; the ultimate crossroads in the journey of discovering the true meaning of”self”; the collision point of science and religion, tangible and ethereal, physical and philosophical; the place where a question that may never truly have an answer can be embodied in a singular character-in many ways, that is the why of Superman.

In my mind, the coolest part about the character of Kal-EI/Clark Kent is that his alien origins, combined with his Smallville upbringing, simultaneously make him entirely relatable and completely mysterious, This duality allows us to look at ourselves through the prism of Clark, embracing that which we understand and forcing us to acknowledge and accept that which we don’t yet comprehend.Although the challenges facing Clark may be much more interplanetary than our own, the reality is that those sometimes overwhelming difficulties we each struggle to reconcile as we grow-especially throughout our youth-often feel just as immense as being from another planet.

Seventy-five years ago; Kandor and Kansas collided,giving birth to one of the most storied characters of all time-Superman-a single character who calls into question everything we believe.Whether it is the belief that we humans are the apex of an evolutionary process, the pinnacle of God’s creation, or anything else along the complex spectrum where science and theisms grapple for space, Superman challenges all of those ideas to their core. He forces us to look at ourselves as individuals, and mankind as a whole, through the filter of a being who looks very much like us but has the physical strength and abilities of a god. Yet, despite his corporeal strengths, he is not omniscient,and therefore must venture out into the world on his own journey of self-discovery.No more able to see the future than any of us, and in many ways much less aware of his past than most, he is, in essence, a lost god.A deity forced to walk the Earth alone, seeking his own personal truth while inadvertently calling into question the very truths the rest of mankind cling to so tightly.

That was the challenge that I found most interesting when I decided to take on Man of steel.I was enthralled by the amazing opportunity to place this helplessly divine figure firmly in our imperfect world.It was a chance to tell the complicated story of a struggling savior, a reluctant messiah, in a modern way.An opportunity to carefully deconstruct the classic godlike character, who we have often perceived as aspirational but also distant and divine at times.Allowing the audience to walk alongside Clark during his formative years-matching stride with him as a child, a teen, and ultimately a young man-creates a bond that perseveres even as that man becomes mythological in stature.That initial kinship is what lets us as humans experience the transformative process of the character from an incredibly close proximity, ultimately helping us to both understand and relate to the evolution of Clark Kent into Superman.

Making Man of Steel has been an amazing journey.As a filmmaker, I consider it an honor to have the opportunity to lovingly deconstruct and reassemble such a beloved character and rich imaginative world.I’m thrilled to have been to immerse myself in seventy-five years of legend and lore, and I am now excited to share with you my own journey in building upon the already mythological world of Superman.

Scan by Fiona ( @fukujang0627)