Brandon Breyer (Jackson A. Dunn)
“Maybe adopting an alien baby you find in the woods isn’t the best idea,” says director David Yarovesky of his new Superman-inspired horror movie ‘Brightburn’, which stars Elizabeth Banks and David Denman as the Kent-esque farm couple who adopt a mysterious infant they find on their farm. But unlike Kal-El, this child, who they name Brandon Breyer, doesn’t share the Kryptonian’s compassion for the human race.
In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, producer James Gunn adds:
“[‘Brightburn’ is] a great Memorial Day movie. Who doesn’t want to see an alien child on a murderous rampage as we begin our summer?”
Well, by the time, audiences should have had their fill of altruistic heroes in spandex, so maybe a trip to the dark side is in order.
‘Brightburn’ originated with James’ brother Brian and their cousin Mark Gunn.
“Brian and Mark were talking about doing this new take on the superhero myth. It was a creepy, scary, almost independent-movie-type script. We just kept bashing this thing out for about six months, eight months before we got the script to a place where we thought, ‘Yeah, let’s go make that.’”
While Superman has his famous S shield logo, Gunn wanted Brandon to have his own iconic garment, that creepy mask shown above.
“I just gave so many notes on that mask, trying to create a really truly iconic horror movie character in the same way that Freddy Krueger is, or in the same way that Leatherface is, or in the same way that Jason is. Trying to create something with that same sort of feel that is instantly scary [and] plays with the superhero-ness of it all but at the same time is most definitely rooted in horror.”
Maybe after being put through the wringer by Disney who fired him from the ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ franchise after controversial old tweets resurfaced, Gunn wanted to take time to recover in a therapeutic environment.
“We wanted to create a movie that was not only a great movie but was actually pleasant to make with people who we trusted and loved around us. Elizabeth is one of my very close friends and since she starred in Slither I’ve wanted to work with her again. This was a perfect opportunity to create something that I think spoke to her very specifically, so she was excited about it.”
Somehow, it doesn’t seem that this lovey-dovey feeling is going to translate to the audience when ‘Brightburn’ arrives. The trailers are already pretty terrifying!
We’ll know for sure when ‘Brightburn’ opens on May 24.
