….
One Week Later.
Regal sat across from Zack Brag in the editing bay, surrounded by monitors displaying hundreds of hours of Superman footage.
No, the filming of [Superman] hadn't been completed yet. It is still in its third schedule break.
"Are you hundred percent sure about this?" Zack asked, not for the first time.
"I am not..." Regal admitted. "But we are doing it anyway."
This was unusual.
Unprecedented, actually, for a Regal production.
In Hollywood, most trailers dropped months before release, sometimes before filming even wrapped.
Studios wanted long promotional runways, sustained buzz, time to build anticipation through carefully orchestrated marketing campaigns.
Regal had never operated that way.
His pattern was consistent: finish the film completely, lock the edit, complete VFX and color grading, then release a trailer maybe six to eight weeks before premiere.
Short promotional window… Let the film speak for itself.
But [Superman] required a different strategy.
The leak had forced his hand.
Stephen Hawking Sr.'s involvement was already public knowledge, confirmed in everything but official statements.
The speculation had been building for over a month.
Entertainment outlets were running daily stories analyzing that five-second clip, theorizing about plot details, debating whether the casting was real.
It was time to take control of the narrative.
And that meant releasing a trailer now, in mid-July, five months before the December 19th premiere.
While the film was still in post-production, VFX shots were half-finished and color grading hadn't even started.
"This is going to be weird for me." Zack said, pulling up the footage bins. "I have never cut a trailer for you with incomplete effects. Usually by the time anything hits my editing table, it's ninety percent finished."
"I know. That's why we are doing this differently." Regal gestured to the timeline. "We will cut a rough assembly first. Identify which shots need VFX completion. Send those to the effects team as priority work. They will finish those specific shots first, before touching anything else in the film."
"So we are essentially creating a VFX queue based on trailer needs rather than chronological film order."
"We don't have a choice. Once we get the finished shots back, we refine the edit. Back and forth until it's perfect."
Zack pulled up a short list. "And we are confirming Stephen Sr.'s casting?"
"Not just confirming, making it the centerpiece." Regal's voice was firm. "We are not hiding anymore. Stephen Hawking Sr. is in this film. We are going to make that the headline."
"I love that…"
"Yeah, the speculation is dominating conversation anyway. We either control it or let it control us."
Zack nodded, understanding. "Alright. Let's see what we are working with."
….
They started with structure.
"Classic three-act trailer format." Regal explained, sketching on the whiteboard. "Act one: establish tone and world. Act two: introduce conflict. Act three: spectacle and promise."
"But we are leading with Stephen Sr.'s voiceover?"
Voiceovers weren't uncommon in Regal's trailer. In fact, it's his established trademark trailer cut.
"His voice is the throughline. The emotional anchor." Regal pulled up an audio file. "Listen to this."
Stephen's voice filled the editing bay, warm and paternal:
"This is the story of my son. Not the one I gave life to, but the one I chose to raise. The boy who fell from the stars and became more human than most humans I have known."
Zack sat back, letting it wash over him. "Man it's just his voice but it currently has the hook factor…."
"We open on that voiceover darkness. Then light, Kansas wheat fields, golden hour, Clark as a child watching the sunset with Jonathan. Cut to present day, Clark drifting, searching, not knowing where he belongs."
They began pulling shots.
Young Clark saves kids from the school bus.
Clark worked on fishing boats in Alaska.
Clark is sitting alone in a diner, isolated among crowds.
"Voiceover continues." Regal said. "Jonathan talking about destiny and choice. Then we transition—"
"The discovery." Zack was already queuing up footage. "Clark finding the ship in the Arctic."
"Right, the music should shift here… Becomes more mysterious, and alien. We see the ship activate, Kryptonian technology coming to life. Quick cuts, Clark touching the crystal, the hologram of Jor-El appearing, the suit being fabricated."
They worked through the day, assembling the framework.
Every shot was scrutinized, debated, repositioned.
Too much spectacle too early would overwhelm the emotion and too much emotion without payoff would bore audiences expecting superhero action.
"We need the flight." Zack said. "That's the money shot everyone wants to see."
Regal pulled up the footage from the cliff, Henry launching himself into the air, the wires catching him perfectly, cape billowing as he soared over the ocean.
"But it's not finished." Zack noted. "The background is green screen. We don't have the sky composite yet."
"That's priority one for VFX. We need this shot completed first." Regal made a note. "What else absolutely needs finishing for the trailer?"
They went through the footage systematically:
The Kryptonian ship activation (50% complete, needed full hologram effects)
Clark's first flight (80% complete, needed background and cape physics)
Zod's ships arriving (30% complete, needed complete spacecraft design)
The Smallville battle (20% complete, needed extensive destruction effects)
The Metropolis confrontation (15% complete, needed everything)
"We are essentially asking VFX to finish about forty shots out of sequence." Zack calculated. "That's going to mess with their workflow."
"I know. But it's necessary." Regal checked his watch. "Let me call Marcus."
….
[Unique FX]
Leo Woert appeared on the video screen, looking tired but intrigued.
Behind him, the VFX studio was visible, dozens of artists at workstations, monitors displaying wireframe models and particle simulations.
"Regal… this isn't your style of work. You are the last person I expect to make something impossible on an unreasonable timeline like this."
"Yeah, I know. But–" Regal smiled. "We are cutting a trailer for a July release. Which means I need about forty shots completed ahead of the rest of the film."
Leo whistled low. "You know better than anyone that this isn't how VFX pipelines work. We have been progressing chronologically through the film, building on completed work as we go. Jumping around to cherry-pick shots means—"
"As you stated, I know what it means. Disrupted workflow, artists having to switch contexts constantly, potential delays on the overall film. But I need this, Leo."
"Is this because of the leak?"
"It is. And we need to control the narrative now, not in four months."
Leo considered this. "Send me the shot list. I will see what we can do. But this is going to cost you, not money, but goodwill. My team's going to grumble about the disruption."
"Tell them there is a bonus for completing these shots by month's end. Substantial bonus."
"That is exactly why they like working on your film." Leo made notes–
"What's the absolute must-have? If I can only finish ten shots, which ten?"
"The flight sequence. Everything else is secondary."
"Noted. We will prioritize accordingly."
….
Ten days later.
The rough cut was taking shape.
Zack had assembled a two-minute-forty-second trailer that hit every emotional beat while building to the spectacle audiences expected.
The structure was solid and the pacing worked.
But half the shots were green screen or wireframe, placeholder effects that needed completion.
"Let me show you what we've got." Zack hit play.
FADE IN:
Darkness filled the screen. Wind howled across invisible plains. Then, faintly, the silhouette of wheat fields emerged under starlight.
STEPHEN'S VOICE: "This is the story of my son."
The image cut to a young boy standing at the edge of a field, watching the sun break over the horizon.
A man's hand rested on his shoulder, gentle and protective.
STEPHEN'S VOICE: "Not the one I gave life to, but the one I chose to raise."
The cuts came faster now, a montage of a young man drifting. Fishing boats. Construction sites.
Dim-lit bars, always in motion, never staying and fitting.
STEPHEN'S VOICE: "The boy who fell from the stars..."
A flash of fire. A spaceship embedded in a Kansas field, flames licking at scorched earth.
A pod opening. An infant, crying.
STEPHEN'S VOICE: "...and became more human than most humans I've known."
A teenage boy underwater, holding a school bus above his head. The kids inside, terrified. Safe.
Later, an argument.
Father and son.
Jonathan's face, grave with fear. "You have to keep this side of yourself a secret."
"What was I supposed to do?" Clark's voice cracked. "Let them die?"
The music shifted, deeper and more urgent.
Arctic ice stretched endlessly.
An older Clark, alone, walking toward something buried beneath the snow.
His hand touched metal - ancient and alien. Light erupted through crystalline structures, flooding the screen.
JOR-EL'S VOICE: "You will give the people of Earth an ideal to strive toward."
Rapid cuts. A suit being assembled, thread by impossible thread.
Clark pulled it on, the red and blue stark against pale skin. His first flight, awkward, exhilarating, soaring over an endless ocean.
Then the sky darkened.
Ships descended.
It was massive.
Crowds scattered in cities across the world.
Screaming, running but nowhere to go.
ZOD'S VOICE: "I will harvest all life on this planet. You can watch it die, or you can save it."
Superman stood face-to-face with Zod.
The Smallville street behind them, shattered storefronts, burning cars.
Martha Kent, screaming from somewhere offscreen. Jonathan, clutching his chest, falling.
STEPHEN'S VOICE: "You owe the world nothing, son."
A helicopter spiraling toward the ground. Superman caught it, mid-fall, muscles straining.
A building collapsed, he held the weight of it while people scrambled free beneath him.
He stood before Zod, cape whipping in the wind, unyielding.
STEPHEN'S VOICE: "But if you choose to give them something anyway... that's what makes you a hero."
Superman launched toward the camera, a blur of red and blue.
The S-shield expanded, filling the entire screen. Two fists collided, Superman and Zod, the impact shaking the frame.
TITLE CARD:
[SUPERMAN: MAN OF TOMORROW]
OCTOBER 9, 2014
One final image.
Superman suspended in the sky, sunlight blazing behind him.
For a moment, he didn't look like a savior, he looked alien and powerful but also utterly alone.
STEPHEN'S VOICE (a whisper): "I am so proud of you, Clark."
FADE TO BLACK.
….
The editing bay was silent for a moment after the rough cut ended.
Zack hesitated, then cleared his throat. "I think my throat's a bit sore… I need some water."
.
….
[To be continued…]
★─────⇌•★•⇋─────★
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