JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:
Look up in the sky in downtown Cleveland, and it's easy to spot a bird or a plane. Right now, though, you might also see Superman. The Man of Steel's latest adventure is in production, turning the comic's hometown of Cleveland into Metropolis. From member station WKSU, Kabir Bhatia has more.
(SOUNDBITE OF JOHN WILLIAMS AND LONDON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA'S "MAIN TITLE (FROM SUPERMAN)")
KABIR BHATIA, BYLINE: The Man of Steel was created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, who met in Cleveland as teenagers at Glenville High School.
BHATIA: Filming for this latest Superman story started at a beach in a nearby state park. That's where tents, a barracks and old Jeeps were used to create a retro Army base. Then the production moved downtown to Cleveland's Public Square. That's where Will Tabar takes his daily coffee break.
WILL TABAR: Looks like they got Metropolis official park benches here in the middle of Public Square. We also have multiple new bus stops going in, replacing our RTA with the Metropolis MTAs.
BHATIA: It's Cleveland in disguise as a 1980s version of the city where Superman and his alias, Clark Kent, lives and works.
JUSTIN BIBB: I've been calling myself the mayor of Metropolis.
BHATIA: That's Justin Bibb, the mayor of Cleveland, who's all in on the city's transformation.
BIBB: It's been really cool just to see all the new designs and the signage on some of our main streets, and it feels kind of neat to see a city from maybe the '40s, '50s era in 2024 in a legacy city like Cleveland, Ohio.
BHATIA: The film is titled simply "Superman." It stars David Corenswet as Superman, alongside Rachel Brosnahan as Lois Lane. The project received $11 million in tax credits. The Greater Cleveland Film Commission estimates that overall, $147 million worth of movie money is coming to Northeast Ohio in 2024. The city's taste of Tinseltown brought Dante Pinkard downtown.
DANTE PINKARD: I saw a lot of rubble set up, a lot of trucks, a crew. I was able to catch the main actor playing Superman one time, a side glimpse of him, but that's about it so far.
BHATIA: He's 39 and says younger folks might not know too much about the legendary Superman.
PINKARD: I think they are more about Henry Cavill. They know him. It's what they saw in the "Justice League."
BHATIA: Cavill was one of the most recent in a long line of actors to play Superman. This latest adventure, touted as a reboot, is directed by James Gunn, famous for the "Guardians Of The Galaxy" movies. Those films have been a big hit with limo drivers Renee Dibble and Dana Struna.
Would you say your vehicles are faster than Superman?
DANA STRUNA: Depends on who's driving.
(LAUGHTER)
BHATIA: This is not the cinema debut for Public Square. It stood in for Stuttgart for 2012's "The Avengers," and it was a wintry prewar wonderland for "A Christmas Story." For the current Superman project, Public Square is missing something - phone booths. Where will Clark Kent change clothes? Mary Laughery has an idea.
MARY LAUGHERY: If he has any extra powers, he could probably figure it out. Yeah (laughter).
BHATIA: But, I mean, if you were here on Public Square, you saw a man walking in his suit, suddenly stopped, took off all his clothes, what would your reaction be?
LAUGHERY: It's Cleveland (laughter).
BHATIA: Or, when you're at the movies next summer, Metropolis. For NPR News, I'm Kabir Bhatia in Cleveland.
(SOUNDBITE OF JOHN WILLIAMS AND LONDON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA'S "MAIN TITLE (FROM SUPERMAN)") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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