The Courier has published an interview with director Colm McCarthy, talking to him about his current and upcoming projects, including the “Krypton” TV series set to air on Syfy next year.

Tell us more about the new origin story of Superman’s home planet you’re developing. How is the scope of that sinking in?

“It’s really big. There’a a lot of visual effects to think about. But it’s quite a lot of fun when you’re playing with a world that on the one hand is sort of familiar to people, because everyone has a relationship with Superman. Either with Man of Steel, the recent film that Goyer wrote, or with Donner’s Superman films of the 70s and 80s, which are the ones that I grew up with. So they have an idea and Krypton is very much a known name. But what Krypton is as a planet means very different things to different people. Our job with DC is to work with the representations in the comics first; they’re presented in a really diverse array of ways, which is exciting because it means that creatively the world-building was very much an open assignment.

What sort of story do you want it to tell?

“We’ve been thinking about every aspect of Kryptonian life. How did these people eat? What do they work as? How do they dress? What’s the environment of the city? I can’t say too much about it but I think it will be a really exciting and unique journey for people.”

“It’s a really corny Hollywood thing, but I remember hearing somebody say ‘your job as a storyteller is to take people somewhere they’ve never been before and show them something they already know.’ I think there’s an element of truth in that; people like to go and have an experience where there investigating a surprising, different world, yet the human experience resonates. I think that’s at the heart of storytelling.”

You’ve been scouting for locations and we’ve caught you in the middle of casting, what more can you tell us?

“Mostly, we’ve got giant sets and then there’s a lot of special effects work. The world will be created with photographic elements but it’s going to be a completely bespoke universe. Mind-alteringly different to anything people have seen before on telly. It’s a lot of fun; the pilot is double the budget of the film I just made, for 40 minutes of TV. It’s all just applying the same approach of: What do you want to say? What’s the world like? How do you make the thing feel real and also feel epic?

“Krypton” will be produced by Warner Horizon Television. The pilot is written by David Goyer (Man of Steel) with Ian Goldberg (Once Upon A Time, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles). Goyer will executive produce through his company Phantom Four with Damian Kindler (Sleepy Hollow), who will serve as showrunner. Colm McCarthy (Peaky Blinders) will direct the pilot.

Thanks to Dave Kerr for the lead on this interview.

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