I think it'd be a missed opportunity not to tell a Superman story that looks at journalism at the moment.
The nature of news and the role of reporters is a major issue around the world right now, trust in "the media" is falling and journalist are being persecuted and even killed across the planet.
And here we have a character who is a symbol of truth and justice recognised around the world, the two main characters are journalists. It's a perfect set up.
I was thinking earlier in the gym, similar to you, that the real story, as it were, was Clark, Lois and Jimmy, in the Planet, stopping crime via their work. The risks are so very real these days when the public are hidden from real news and pointed towards celeb apps/channels.
I thought of approaching a superman film like this - the protagonists are Clark Kent, Lois Lane. Lois is strong, smart and attractive and throughout the movie we can't help but be in awe of her, we care about her. She's not in your face, but you appreciate her work. Clark is split into 2 people, private Clark Kent, smallville, his apartment, moments at work where he steps up, he is a strong character and we like him, but the flip side is we also see a side of Clark at work, where, with clever writing, direction, we see him as low key in public, in the office, the editing room, meetings, he is a side character. It will take good writing and a competent director, but in most scenes, he is in lois's shadow but we see more of him throughout the movie and realise he purposely steps back and lois notices this too as their relationship grows - basically clark can hold his own and is this mysterious figure, way more to him.
Superman - we never see, when he is on screen, the event from his perspective, always from others. Sure, he gives good dialogue, but it's almost at us, not with us. It's almost as if Superman and Clark are seperate Characters, what i mean by this, as an example - int he planet there is a scene, lois is talking to perry and our attention is on them, clark is in the background, if you are watching him, you see him twitch or react to a noise, like a dog hearing a whistle and he leaves the room - now we obviously know, but it's understated - then someone calls in and says turn on the tv - they do - it's a fire down town - news team are there and superman appear - we see the tv monitor and the events and it's cool - the scen cuts and we are there, in the fire, superman doing his thing - cuts back to lois and perry watching and screaming at jimmy and clark to get down there but clark is no where, then as the news anchor closes up as superman left, clark walks in with a coffee and lois gives him this look and Perry swallows a few tablets and makes a comment.
I would also take inspiration from lois and clark - have lois in trouble - clark try to save her but he gets held at gun point and held hostage with her too - jsut before things get tricky, clark is like, ok enough of this and gets lois out of there.
The overal message for the film, clark is who he is, superman is what he can do.
