‘Superman’ filming Wednesday included ‘impact’ outside PNC Bank building (photos, spoilers)

SPOILER ALERT: Potential plot points for DC’s upcoming “Superman” movie ahead. Proceed cautiously.

CLEVELAND, Ohio – The intersection of East 9th Street and Euclid downtown became “the corner of Ramona and Gibbons” on Wednesday morning, as an action shot for the upcoming “Superman” movie got under way.

The PNC Bank building on the block’s northwest corner was transformed into the Metropolis Museum of Modern Art – with its plaza area decorated with food carts, vendors and plenty of extras.

Principal filming was centered around a sinkhole (described as a “mortar hole” by someone on the crew) on the northwest side of Euclid. Extras were directed with a “3-2-1-ACTION!” countdown and a special effect “boom,” followed by fleeing from what’s understood to all on-set as an impact area.

What lands there was a bit of a mystery at least during these early goings. Yet, with crew members lined up in the median across from it preparing to film and a Superman stand-in on site waiting in the wings, it might well have been our hero himself (afternoon update: it was indeed!) crashing down into the pavement.

After watching cast members swelter in the hot sun last week, it was a bit of a relief seeing the Man of Steel’s stand-in sporting shorts. No principal cast was spotted during the morning shoot.

There was plenty of activity between takes – from correction to the plaza umbrellas, wind gusts and light rain sprinkles, to director James Gunn pausing to meet a dog in a Superman cape. Vehicles on site were moved back and forth between takes to simulate the day-to-day Metropolitan activity.

Crew members dressed the sinkhole and the nearby street with bricks, rocks and detritus – some of it seemingly blown directly from it from whatever fictional item/character impacted there. There was some talk about a “crash landing” on set, before one of the cafe umbrellas blew up onto the building awning.

A lunch break was teased, but after a quick rescue mission and a quicker set break to align the next shots, filming resumed.

Two large black cranes with cameras attached were positioned on the plaza, as David Corenswet made his way to the plaza’s sinkhole and eventually down into it. He appeared in the hole for several subsequent takes; crew positioned above the shot on the crane jettisoned debris down onto staged westbound traffic on Euclid.

The Man of Steel appears to have been rocketed from somewhere into this hole. After those shots were captured, the set went on a lunch break at 2:15 p.m.