Okay, this is starting to get confusing. Reports began swirling about a month ago that Batman Begins an d The Dark Knight director Christopher Nolan was being brought in as a producer to oversee the next Superman film, and both movie and comic fans alike rejoiced. Shortly after, DC Entertainment president Diane Nelson outright rejected the rumors, leaving those fans feeling slightly cheated. It seemed like such a great idea that the man who wrangled the Batman franchise into one of the most lucrative and acclaimed series in history would step in to aid with the “Big Blue boyscout.”
Luckily, Nelson’s statements were apparently just meant as misdirection, as Nolan himself opened up to the LA Times about his involvement and the high hopes and plans he, his screenwriter brother Jonathan, and his producer wife Emma Thomas have for Superman.
“It’s very exciting, we have a fantastic story. And we feel we can do it right. We know the milieu, if you will, we know the genre and how to get it done right…[it] is a way of approaching the story I’ve never seen before that makes it incredibly exciting. I wanted to get Emma and I involved in shepherding the project right away and getting it to the studio and getting it going in an exciting way. We’re approaching it in a not dissimilar way [to the Batman films] in terms of trying to find an incredible story in a way that audiences can engage with it the way they engage with contemporary action films.”
The best guess as far as who will helm the project seems to be that Begins writer and Dark Knight co-plotter David Goyer will handle the script, with his sights set on also directing. This will leave brothers Chris and Jonathan free to tackle the third Batman picture, on which Chris claims Jonah is now “doing the hand work.”
Christopher spoke a little about the approach they are taking for the next installment:
“The key thing that makes the third film an great possibility for us is that we want to finish our story. And in viewing it as the finishing of a story rather than infinitely blowing up the balloon and expanding the story…I’m very excited about the end of the film, the conclusion, and what we’ve done with the characters. My brother has come up with some pretty exciting stuff. Unlike the comics, these thing don’t go on forever in film and viewing it as a story with an end is useful. Viewing it as an ending, that sets you very much on the right track about the appropriate conclusion and the essence of what tale we’re telling.”
So there you have it, straight from the horse’s mouth. Nolan will be overseeing Superman while working on Batman. Pretty exciting stuff for fans. So we want to hear your thoughts. How do you feel about Nolan taking the reins as DC’s golden boy?
