Christopher Nolan Confirms Involvement in Superman Reboot and (Finally) Discusses Batman 3
Posted 03.11.10 by BrentJS
When Deadline Hollywood first broke the story that the director of Batman Begins and The Dark Knight, Christopher Nolan, was chosen by Warner Bros. to "godfather" the reboot of the Superman franchise, comic book movie fans were practically exploding with excitement and anticipation. Countless blogs and fan forum debates erupted with speculation about everything from cast choices and potential villains to whether or not Nolan's involvement would guarantee a crossover with his Batman franchise.
However, just as fan interest in the story began to reach a fever pitch, Diane Nelson, president of DC Entertainment, the comic book division of Warner Bros., seemingly ended the conversation by telling MTV that Nolan's participation in any future Superman movie was only a rumor. Now, it appears that Deadline Hollywood had its facts straight after all, as Nolan himself has confirmed in a recent interview with the L.A. Times that he is, in fact, developing a new Superman movie with his Batman screenwriter, David S. Goyer.
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.
In a roundabout way, Nolan also confirmed that he has been working on Batman 3 by saying that Goyer came up with an idea for how to adapt Superman while at an impasse over how to top The Dark Knight.
[Goyer] basically told me, "I have this thought about how you would approach Superman." I immediately got it, loved it and thought: That is a way of approaching the story I've never seen before that makes it incredibly exciting. I wanted to get Emma [Thomas, Nolan's wife and producing partner] 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 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. I think David's approach is a very good way of doing just that.
Nolan wouldn't comment on Internet rumors about Lex Luthor and Brainiac pulling a tag-team of villainy in his Superman reboot, saying simply, "I don't know where this stuff comes from," but he did dispel the talk of Superman and Batman cross-overs.
Each serves to the internal logic of the story. They have nothing to do with each other.
Short of saying that he will definitely be directing Batman 3, Nolan did admit that his brother, Jonathan Nolan, was currently working on the Batman 3 script for him.
My brother is writing a script for me and we'll wait to see how it turns out.... He's struggling to put it together into the epic story that you want it to be.
Without getting into specifics, the key thing that makes the third movie a 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.
Nolan went on to say that, assuming he directs Batman 3, fans should expect to see many of their favorite actors and characters from the first two movies return.
We have a great ensemble, that's one of the attractions of doing another film, since we've been having a great time for years.