Ron Howard Passed on Batman and Spider-Man

Kudos to Ron Howard for knowing his limitations. Well, perhaps "limitations" is too strong a word. After all, he did direct Apollo XIII and Cinderella Man. Maybe it's more accurate to say he plays to his strengths. But in a new interview with Bill Maher (via Worst Previews), Howard says he passed on some big time franchise movies because he was just the wrong man for the job. "I've had a chance at some things that I knew would be successful, but I also knew that I probably wouldn't do a very good job," he said. "I had a chance at Batman years ago, and Spider-Man and Harry Potter." Although I think Howard could have made a good Harry Potter movie - at least one of the first two books - he's just not plugged in to the superhero genre. He would have been better with, say, Spider-Man than Batman Begins, but he probably made the right choice in retrospect. He did stand up for comic book movies when Maher said that movies in the genre were all alike, quipping, ""Not the Spider-Man that my daughter Bryce Dallas Howard was in. Don't we all love that one?" Howard is, of course, coming off the critical success of the Oscar-nominated Frost/Nixon and has Angels & Demons in theaters next month.