Christopher Nolan Talks Superman and Batman

Christopher Nolan is not just the man who made Batman relevant again, he's also now being called in to save the day for Superman. It shouldn't be that hard: Supes is the mos famous comic book creation ever, but only the first two movies - now 30 years old - made much of a dent. The rest of the Christopher Reeve franchise failed and the 2006 reboot was not what DC Comics or Warner Bros. wanted. Exit Bryan Singer, enter Nolan. He won't direct the next Superman movie, and he won't say who is. Hell, he won't even say if he's directing the next Batman flick. But he is confident that he and writer David Goyer are moving the Man of Steel in the right direction. “We feel we can do it right," Nolan tells The Los Angeles Times. "We know the milieu, if you will, we know the genre and how to get it done right.” I don't think anyone would argue at this point. “[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." Adds Nolan, “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.” Superman will probably be at least two summers away, if not three. If I had to speculate, it would be Batman first - say, July 2012 - followed by Superman the following summer. And what about Batman? Slowly but surely, with emphasis on slowly. “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,” Nolan admitted. He then added, "Without getting into specifics, the key thing that makes the third film 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.” I think he really hits on something there at the end that the studios need to take a long, hard look at: He's trying to bring his Batman story to a logical conclusion, not resuscitate it so often that it eventually becomes something else that strugglest to stay connected to the original idea. More of that, please.

Comments

[J.Bradley]

I just wish they would have a Batman vs. Superman the way Frank Miller did it in "The Dark Knight Returns".

[Johan VH]

This reminds me of the way the Bourne-trilogy worked, for me anyway. The Bourne-character evolved over the course of the three movies, and the tone and athmosphere of the movies followed suit. The trilogy really felt like a whole that way.
I can't wait to find out where Nolan takes 'his' Batman next. Especially after the disturbing events of the second movie, which really pushed the character beyond its limits. Here's hoping Inception does great so Nolan's 'carte blanche'-status gets an extension.

[Carv]

I think you can only do Dark Knight Returns once the Batman trilogy has run its course and Superman has been reestablished on screen. But then...Jesus, can you imagine Stephen Lang as Bruce Wayne?