While there are plenty of people who know how to hold on to a secret in Hollywood, Christopher Nolan sets the standard. No matter how exciting a project may be, he always maintains his cool and keeps his his trap shut, making every little detail feel like a banquet rather than a snack. It worked for The Dark Knight, it appears to be working for Inception, and we still have next to no clue as to where things stand with his Superman and Batman projects. So now that the director has spilled some background info about his next comic book project, be ready for a feeding frenzy.
Speaking with Empire Magazine, Nolan clued us in on how he and David S. Goyer came up with their concept for the next Superman film, and how the character will work in today's world.
"...What it is, while David Goyer and myself were putting together the story for another Batman film a few years ago, you know thrashing out where we might move on from The Dark Knight, we got stuck. We were just sitting there idly chatting and he said 'by the way, I think I know how you approach Superman'.. and he told me his take on it. I thought it was really tremendous. It was the first time I’ve been able to conceive of how you’d address Superman in a modern context I thought it was a really exciting idea. What you have to remember about Batman and Superman is that what makes them the best superhero characters there are, the most beloved after all this time, is the essence of who they were when they were created, when they were first developed. You can’t move too far away from that."
While we knew about the "finding the Superman story while working on Batman" story since March, the "modern context" concept portion of the the quote is intriguing, particularly if they are also committed to the character's roots. While he's not explicitly saying "dark, gritty reboot," the Christopher Reeves/Richard Donner take on the character would probably work as well today as Adam West's Batman. Obviously this quote doesn't give us a lot, but be sure that the closer we get to Inception and the more interviews Nolan gives, the more we are going to hear. Until then, let's just hope that producer Jon Peters is in no way involved.
