Thus far Christopher Nolan's participation on the new Superman movie has been mostly rumor-- rumor coming from reputable sources, of course, but nothing confirmed by either the studio or Nolan himself. But today The LA Times got Nolan to sit down and talk about his plans for the Man of Steel, and appropriately enough for the guy who pulled off The Dark Knight, he's feeling confident.
“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.”
Hilariously, it was writer's block on the third Batman film (which Jonathan Nolan is working on as we speak) that got Christopher Nolan on board Superman to begin with. As a writing exercise, "[David S. Goyer] basically told me, ‘I have this thought about how you would approach Superman,’” Nolan recalled. “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 and I involved in shepherding the project right away and getting it to the studio and getting it going in an exciting way.”
Nolan also promised that the third Batman film would be the last, and that much of the original cast would be back, though we pretty much knew all of that already. "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. And it hearkens back to that priority of trying to find the reality in these fantastic stories. That’s what we do.”
As for Superman, Nolan quashed most of the rumors we've seen-- no Brainiac or Luthor, no evidence that Jonathan Nolan will direct it-- and promises that Superman and Batman will not exist as part of the same universe, DC Comics connection or not. The entire LA Times article is a fascinating look into a filmmaker with two giant plates spinning at once, and well worth a read-- despite the fact that Nolan is way, way too good at avoiding giving out details.
