As fun as it may be to direct a film starring iconic and beloved characters, there's also quite a bit of pressure that comes with it. First of all, you're talking about at least $100 million at your disposal from the studio and even today that is a hell of a lot of money. Next, those same people who love the characters you are making a movie about will have no problem turning on you in a split second should you do anything to hurt the legacy. It would be a daunting task for any director, but even more so for a young one, and it was apparently enough for Duncan Jones to take himself out of the running for the next Superman film.
As we reported back in September when the shortlist of directors being considered for the gig were announced, the Moon filmmaker was one of those being looked at, but apparently he ended up deciding that it was simply too much movie for him. Jones recently spoke with Reelz Channel and revealed that he did indeed have meetings with the franchise's new Godfather, Christopher Nolan, and that "there was some legitimate interest in [him]" Ultimately, however, he was the one that decided to back out.
"I think, maybe, I'm not quite ready for that scale of project and that scale of expectation from an audience that is already existing and is waiting to see the next generation of Superman film. I don't know. It's a hard one. I'm a huge Superman fan and Bizarro Superman fan. And also a big Judge Dredd fan, which was another one that came my way. Those are two very different scales of projects. Superman was so big that I think I was a little intimidated by it and sort of backed out."
Speaking more about the new Judge Dredd movie, which is currently in production with Pete Travis at the helm, Jones said,
"Judge Dredd I really thought about and it ended up not being right for me because I had such strong feelings and opinions on what I wanted that film to be. Although I really like what they're going to do with it, it's not the film that I was going to make. So that one wasn't going to work out."
As we now all know, the job eventually went to Zack Snyder and the film is still in pre-production, but I wouldn't be too surprised if Duncan Jones eventually found himself getting into the comic book movie game. After all, Matthew Vaughn similarly backed out when he was offered to direct X-Men: The Last Stand and now he's directed both Kick-Ass and X-Men: First Class. Jones seems genuinely interested in the genre and, as we all know, comic book movies with comic book fans at the helm always turn out better. Jones is still very much still in the very early swing of his career, his second feature, Source Code, due out in a few months, but he is certainly a name to watch.
