Although Superman Returns wasn’t a giant flop, it certainly wan’t a big enough success that Warner has been falling over itself to make another Man Of Steel movie. With legal wranglings over the Superman copyright and disagreements on the direction the franchise should go, the superhero has languished in development hell, never getting past a few vague ideas.
However it now seems Warner is serious about bringing DC’s most famous figure back to the screen, as they’ve hired Batman director Christopher Nolan to oversee a reboot for the character on the big screen. Deadline Hollywood broke the story and they’re keen to point out that Nolan won’t direct the film and it won’t be a sequel to Superman Returns. Instead he’ll be playing a sort of Godfather role to bring a fresh feel to the franchise.
Part of the problem with Superman is that while Warner wasn’t averse to a Superman Returns sequel, they never found a truly great story thtn made sense. However they now seem to have given up on the idea and want to see if Nolan can sprinkle some of the fairy dust he used on Batman to resurrect the Man of Steel in a new form. Plans are currently at the very early stages of development, and so there’s no news on where the character might go, although with Nolan’s Batman credentials, expect something grittier and more angsty.
It’s also true that Warner has probably realised they need to do something soon, as court rulings in the copyright battle between DC and the estates of Superman creators Jerome Siegel and Joe Schuster put a clock on the studio’s exclusive deal to make Superman movies. If they don’t start something by next year, the estates could sue to end the deal and so Warner is now rushing to put something together.
However while he will oversee Superman, at the moment Nolan is finishing this summer’s Inception and then he’ll begin in earnest on prepping a third Batman movie, so it seems he’s gonna be busy. It’ll be interesting to see if he can be the Man of Steel’s saviour as well.