It was bound to happen sooner or later, as with Christopher Nolan hired a few months back to oversee a new take on Superman – but not to direct it himself – it was inevitable people were going to start speculating about who will actually helm the film.
Deadline is reporting that Nolan now has a shortlist, with five men meeting with him about potentially taking on the man of Steel. So who’s up for the job? Well, there’s Tony Scott (Unstoppable, The Taking of Pelham 123), Matt Reeves (Let Me In, Cloverfield), Jonathan Liebesman (Battle: Los Angeles), Duncan Jones (Moon, Source Code) and Zack Snyder (300, Watchmen, Sucker Punch).
Some of these are more likely than others, as with a deadline of 2012 to get the film made (due to Warner potentially losing certain rights to the Superman character in 2013), some of the men are likely to already have too many commitment. Liebesman, for example, is shooting Clash Of The Titans 2 early next year, which would seem to rule him out. Snyder would seem an obvious choice, as he has experience handling big, complex, effects driven movies, while Duncan Jones would be an interesting but perhaps more risky hire, due to the fact he’s an unknown quantity when it comes to blockbusters. Tony Scott seems a bit of an odd one out on the list, but it depends what style they’re hoping for. Reeves meanwhile also has to be a strong contender, with Cloverfield showing that he can handle effects while keeping the story grounded.
Nolan will supposedly submit his choice to the studio in the next few weeks, with an announcement coming shortly afterwards. It’ll be interesting to see whether Warner can get things sorted quickly enough to let the world know who will direct Superman when they reveal their future plans for the DC universe on film, which they’re planning to announce in a month’s time.