Nolan Talks Batman, Superman
Even Superman needs some help every so often–like from Christopher Nolan.
With the success of “The Dark Knight,” Christopher Nolan has become the de facto guru of superhero movies. News that he is working on a third Batman movie has generated a lot of excitement; news that he is helping Warner Brothers latest attempt to put together a new Superman movie also has generated a lot of excitement.
The LA Times’s Hero Complex blog talked to Nolan about these topics while he prepares his latest film, the scifi movie “Inception” for its upcoming release. Nolan explains that his involvement with Superman came when he and writer David Goyer were struggling to come up with a new Batman idea, and Goyer revealed that he actually had a Superman story in mind.
“He [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.”
That’s Emma Thomas, Nolan’s wife and a producer on his projects.
So do you think there’s a chance that this means Batman and Superman meet up? No, Nolan’s pretty clear on that:
“A lot of people have approached Superman in a lot of different ways. I only know the way that has worked for us that’s what I know how to do,” Nolan said, emphasizing the idea that Batman exists in a world where he is the only superhero and a similar approach to the Man of Steel would assure the integrity needed for the film. “Each serves to the internal logic of the story. They have nothing to do with each other.”
Nolan, by the way, won’t say who’s going to direct this Superman movie, nor will he even say if he’s directing the third Batman. All he’ll say about that one is:
“My brother is writing a script for me and we’ll wait to see how it turns out…. He’s struggling to put it together into the epic story that you want it to be…Without getting into specifics, the key thing that makes the third film a great possibility for us is that we want to finish our story. And in viewing it as the finishing of a story rather than infinitely blowing up the balloon and expanding the story.”
I wouldn’t jump to the conclusion that he means this Batman movie will be the last; it sounds more like he’s talking just about wrapping up a storyline.
The LA Times interview is pretty long, so if you’re interested in Nolan, go over and take a look.
