Christopher Nolan met with a Hollywood legend to direct Man Of Steel before Zack Snyder

in In 1978, Richard Donner’s “Superman” laid out the blueprint for the modern blockbusterdemonstrating not only that comic books can provide quality source material for Hollywood studios, but also that treating that source material with the utmost respect makes for a great movie. Superman was the cinematic equivalent of its subject: it somehow embodied the Man of Steel’s ethos of truth, justice, and the American way, while at the same time sprinkling a healthy dose of hope and optimism.

In the wake of Superman and its three sequels, a wave of superhero films emerged, most of which followed Donner’s blueprint in some way. But in the early 2000s, “The Bourne Identity” kicked off a trend of “bold remakes” in Hollywood, which director Christopher Nolan harnessed to great effect in his Batman films. By the time the trilogy concluded in 2012, Hollywood was still in the midst of its love affair with giving everything the Jason Bourne treatment, and Warner Bros. wasn’t exactly interested in giving everything the Jason Bourne treatment.

After The Dark Knight Rises, the studio commissioned Nolan to help reinvent Superman by having him produce a new film featuring the Man of Steel. Clearly, the studio was hoping that it could revitalize this long-dormant franchise in the same way it successfully reintroduced the Dark Knight to a whole new generation. The result was 2013’s “Man of Steel,” a film that debuted Henry Cavill as the titular hero and kicked off the DC Extended Universe’s inauspicious start in decidedly grim fashion. This wasn’t the “Superman” of 1978. In fact, this was an anti-Donner film, with director Zack Snyder bringing his satirical take on superheroes — which he demonstrated so well with 2009’s “Watchmen” — to become the biggest hero in DC’s roster.

But it appears Snyder wasn’t the only director being considered. Had Nolan chosen another of his choices, we would have seen a very, very different take on Superman in 2013.

Knowing how the DCEU film ended, we might wonder why Christopher Nolan settled on Zack Snyder to direct Man of Steel back in 2013. Warner’s shared universe has fizzled out in stunning, anticlimactic fashion in 2023, with a string of box office bombs peaking. in The catastrophe of superhuman proportions that was The Flash. But in reality, the DCEU was in trouble heading into 2023. While many of the films in the franchise have made big money at the box office, none of them have actually been that great and DC Films has never been able to match their success. Its competitor, Marvel Studios, and its huge cinematic universe at the time. Could Nolan have known that this was the way things would turn out? Of course not. But even admitting that, Snyder seemed like an odd choice.

It’s not as if the “300” director really shared Nolan’s passion for practical effects or crafting the British director’s kind of “cinematic reality.” Talk about it When building the Dark Knight trilogy. Perhaps it was enough for Nolan that Snyder did not share Richard Donner’s reverence for Superman, or any superheroes for that matter, as it happened to fit what Warner Bros. was looking for at the time. But had Nolan chosen another of his choices, we could have seen Supes get a much less deconstructive treatment.

talking to ComicBook.com“Man of Steel” writer David S. Goyer (who also co-wrote Nolan’s first Dark Knight film, “Batman Begins”) on the process of narrowing down a director for “Man of Steel,” revealing that he and Nolan met with “about five directors” before narrowing things down to two options: Zack Snyder and Tony Scott. Yes, Ridley Scott’s brother, who sadly passed away in 2012, was in the running to direct Man of Steel until the end. The man who in his lifetime was never able to convince critics that he was anything more than a hackneyed purveyor of style over substance appears to have been one of Nolan’s last two choices to lead the reintroduction of Superman to audiences. And I have to say, I think I’d rather watch this movie.

While Zack Snyder has a real knack for making big-budget CGI fests that are somewhat forgettable and impressive, All Tony Scott films They have a propulsive energy that would at least make for an interesting Superman movie in 2013. And that seems to be a sentiment at least partly shared by David S. Goyer, who detailed the process of reducing the number of directors for “Man of Steel.” To Comicbook.com. “It was a very deliberative process,” he said, later adding:

“Chris actually met Tony Scott, so there’s a version of Tony Scott, the Man of Steel, in a parallel universe. I think Tony Scott doesn’t get as much credit as he deserves, because he was just as extraordinary a director as his brother, and this is the movie that I was… I would like to see it.”

While Goyer clearly wanted to see what Scott was going to do with the material, he maintained that Snyder was “the right choice,” noting how excited he was about the director’s plan to “shoot this movie handheld,” which he thought was “a great idea.” This approach produced what was arguably the best DCEU film in “Man of Steel,” but it didn’t quite match what came before.

As it happens, Richard Donner has had some strong opinions about the DCEU Superman. Specifically, he didn’t really like it. The director of “Lethal Weapon” and “Goonies” who passed away in 2021 at the age of 91.give Den of Geek He took his stance on Snyder’s deconstructive shenanigans in 2018, saying, “I think we’re in strange, dark days in filmmaking, but Superman was a hero. He was a fantasy, but we believed him. He’s not treated that way anymore.” “I’m not happy with it.”

Would Scott’s version have been more adaptable to Donner? It seems likely, and while pandering to Richard Donner is not at all the approach a director should take, I would argue that it might be a little better than… Zack Snyder’s “Wake Up The Fuck” An approach to fantasy filmmaking for wish fulfillment.