Nolan To Mentor SUPERMAN 3.0 Reboot

Deadline Hollywood is exclusively reporting this morning that Warner Brothers has placed the future of their SUPERMAN franchise into the capable hands of BATMAN/DARK KNIGHT saviour, Chris Nolan.

….Our insiders say that the brains behind rebooted Batman has been asked to play a “godfather” role and ensure The Man Of Steel gets off the ground after a 3 1/2-year hiatus. Nolan’s leadership of the project can set it in the right direction with the critics and the fans, not to mention at the box office. Besides, Nolan is considered something of a god at Warner Bros and has a strong relationship with the studio after the success of Batman Begins and The Dark Knight. Though he wasn’t obligated to do so, he gave the studio first crack at his spec script Inception, and Warner Bros was able to buy it before other studios even got a sniff. While Nolan completes that Leonardo DiCaprio-starrer for a July 16th release, he’s also hatched an idea for Warner Bros’ third Batman installment. Now his brother and frequent collaborator Jonah Nolan, and David Goyer who co-wrote Batman Begins and penned the story for The Dark Knight, are off scripting it.

Let us emphasize that Superman 3.0 is in the early stages of development. And we doubt Nolan would direct. This wouldn’t be a sequel to Superman Returns but a completely fresh franchise. As one of our insiders reassures: “It would definitely not be a followup to Superman Returns.” Nolan coming on board follows a hiatus period for Superman after that 2006 reboot as the studio tried to figure out whether or not to make a sequel to that version starring Brandon Routh directed by Bryan Singer. As recently as this summer, Warner Bros was still contemplating how to proceed. We were told that “Bryan or Brandon are not completely out of it yet. But Warner Bros doesn’t have a handle yet on it, either. [Producer] Jon Peters is trying to make something happen since he stands to benefit financially. But they [the studio] need to hear a great story that makes sense.” Another insider explained to us, “We know what we don’t want to do. But we don’t know what we want to do. We learned a lot from the last movie, and we want to get it right this time.”

The story  goes on to say:

Nolan has the experience necessary of prepping and pepping a played-out franchise.  There’s a big difference between Superman’s cinematic incarnation and comic-book version. Warner Brothers and DC Comics for a long time weren’t sure which version they liked better. The cinematic version has been squeaky clean, occasionally campy, and has more-or-less unlimited power except when confronted with Kryptonite. The comic book version has some limits on his powers, can be darker, and fights aliens a lot more. Shortly after Dark Knight hit it big, fans assumed that Superman would be taken to the “dark” side as well. That’s because Warner Bros mogul Jeff Robinov stressed post-Dark Knight that “we have to look at how to make these movies edgier”. One of our insiders interpreted this to say: “He meant more sophisticated.” A more comic-accurate Superman seems like the way to go. No need to worry: Chris Nolan knows what he’s doing.

I hope so…I really do. Because that SUPERMAN RETURNS was a bloody mess. I, like many others, were extremely disappointed by what Singer and his buddies/writers did with the long awaited ‘Man of Steel’ film, nevermind their rewording of the iconic line, “truth, justice, and the American Way” to “truth, justice and all that stuff.”  I too was completely on board and sucked right in with the teaser, complete with original John Williams music and the shot of the Kent mailbox, as seen below. Shame the film didn’t stand up to many’s expectations.

 Just as I did in 1978 when I saw the original Christopher Reeve in  SUPERMAN: THE MOVIE, here’s one geek who hopes  that Nolan will once again make me believe that a man can fly.