This news just broke (through 'unconfirmed reports' and now a tweet from Snyder himself) that Zack Snyder will helm the latest installment of Superman. Prior to this news, there was a WB/Nolan picked shortlist of possible directors. Along with Snyder, Duncan Jones, Darren Aronofsky, Matt Reeves, Tony Scott, and Jonathan Liebsman were on that list. Personally I think either Jones or Aronofsky would have been the ideal choices, both because I love them as filmmakers and they have a real talent for character driven pieces. Now I'm an admitted fanboy of them both, and giving the subject more thought, the more appealing Snyder seems to be. For some reason he catches a rash of shit from the asshole online community, which doesn't really make sense to me. Dawn of the Dead, 300, and Watchmen were all fantastic films. The Watchmen debate is a rough one, but I personally love what he did and think it was one of the most underrated films of 2009. With both DoD and Watchman under his belt, it seems he has a penchant for taking on (and rocking) properties that are considered sacred in their respective fandoms. I do think he does tend to go a bit hyperrealistic and dark, which worked for something like Watchmen, but might not go so well with Superman. That's the only real concern with him, but don't forget Nolan is "mentoring" this film so he'll have a great deal of say in how it's made. Which is a good thing, because the man is a genius. Him and Synder make for a really interesting combination, especially with something as hard as Superman.
There are a few places I'd like to see the movie go. First of all let's just stop any charade and just cast Jon Hamm as Clark Kent/Superman. The man IS the role. Personally I'd like to see him rock a beard too, but that's just my weird vision of a jacked, bearded, badass looking Superman. Then there's the villain, arguably as important as anything in a comic book movie. Superman is powerful as hell and he needs to be fighting a villain that allows him to show off his powers. There hasn't been a Superman film to date that shows us what he really can do. In a perfect world, I'd love to see an adaptation of the Superman: Doomsday story where he dies and it be a hard R-rating with tons of blood, but that wouldn't make any money and is overall unrealistic. As far as guys who can go punch-for-punch with Superman, there's also Darkseid. He's like a smart version of Doomsday and has become a very well known modern villain. He'd work great in an action context, where he has an all out brawl with Superman, but would be a bit hard to visualize working on screen. His look is very consistent and very alien. That's always hard to do well in a film. There's always the route of 're-imagining' him, but you run the risk of completely fucking up the character and alienating your fanbase. There's also the traditional Lex Luthor, Brainiac, etc. but they really aren't that exciting. I'd love to see Darkseid done if handled correctly, but it won't be easy.
Then there's the issue of Superman himself. He's a really weird character. Classically he's known as the scout boy of the superheroes and with stacking up against other complex heroes like Batman, he comes across as boring. He's only really known as a good boy who helps people. That's not enough for the movie. Superman isn't organically a 'flawed' character, but that doesn't necessarily mean he can't have conflict. It would be really interesting to explore his problems with connecting to the world around him. After all he is an alien and there is nobody else left in the universe like him. Now he lands on Earth and suddenly has to be the savior of the planet? That shit ain't easy. Even for Superman. There's naturally tons of emotional issues that come along with that. Now I'm not saying we should have a alcoholic Superman who drinks to deal. It shouldn't even be a central theme, but it should be the focus of his character. There's no need for an origin story, as anybody who buys a ticket to this already knows Superman's backstory. He's born on Krypton, comes to Earth, yadda yadda. It would just waste screen time and be pretty boring. The golden boy image of Superman really needs to be shed. Nobody wants to see someone who's both physically and mentally perfect on screen for 2 hours. That's boring and frankly nobody cares. Take your jolliness and GTFO. If you look at Superman from a personal angle, what motivates him? Why bother saving all these people he doesn't know or really care about? He'll outlive them all anyways and to him they're
just like ants. That's what needs to be explored in this film.
Why I think Nolan & Snyder are gonna rock this is because of their different areas of specialization. Nolan is amazing at getting into the minds of the characters and will probably do so with a heavy influence on the script. Snyder can make shit look cool so he'll be able to shoot some insane fight/action sequences and makes a lot of sense to direct. A lot of people are already complaining "oh god here comes slo-mo Superman" which A) would honestly look cool in a couple shots; and B) is just silly nitpicking. The single best thing about Snyder is how amazing he makes things visually. Say what you want about Watchmen, the fight scenes were INCREDIBLE. And as much as I love Darren Aronofsky and Duncan Jones, they are very similar in style to Chris Nolan (which is more of a compliment than anything) so it'd be kind of redundant to bring in a guy that would essentially think like Nolan. It's pretty obvious that Nolan's gonna handle the story and Snyder is gonna handle the action, so they'll play very well off each other. That's a dream team when you think about it.
EDIT: Rumors abound of General Zod as the main villain. Make of that what you will.
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