When Bryan Singer decided to leave the X-Men franchise to direct Superman Returns, he had one goal in mind: pay homage to the superhero film that started them all: Richard Donner's Superman: The Movie. While that may have seemed like a good plan, however, the end result was far from thrilling and, in many ways, boring. Zack Snyder won't be making the same mistake.
Speaking with the Los Angeles Times, the director revealed his plan when it comes to approaching the material: "Respect the canon but don’t be a slave to the movies." Basically calling it a true reboot, the director likened the project to Batman Begins, which respected the character's origins, but "pre-supposes that there haven’t been any other movies." Commenting on Singer's decision back in 2006, Snyder was sure to point out that his version of the character won't fall to the same issues, instead calling him "a physical cat."
The director also commented on the working relationship with Christopher Nolan, who is serving as a producer on the film and has been deemed the "Godfather" of the production. Without further details, it's been difficult to determine exactly how much Nolan is involved with the process, but quotes from Snyder seem to suggest that he is very much involved in the pre-production. Said Snyder,
"It’s been really great. Chris is awesome. He’s super-respectful but super-helpful, too. You can’t imagine a more generous [collaborator]…once he sort of got what I want to do with it, he was like, ‘OK,’ and once he said, ‘You know what, that’s awesome,’ now he’s 100%. If I say, ‘What do you think of this?’ he’s like, ‘That’s awesome,’ and then there’s a great give-and-take about it, a great conversation that we can have about it and making it better everyday. And by the way he’s hilarious, too."
One can imagine that Nolan's involvement will decrease greatly as filming for The Dark Knight Rises begins this Spring. The Superman reboot, which currently has a cast that includes Henry Cavill as the titular hero and Diane Lane as his Earthly mother, Martha Kent, is scheduled to begin shooting this summer and will be released in December 2012.