On Batman v Superman, Warner paired Mr. Snyder with Chris Terrio, the brilliant, brilliant, complicatedin the words of Mr. RovenOscar-winning writer of Argo, who did a major rewrite of the script (he shares credit with Man of Steel writer David Goyer).
Mr. Terrio is a former student of British literature and phenomenology who dropped out of a masters program at Cambridge University to study film. On his first big-budget movie, he cites as influences not just Frank Millers seminal comic-book miniseries The Dark Knight Returns (which features its own Batman-Superman battle) and Mr. Nolans trilogy of Batman films. He also invokes Italian semiotician Umberto Ecos 1972 essay The Myth of Superman and the W.H. Auden poem Musée des Beaux Arts, which contrasts the quotidian details of normal peoples lives with the epic struggles of mythological figures.
Given the scale, you would think the whole thing has a corporate stench, but the way we worked there was this quality of, I cant believe theyre letting us do this, Mr. Terrio said.
The screenwriter went to great lengths to establish the movies titular conflict as more than the traditional comic-book gimmick of two superheroes tricked by a villain.
Batman v Supermans opening sequence replays the final moments of Man of Steel, a sky-high brawl between Superman and Kryptonian villain General Zod, from the perspective of a civilian on the ground: Bruce Wayne.
In the 2012 movie, the scene was widely panned for portraying Superman as too violent and unconcerned about collateral damage. Mr. Afflecks character agrees, drawing implicit comparisons to military drones and even 9-11 as he impotently watches the destruction of a Wayne Enterprises building in which his employees are maimed and die.
The likening of Henry Cavills Superman to a self-righteous military interventionist continues when he rescues Amy Adamss Lois Lane from a reporting trip gone wrong in Africa. He is blamed for more collateral damage there.
Mr. Afflecks Batman, on the other hand, makes Christian Bales version of the character in Mr. Nolans movies look like a pushover. A grizzled 40-something who seems on the verge of retirement, death or a mental breakdown, he literally brands enemies with the symbol of a bat and scares police as much as criminals. Clark Kent accuses him of a reign of terror in Gotham City.
In superhero stories, Batman is Pluto, god of the underworld, and Superman is Apollo, god of the sky, observed Mr. Terrio. That began to be really interesting to methat their conflict is not just due to manipulation, but their very existence.
Batman v Superman is still an event movie, meaning it features plenty of over-the-top action scenes, shot in Mr. Snyders trademark hyper-stylized manner. It also features an uber-bad guy in the form of Jesse Eisenbergs Lex Luthor, reimagined as a young tech billionaire who cant stand being upstaged by superheroes: Think Mark Zuckerberg (whom Mr. Eisenberg played in The Social Network) with a psychopathic streak.
Israeli actress Gal Gadots Wonder Woman, meanwhile, is a centuries-old mythological heroine who is drawn into Batman and Supermans conflict. Like every superhero here, she already exists in the worldso no origin story is needed.
If you bring in a character in a kinetic way, then you accept the reality more easily, said Mr. Terrio.
The same approach will largely be followed in future DC films, said Mr. Roven. Augusts Suicide Squad features a team of veteran villains. While next years Wonder Woman flashes back to the superheroines early days, 2018s Flash and Aquaman will continue the characters stories from team-up movie Justice League, which opens in November of 2017.
The end of Batman v Superman provides a natural starting point for Justice League, but the DC movies are not as tightly woven as those made by Marvel.
The artists are all communicating with each other, said Mr. Silverman. I think if you have a studio dictating where youre going to be in six or seven years, the movies lose some of their magic.
Mr. Terrio recently finished his script for Justice League, which starts shooting next month, giving him a key role defining the big- screen versions of DC superheroes. To prepare, the writer says he studied red- and blueshifts in electromagnetic physics to think about the Flash, investigated deep sea biology in the Mariana trench to create the world of Aquaman and read the Greek historian Diodorus of Sicilys account of the war between Amazon and Atlantis to better understand Wonder Woman.
If you told me the most rigorous dramaturgical and intellectual product of my life would be superhero movies, I would have said you were crazy, the screenwriter said.
