Who Should Direct The Next Superman Movie?

[STARMAN]

Snyder already had multiple films with Superman including a second chance with his version of JL. It's time for the character to be in someone else's hands and not be imprisoned in Snyder's world.

 

[Herofan]

No way to Matthew Vaughn. Brad Bird would be hit or miss, Aronofsky more likely to miss, JJ Abrams hit or miss in quality but probably good enough to be commercially successful.

 

[Babillygunn]

Director is one thing.

But most importantly I want Peter Tomasi to write the script.

 

[STARMAN]

The scripts have been an issue with several of the films, both produced and unproduced. I like Tomasi but most comic book writers don't transition into live action. I'm surprised more of them aren't asked to get their feet wet with the CW universe but they don't usually even write for those shows much less given the keys to a multi-million dollar movie.

Tom King has been brought over into that world. Obviously, Geoff Johns has too. So has Jeph Loeb. Bryan Q Millar has a little. But for the most part there has been a wall between the two worlds.

 

[thebatfan5194]

But how can JJ be blamed for what happened with Star Wars. Rian Johnson took it over and made a complete mess of things. Then on ROTS JJ was tasked with trying to course correct and as we know Disney took what he did & made changes to the final product anyway.

It’s not 100% his fault but I just find it oddly coincidental that JJ’s two most recent franchises have good starts but can’t stick the landing in subsequent installments.

It just seems to be that his nostalgia driven reboots are built on foundations of sand in the first place.

 

[Rorschach2012]

Super 8 and TFA is all the proof you need that JJ is the move

 

[Sorath]

I honestly don't know who I'd pick. I'd honestly need to think about it for a bit. My issue isn't so much the director as it is the writers. That to me has been the biggest issue with the film. There great number of directors who I think could make a good Superman films given a good script including Snyder. The problem with Snyder was never his actual directing it was always the story.

In short if you cut Snyder out of the writing process and brought in good writers I think Snyder would been fine. The problem with DC films is that almost all the writers have been dark writers. Nolan, Goyer and even Chris are typically dark writers. That works for certain aspects of the DC films such as Batman and the Bat family but is bad for characters like Flash, Superman, Wonder-Women.

The problem with allowing Zack to be included in to writing process is that Zack likes films with a lot of weight to them. You look films like Watchmen, Sucker Punch, 300 all these films are heavy in exploring characters and motives and themes. Exploring characters and motives and themes is fine in small doses. However you don't want to bog the film down with so much of it that it sucks the fun out of the film. Which is exactly what happen with Batman V Superman. Snyder is great taking graphic novels and converting them in to film. That's because those graphic novels have a lot to say and explore. Zack would be phenominal to direct stand alone film like The Dark Knight Returns or even Kingdom come. However he terrible at writing films where you're trying to build a actually universe.

So bottom line is this has less to do with directing style and more to do with writing.

 

[Babillygunn]

The scripts have been an issue with several of the films, both produced and unproduced. I like Tomasi but most comic book writers don't transition into live action. I'm surprised more of them aren't asked to get their feet wet with the CW universe but they don't usually even write for those shows much less given the keys to a multi-million dollar movie.

Tom King has been brought over into that world. Obviously, Geoff Johns has too. So has Jeph Loeb. Bryan Q Millar has a little. But for the most part there has been a wall between the two worlds.

Tomasi has some goodwill with me due to the job he did with Death of Superman, which had more heart and soul than the comic that it was based upon. Plus he (and King) really seem to understand what makes Superman great.

 

[Babillygunn]

Zack would be phenominal to direct stand alone film like The Dark Knight Returns or even Kingdom come.

I wouldn’t let Snyder within a million miles of Kingdom Come. That entire story is a study in subtleties and nuance. Clark and Bruce both trading passive aggressive jabs about the value of life and how to deal with a world that rejects heroes who won’t kill. Snyder doesn’t do subtle. I imagine that Magog killing the Joker would be a slow-motion gross out scene complete with hamburger coming out of a gaping hole in Joker’s chest. The Clark/Billy Batson and Bruce/Diana showdowns would be drawn out over the top action sequences rather than the emotional expositions that build that story. There was no heart in Superman’s sacrifice in BvS nor would there be any for Billy Batson in a Zack Snyder Kingdom Come. That story deserves so much more than Snyder could offer.

 

[The Batman]

What about the Russos ? Not on the poll but surely contenders ?

For a Fleischer or Siegel/Shuster style Superman? Sure, they'd be ok for that.

For a more standard, classic version of Superman? They wouldn't be good at all, IMO.

 

[STARMAN]

Tomasi has some goodwill with me due to the job he did with Death of Superman, which had more heart and soul than the comic that it was based upon. Plus he (and King) really seem to understand what makes Superman great.

He's built up some goodwill with me too. There just seems to be a barrier between the two mediums and most comic book writers are never given the opportunity to make the transition. Most of them don't have Hollywood contacts, connections to producers, or writing deals with a studio.

Maybe Tom King has got his foot in the door with New Gods.

 

[Superchan]

Is Brad Bird up to it ? Surely there must be someone better. I would take Jon Favreau before Bird- I feel like Bird's better with films that are more ensemble driven - I suspect Taika Waititi could make a very enjoyable Superman film too.

Who knows, I guess any director is up for anything provided the right circumstances. The thing is I feel that if you have to convince a director to take on Superman then most likely said director isn't the right choice for the character. I mean look at Snyder, the guy had 3 back to back flops (watchmen, owls and Suckerpunch) and he still (apparently) had to be convinced to do superman, what a joke! Then again you can get a director with passion for the character like Singer and still get a mess of a film.
Intention is one thing but ultimately it's the director's inherent understanding of the character and said director's ability to communicate that understanding to the audience that will determine whether the final product is good or not.

Coincidentally, two of the modern day reboot franchises he started off strong with (Star Trek and Star Wars) both went off the rails after the first well received film

Actually Star Trek continued it's success throughout the 3 films. The first was a commercial and a critical hit, the 2nd was also (although hardcore trekkies hate it) and the 3rd again was a critical hit, although commercially it wasn't.
Starwars is a whole other beast, JJ started it well but C.Kennedy and Disney didn't seem to have a solid plan and the thing fell apart. JJ came back and tried to please all parties and ended up failing. He has partial blame but ultimately it's on Kennedy and Disney.

No way to Matthew Vaughn. Brad Bird would be hit or miss, Aronofsky more likely to miss, JJ Abrams hit or miss in quality but probably good enough to be commercially successful.

Really? How come? Just because of one bad movie? Vaughn has done some amazing films and he wants to do Superman, he would be my joint top choice.
Although as you have noted yourself there all pros and cons to most directors mentioned because most directors have had a bad day at the office.

But most importantly I want Peter Tomasi to write the script.

I'm surprised more of them aren't asked to get their feet wet with the CW universe but they don't usually even write for those shows much less given the keys to a multi-million dollar movie.

Tom King has been brought over into that world. Obviously, Geoff Johns has too. So has Jeph Loeb. Bryan Q Millar has a little. But for the most part there has been a wall between the two worlds.

You guys mentioned Tomasi and I really loved his rebirth run and I think the CW Superman show is gonna borrow heavily from it, HOWEVER there is sort of a stigma when it comes to getting comicbook writers on films, you can watch Kevin Smith's comments on Superman Lives to understand that mentality. That is probably one of the reasons why WB said no to Grant Morrison, Mark Waid and even TImm/Dini who wanted to do a Batman v Superman movie (yup you read that right!).
I personally think it would be a good idea to get top comicbook writers like Scott Snyder, Grant Morrison, Mark Waid et al and then pair them up with established screenwriters and provide a launching pad for those writers to get a grip on the character, think Mario Puzzo when he sat down with Cari Bates and Maggin before he started writing Superman.....although Puzzo's script was a joke and thank god for Donner.

Zac Snyder should do another Superman with Cavill. Its his and Cavills version so they should be able to finish what they wanted to say with the character.

Look I totally respect the fact that a vocal minority like Snyder's Superman but the reality is his Superman and DCEU was an abject failure, I mean that's the reason why his 'cut' didn't see the light of day for years and he along with his ardent fans had to fight for literally 3 years to finally make the Snyder cut a thing. So why or why after all that would anyone want him to do more Superman? So he could finish what he wanted to say about the character?
I'll tell you what he wanted to say about the character: he wanted to tell make 3 overtly long, controversial movies just so we could see Superman finally become the classic superman that we know and love instead of just giving us a finalized superman from the first film. Basically he's telling the audience to come and watch almost 8 hours of dubiously made films to get the end result that you should've gotten by the end of 2hr 20! To me that sounds like a rip off!

n short if you cut Snyder out of the writing process and brought in good writers I think Snyder would been fine.The problem with allowing Zack to be included in to writing process is that Zack likes films with a lot of weight to them.
Zack would be phenominal to direct stand alone film like The Dark Knight Returns or even Kingdom come. However he terrible at writing films where you're trying to build a actually universe.

Here is the thing, you cannot cut a director out of the writing process of a film, the director is always involved in the writing process even if he/she isn't actually writing the film or has any writing talent to begin with.
Snyder's vision often houses alot of emotional heft but he is unable to communicate that vision effectively with the general audience because he is a poor story teller and one cannot be a visionary unless they are able to communicate their vision.
Snyder seems to love to put imagery into his films but sadly the context behind those images seem to escape him, he reminds me of a friend of mine in highschool who loved comicbook imagery but couldn't be bothered reading the actual comic to understand the context.
Snyder tried to a do a DKR and the result was BvS, so I am about as interested in watching his take on Kingdom come as a bunch of bystanders are interested in watching a car wreck i.e. morbid curiosity rather than genuine cinematic interest.

 

[Sorath]

But how can JJ be blamed for what happened with Star Wars. Rian Johnson took it over and made a complete mess of things. Then on ROTS JJ was tasked with trying to course correct and as we know Disney took what he did & made changes to the final product anyway.

Actually you can't blame Rian Johnson. While he wrote the script he didn't approve the script. The blame falls on Disney for green lighting his script. Also bare in mind if he was given no ideas as to how the third film was supposed to play out then that is again not on him but on Disney and JJ for not working with Rian Johnson to make sure that it connected better with the third film.

Also if Disney and JJ where so hell bent on how the story was supposed to play out then what they should have done is sat down and wrote all three movies back to back before the first film was ever made. This would have saved a lot of problems.

It is one thing when it was Lucas because Lucas knew exactly where he was going with the films. Even when he had help writing Empire and Return of the Jedi the movie still played out the way he wanted it to. Yet here you had two different writers all working on same film and they wheren't working together. That again is not on Rian Johnson but Disney and JJ.

 

[Sorath]

I wouldn’t let Snyder within a million miles of Kingdom Come. That entire story is a study in subtleties and nuance. Clark and Bruce both trading passive aggressive jabs about the value of life and how to deal with a world that rejects heroes who won’t kill. Snyder doesn’t do subtle. I imagine that Magog killing the Joker would be a slow-motion gross out scene complete with hamburger coming out of a gaping hole in Joker’s chest. The Clark/Billy Batson and Bruce/Diana showdowns would be drawn out over the top action sequences rather than the emotional expositions that build that story. There was no heart in Superman’s sacrifice in BvS nor would there be any for Billy Batson in a Zack Snyder Kingdom Come. That story deserves so much more than Snyder could offer.

I disagree with you completely. I'll explain why. Your right Superman sacrifice had no heart. That's because of a few reason. The first being that you need an established universe where Superman has been Superman for a long time and people love and heroes aspire to be him. You didn't have that. We went from Man of Steel to Batman V Superman and there was no build up or real character development. Through most of that film you have people with signs that where against Superman. Then all sudden every one loves him. So the film rushed everything and in so doing so his death lost some of its meaning.

The third thing is there is no established universe. So you couldn't show how Superman death effect the rest of the heroes in there own films. If they had done it right and saved his death for a later film when universe was more established they could have done a ripple effect. We would see how his death effect a lot of heroes and maybe even the villains as well.

However doing something like Kingdom Come I think Zack would be fine to direct. Now notice how I Say direct and not write it. I think some one else should write the film. However directing it I think he would be fine.

 

[Boom]

The Rise of Skywalker aside, I wouldn't mind Abrams taking a stab at it. And I don't even blame that film entirely on him.

 

[STARMAN]

ROS is the only Abrams film I didn't get some level of enjoyment or entertainment from. Any director with a resume is going to have some duds. You basically eliminate every director if looking for a perfect filmography. I'd still take Abrams.

 

[Boom]

I'd be curious to see Jeff Nichols do a Superman film. He was rumored to direct Aquaman at one point.

 

[Herofan]

Really? How come? Just because of one bad movie? Vaughn has done some amazing films and he wants to do Superman, he would be my joint top choice.
Although as you have noted yourself there all pros and cons to most directors mentioned because most directors have had a bad day at the office.

Stardust and First Class were both pretentious, the former kind of weird for the sake of being weird.

Brad Bird, I'm not really sure what went wrong with Tomorrowland other than not having enough balance or constraints, though The Iron Giant and The Incredibles did seem not as good on rewatch but he or Whedon still more likely to make a hit.

 

[Rorschach2012]

JJ really feels like the only guy that can resurrect this property. How many more Superman movies do we really need though? As a huge fan, I would be happy with one more solo Superman movie with Supergirl and Brainiac. Then he could pop up in other people’s movies.

 

[Rorschach2012]

I’m baffled as to why WB didn’t go through with the pitch McQuarrie had with Cavill’s Superman and Cruise’s Hal Jordan.

 

[SupermanFan]

I’m baffled as to why WB didn’t go through with the pitch McQuarrie had with Cavill’s Superman and Cruise’s Hal Jordan.

Something people don’t seem to think is a possibility but totally is... what if his pitch wasn’t very good?

 

[STARMAN]

The studio should've at least had the professional courtesy of getting back to McQuarrie and rejecting him. Apparently, they never got back to him and left him dangling indefinitely until he finally decided to move on and commit to Mission Impossible again.

 

[SupermanFan]

The studio should've at least had the professional courtesy of getting back to McQuarrie and rejecting him. Apparently, they never got back to him and left him dangling indefinitely until he finally decided to move on and commit to Mission Impossible again.

That sounds to me like they had other things on their plates. Yeah very ****ty of them but then we know those people aren’t there anymore and for good reason.

 

[STARMAN]

Unfortunately McQuarrie's pitch came at a time when the studio seemed particularly unstable and their relationship with Henry was not on sound footing. Things are seemingly better now.

 

[SVSuperman]

Joss Whedon, I love how he handled Superman & Henry Cavill praised him leading up to JL.