Chris Nolan was set to guide the Superman Reboot in a role most described as Godfather, but now he is setting his sights solely on The Dark Knight Rises and leaving Superman in the hands of Zack Snyder.
Nolan has always been a one-movie-at-a-time kind of filmmaker – so, in order to focus on his final installment of the Batman franchise, Nolan has decided to leave Superman’s future in the hands of Zack Snyder and Warner Bros.
Nolan’s reputation for properly handling the transition of unrealistic superheroes into a realistic world gave a lot of confidence when we found out he would be Godfathering the efforts to reboot the Superman franchise, but he was never directing or writing the film.
Nolan’s influence and guiding hand will surely still be present as he originally “had an idea they couldn’t believe wasn’t being explored by Warner Bros.” and with Zack Snyder in place with that idea in hand, his involvement is done.
I don’t see this as a bad thing but a good thing. Despite most people thinking Nolan is without flaw, perhaps his greatest strength is recognizing his limitations. Nolan knows he is better when he can devote his attention and efforts into one film at a time, and so not to distract himself from The Dark Knight Rises he is limiting his projects to just one. Batman.
If he divided his attention, perhaps The Dark Knight Rises would suffer. It is set to be the last Nolan Batman film, and the last thing you need blemishing your supernatural reputation is a third film of a franchise that sucks after so much success at the first two.
Ask Raimi.
