“The character deserves to be loved,” says Snyder. “It’s his time.”
And according to The Hollywood Reporter ’s Heat Vision Blog , the villain of the piece is going to be General Zod.
Snyder tells Heat Vision he feels “psyched” about nabbing the job: “In the initial meetings, [Christopher Nolan] has been super amzaingly smart and also amazingly kind, filmmaker-to-filmmaker. I have great respect for him. The process has been amazing so far, and it looks like nothing but pluses. I definitely expressed my love for the character and interest in seeing him treated right. The character deserves to be loved. It’s his time.”
Ironically, Snyder had actually turned down a directing opportunity on Superman Returns (watch the last couple of minutes of this video ), saying that he didn’t know how to handle the character (“I’m just not sure how you sell that kind of earnestness to a sophisticated audience anymore”). He must have been struck with inspiration since; or the money’s a lot better this time round; or maybe what he says to Deadline holds the key to his Damascus moment: “I’ve been a big fan of the character for a long time. He’s definitely the king of all superheroes, he's the one. It’s early yet, but I can tell you that what David [Goyer] and Chris [Nolan] have done with the story so far definitely has given me a great insight into a way to make him feel modern. I’ve always felt he was kind of awesome. I’ll finish Sucker Punch and get right at it."
That would seem to suggest that Xerxes, his planned adaptation of the Frank Miller graphic novel set in the same period as 300 , will be put on hold.
We reckon Snyder’s a solid choice, though SFX ’s attempts at mind control (we ineptly tried to Derren Brown him into directing a David Gemmell adaptation while at Comic-Con) clearly failed. He certainly has a unique vision and proven hit rate with comic adaptations. This one is going to be interesting.
So, what do you think of the choice of director? And who should play General Zod?
