There’s a little under three months to go until director Zack Snyder unleashes his hotly-anticipated Superman reboot Man of Steel, and during a recent promotional interview his new Starz show Da Vinci’s Demons, screenwriter David S. Goyer (Blade, Batman Begins) confirmed that he has seen the final film and “was very happy” with the results, while he also gave us a little insight into how the project came about.
“[Christopher Nolan] and I were working on The Dark Knight Rises, working on the story; we were blocked,” Goyer tells Collider. “We agreed to part ways for a couple of weeks and just see if something had bubbled at the surface. So I went back to my home office. I was wasting time and procrastinating and took out an archive edition of some of the original Superman comic books, Action comic books and started rereading them because I couldn’t figure out this plot point on Dark Knight Rises, I just randomly sat down one afternoon and wrote up some ideas for Superman.”
He then went on to explain how he took the idea to Nolan, who then set up a meeting with Warner Bros.: “When I met with Chris Nolan again in another week or so he said, ‘Have you worked out the problem on The Dark Knight Rises?’ I said, ‘No,’ he said, ‘What have you been doing?’ and I said, ‘Well, I had this idea for Superman,’ and because Chris likes to procrastinate as well he said ‘let’s hear it,’ so I told him. And he literally called Jeff Robinov, who’s the head of Warner Bros, while I was sitting there and said, ‘Jeff, Dave just told me this take on Superman and you need to hear it, I’d like to produce it. Can we come in?’ And we went in the next day. That’s how it happened. No, we weren’t trying to do it, it just happened.”
Man of Steel is set for release on June 14th, with a cast that includes Henry Cavill (Immortals) as Clark Kent / Superman, Amy Adams (The Fighter) as Lois Lane, Russell Crowe (Les Miserables) as Jor-El, Kevin Costner (Hatfields & McCoys) as Jonathan Kent, Diane Lane (Secretariat) as Martha Kent, Laurence Fishburne (Contagion) as Perry White, Ayelet Zurer (Angels & Demons) as Lara Lor-Van, Antje Traue (Pandorum) as Faora, Christopher Meloni (True Blood) as Colonel Hardy and Tahmoh Penikett (Battlestar Galactica) as Henry Ackerdson.
Update – If you notice one name missing from that cast list, it’s that of Supes’ nemesis Lex Luthor. It’s been assumed that Luthor is absent from the movie, but Goyer has now teased the possibility of him making an appearance, telling I Am Rogue that: “I don’t think anyone has ever confirmed that we haven’t included him.” So, let the speculation begin… personally, I think we may just hear mentions, similar to Norman Osborn in last year’s The Amazing Spider-Man.
Originally published March 26, 2013. Updated April 10, 2018.
