Discussion on Superman and Watchmen Films

'Cause I feel like at the beginning I'm just like, I- I think with Man of Steel

because

I understood

the movie. I'm a fan of Superman,

so I was always gonna make that movie.

Right.

Right?

Was this sort of your vision, like years ago you knew you would make

this movie

version?

I, well, you know, look, they asked me if I...

After 300, they were, they asked me if I was interested-

Wow

... in making a Superman movie.

Okay.

And I said, "I don't..." I was working on Watchmen at the time, in my

mind, and you could- That's a hard jump.

Right.

Right?

But the Watchmen's a big jump, too, though.

Well, but deep in, but I was a big fan of Watchmen,

but I mean it's just as far as

like I'm deep in Watchmen.

Right, right, right.

I'm deep in deconstructing like superheroes.

And so, "Hey, do you wanna make a Superman movie?" It's

like, what?

I'm about to tear him down.

Right, right.

Like, I'm gonna kill him.

Right.

I'm not interested in fixing him or making him interesting.

Right.

Like, he's the enemy right now.

And then,

like you finish Watchmen,

and like because I was a fan of comic books,

also it's sort of

the evolved version of comic books, right? Watchmen, right?

Right, right, right.

It's the, I'm like an intellectual, like who likes comic books,

so I like Watchmen, right? And I'm gonna make that into a movie to

justify my love of comic books or whatever.

Right.

And then once that's out of your system though, I gotta say,

you know,

there's a hollowness to the end of Watchmen, right?

Right.

Espe-

esp- especially in sort of geekdom, you know.

Like, you finish Watchmen and you're like, "Oh."

There's no hope for anyone.

There's no hope.

Right.

Like, is there a way to like,

isn't there a way to love... Is, is it okay to love this?

Right.

And I think that's the relationship I had with Superman in making the film,

was

I, I really wanted to

love Superman. You know, I wanted to, I wanted Superman to be okay-

Right

... because he represents so much.

He's the first, he's the, the greatest

superhero.

Right.

He's the top of the pyramid, especially in a DC universe.

I- in my opinion, in all of comics, he's certainly the

first, and I would argue that he's, you know, the

godfather i- in every genre of

comic book. And

to make him work is to make that whole world,

legitimize that whole world.

Right.

And so the responsibility I had on myself, and I don't think moviegoers

will feel that or see that, but for me, the

responsibility was like, make him work and

you're justifying sort of the why of comic books or the why of

graphic storytelling and all that.

I know that sounds heady, but-

No, but I, I understand what you're going for