CHRISTOPHER NOLAN on SUPERMAN: "We Have a Fantastic Story"

The LA Times has some super news to start the day. Director Christopher Nolan is officially confirmed as shepherding the new Superman movie franchise. That rumor about David S. Goyer writing it? Turns out that one is true, too. The pair will develop the story, with Nolan producing and a director to be announced later. The movie is still in early stages, and won't be seen in theaters until 2012 or 2013, however.

While Nolan said he liked the way Bryan Singer's "Superman Returns" tied to the first two Richard Donner "Superman" films, he noted this will be an all-new standalone take on the movie franchise of the first comic book superhero. His approach will be similar to his approach to Batman in one specific way: Superman will be "the only superhero" in his world. "I only know the way [to approach Superman] that has worked for us; that's what I know how to do," said Nolan.

The Superman ideas were born from a break in a Batman story meeting between the pair. Nolan said of Goyer, "He basically told me, 'I have this thought about how you would approach Superman.' I immediately got it, loved it, and thought: That is a way of approaching the story I've never seen before that makes it incredibly exciting." Goyer is writing the screenplay for their unnamed Superman movie now.

The collaborators, Nolan and Goyer, are also still working on a third Batman film, a reassurance to fans that they haven't forgotten the Caped Crusader. They've already locked down a general story, and now his "brother [Jonathan Nolan] is writing a script for me and we'll wait to see how it turns out...he's struggling to put it together into the epic story that you want it to be." They won't talk much about the third film, though Nolan re-iterated they'll be "finishing" their story.

As for villains for either film, Nolan bucks the villainy trend and does not reveal his master plan to the heroes. He did let one thing in, "It won't be Mr. Freeze" in Batman's third. He did also mention that the "key" supporting characters and the actors who played them in the first two movies will all be back for the third film, which mostly kills the fan-speculated idea of doing a far-future story similar to that seen in Frank Miller's "The Dark Knight Returns" comic from the 1980s. That story saw a much older Batman taking on a world that had deteriorated immensely. Nolan again noted that this is the end of his Batman story.

"Unlike the comics, these things don't go on forever in film, and viewing it as a story with an end is useful... And it hearkens back to that priority of trying to find the reality in these fantastic stories. That's what we do."

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