Chris Nolan is prepping Batman 3 and will mentor a new Superman film

[Lapis Exilis]

Re: Chris Nolan is prepping Batman 3 and will mentor a new Superman fi

As to Krypton as a giant crystal, perhaps it used to be a more organic planet with great biodiversity but the native Kryptonians eventually killed it by neglecting the environment. The crystal somehow recycles the atmosphere and sustains life in other ways but it's a poor artificial biosphere.

I thought Margot Kidder was great in Superman: The Movie but was horrible in the Lester-directed portions of Superman II. Moreover, she is a helluvalot better looking in the cinematography in Donner's shots than in Lester's.

I love Kidder's crackling chemistry with Reeve. (For that matter, I've loved Kidder in everything I've seen her in. She a great fun, ballsy chick, especially in her more recent stuff.) However, I WOULD kick her out of bed for eating crackers.

Which is one of the many reasons Superman is a superior male organism. It ain't all about the looks for him.

 

[Christopher]

Re: Chris Nolan is prepping Batman 3 and will mentor a new Superman fi

Hera appears in one scene and has no lines in PJ so hard to judge that. All I remember about her from the two or three eps of Eureka I saw is that she's short (5'4").

Yeah, that's a problem.

And [Daddario]'s nearly 5'9", which is about as tall as we can hope for in an actress.

There are plenty of taller actresses out there:

http://www.listology.com/list/actresses-height

I think expecting great acting chops is unrealistic.

I think it's unrealistic to discount the importance of acting ability. Wonder Woman isn't just about looks and action. She's a very challenging character to pull off because of her multifaceted nature. She needs to be a paragon yet still be accessible and human. She needs to be warm yet still commanding. Ideally, we need a female equivalent of Christopher Reeve.

QUOTE=Christopher;3823281]And I'm not sure I even agree that the depiction of Superman's flight is that, err, verisimilitudinous. To be honest, it looks like an actor being flown on wires rather than a man launching himself skyward with his own power. My father always found it very unconvincing for that reason, the fact that Reeve didn't seem to jump or push off at all (which he couldn't do without relaxing the tension in the wires and screwing up the movement).

Because that version of Superman doesn't fly by any conceivable physical means. He generates a tactile anti-gravity field. That's why Lois Lane could fly evenly beside him while they were holding hands.[/QUOTE]

Which just underlines my point that they were going for fantasy rather than verisimilitude. They treated his flight like Peter Pan, and nobody would call that realistic. (Although I do give credit to Reeve for using his experience as a glider pilot to inform Superman's body movements while in flight, the way he banked and turned and so forth.)

 

[Out Of My Vulcan Mind]

Re: Chris Nolan is prepping Batman 3 and will mentor a new Superman fi

Which just underlines my point that they were going for fantasy rather than verisimilitude. They treated his flight like Peter Pan, and nobody would call that realistic.

They weren't going for the kind of realism that you're using as a yardstick for verisimilitude. Their notion of verisimilitude was to present the fantasy with such sincerity that the audience would accept it as having a reality of its own, as well as to meld the fantasy and the real world as seamlessly as possible in terms of visuals with the filmmaking technology and techniques available at the time.

 

[Bad Bishop]

Re: Chris Nolan is prepping Batman 3 and will mentor a new Superman fi

Hera appears in one scene and has no lines in PJ so hard to judge that. All I remember about her from the two or three eps of Eureka I saw is that she's short (5'4").

Yeah, that's a problem.

And [Daddario]'s nearly 5'9", which is about as tall as we can hope for in an actress.

There are plenty of taller actresses out there:

http://www.listology.com/list/actresses-height

Best candidate on the list would be Leelee Sobieski (5'10"). I believe she can act.

 

[Christopher]

Re: Chris Nolan is prepping Batman 3 and will mentor a new Superman fi

They weren't going for the kind of realism that you're using as a yardstick for verisimilitude. Their notion of verisimilitude was to present the fantasy with such sincerity that the audience would accept it as having a reality of its own, as well as to meld the fantasy and the real world as seamlessly as possible in terms of visuals with the filmmaking technology and techniques available at the time.

But that's exactly my point. My father couldn't accept the flying effects as having a reality of their own because they looked so much like theatrical wire work (which is exactly what they were). To put it cutely, he didn't believe a man could fly.

 

[JacksonArcher]

Re: Chris Nolan is prepping Batman 3 and will mentor a new Superman fi

As to Krypton as a giant crystal, perhaps it used to be a more organic planet with great biodiversity but the native Kryptonians eventually killed it by neglecting the environment. The crystal somehow recycles the atmosphere and sustains life in other ways but it's a poor artificial biosphere.

Maybe James Cameron might be interested in making a Superman movie if you went that route. We all know how much he supports environmentalism, and that sounds very much like a metaphor for preserving our environment.

 

[Out Of My Vulcan Mind]

Re: Chris Nolan is prepping Batman 3 and will mentor a new Superman fi

But that's exactly my point. My father couldn't accept the flying effects as having a reality of their own because they looked so much like theatrical wire work (which is exactly what they were). To put it cutely, he didn't believe a man could fly.

They were the best flying effects that could be done at the time. Whether they were good enough for audience members to suspend disbelief and accept them as having a reality of their own - in other words the extent to which the filmmakers were successful in their goals - is a matter of individual reaction. Your father couldn't accept the flying effects, and I'm sure he wasn't alone in that, but a great many people responded to them with enthusiasm. I was entranced by the flying scenes as a child, and most of the flying shots still hold up for me today, despite the FX of the time having fallen behind what can be achieved today. It's the way Christopher Reeve sells that he's flying, the utter sincerity of the performance, that's so important.

 

[JacksonArcher]

Re: Chris Nolan is prepping Batman 3 and will mentor a new Superman fi

But that's exactly my point. My father couldn't accept the flying effects as having a reality of their own because they looked so much like theatrical wire work (which is exactly what they were). To put it cutely, he didn't believe a man could fly.

They were the best flying effects that could be done at the time. Whether they were good enough for audience members to suspend disbelief and accept them as having a reality of their own - in other words the extent to which the filmmakers were successful in their goals - is a matter of individual reaction. Your father couldn't accept the flying effects, and I'm sure he wasn't alone in that, but a great many people responded to them with enthusiasm. I was entranced by the flying scenes as a child, and most of the flying shots still hold up for me today, despite the FX of the time having fallen behind what can be achieved today. It's the way Christopher Reeve sells that he's flying, the utter sincerity of the performance, that's so important.

I absolutely agree. Well said.

 

[Christopher]

Re: Chris Nolan is prepping Batman 3 and will mentor a new Superman fi

My father's problem was specifically with the takeoffs, the way he just levitated into the air. And you can argue about antigravity and stuff like that, but I agree with him that it's not a very effective way of depicting Superman launching himself into the air. There's no sense of power there, and depictions of Superman should ideally convey a sense of power. To me, the best Superman takeoffs are in the Fleischer cartoons. I love the way he just blasts into the air like a missile, whoosh and he's gone. There's such a sense of speed and power to it -- it's impressive to look at.

 

[Out Of My Vulcan Mind]

Re: Chris Nolan is prepping Batman 3 and will mentor a new Superman fi

Live action flying scenes were extraordinarily difficult to achieve in the 1970s. While having Superman take off with great power rather than levitate off the ground may be more enthralling, it would have been a bridge too far for the FX of the time. As it is, I think they did a great job and the levitation takeoffs have a wistfulness to them that fit into the tone of the film.

 

[Lapis Exilis]

Re: Chris Nolan is prepping Batman 3 and will mentor a new Superman fi

I think expecting great acting chops is unrealistic.

I think it's unrealistic to discount the importance of acting ability. Wonder Woman isn't just about looks and action. She's a very challenging character to pull off because of her multifaceted nature. She needs to be a paragon yet still be accessible and human. She needs to be warm yet still commanding. Ideally, we need a female equivalent of Christopher Reeve.

I'm not discounting acting abilities - I think that'd be great. But I'm talking about realistic expectations of a production, not ideals. We're most likely to end up with a petite, big-breasted, pouty-mouthed actress who looks like she can't lift a sandwich, much less a tank, acting out a script that doesn't understand thing one about an Amazon warrior. Is that what I would like? No. But it's what we're probably going to get.

 

[Bad Bishop]

Re: Chris Nolan is prepping Batman 3 and will mentor a new Superman fi

Diane Nelson of DC Entertainment says Nolan's involvement in SUPERMAN is just a rumor

"Wouldn't you like to know!" laughed Nelson when asked if there was any truth to the recent rumor that "The Dark Knight" director Christopher Nolan will oversee a reboot of the "Superman" movie franchise.

"We don't have any plans about that, and as I've mentioned, in the coming months we'll be making a lot of announcements about what our content plans will be," she added. "But right now, that's nothing but rumor — and we frankly don't say a whole lot more about rumor than that, so..."

That's what she said!

 

[Out Of My Vulcan Mind]

Re: Chris Nolan is prepping Batman 3 and will mentor a new Superman fi

I saw that earlier today. Her initial "wouldn't you like to know" makes me think there may be some truth to it (maybe it's in the discussion stage - hence there are no plans for it yet).

 

[Kegg]

Re: Chris Nolan is prepping Batman 3 and will mentor a new Superman fi

But that's exactly my point. My father couldn't accept the flying effects as having a reality of their own because they looked so much like theatrical wire work (which is exactly what they were). To put it cutely, he didn't believe a man could fly.

That's your other point, yes, and it's entirely valid.

But you had a different point that it's not versimilitude because it's not scientifically plausible (Krypton's crystals, talking in space, etc.); which was never the sense they used the word and not a sense that could be fairly applied to any Superman film.

acting out a script that doesn't understand thing one about an Amazon warrior.

It's Wonder Woman, that's pretty par for the course to the best of my knowledge.

 

[Christopher]

Re: Chris Nolan is prepping Batman 3 and will mentor a new Superman fi

I'm not discounting acting abilities - I think that'd be great. But I'm talking about realistic expectations of a production, not ideals. We're most likely to end up with a petite, big-breasted, pouty-mouthed actress who looks like she can't lift a sandwich, much less a tank, acting out a script that doesn't understand thing one about an Amazon warrior. Is that what I would like? No. But it's what we're probably going to get.

Given the renewed, close control that DC Entertainment is taking over its various properties, with a single person (Geoff Johns) now being in charge of overseeing the creative development of DC properties across all media, I think it's unlikely that a movie about Wonder Woman or any other DC character would be that clueless.

Heck, if Warner Bros. had been that careless about the character before, we already would've gotten that dreadful WW movie you imagine. The fact that they've been unable to decide on the right approach suggests to me that they understand the importance of getting it right, that they know it's not enough to take a slapdash, shallow approach. I'm sure the last thing they want is another Catwoman.

Diane Nelson of DC Entertainment says Nolan's involvement in SUPERMAN is just a rumor
...
That's what she said!

What she said is that "right now," she's unwilling to say it's more than a rumor -- but that's right after mentioning that there are "a lot of announcements" coming up. Probably she just doesn't want to spill the beans unceremoniously in response to a reporter's question and steal the thunder from the official announcement that still lies ahead.

 

[CaptainCanada]

Re: Chris Nolan is prepping Batman 3 and will mentor a new Superman fi

Any ideas for a Wonder Woman movie that involve basically excising her whole character history are DOA (particularly when it involves get rid of the only elements of her history that people might recognize). When you start doing that, you aren't actually writing a Wonder Woman movie anymore.

For all the differing interpretations of the character over the years, her origin's been fairly consistent. She's a miracle baby given by the gods to the Amazon queen, and endowed with superpowers; chosen her people's champion, she leaves the island to save the world from the God of War and spread Amazonian values (whether she's accompanied by Steve Trevor is optional; personally, I don't think the love interest version of the character has ever worked). That's a very straightforward and workable plot.

The George Perez Gods & Mortals is the best telling its had in the comics so far; mainly, I'd be interested in preserving the ending, the specific way that Diana wins, which says far more about what makes her special than the ending of the 2009 DVD, where she wins by chopping the villain's head off (not that that's not something she wouldn't do as well).

 

[Praetor]

Re: Chris Nolan is prepping Batman 3 and will mentor a new Superman fi

I've always been fond of incorporating the notion that Wonder Woman was active briefly in WWII before retreating back to Paradise Island, and then is later forced to return to active duty in the modern world. (Thanks, Lynda Carter. ) I think it would be interesting to have all Amazons be immortal on the island, and living in a sort of timeless state, but say that when they left the island they experienced 'mortal' time and therefore aged as well. I think this might inject an interesting Captain America-ish fish out of water thing for her, and also perhaps help Diana not be so totally ignorant of 'man's world.'

I'd really like Diana to be depicted as the real ass-kicker of the DCU, moreso than even Superman.

 

[CaptainCanada]

Re: Chris Nolan is prepping Batman 3 and will mentor a new Superman fi

I prefer a young Wonder Woman, personally. Similar to Superman's origin, it's about a young person finding their role in the world (albeit, in both cases, a young person with exceptional gravity).

 

[Praetor]

Re: Chris Nolan is prepping Batman 3 and will mentor a new Superman fi

Well, that's why I was thinking that she wouldn't really age. The five years or whatever in WWII wouldn't really be anything to her, except in shaping her preconceptions about Man's World. She would still be in many ways quite naive.

 

[Christopher]

Re: Chris Nolan is prepping Batman 3 and will mentor a new Superman fi

I'm not sure I'd want to stress Diana's naivete that much. Part of her story is that she has lessons for our society, because she comes from a more peaceful and harmonious culture. Yes, she's a fish out of water in our culture, but "naive" implies that she's ignorant and needs to be set straight. It's more a Stranger in a Strange Land kind of story, the wise outsider visiting our world and being bemused by our primitiveness and folly. Maybe there should be an element of Klaatu (Rennie, of course, not Reeves) to her story.