Having struggled to catch up to the beast of an ever-rolling steam engine that is Marvel’s Cinematic Universe, DC Films committed a most unoriginal sin a few years ago. By focusing too much on team-ups, they lent their flagship hero neither the proper amount of spotlight nor ample time to breathe.
Following Henry Cavill’s departure from the role, the live-action, theatrical iteration of ‘Superman’ has retreated into his fortress of solitude while many attempts to will their re-cast proposals into existence. Whereas countless others recognize the next actor tabbed to don the cape can only shine as bright as the next commander-at-the-helm allows him to.
If given their fair chance, the following practical and long-shot directorial options could help the mythic legend transcend like the back of his baseball card suggests he should.
Damien Chazelle
What Chazelle’s 2018 Neil Armstrong biopic First Man (starring Ryan Gosling) proved was that the Hollywood wunderkind can thrive when telling someone else’s story through someone else’s words.
Through epic musical compositions as rhythmically rich as the quest-based story unfolding, First Man can also be viewed as Chazelle’s feature-length audition. One where he displays a clear knack for endearing a stone-cold, otherwordly determined protagonist to the hearts and minds of moviegoers who know what end is in store from a mile away. As this captures the prevailing persona and arc of the Krypton-born Kal-El / Superman to a tee, there is no telling what this match made in heaven could achieve together.
Joseph Kosinski
Tron: Legacy. Oblivion. Only the Brave. Top Gun: Maverick. With iMax and heroics galore a prerequisite, the computer graphics developer-turned-action flick auteur has made his brand uniformly known.
Per the success of superheroic video game releases like Playstation’s Spider-Man franchise, it is hard not to contemplate the tie-in merchandise potential of a Kosinski-helmed Requiem for a Kryptonian. Plus, one of Warner Bros.’ other favorite sons (and frequent Kosinski collaborator) Tom Cruise as a building-hopping Lex Luthor might be what cinema fans worldwide never knew they needed.
Boots Riley
If Riley and his Sorry To Bother You batterymate LaKeith Stanfield teamed up for a barrier-breaking Superman, they could borrow plenty from their first outing. Both Sorry to Bother You and its hypothetical follow-up feature heroes who are known to, depending on the circumstance, become different people with chameleon-like ease in order to survive in a slightly-warped parallel world that is still as divided as the one it is commenting on.
Surrender into thematic wackiness might scare off some shot-calling studio execs, at first. But as proven within the back half of Riley’s strongest chip to play: sometimes it takes the craziest vision possible to move the pendulum a few leaps forward.
Bradley Cooper
With a leg up budget-wise than other first-time directors, the A-List actor remained in front of the camera while heading behind it for the first time with his 2018 edition of A Star is Born. Distributed by Warner Bros., the film’s success indicates the company would not shy away from releasing another Cooper project, nor avoid offering him one either.
Cooper writing, directing, producing, and starring in Superman may seem a massive undertaking at first. But Ben Affleck almost did it with The Batman, which he was apparently going to do big, Arkham-related things with. Thus opening the door for Cooper to assert that when it comes to telling a story told countless times before (and in a quadruple capacity), he is no one-hit-wonder.
Alma Har’el
Thanks to her collaboration with Shia LaBeouf on his autobiographical memoir, Honey Boy, Har’el gained mainstream exposure by taking on the daunting task of telling someone else’s life story while directing the man himself. With the duo of Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck riding their acclaimed 2006 indie drama Half Nelson all the way to landing Captain Marvel in 2019, Har’el could follow the same path – and become the first woman to direct a live-action Superman film in the process.
While she would not be expected to merely repurpose the structure of one work for use in another, Honey Boy‘s intercuts between LaBeouf’s turbulent young adulthood and early adolescence could serve as an effective blueprint for a Har’el-fronted Superman to follow. Where audiences come to understand Clark’s past and destiny simultaneously, rather than in segmented intervals.
Danny Boyle
Granted, after departing No Time to Die over creative differences with James Bond producers Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli, Boyle confessed he is “not cut out” for work on franchise films.
However, if he were to give it another try, John Hodge-penned mega-script writes itself. A Superman with an on-point soundtrack and a sugar-rush editing aesthetic could also add an explosive aspect without relying on a surplus of overly long fight scenes. Characters navigating underused set pieces like Krypton and The Phantom Zone in time-jumping flashbacks seem like textbook Boyle trademarks that could carry over as well. And so long as he does not threaten to kill the hero off, Boyle could even be invited back for the S2 Supermanspotting sequel.
Aaron Sorkin
Truth, justice and the American way. Superman’s credo, and likely pinned to Aaron Sorkin’s bulletin every time he breaks a new script.
The dialogue extraordinaire continually wows with his feel for political rhetoric and arrogant visionaries. With Sorkin having reportedly taken meetings with DC and Marvel in 2017 following the success of his directorial debut, Molly’s Game, one need not look farther than his journalism-based shows Sports Night and The Newsroom to wonder what a Daily Planet-focused Citizen Kent could look like.
Quentin Tarantino
After recently dropping out of directing the R-Rated Star Trek he pitched to J.J. Abrams, it has become consensus knowledge that Tarantino has long eluded franchise involvement. Why? Simply put, the two-time Oscar winner is someone who loves creating his own characters too much to ever take a stab at someone else’s, adapting Elmore Leonard’s “Rum Punch” into 1997’s Jackie Brown aside.
But, if Star Trek is out of the picture and the sci-fi wheels cease to stop spinning in his one-of-a-kind mind, there is no IP Tarantino is more qualified for than Superman. The late David Carradine’s monologue about the hero’s unique origin story in the climactic scene of Kill Bill’s second volume affirms this notion twofold.
The Safdie Brothers
Upon turning down the chance at tackling a superhero flick in 2018, The Safdies doubled down by directing both comedians Adam Sandler and former Boston Celtic All-Star Kevin Garnett to critical acclaim in 2019’s Uncut Gems. Thus, it would make all the sense in the world for the basketball-loving brothers to go after the most feared IP with their eyes on Hollywood’s most noted burgeoning star in the lead.
What could a Safdie Brother team-up with NBA superstar LeBron James – whose upcoming Space Jam 2 could see another delay thanks to the coronavirus pandemic – on a Superman vehicle look like? The plot to Condor Kent is anyone’s guess, but a Daniel Lobatin electronic score and a trippy introspection into the Kryptonite-infested, lime green-blooded inners of The Man Who Has Long Been King are bona fide locks.
Darren Aronofsky
Spiritually speaking, no one could approach the Superman mythology with the same vigor as the often religiously-intrigued director.
Following the polarizing 2017 release of his global warming-inspired mother! Aronofsky has seen a bit of a career stall. Unfortunately so, as a resume including revered works like Requiem for a Dream, The Fountain, The Wrestler, and Black Swan speaks of an artist truly in tune with the pathos of those undone by the relentlessness of their own obsessions.
While promoting mother!, Aronofsky – who was once attached to helm a canceled Batman: Year One adaptation, and dropped out of 2013’s The Wolverine for personal reasons – expressed interest in directing an R-Rated Superman somewhere down the line. If selected, Aronofsky insisted his take on the DC hero would be nothing short of the original.
NEXT: DCEU Moving Away From Henry Cavill’s Superman According To Amy Adams
