Christopher Nolan Met With Tony Scott About Directing MAN OF STEEL Before Zack Snyder Came on Board

As you know, Christopher Nolan was a producer on Warner Bros. Superman film Man of Steel and he was the guy meeting with directors to take on the project. There were about five directors that Nolan and the studio were looking at, and the job ultimately went to Zack Snyder, but during a recent interview with Man of Steel writer David S. Goyer, he revealed that one of the other directors that Nolan met with that was up for the job was Tony Scott (Top Gun, Man of Fire, Crimson Tide). In fact, in the end, after meeting with all the directors, it came down to either Scott or Snyder.

While on the Happy Sad Confused podcast, Goyer explained:

"It was a very deliberative process. Chris met with I want to say about five directors and it came down to Zack and another director, and it felt like Zack was the right call. I think Zack was the right call. It was really exciting, the fact that Zack wanted to shoot that movie handheld, which was I thought a brilliant idea. What's interesting in the Elseworlds version of what could have been is, Chris had already met with Tony Scott, so there's a version of a Tony Scott Man of Steel in some parallel universe. I think Tony Scott doesn't get as much credit as he should be given, because he was an equally phenomenal director as his brother, and that's a movie I would have liked to have seen."

It would’ve been really interesting to see what Scott’s vision for Superman would’ve been! I’ve enjoyed the films that Tony Scott made over the course of his career, and I bet he would’ve delivered a really cool Man of Steel movie. But, Snyder is the guy that Nolan and WB chose and he ended up making a great film.

In addition to Man of Steel, the filmmaker was also once attached to direct the Millarworld superhero movie Nemesis.

Scott passed away in 2012 from suicide, seemingly as a way of escaping a painful death due to inoperable cancer.