/Film Interview: ‘Man Of Steel’ Producer Charles Roven Discusses Morality, Visual Effects And Christopher Nolan
Christopher Nolan and David Goyer aren’t the only people involved withBatman Begins, The Dark Knight, The Dark Knight RisesandMan of Steel. ProducerCharles Rovenhas been along for the long superhero ride, too. Roven, who produced all those films along withThree Kings, Twelve Monkeysand others, is one of the unheralded architects of Warner Bros. DC line-up.
We sat down with the producer (center, with director Zack Snyder and producer Deborah Snyder) on the occasion of theMan of Steelrelease to talk about the film’s moral dilemmas, the level of destruction, challenges in effects, what the name “Christopher Nolan” meant to the marketing, as well as updates on films he’s attached to fromWarcrafttoVoltronandUncharted.
Beware, this interview is filled withspoilersforMan of Steel. Nothing major, but enough that we held it until after the film’s opening weekend.
/Film:From the second Zod reveals himself, the movie has a really condensed timeline. It doesn’t let you catch up. Kal-El has to make all of these decisions so everything happens very quickly. The world doesn’t have the chance to react. Was that pace always part of the script — not making the story take place over several months?
Going off that a little bit, after the movie we were talking about films like Transformers 3 and The Avengers, which both have similar city-wide, destructive finales. You guys top that. Was that the ambition?
What was the most challenging thing to create once you guys had everything in the can, post production-wise? Was it specific shots, or actions?
We know Christopher Nolan helped break the story and was also a producer on the film. However, most people associate him with Batman. So you’ve got Superman and Batman swirling around with no set plans for a crossover. Were you aware by using his name people would connect Batman and Superman in that way? Or was it just Christopher Nolan’s name means a certain level of quality?
We started shooting Dark Knight Rises in May. We started shooting Man of Steel in August, so that’s all that there was. But we always knew that Chris’s name was going to be associated with the film, because he helped create it, he was a producer on it, and the world knows him as a quality filmmaker who also did the Dark Knight trilogy. Those were great genre movies, but they were also great movies. The trilogy was a great trilogy and will go down in history. I think all of those things are a factor.
We saw LexCorp. in there a couple of times. Are there any other easter eggs people should look for?
Also, was there ever a discussion of the Marvel type stinger at the end?
Peter, who runs my site,talked to you years agoabout a Flash movie. Now we’re looking at expanding the DC Universe. Is that still something that you’re involved with?
Okay, cool. I have to wrap up, so I’m going to name three things that you’re attached to and hopefully you can tell me what’s updated with them? First could be Duncan Jones’sWarcraft.
AVoltronmovie?
Okay, and last isUncharted.
Okay, so that’s further along is what you are saying?
Man of Steel, directed by Zack Snyder, is now in theaters.
