Frank Miller is a comic book hero to many, having been responsible for the likes of Sin City, 300, Batman: Year One and The Dark Knight Returns, the latter of which is regarded as one of the best Batman comic arcs in the history of the Gotham crime fighter. It is easy to see why Miller was therefore unsure about allowing his most beloved children to become cinematic fodder when Zack Snyder and his production team wanted to use multiple stories to support the structure of the DCEU across numerous movies. Over time though, Miller and Snyder have developed a good working relationship, and the comic legend has finally spoken about his thoughts on what it is like to be looked to by Hollywood filmmakers for inspiration.
“I really gotta say about that-a few years have gone by since all this started, okay? And at first, my reaction was to be very territorial and all that. And now I’ve kind of sat back and with a much deeper breath and longer view on the whole thing and all I can say is: this is great,” Frank Miller told The Beard and The Bald Movie Podcast recently. “I mean, I came in and I came up with my idea for The Dark Knight Returns and that basically was the big splash I made, which started my whole career going. And since then I’ve seen the two fields collaborate back and forth. I benefited greatly from Dark Knight Returns and so have they and continue to. And it can only be looked at as a healthy relationship.”
Miller and Snyder’s relationship on screen began with the director’s adaptation of the gory and stylish 300 for screen back in 2006, which proved to be a huge hit and a brought to life comic books in a way that had never really been seen before in cinemas. Snyder has also taken small pieces of Miller’s Batman comic to develop his on screen Caped Crusader and while it may seem like an impossibility at the moment with Snyder’s DC days appearing to be over and Matt Reeves’ The Batman expected to be the future of the franchise for the foreseeable, the director has previously expressed a desire to develop a full live-action movie based on Frank Miller’s Dark Knight Returns.
“I think it would just be its own thing,” Snyder said on the Happy, Sad, Confused podcast about the Dark Knight Returns storyline. “I would do it 100 percent Watchmen style. I don’t even think it’d be that expensive, to be honest. It’s pretty gritty.”
Of course following the fan demand for Snyder’s Justice League, Warner Bros have essentially said that they will not be developing that particular universe any further, and Snyder seems to have moved on to other things rather than dwelling on it too much. Fans, however, are still not happy that Snyder hasn’t been allowed to continue with his vision for Batman, and who knows whether somewhere down the line he could yet get his shot at bringing the Dark Knight Returns to cinemas in its full glory.
Zack Snyder’s Justice League is streaming on HBO Max and is now available in disc formats. Matt Reeves The Batman is expected to be heavily featured at DC FanDome in October before its release next March. This news comes from ComicBook.com.