Zack Snyder Wants to Adapt Frank Miller’s ‘The Dark Knight Returns’
Zack Snyder says he’d like to return once more to comic book films with a new take on Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns, but only if he can do it outside DC’s current movie universe. Snyder’s career has drawn strong reactions for years. He broke out with his remake of Dawn of the Dead, then moved into comic book adaptations with Miller’s 300 and Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ Watchmen. The latter film divided fans and critics, including Moore himself.
His DC work brought even more debate. Man of Steel earned a loyal following, while Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice became a major flashpoint for fans unhappy with the direction of the DC Extended Universe. In fact, he swiped the battle sequence between Superman and Batman in his Dawn of Justice directly from Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns. Snyder later left Justice League after a family tragedy. Joss Whedon took over, and the finished theatrical version made major changes to Snyder’s work.
Now, as Snyder promotes The Last Photograph, a thriller about a former DEA agent hunting a killer, he says he still wants another shot at the superhero genre. His preferred project is Miller’s landmark Batman story, The Dark Knight Returns.
Snyder told Variety that he would love to make the film, “if anyone would ever let me do it outside the DC Universe.” He added, “If I could do Watchmen and Dark Knight Returns, those two books next to each other, to me, represent [a] complete cycle of the superhero comic book medium.”
The idea makes sense. Hollywood has spent years churning out superhero movies that often feel built by committee. Miller’s story is darker, older, and more skeptical about power. It could work as a standalone film, much like Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight trilogy.
Snyder said audiences may now be ready for that kind of adaptation. “Let’s not forget: The Dark Knight Returns was written for a comic book audience that was very exhausted by comic books in the same way that Watchmen was, so having that movie written now for people who are exhausted by comic book movies would be a good time.”
Superhero films may never disappear, but he’s right that the genre needs filmmakers willing to challenge its stale formula. A Snyder-directed The Dark Knight Returns could give audiences a Batman movie with more bite than another safe studio product, or it could be another Snyder disaster, of which there have been many.
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