Warner Bros. really wants to stay in the George Miller business after the success of Mad Max: Fury Road, and they're throwing projects at him left and right. While he hopes to direct a much smaller, easier film next before eventually jumping into two Mad Max sequels, rumors have surfaced claiming he might direct Man of Steel 2 for the studio. Despite recent reports that he had turned the superhero film down, Miller's latest comments to Yahoo suggest he's still very into the idea.
“I’m definitely interested [in making ‘Man of Steel 2′]...I was going to do a Justice League until an Australian government rebate didn’t go through. They were very indecisive and we were up against the writer’s strike, and it fell through.”
Miller's referring to Justice League: Mortal, which featured a lesser-known cast set to play DC's most iconic heroes, years before WB's current DC cinematic universe. Although he hasn't come close to the genre ever since, he still has ideas on what superhero movies are all about...
“I’ve always been interested in mythology, and I think the superhero myth and the superhero stories are basically Greek and Roman mythology revisited in the modern day, so that’s always very interesting. Those things are always in the mix.”
Unfortunately there don't seem to be any plans for Man of Steel 2 on WB's crowded superhero slate, but Miller could be the director to change that. What he won't be doing is helping the studio out with their long-developing and eternally-troubled remake of Akira. The live-action film based on the manga/anime classic has been passed around to multiple filmmakers and abandoned by even more actors, but the post-apocalyptic setting would seem like a natural fit for Miller. That's probably why he was asked to direct it, even though he refused...
“There was talk of it [the live action ‘Akira’]. But I’ve got so many things on my dance card, I don’t have the time to do everything.”
Akira still lives on with the addition of Daredevil co-showrunner Marco J. Ramirez, who has been brought on to work on a new screenplay.
