Director Zack Snyder revealed he and Christopher Nolan do not give each other notes on their respective movies. Although Snyder recently returned to his cinematic roots with his zombie project Army of the Dead, the director has become a prominent name within the world of superhero films over the last 10 years, as he launched Warner Bros.’ DCEU with Man of Steel. Of course, Snyder followed that up with the divisive Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, and in March of 2021, was finally able to release his much-improved version of Justice League after years of Snyder Cut campaigns. Through his DCEU journey, particularly his arduous journey with Justice League, Snyder has found support and guidance from a now good family friend, Christopher Nolan.
Nolan, of course, directed Warner Bros.' incredibly successful and lauded Dark Knight trilogy, and The Dark Knight director then hand-picked Snyder to continue the DC projects with Man of Steel. Although Nolan’s creative involvement dwindled after Man of Steel, he still has producing credits on Snyder’s DCEU films and still offered the director guidance in later years, such as when he encouraged him to never watch the Joss Whedon cut of Justice League. Snyder even invited Nolan to an IMAX screening of the Snyder Cut, and this came after Nolan invited the Justice League director to a screening of Tenet last year. However, the friends and directors do not pull out a pen and paper for notes during these screenings.
In Snyder’s recent interview with the Straight Up podcast, one of the interviewers pointed out that they’re looking at Snyder’s “home cinema” and asked which directors were in his “inner home theatre circle” before Justice League’s release, after mentioning Snyder’s presence at the Tenet screening. Snyder mentioned they “projected the IMAX version of Justice League” for Nolan at Universal City Walk, and after being asked if the pair "give each other notes,” the director says that he and Nolan do not as they always say to one another, “okay, so the movie’s done so just enjoy it.” According to Snyder, the last thing he wants to do with Nolan “is, like, have my two cents.”
Interviewer: Which directors were in your inner home theater circle ahead of the release of Justice League?
Snyder: Well, because of the pandemic I haven’t had anyone over here. But I had Chris (Nolan), he and I went down to Universal City Walk and we projected the IMAX version of Justice League for him…
Interviewer: Can you give each other notes or is that a no-go?
Snyder: No, there’s a really cool thing that we do with each other. Which is basically, when I show him the movie, I’m like, ‘okay, so the movie’s done so just enjoy it.’ He always says it to me, really, whenever I see Tenet or whenever I see a movie of his — which I, by the way, it’s actually better…I wanna see the movie and just watch it. The last thing I wanna do with Chris, and Chris is a genius, of course — the last thing I need to do is, like, have my two cents and so it actually is really liberating to be able to just go like, ‘Okay just show me your movie because I want to get my mind blown.’
The approach from the directors is a healthy one, and while they seem to share some honest feedback, going into the film with the mindset to enjoy or “get my mind blown,” as Snyder said, is perhaps better than going in with a critical hat on. Of course, Nolan is also no longer a creative force within Snyder’s films like he was in Man of Steel, where he needed some convincing for its ending. So it doesn’t make as much sense for him to potentially scrutinize the creative decisions as thoroughly. However, if the DCEU continued on from The Dark Knight trilogy's universe and brought back Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Batman, Nolan would likely have had more involvement and a much more critical approach to screenings due to Snyder’s films linking with his beloved trilogy.
It is always great to see these types of friendships in Hollywood, especially between two directors who are so closely linked due to the DC stories they have told. Interestingly, the two directors look to also be distancing themselves from Warner Bros., as the studio is not keen on allowing Snyder to continue with his Justice League trilogy, while Nolan’s next film will likely not be with the studio due to his criticism of the simultaneous release of films on HBO Max and in theatres. But regardless of this, it’s great to see Nolan and Snyder’s supportive approach to each other’s films.
Source: Straight Up