Screenwriter Chris Terrio discusses BATMAN v SUPERMAN with the WSJ

With all the big press push for DC’s launch pad franchise film, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, there have been a ton of interviews with the director and stars of the film. The lone person that we haven’t really heard much from is screenwriter Chris Terrio, the Oscar winning scribe of Argo, who was brought on aroundabout the same time that Ben Affleck signed on board. Obviously, Terrio’s involvement was the less talked about aspect, but it might prove all the more important as he’s also completed scripting work for Justice League Part 1, and looks to be a big part of the creative nucleus that will shape the entire direction of the DC movie-verse.

While Ben Fritz’s interview with Terrio over at the Wall Street Journal is a good read, there are a few pertinent nuggets that might get you a little more excited about Warner’s big release on the 25th of this month.

For example, here’s the writer talking about what comic influences he pulled from in tackling this clash of four color heroes:

It’s impossible to know everything in the DC universe, but I threw myself into it and tried to learn as much as possible and I found such intelligence in so many of the comics. Obviously Frank Miller is a well-known and respected writer who influences this film very directly. Also writers like Grant Morrison, who asks difficult philosophical questions in an extremely smart way. I tried to take in as much as I could while also keeping a little bit of an outsider’s eye.

Also he states that Batman v Superman should be seen as the sort-of darker middle chapter in a bigger trilogy:

“Batman v Superman” is a bit of an “Empire Strikes Back” or “Two Towers” or any similar middle film in a trilogy. The middle film tends to be the darkest one. I do think from “Man of Steel” through “Justice League,” it is one saga really.

He adds that Justice League will be a brighter film in response to that, and it’s a film that has required of ton of research on his part:

For “Justice League,” I could be reading in the same day about red- and blueshifts in physics, Diodorus of Sicily and his account of the war between Amazons and Atlanteans, or deep-sea biology and what kind of life plausibly might be in the Mariana Trench.

Terrio is an intelligent guy, and I’m definitely hopeful that between his thoughtful approach to the material and Snyder’s penchant for “aesthetic whiz-bang”, we’ll end up with a winner on our hands.