Christopher Nolan Credits Henry Cavill’s Man Of Steel For Influencing His $758 Million Sci-Fi Epic(Photo Credit –Facebook)
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When Interstellar dropped in 2014, viewers were awed by its vast space vision. The sci-fi drama pulled in over $758 million globally (via Box Office Mojo), locking in Christopher Nolan’s rank among top-tier filmmakers. What many may have missed is that its rustic, farmland visuals were subtly influenced by an unexpected source—the DC film Man of Steel. Despite different plots and tones, Nolan later admitted that Zack Snyder’s Superman reboot helped shape the bleak farmlands of his crumbling planet.
How Superman’s Kansas Roots Found Their Way Into Christopher Nolan’s Space Odyssey
A very few know that in 2013, Christopher Nolan came aboard Man of Steel as a producer, helping Zack Snyder reimagine Superman through a contemporary lens. Though not in the director’s chair, Nolan played a key role in framing the film’s tone with writer David Goyer, who was also his longtime collaborator from The Dark Knight trilogy. So, while Snyder steered the project, Nolan backed his vision throughout.
“That all-American iconography has always been so potent in the Superman myth,” Nolan told The Daily Beast. “It was in this script before I came to the project—he was developing the script for Steven Spielberg to direct, originally—and I think the Americana had worked its way in there.”
Nolan said the early versions of the Interstellar script already had the rural imagery in place. When he joined the project, he leaned into it. To create realistic farmland scenes, Nolan took a page from Snyder’s Man of Steel shoot.
“I phoned Zack [Snyder] and said, ‘Well how much did you grow?’ and he told me they grew 300 acres and that it cost X amount, so we grew about 500 acres of corn and actually sold it and ended up making a profit off it,” Nolan said.
He also spoke highly of Snyder’s approach to Superman and credited screenwriter David Goyer for giving the hero depth. Goyer had worked with Nolan on The Dark Knight trilogy before penning Man of Steel.
“But David Goyer had this, I thought, brilliant way to make Superman relatable and relevant for his audience,” Nolan told Empire. “Zack has built on that, and I think it’s incredible what he’s putting together… Superman is the biggest comic book character of them all and he needs the biggest possible movie version which is what Zack’s doing. It’s really something.”
Though the setting of Interstellar was far from Krypton, its earthbound roots echoed Clark Kent’s upbringing. Nolan used that same imagery to ground his space story in emotion and realism.
