In an interview with MTV News while promoting Noah, Darren Aronofsky was asked to reflect on very nearly directing The Wolverine, reiterating that he loved both the script and James Mangold's take on the sequel. However, it was simply the cirumstances in his life at the time and the chance to make his latest movie which saw him walk away from the project. You may be surprised to learn (depending on how good your memory is) that he also came close to helming Man of Steel, telling the site that he absolutely" would have taken that job under the right circumstances. "Superman's one of the holy grails," he added. "It's Superman. It's the best superhero," he said. "Batman is great, of course, but it's Superman. He's the same level. That possibility was great."
However, it appears that he didn't turn Warner Bros. down, as after having a "a few conversations" with Christopher Nolan and the studio, the job ended up going to Zack Snyder. "I thought Zack was a great choice, and I loved his 'Watchmen' movie," said Aronofsky. "I thought it was great. I thought that as a fan of the comic, you couldn't hope for a better interpretation. I liked the orthodoxy of it. It was interesting to add the pathos that they put into the character. It's a hard one to do. You look at what Christopher Reeve did, and it was perfect, because it captured that 'good old boy' thing. But to try and redo that again and bring that for a modern audience is tough in a post-'Batman' and 'Wolverine' world. It's hard to do that."
Would you like to see Aronofsky finally helm a comic book movie?