X-Men: The Last Stand director Brett Ratner wants to keep working with comic book adaptations, but may never get his chance. Ratner told MTV:
I was so upset when I left Superman [Bryan] Singer has his X-Men, [Christopher] Nolan has Batman -- there's nothing left. Hulk has been exploited already. There's nothing left for me.
Ratner originally left the Superman adaptation because he could not find a suitable actor to play the Man of Steel. Ratner's Superman script, written by J.J. Abrams, "took
place on Krypton for about half of the movie," and was "darker, because there was a civil war on Krypton," according to Ratner. He then turned to the highly criticized X-Men: The Last Stand, which Singer had ironically left to direct Superman Returns.
Is there a franchise Ratner wouldn't have touched? Yes, Iron Man. "I wouldn't have been interested in Iron Man. I have a lot of respect for [Jon Favreau] because, to me, it was a B-character.... But look what he did."
Ratner still has a chance for a comic book franchise, just not a traditional, super hero one. The director, hard at work possibly killing off another franchise with Beverly Hills Cop 4, is close to officially signing on to direct a Conan reboot.