Hans Zimmer Talks 'The Dark Knight Rises' And 'Superman' Reboot

Though Hans Zimmer has yet to officially sign on to score Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight Rises, he does have a meeting scheduled with the director to discuss it. That's just one of the tidbits revealed in a new interview with the composer who is also scheduled to write music for the upcoming Sherlock Holmes 2, Kung Fu Panda: The Kaboom of Doom and Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides. In addition, Zimmer discusses his working relationship with Nolan – one that's different from most other director/composer relationships -  as well as what he would do if asked to score Zack Snyder's Superman, which Nolan is also producing. Read Zimmer's thoughts after the jump.

In an interview with NBC San Diego (who are obviously staying classy), Zimmer said that Nolan was "going to come over next week" to start talking Batman. "We start early," he said. "I know he's puttering around with ideas, and we sort of sneak up on things."

That lead Zimmer into discussing his free-flowing working relationship with Nolan, which doesn't exactly center on music, but more on story, and the freedom the filmmaker affords him:

Working with Chris, he gives me all the freedom in the world and encourages me to go and be daring and unusual and crazy and all those sorts of things and be able to be the sort of emotional center of the film. It's very give and take. I'll start long before he starts shooting. Our conversations start there and it goes both ways: we just have conversations about the movie and less about what the music has to do, and it really comes out of that, whereby I felt that there was a real emotional core to be had and that that was something that the music had to do and I hung on that for dear life.

The interviewer then asked Zimmer if whomever ends up scoring Zack Snyder's Superman should reuse John Williams' classic theme. Personally, I say yes, it's one of the best themes ever. But Hans Zimmer doesn't agree with me. Who does he think he is, Hans Zimmer or something?

It's a hard one, but I followed one of the most iconic things on 'Batman' with Chris as well, and it's the same thing. You are allowed to reinvent, but you have to try to be as good or at least as iconic and it has to resonate and it has to become a part of the zeitgeist. That's the job. On 'Gladiator' I remember people always talking about 'Spartacus' and I kept telling them, 'When you saw 'Spartacus' and how it affected it you, that's how I want a modern audience to be affected by what we do now.' So I think ultimately you're supposed to reinvent.

In the coming months, Zimmer is sure to get a tons of questions, about The Dark Knight Rises in particular, as his score for Inception will surely bring him to several red carpet celebrations. Do you agree with him on Superman though? And how do you feel he and collaborator James Newton Howard could possibly evolve and improve upon The Dark Knight?