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And then there was one:

In a move that won’t really surprise anyone considering how close he is to Warner Bros., Zack Snyder, the man behind Watchmen, 300 and the new owl ‘toon Legends of the Guardians, has been chosen to direct the studio’s latest attempt at bringing Superman back to the silver screen.

Deadline was first to break the news that Snyder was in the middle of forging a deal to make the movie with Chris Nolan executive producing. David Goyer cracked the concept and has written the script, which he'll work on with Snyder and the rest to refine before the director gets to work shooting.

“It's early yet, but I can tell you that what David and Chris have done with the story so far definitely has given me a great insight into a way to make him feel modern. I've always felt he was kind of awesome. I'll finish Sucker Punch and get right at it,” Snyder tells Deadline.

“In the initial meetings, he’s been super amazingly smart and also amazingly kind, filmmaker-to-filmmaker,” he tells the Heat Vision blog about his discussions with Nolan, in which he apparently didn’t put on a big show to win the job, but did express how close he is to the character. “I have great respect for him. The process has been amazing so far, and it looks like nothing but pluses.”

And finding a Man of Steel will probably be easier than balancing the movie’s tone, which suffers from the fact that it’s so hard to make Superman correctly when he’s such a heroic character lacking the shades of a Batman. Still, Goyer and Nolan seem convinced they’ve cracked it, so perhaps working with Snyder, they can come up with something cool.

Rumours have been flying with regards to possible plotlines, but the biggest hit on the story seems to revolve around the return of the beloved General “kneel before” Zod. If that pans out, we fear for whoever has to step into the black pantsuit made famous by Terence Stamp.

Per a report from THR, Goyer’s script is believed to be akin to Richard Donner’s Superman films via the inclusion of General Zod as the primary villain. While unconfirmed, Nolan has made it known that he wishes to place Superman within a realistic modern context for The Man of Steel. With that in mind, it would make sense to have Superman fight it out with a fellow Kryptonian who, like Clark Kent, at least looks human. While his esteemed nemesis Lex Luthor also fits this bill, other popular Superman villains such as Brainiac and/or Darkseid might not play as quite as “real” from a physical perspective.

Warners will be feeling some relief, since it really needs to get the film moving to capitalise on the time it has left to exploit the character before some of the copyrights revert back to the original creators’ estates, and has a Christmas 2012 release schedule on its wish list.

Briefly, and in closing, many have questioned whether or not Warner Bros. might bring back Brandon Routh to reprise his role in Snyder and Nolan’s film. While unconfirmed, we are hearing early stirs which seem to rule out Routh’s return to the franchise. For those of you who enjoyed Superman Returns, you have my deepest sympathies. For the rest of us, here’s to hoping Snyder, Nolan, Goyer, and co. can give this generation a Superman film that, like The Man of Steel himself, can withstand the test of time.