Batman Vs. Superman, The Old Man And The Gun and Other Projects Nearly Made by Wolfgang Petersen

David Grann is one of today's best non-fiction writers. If you've never read his work, you know him from the film adaptation of his captivating "The Lost City of Z" and are most likely anticipating Martin Scorsese's take on his "Killers of the Flower Moon." Before those films were greenlit, Petersen, who had been inactive since "Poseidon" (his lackluster remake of "The Poseidon Adventure"), honed in on Grann's melancholic profile of a career criminal who chose to go out and do what he loves.

There is nothing in Petersen's oeuvre that synchronizes with this story, making it one of his most melancholy missed opportunities. He was capable of such nuanced character work ("Das Boot" is an expertly handled compendium of human mannerisms), so you wonder if Petersen, nearing the end of his career, wanted to do something soft and a bit quiet like his Hollywood swan song.

David Lowery ended up doing the movie with Robert Redford. That's fine, but it's so much in Lowery's wheelhouse. I'd like to see Petersen's version.