Remember the golden days of George Lucas? Remember when Zemeckis was coming out with hit after hit? Remember when Tim Burton didn’t just paint everything black and shove his wife into shot? We do. We present the five directors we mourn the hardest – made all the more bitter by the fact that they’re all still alive.

With Nolan meeting with directors for Warner Bros.’ upcoming Superman project, Man of Steel, the shortlist of his favoured possibilities has become public. And it sounds super!