"Congrats to Zack Snyder on Superman. Can't wait to see it!!!!" tweeted Brett Ratner last month when news broke that the "Watchmen" director would be helming the latest reboot of the DC Comics franchise.

It was an admirable gesture on Ratner's part, considering he spent a year of his life on "Superman" preproduction, only to see the budget balloon and the project collapse. When he stopped by Splash Page HQ to promote "Skyline" recently, Ratner continued to express support for Snyder, but also admitted to some jealously.

"Is there envy? Maybe a little," he told MTV News. "It was a dream of mine to make a Superman movie."

"I think Zack was a good choice, an interesting choice," he added. "I'm going to be the first one in line to see that movie. I can't wait."

The "X-Men: The Last Stand" director went on to pinpoint the challenges of adapting the "Superman" franchise and to explain why Snyder is the right man for the job.

"[Zack is] a great visual director," Ratner said. "It wasn't easy. I was a part of that for about a year. It was a challenge. It's hard to make a guy in tights with a cape relevant right now. It needs an interpretation…. It needs a contemporary, visionary guy who can really take something and reinvent it for a contemporary audience and make it relevant. He's definitely in the zeitgeist. He's a great technical filmmaker, a great storyteller."

Once Ratner got going on the "Superman" tip, he was hard to slow down, launching into recollections of his time working on the franchise. He spoke about his insistence on casting an unknown as the Man of Steel, despite the fact that he screen-tested everyone from Jude Law to Ashton Kutcher.

He talked about the contributions of production designer Arthur Max (Ridley Scott's go-to guy) and costume designer Betsy Heimann ("The A-Team"), and he speculated that his redesign of the "Superman" logo might in fact be the one Snyder ends up using.

"I reinvented the logo, which I think they ended up using," he revealed. "I can't exactly tell, because I don't know if the red they're using is the red I picked. I did this incredible R & D."

In the end, of course, Ratner's version was squashed. And all these years later, he's got nothing but kind words for Snyder.

"I'm really happy for him," he said. "I'm not an envious guy. I love filmmakers."

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