There hasn’t been much news revolving around Batman 3 as of late, but Batman-On-Film has an article shaking fanboys to their core. It involves Christopher Nolan and whether or not he’ll be at the helm of the next installment.
As you can imagine, Warner Bros. would desperately want Nolan to return – but the deal isn’t a given. Co-writers David S. Goyer and Jonathan Nolan said they would have to convince Chris again; since The Dark Knight was his first sequel ever, asking the director to make it a trilogy is another task entirely–a task that might nearly be impossible.
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According to BoF’s source, there are a number of issues at play. The death of Heath Ledger “rocked Mr. Nolan hard.” Apparently so much so that it convinced Chris “TDK was going to be it for him and Batman on film.” The source also revealed the long speculated story point that “The Joker was going to return in Batman 3,” and Ledger’s untimely death puts the franchise “back to square one.” Though BoF is saying Chris is still developing story ideas, it won’t be “until AT LEAST 2012 before we see the Caped Crusader back [in theaters].” So the bottom line, with or without Nolan, we’ve got some time–but is it too long for Warner Bros. to wait?
The studio would likely want to strike while the iron is hot, so waiting 4 years might be pushing it. Three years passed between Batman Begins (2005) and The Dark Knight (2008), and Nolan released The Prestige (2006) inside that time. A similar situation has been expected between TDK, Batman 3 and Inception; but the non-Batman film is set to be released in 2010, forcing a shift in the previous timeline. It also took two years to develop, shoot and promote TDK which went on to be the highest grossing film of the genre. With no established universe, like rival publisher Marvel, keeping anticipation high might not be easy, even with the success of the last film.
But the added time might turn out to be a good thing for the next Batman, and WB along with it.
Nolan already has the impossible task of topping the highest grossing film in the comic book genre – that isn’t going to change, so letting it slip off the radar wouldn’t be such a bad thing. Let fanboys and general audiences, in a sense, forget how good The Dark Knight was; get Nolan and Co. to come back with a good story [calling it The Caped Crusade, 
], strong characters, and a plot that shakes audiences again.
Since owning a film studio is a money-making business I can see how having a film be delayed is a problem, but here’s something to chew on: I’d say opening box office weekend numbers are dependent on teasers and trailers, TDK had ridiculous amounts of marketing/advertising, but long-term gross is in the hands of word-of-mouth. Such is the case with the recent follow-up to Batman Begins – many people didn’t realize that TDK was a sequel. Sure, you can rope audiences by attaching a name and director (though it didn’t work for Watchmen) but give me a great film and I’ll tell all my friends, then I’ll watch it at least once with every one of them.
Not only has Nolan given fans the two best Batman films to date, he’s arguably the most acclaimed director to do a comic book movie (IMHO). Losing his storytelling to hit a release date is for me, simply out of the question.
As expected Warner Bros. has had a backup plan, a shortlist of directors to takeover the Batman franchise if the inevitable happens. Would you put plan B for the Batman franchise in motion now?
Source: Batman-on-Film
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63 Comments
I would wait as long as it takes for another Chris Nolan Batman movie. I’ve been a huge Batman fan since I was little and ‘Batman Begins’ and ‘The Dark Knight’ just blew me away. I hope Chris Nolan comes back or they just forget about finishing off the trilogy. I can’t imagine anyone else making a Batman movie even close to ‘Batman Begins’. As for the Joker, don’t bring him back. He doesn’t need to be in the next movie. He could just be in Arkham. Bring in a villain that hasn’t been used in any of the movies (PLEASE). I wouldn’t even mind Robin cuz I know Nolan could pull it off. Of course, I’m dying to see Nolan’s Batgirl or Catwoman. We already saw little Batgirl
I personally don’t want to see anyone else play the Joker in future with this franchise. Johnny Depp would be great as The Riddler. He could definatley pull of the narcississtic personality that would be required to pull this off. I don’t want to see a Robin or Batgirl either. I like Batman solo, but that’s just my humble opinion.
I’d like to see Man-bat as the main villain and a teamup with Catwoman to catch him. After all you need a cat to catch a rodent. Even a flying one. This would be a very dark gothic horror type film.
I personally am willing to wait a few more years if it means the third movie will be as good as batman begins and tdk. I think a break would do them some good, there is no hurry and no reason for nolan or anyone else to give in to the pressure. The movie will never top dark knight money-wise or even as far as villains go, they need to come up with an entirely different villain. Joker was a psychopath who had no motive, maybe this time they can have a calm, almost sane villain who has a very clear purpose, like Ras al Ghul in the first one. But if it means waiting an extra year or two to finally get a batman trilogy, then so be it. They need Chris Nolan and replacing him just to make a deadline is unacceptable.
There’s about 5,000 of these movie sites that continuously put out these bogus quotes. “A source said…” Please. I’m not believing that again. Remember when “a source” said that Nolan’s signing on to do Inception meant he was doing Batman 3? Remember? A source said so. It must be true? But wait turns out that wasn’t true. These “sources” are a lot like those sources in gossip magazines like Us Weekly and People Magazine. Yet once again a source comes out and says some new quotes from someone inside WB. People are milking this Batman 3 thing a lot because they know people such as myself are eager to find out if and when there’ll be another movie.
I hope Nolan comes back, but honestly I don’t know. And I sure as heck am not putting all my chips on trusting these quotes.
Oh COME ON Nolan. I was going to become a huge fan of your films but you ruined it with some awkward parts in your second Batman. Also your second film was disappointing, there was not enough action in there also the way you did your characters felt like cold gravy. There`s no way i can become a fan of your films unless you recover from some of the mistakes you made in The Dark Knight and provide some sort of intense sequencing with the flying and the air coordination to make me feel the pound on Batman and the gossiping villains. PLEASE MAKE THIS FILM THE MAXIMUM YOU CAN DO WITH BATMAN.
Possibilities: Best: Nolan comes back (and then the long-wait does not matter). Worst: Nolan rejects Bat-3 and the next director is anyone of those who HAD previously directed any form of Superhero movie. Just another comic-book movie is not what we are expecting of Bat-3. All Non-Nolan Superhero movies were exactly that. Made for Children.
Environment: There exists a substantial maturity gap between Nolan’s Batman and any other Non-Nolan Superhero (Batman included). Burton’s Batman (1989-82) was not campy but was overly dramatic and hence not so realistic. By ‘real’, here I do not mean ‘Batman is Real’ but mean a world where behavior of humans and rules of Physics both hold true, are reasonable, are not distorted and every aspect of the environment is HANDLED CORRECTLY DEEP INTO ITS DETAILS. Nolan did that and Burton did not.
For example, the two major aspects of The Joker in the critically-acclaimed novel ‘The Killing Joke (1988)’ are: 1. How the character becomes ‘The Joker’ 2. How he behaves after becoming ‘The Joker’. Burton implemented the First aspect correctly and Second incorrectly. Nolan, sensibly, rejected the First to give ‘The Joker’ a feeling of ‘Completeness’ and implemented Second correctly to give Joker the realistic tone. And Ledger has an Oscar to prove that. Nolan’s handling of origins of Batman in ‘Batman Begins (2005)’ was the best ever for any Superhero in any movie. It was deeply engrossing and that resulted in people having developed strong attachment to the character in both ‘Begins’ and ‘The Dark Knight (2008)’. Burton on the other hand, brought the Batman suddenly on-screen without much conviction or justification to it. So Keaton’s performance, bad, decent or good, never had a hold on me. Anyway he was physically GROSSLY misfit as Batman and too much of a jerk to be Bruce Wayne. Females get attracted to smooth playboys like the Wayne played by Kilmer in ‘Batman Forever (1995)’. Burton’s Bat-movies were not bad but were adapted for children, hence more easily comprehensible. Even the critically-acclaimed novels (The Killing Joke, The Dark Knight Returns, The Long Halloween, The Dark Victory, A Death in the Family) handle Batman more maturely. Nolan’s Bat-Environment is a mature one and willing to wait till Nolan gets it correct for the third one going in with zero-expectations and full efforts. Anyway WB is not obliged to give us a Third Batman. So let’s wait.
Action Scenes: Batman attacks are silent, sudden and out-of -the-blue. He attacks to put down his prey in a single blow just like a real bat. Keeping that in mind, the fights in ‘Batman Begins ‘ by Nolan were a correct approach and I DON’T want to see Batman visibly clear during fights as in TDK. Anyone interested in sadistic More-Slam-Bang approach should stop watching Nolan Movies and start watching Van Damme and John Woo movies.
The Joker: The Character is always Larger than the Actor. Somebody will surely take Ledger’s place someday, …but at least not in future Nolan Bat-series. The Joker has MADE HIS POINT in TDK and his arc is over and done with. A mention of him in Bat-3 is no problem but even a single minor glimpse of him being alive in Bat-3 will definitely affect the Ledger’s Joker negatively, even though a little. This is the Movies, not the forever-going Comics/ Novels. Let’s get Penguin (No Man’s Land), Black Mask (War Games), Bane (Knightfall) or Riddler(any novel) instead. And yes…, saying that Ledger’s Death was the reason TDK made it to the Fourth Place of All-Time World-Wide Box Office is like saying Titanic(1997) made it to the top because that chick went nude in that scene. TDK was appreciated by both critics and public alike for everything in it. Titanic had only outstanding ‘Direction’ and ‘Technical Achievements’ as its Plus Points. Waiting for ‘Inception (2010)’ …
I see this happening Nolan Completes Inception and WB”Warner Brothers” Promtes it for next year, David Goyer Himself states somewhere i read, that there are writing a scripit “as we all wait of course”, if Nolan feels good about turning it into a third film he’ll start casting sometime late 2010 and start filming sometime 2011 for 2012 summer release date.
You ARE some fan, somefan!
Yes, even for the most optimistic, Summer 2012 seems to be the earliest we can see The Bat making his moves in a fresh movie. An earlier date is improbable. That unfortunately is the way Nolan works but gives us top-class movies EVERYTIME anyway so …no complaints from me.
Calling it Batman: The Caped Crusader is kind of
weak if you asked me. I never liked that alias for
the Batman, especially with Nolan’s darker approach
to the comic-book superhero. The name just makes me
think of a pirate.
this is a late response i know but the caped crusader? come on…… i think the dark knight returns would be a grest title cuz hes on the run frum the law and under the radar… think of it this way if hes runnin frum the law hes dissapeared crime is at high again since hes been gone…. now he comes bakk in the next movie… and so he returns…. and playing into the comic if they wre to have the joker return played by a different actor this would play into the comic…. batman could break his rule as he did in that comic… and speaking of harley quinn maybe he while in arkam makes friends with sum other psycopathic girl who worships him and she escapes with him… thats what i think would be a good story plot for da sequel whenever it comes out… oh ya and eddie murphy as the riddler? i hardly think that anyone could take him seriously in a movie of this high of a magnitude….
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