Screen Rant » batman begins

Bale Will Do Next Batman Movie Without Nolan

Ross Miller — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 17:29:42 +0000

People who are dying for Christopher Nolan to come back for another Batman movie need not fret – this isn’t news that he isn’t coming back. But rather Batman himself, Christian Bale, saying that he has to do another one even if Nolan doesn’t come back (which, let’s not forget, is entirely a possibility).

In an interview with Total Film recently, Bale gave his latest thoughts on the next Batman movie, commenting on such things as his being tied to the franchise (for now, anyway), how Nolan might not come back and that the next movie should be just as good as the last one.

Here’s what Bale had to say:

“Will we do a third movie? It’s got to be the right story. You can’t make something like ‘The Dark Knight‘ and then come out with something disappointing.”

“I would like it if people say, ‘You’ll never make a good third movie.’ I say, ‘OK, let’s make a third movie in that case, let’s prove them wrong. But that’s just me. The fact is, I have to! I’ve signed up! Chris [Nolan] doesn’t. So I’m in a bit of a fix if he says he doesn’t want to!”

On a related note, Bale went on to talk about the issue of technology within Nolan’s Batman universe:

“With technology, there’s a balance with everything. In ‘The Dark Knight,’ the triangulation and the mobile phones, when Batman asks Lucius to use it, Lucius says, ‘After this I will quit. I will not have anything to do with this.’”

“It’s like the eavesdropping, the illegal wire tapping going on at the NSA. There are limits… It is technology. But as with anything, it should all be in moderation…”

Even though I’m sure Bale loves playing one of the best superheroes of all time (my personal favorite by far), and loves playing him in this new, more realistic and grittier world that’s been created, it sounds like what he enjoys most is working with Nolan. Using such phrases as, “I have to,” and, “I’m in a bit of a fix,” doesn’t exactly inspire confidence in the fact that he honestly and truly wants to do another one without Nolan on-board.

However, as he says, he has to do it, because that’s what he signed up for. I think he probably did that thinking he’d most likely end up doing the three with Nolan, but as we all know there’s still that niggling fact that Nolan hasn’t actually signed up for the third one yet, so it leaves the possibility fully open that he may bail (get it?) on coming back to direct.

Which would be very disappointing, indeed. Nolan took a pretty much dead franchise and breathed new life into it with Batman Begins, a movie so damn good that many had doubts that he would be able to top it with the next one. And yet in an almost “Just watch how good I can make it,” way, Nolan delivered us The Dark Knight. Not only a film of technical brilliance, comic book movie or not, but that ended up being one of the most profitable movies in history.

So both fan and studio won on that one…

Do I think Nolan will come back for another one? I honestly think he will, not just because he’ll give in to the pressure (pretty much everyone wants him to come back…), but because I believe he truly loves making movies about the famous dark knight. I don’t have any doubt that a genuinely quality story can be conjured (there were even reports that Nolan and his brother Jonathan actually have the script underway already), an aspect Nolan has stressed on many occasions would be the true reason for doing another one, and perhaps they can even top what has come before.

It’s hard to imagine, though…

What do you think about Bale reluctantly doing another Batman if Nolan isn’t coming back? Do you think Nolan should do another one?

Source: TotalFilm

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Counterpoint: How To Make DC Comics Movies That WORK

Kofi Outlaw — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 03:16:27 +0000

With DC Comics about to have another hit on their hands when Watchmen premieres in theaters on March 6th, a lot of movie blogs/news sites have been pondering where DC/Warner Bros. should go from here.

With all the hype surrounding Watchmen, and all the internet chatter about DC Comics’ uncertain cinematic future, I found myself wondering: Why hasn’t DC had as much success at the box office as rival company Marvel?

In an attempt to answer that very question I came up with this comprehensive guide to how DC Comics SHOULD be making movies.

This week, writer/director Joss Whedon (Dollhouse, Firefly) spoke up about why he believes DC Comics has had a hard time making the transition to the big screen. According to Whedon, Batman has been a cinematic cash cow in the last few years primarily because The Caped Crusader is one of the only heroes out of the DC stable who’s whole reason for being a “hero” is an all too human anguish that makes him easily relatable to the average person.

I get what Whedon is saying on that front: I’ve always maintained that Superman Returns flopped in large part because the film was this grand meditation on why Superman is better than the average person–not just because of his god-like powers, but rather the moral strength of his character. In this day and age what moviegoer wants to pay money to see a film where they’re being told that some Superman is better than them? If Superman Unleashed hopes to revitalize the struggling franchise, I hope the filmmakers are out there right now scouring comic shops and compiling the most celebrated Superman stories they can get their hands on.

Marvel on the other hand, has always had the luxury of building their movie franchises on the backs of characters that Stan Lee purposefully created as allegories for the experiences of the common man, so that the common man would better be able to relate to them. Peter Parker is the geek who never gets the girl; X-Men are minorities who face discrimination and prejudice at every turn, etc… etc… We relate to these characters because they’ve been fashioned for us to do so. It’s easier for a fanboy to believe he can be Spider-Man than Superman; therefore it’s easier for the moviegoer who doesn’t read comics to believe the same.

However, I do think Whedon’s comments overlook an important point. Batman Begins and The Dark Knight were big $uccesses at the box office (IMHO) because the filmmakers drew their screenplays from some of the most celebrated Batman lore that is currently in print. Batman Begins borrowed heavily from Frank Miller and David Mazzucchelli’s now-classic reimagining of The Caped Crusader’s origins, Batman: Year One. The Dark Knight’s intricately woven crime-saga was built off the comic book bones of Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale’s noir-epic, The Long Halloween, while Heath Ledger’s Oscar-winning performance as The Joker borrowed from the more dark and modern renderings of The Clown Prince of Crime such as Alan Moore and Brian Bolland’s The Killing Joke.

And for those who’ve been paying close attention, DC/Warner Bros.’ next big venture, Green Lantern, has generated positive early buzz primarily because the script for the film will reportedly adhere closely to “Emerald Dawn,” one of the most famous GL stories ever told.

Do you see the pattern here?

The powers that be over at DC/Warner Bros. need to start thinking not only of which DC characters deserve a box office run, but also which famous DC Comics stories need to be told. To phrase this another way: DC, let Marvel worry about the character stuff; you worry about the many, many celebrated storylines you have at your disposal.

Watchmen is a perfect example of what I’m talking about. It’s one of the most famous Comic book stories ever told under the DC banner–now it’s poised to be one of the biggest movies of 2009. Watchmen has endured not because of people’s fascination with the particular characters (aside from maybe Rorschach), but rather because of the impact of the story as a whole. Name me one Marvel storyline (storyline, not character) that has had THAT kind of social impact.

So what other famous stories does DC have to tell? Obviously there is Frank Miller’s iconic vision of Batman’s future, The Dark Knight Returns–a subject which resurfaced once again this week, in an interview First Showing conducted with Watchmen director Zack Snyder. (Snyder would still like to tackle the project, but there’s no guarantee yet that he will. Maybe Watchmen will change that if it does well enough at the box office.)

DC/Vertigo’s The Losers is on track to becoming a feature film. The comic had only a small cult following, but many of those that read it have had good things to say about it. We’ll see how the film turns out.

If I ruled Hollywood (and I aim to), I would love to see the early Preacher storylines compiled into a film (I’m talking the “Gone To Texas” and “Until The End of Time” storylines). There’s also Jeph Loeb and Jim Lee’s Batman: Hush, or Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely’s All Star Superman–arguably one of the best Superman stories I’ve read in the last decade. Another safe bet would be ANY of the stories Grant Morrison told during his run on Justice League, should a JL movie ever crawl its way out of the grave.

Of course I’m just scratching the surface here. There are many, many, great DC Comics storylines that I’m totally blanking on at this moment. But then, that’s why I have you my wonderful, knowledgeable, readers. What DC Comics Storylines do you think DC/Warner should be adapting for the big screen? Hit us back and let us know.

Sources: Slash Film & First Showing

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David Goyer Shoots Down Batman 3 Rumors

Jamie Williams — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 00:33:51 +0000

In other breaking news, water is apparently wet, the sky is blue and ice cream is in fact delicious!

Talking to the MTV Movies Blog, David Goyer (who wrote Batman Begins and The Dark Knight along with director Christopher Nolan and his brother Jonathon) reveals that none of the God-only-knows-how-many rumors regarding Batman 3 are true.

That’s right, ladies and germs. Nolan has not yet signed on to helm the third Batman installment (the last in a proposed trilogy), pre-production won’t start early in 2009 and no actor(s) have been cast to play Bat’s latest advasary. As Goyer explains:

“We have mused here and there [but] I mean Chris is pretty much a one movie at a time kind of guy. I wish I could tell you more. There really isn’t anything to tell.”

Fair enough, good Sir.

It’s common knowledge that Warner Brothers wants Batman 3 out ASAP with their current sights set for a summer 2011 release – which makes perfect sense considering that will give Nolan & Co. enough time to take a breather and relax before heading back to Gotham City.

Like The Dark Knight before it, my guess is official news on Batman 3 won’t hit till next summer. Let’s thank the MTV Splash page for debunking rumors for once instead of promoting them.

Source: MTV Movies Blog

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Why I Loved Iron Man More Than The Dark Knight

Heath McKnight — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 02:12:53 +0000

Heath McKnight: Obsessive Iron Man fan

Before I start my little op-ed about Iron Man and The Dark Knight, I want you all to know that Iron Man is indeed my favorite character. I had him tattooed on my right forearm almost five years ago, and Entertainment Weekly even featured me as their “Obsessive Fan of the Week” last year! I write for Advanced Iron (the #1 Iron Man fan site on the planet), and my love for the character stretches back over 20 years.

That said, Batman is my second favorite character (tied with Captain America), and Batman Begins was, for the longest time not only my favorite comic book movie, but one of my top 20 favorite films of all time. The Dark Knight somehow topped Batman Begins, and completely blew me away. It deserves all the money and (hopefully) awards it has (or will) earn.

Okay, now that that’s out of the way, I want to spend a little time talking about why, ultimately, I love Iron Man more than The Dark Knight. Understand that while I think TDK is a magnificent movie, and the musical score is infinitely better than the pedestrian soundtrack of Iron Man – ol’ Shell Head’s film wins the race (but only by a little bit).

So why do I love Iron Man more? I recently sat down, and thought about the best movies I’ve seen this past summer, and I was hard-pressed in deciding whether Iron Man or TDK was better – or if they were a tie for me. Due to a busy work schedule this summer, I could only see each movie once, but you know I’ll wear the DVDs out when they’re released. I could also watch only a handful of films, but I hear that Indiana Jones 4 stunk anyway.

So after thinking about both, even going so far as comparing stories (both are aces) and direction (two veteran indie filmmakers doing their best work).

Acting: Tie – you can’t get better than Robert Downey, Jr. and Heath Ledger.
Visual FX: Iron Man.
Music: The Dark Knight.
Villains: Sorry, Iron Monger, but Heath’s Joker scared the crap out of me, and he deserves an Oscar.
Cinematography: Matthew Libatique (Iron Man) and Wally Pfister (The Dark Knight) are both tops in their field, but I give the slight edge to Libatique.
Overall fun factor for me: Iron Man wins by the narrowest of margins.

After all that, I came to the conclusion that Iron Man was the best film.

What ultimately got me to that conclusion was my good friend, comic book creator Rich Koslowski. He is the creator of The 3 Geeks, and he recently commented on his blog:

“I did love it [The Dark Knight, but] I still liked Iron Man better. And the one main reason I think is that Iron Man was more well-rounded. Iron Man had the one thing the The Dark Knight did not… joy.”

That’s exactly what I was mulling over: joy. Don’t get Rich or I wrong, we both love the dark aspects of Batman (don’t EVER lose that and don’t EVER hire Joel Shumacher EVER again!), but we went for the “light” with Iron Man.

So there you have it. Even though I am a big-time Iron Maniac, had the movie stunk, or had it been just decent-to-good, TDK would’ve won, hands down. Trust me, I love Iron Man the character, but I don’t love being let down. I learned that years ago, when I’d get excited for upcoming movies, much like sports fans would get pumped up for the big game, only to be disappointed when the film opened (Jurassic Park being the exception). And believe me, I was obsessing about both of these films.

For me, ultimately, I just loved watching Iron Man fly around, dispatching bad guys. But don’t forget that I absolutely loved The Dark Knight. It and Iron Man are the top two best comic book movies I’ve ever seen and I can’t wait to watch both films at least two dozen times on DVD before the year ends.

And one more thing: I think it’s great that TDK made over $520 million, and Iron Man, a minor, not-as-well-known Marvel superhero made more money than Indy 4. No one expected Iron Man to do as well as it did, but it certainly did.

I can’t wait for the next Iron Man and Batman films.

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The Top 10 Inevitable Movie Reboots

Vic Holtreman — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 18:59:33 +0000

As we all know, Hollywood is the epicenter of not only fads, but also ~~ripping off~~ copying what works from other studios. We’ve all seen this before many times. One studio puts out a successful movie in some genre and within 6-9 months we see a bunch of movies coming out trying to capitalize on the popularity of the first one.

This phenomenon really took off in the early 1980s, with movies like Star Wars launching a new era in Sci-Fi films (yes, I know Star Wars was released prior to 1980), Superman starting the superhero movie trend, Friday the 13th and Nightmare on Elm Street giving us the wonderful teen horror genre (at least they were rated R back then). Rambo started the lone hero with enemies that were lousy shots and couldn’t kill him even with machine guns and Porky’s gave us the start of the raunchy high school comedy.

So I suppose it was only appropriate, and a matter of time before Hollywood, bereft of new ideas, decided to re-visit those old gold mines to search for a fresh vein to tap. But now we’re not doing remakes any more… oh no – now the big buzzword is: Reboot.

The first recent film to tackle this concept (and succeed) was Batman Begins in 2005. Warner Bros. took a once successful franchise that had been ruined utterly and completely by descending into tongue in cheek, replete with nipples on the Bat-Suit. As we all know, director Chris Nolan exceeded everyone’s expectations and cleansed our palates of the abomination that was foisted upon us by Joel Schumacher.

Warner Bros. followed this success with Superman Returns, which while it was profitable, was a disappointment to many, and didn’t really “reboot” the franchise. It seems like the next Superman film may actually try to do that (again). We also had the rejuvenation of the James Bond franchise with Casino Royale, which gave us Daniel Craig as the closest thing to the early days of the series and Sean Connery.

The Incredible Hulk reboot didn’t go as well as planned for a variety of reasons including poor marketing and internal conflicts.

So now that the studios have seen that it’s possible to do a reboot well (as opposed to recent failures like Planet of the Apes and The Pink Panther), the reboot trend is moving full steam ahead. Interestingly, the main target for source material seems to the very same era I mentioned above: the 1980s (give or take a couple of years).

Now technically some of the projects haven’t been reboots – a similar trend that’s emerging is to create an additional sequel to a movie franchise that ended 20 years ago. An example of this was Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull – which while successful, was not as huge a hit as Paramount had been hoping for. The fact that the term “Nuke the fridge” has entered the vernacular has more than a little to do with it, I’m quite sure.

On the “delayed” sequel front we also had Bruce Willis returning as John McClane in Live Free or Die Hard (aka Die Hard 4). While that was controversial due to dropping the rating from the usual R to a PG-13, it did well at the box office and was fairly well-received. We also had not one but two Sylvester Stallone sequels: Rambo and Rocky Balboa, both of which kicked butt IMHO.

Projects ready to hit the screen next year include J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek and McG’s Terminator 4. Other “dust off the concept” movies that are in the works include Child’s Play, Hellraiser, Ghostbusters and Beverly Hills Cop 4.

So this got me thinking… what movie reboots/delayed sequel possibilities are out there that haven’t been tapped yet? Now I’m not saying this is a good idea – I’m just saying that I’m betting there are “scriptments” floating around Hollywood for these well-known franchises.

Whether they get made before this trend runs out, I don’t know – but if they DO, you heard it here first.

Here’s the list, in no particular order:

1. Smokey and the Bandit (1977)

Here’s the movie that made both Burt Reynolds and Sally Field stars and beloved by the public. Just a fun, against the establishment, redneck fun movie.

Logic: Are you kidding me? With Sarah Palin as the Republican Vice-Presidential pick and the whole Liberal vs Conservative angst, the timing for a new version of this couldn’t be better!

2. Crocodile Dundee (1986)

This is the movie that made Aussie Paul Hogan a star. With his low key charm and self-confidence, he became and instant audience favorite. It spawned a sequel which wasn’t bad, but in 2001 they did a third movie which was a stinker.

Logic: Someone needs to make a casting trip to Australia to find a new Dundee – shouldn’t be too difficult… Australia seems to have a good supply of “manly men.”

3. Home Alone (1990)

The original starring Macaulay Culkin and directed by Chris Columbus is a classic. There was one sequel and a failed attempt at a reboot back in 1997.

Logic: It’s been 11 years since the last one, so you know that someone out there thinks “if we could only find the right child actor” they could make a go of this one again.

4. Back to the Future (1985)

Another beloved series, which starred Michael J. Fox and was directed by Robert Zemeckis. While the first two were great, the third left a bit to be desired.

Logic: Yes, this one should remain untouched, but it’s got a brand name, was a big hit for its time and I can just see some new spin on this (no doubt with characters that are annoying instead of endearing).

5. Revenge of the Nerds (1984)

Having been pretty nerdy myself at the time this originally came out, I thought it was hysterical. As usual, the sequels got progressively weaker.

Logic: You could almost argue that with the unending string of teen comedies, this is unnecessary. Well, yeah, it IS unnecessary – but remember we have a known title plus lazy screenwriters (no, not ALL of them, but we know they’re out there).

6. Rambo (1982)

Logic: Considering the fact that we just had a sequel, maybe some bright-eyed exec will think it’s time to re-cast this with a younger actor. Instead of a Vietnam vet I’m sure they’d be happy to use a black-ops Iraq war veteran as the hero.

7. Porky’s (1982)

If memory serves, this was the first really raunchy high school comedy (yeah, we had Animal House but that was college, big difference, right? RIGHT?).

Logic: See #5.

8. Mad Max (1980)

Mad Max was a little film that gave us the first big screen appearance of Mel Gibson (dubbed horribly with an American voice). Immediate cult classic -spawned two sequels, one good, one not so much.

Logic: You could almost argue that a reboot has been attempted already with this year’s clunker Doomsday. But it’s not really a reboot unless they use the original title.

9. Rocky (1976)

Logic: Similar to #6, Rambo and the same logic applies.

10. Lethal Weapon (1987)

The original team-up of Mel Gibson as the manic cop and Danny Glover was awesome. Again, each subsequent film was not as good as the one before.

Logic: While there have been many “buddy cop” movies since this one, again we have the “Lethal Weapon” brand name. Definitely reboot material – PLEASE do not bring Glover and Gibson back for this.

Well there you have it: The top 10 candidates for the movie reboot treatment.

So what do you think – do you have any that should be added to the list, or ideas for how any of these should play out?

Thanks to DenOfGeek for sparking some ideas.

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If Joss Whedon Had Done Batman

Bruce Simmons — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 17:16:07 +0000

Wow, what a crazy combination of fans. Take Joss Whedon and his Joss-Verse fan craze and combine that with the Batman fan following and I think we would have seen quite an explosion across both worlds.

Before Christopher Nolan got the nod to reboot the Batman mythos, Joss Whedon had pitched his own idea for the next film for the Caped Crusader to Warner Bros!

When Warner Bros was developing the new take, he admits his version was a bit less epic and more Gotham City centric. We’d watch Batman’s progression within the city, though it had the same vibe as Batman Returns.

The bigger twist, or the originality we’ve come to expect of Joss Whedon, was that that bad guy in his version was not a known commodity. It would have been a new bad guy that was more along the lines of a Hannibal Lector type. Someone who Bruce Wayne had studied under at Arkham Asylum.

He surmises that his bad guy was probably why he didn’t get the nod.

Ever gracious, he gives the nod to Christopher Nolan and the fantastic job he’s done with the franchise,

“I just love the respect [Nolan has] for the character and the world,” he said. “I thought Christopher Nolan’s done an amazing job of bringing out the comic book, and I see a lot of movies [coughs “HULK”] — sorry, I had a Hulk stuck in my throat — that don’t really have the aesthetic or the pathos or really get why the comic book works.”

He’s still stuck on the idea and even dropped the notion that he might still do a comic version of his idea. If DC Comics is reading, or listening, I’d say give the man a call. You can’t go wrong just chatting with him.

The idea of Joss Whedon having a crack at Batman is mind blowing. That would have been a very different, yet familiar story. He’s an admitted life long comic book fan and would have paid proper homage to the franchise. I’m sure of it.

Or we might have seen Batman: The Vampire Slayer and he probably would have had an uneasy alliance with Spike. Either way, the cool potential I think would have been pretty high for many. (Whoa, that’s one heck of a team up I just had fly from my typing fingers!)

Source: Much thanks to MTV for the cool interview.

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Johnny Depp As The Riddler In The Dark Knight Sequel?

Kofi Outlaw — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 06:03:12 +0000

(My dear readers, you have permission to treat this rumor as hostile.)

Not two days after wild rumors started circulating that Angelina Jolie was looking to play Catwoman in Christopher Nolan’s third chapter of the Batman Begins series, comes an even wilder rumor from out of the UK that Warner Bros. execs have begun eying top-notch actors Johny Depp and Oscar-winner Philip Seymour Hoffman for the roles of The Riddler and The Penguin in the next Bat-flick

DON’T DRINK THE KOOL-AID JUST YET. For every new rumor of which villains will be featured in the next Batman film, comes another statement from Dark Knight scribes Jonathan Nolan and David S. Goyer, saying that they are trying NOT to take the obvious route of throwing the second-most iconic villains from Batman’s rogue gallery into the next film. However, as Spider-Man 3 taught us all, when a franchise reaches a certain $tature, the studio’s wishes quickly begin to trump any creative desires. Don’t be surprised to see The Riddler, The Penguin, or both, show up in the final draft of the script.

However, we won’t really know anything until a script for BB3 is actually done. But that hasn’t stopped fan debates from raging 24/7. Personally, I don’t think Goyer and Nolan should be working too hard to try to pull out obscure villains and/or plotlines for the next installment. If Heath Ledger’s performance in The Dark Knight taught us anything, it’s that an actor at the top of his or her game is able to take what is iconic and totally redefine it. (And fanboys, really, is that not the essence of all the best comic books: re-definition of the status quo?)

Which villains do you think should make into BB3?

Source: Comic Book Movie

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The Dark Knight: Are Box Office Expectations Too High?

Jamie Williams — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 21:37:32 +0000

Earlier this morning, I was talking about how fans online were nerdgasming over the release of The Incredible Hulk last week.

In case you’re unfamiliar with the phrase, “nerdgasming” is being insanely pumped about the release of something (i.e. usually a movie but it also applies to video games, television shows, etc.) to the point of “knowing” it’s going to be a blockbuster-level smash because of your excitement level and the fact that the Internet is talking about it non-stop.

And a lot of times, it doesn’t happen. Sure, sometimes the item in question does well – but nowhere near our own expectations and we find ourselves asking: “What happened?” That certainly applied this past weekend when the Hulk reboot pulled in a solid $55 million despite claims by many that it would churn out anywhere between $60 to $100 million(!) That was never. Gonna. Happen, folks.

Now if there’s any film thats going to top the 3-day $100 million opening weekend of Indiana Jones & the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull this year, it’ll be the much-hyped Batman Begins sequel The Dark Knight.

But the question is… will it? Personally, I don’t think so and I shall explain why.

When Iron Man debuted last month with those 8:00 P.M. screenings, I decided to take two very good friends of mine (a young couple) and their little boys – aged 2 and 3 to see the film. As we left the theatre, we discussed the next “event film” we had to see at the very first screening and it was without a doubt going to be The Dark Knight. When I asked, “Should we take the boys with us?” all three of us thought about it for about a second and quickly said, “No.”

Just looking at the trailers (as great as they have been), it’s clear that this is going to be a much darker film than Batman Begins. Of course there are rumors saying the film actually pushes the limits of the PG-13 rating with its material. And I don’t think my friends and I are the only ones concerned about putting this in front of small children too young to comprehend the subject matter of said film.

There’s also the issue of The Dark Knight’s running length – reportedly at 150 minutes. One wonders if the studios will supply diapers for the audience so they can make it through the whole thing without a bathroom break. Although to be fair, both Pirates of the Caribbean sequels (as awful as they were) chugged out $100 million+ opening weekends and they were around that length – so that probably won’t be a factor.

Don’t get me wrong, ladies and germs. The Dark Knight is going to make a lot of money – easily more than the $205 million gross of Batman Begins. And it will have a huge opening weekend. My guess is the film will gross around $75 to $80 million in its 3-day opening weekend. As for its total domestic box office, I think at the moment we’re looking at a solid $240 to $250 million.

But will it reach anywhere near the $300 million mark that Iron Man has reached and Indy IV is closing in on? That remains to be seen. Let’s just not have a nerdgasm over it…

The Dark Knight opens on July 18th

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Batman Begins Batsuit Appears In The Dark Knight

Vic Holtreman — Fri, 17 Aug 2007 03:49:13 +0000

I’m a comic book and Star Trek geek at heart, so I often get caught up in the details when it comes to movies. I know there’s been a lot of debate regarding the new Batsuit designed for the upcoming sequel The Dark Knight. Some people like the functional/samurai look of it (including me) while others think the suit from Batman Begins is at least somewhat closer to the concept of the comic books.

A bunch of images appeared online late today from the movie, originally announced by RopeOfSilicon.com which showed one or two and linked to the Flickr page containing a bunch more. I had a look at them and some were spoilerish. I’m not going to post them because “Rope” has already pulled them down as has JoBlo, so I’m not going to bother since I don’t want to hear from Warner Bros. legal department.

One thing I noticed was that in at least one image, Batman is still wearing the costume from Begins. The images above showing the two suits are both from The Dark Knight.

This is very good news in my opinion – in every other Batman movie up until Begins a new suit has popped up with no explanation given as to why, say, Batman felt the need for artificial nipples on a costume that is supposed to strike terror into criminals (but I digress…). This means that we get to see the transition from one costume to the next complete with an explanation of why he’s making the change.

So fans of the first costume will at least get to see it on screen again and may even be placated by whatever reason Bruce Wayne gives for updating to a different design.

Cool.

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Justice League Movie? Don’t Count On It

Vic Holtreman — Fri, 23 Feb 2007 15:11:20 +0000

Variety reported that Warner Bros. has started the ponderous wheels of film development turning with the hiring of a writing team to pen a screenplay for a possible Justice League movie. I have to say that I agree completely with the commentary over at RopeofSilicon.com where they say that it is unlikely this film gets made anytime soon.

This movie would be a massive undertaking and unless the studio is off it’s nut it would have to bring in Christian Bale to play Batman and Brandon Routh to play Superman. And that’s just the start of it. Think about the budget for a film that needs to showcase at least half a dozen well-known superheroes and the level of catastrophe and villain that would be worthy of engaging them!

I also looked up the writing credits of Kieran and Michele Mulroney, the two folks tasked to take on this massive project and all I found are two (apparently small) films that are currently in pre-production. Not the most confidence-inspiring background for a film of this type.

I think that the only way that this might be even remotely feasible would be if they would run with the concept and characters that they’ve developed in Smallville, but I doubt that’s what they’re thinking.

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