Batman gets a new director

[Guest Lethargic]

According to Variety, Warner Bros. has signed Memento and Insomnia director Chris Nolan to revive its Batman franchise. It is unclear whether he will write the script as well.

 

"All I can say is that I grew up with Batman, I've been fascinated by him and I'm excited to contribute to the lore surrounding the character," Nolan told the trade. "He is the most credible and realistic of the superheroes, and has the most complex human psychology. His superhero qualities come from within. He's not a magical character."

 

The trade adds that it is not known how the new Nolan project will impact any of the other Bat-films, Batman Vs. Superman, Batman: Year One and Catwoman. Out of the three, the latter seems closest to being ready, with Ashley Judd expected to play the title role, and visual effects veteran Pitof making his directing debut from a script by John Rogers.

 

 

I hate hearing that it looks like Aronofsky won't be doing it, but this is a damn good replacement. That middle paragraph sounds like it's somebody that does actually understand the character. Gives me a slight bit of hope.

[Guest Mole]

Yes, I LOVE Nolan.

 

M. Night, Sam Mendes and Nolan are all the next great directors of our generation.

[Guest Justwitty]

Holy crap! That is a brilliant choice! I don't say it often about Warner Bros. but congrats to them on making a very, very smart choice. If this movie has the "feel" of Memento and Insomnia, we could be in for a serious treat and a neat alternative to Marvel movies. (I love those too btw.)

[Guest Lethargic]

I just really hope that they restart the franchise. Even if it's not Year One, let it be starting over and completely ignoring those other crapfests. Make it completely new so those villains can be used again in the right way. Don't do this stupid sequel with the Scarecrow they've been talking about lately. I would love to a see really good Scarecrow movie, but not if it's gonna be a sequel to those movies.

[Guest SP-1]

I'd like to see the franchise start over, too. I want to see a Batman that doesn't kill and that is psychologically driven.

 

Does anyone else want to see Mark Hammil apply his darkly insane animated Joker personality to a live action role? He does have the look somewhat, and if they wanted to do the "long chin" version of the character, that can be done with makeup effects easily I would think.

[Guest El Satanico]

When i read the title I was ready to start bitching about Aronofsky being taken off the project. I'm just glad that they found a great replacement.

 

At this point Aronofsky is another "next generation great director" so i hope he finds a good new project. Sucks that he has to wait longer to make his first big budget mainstream type movie. Maybe starting off with a smaller scale mainstream type movie would be better for him at this point.

[Guest starvenger]

Allegedly Frank Miller is still doing a screenplay for "Year One". I have mixed feelings about this. Since he wrote the source material it should in theory be good. But he also wrote Robocop 2 and 3, which weren't good, to put it mildly.

 

And whether Nolan is attached to Batman or not, I still have my doubts as to whether we'll see the Caped Crusader on the big screen again...

[Guest Tony149]

While this sounds good...don't forget this is WB we're talking about. The new Superman movie supposedly is having trouble. WB already screwed up the Batman franchise once, hate to see it happen again.

 

I want a restart as well, but I don't think it will be Year One since that's hardly talked about. More likely something along the lines of Batman 1989, only with a little more focus on the origin.

[Guest BRUCE]

Yes, I LOVE Nolan.

 

M. Night, Sam Mendes and Nolan are all the next great directors of our generation.

Nolan is a great choice, nut I think M. Night could really do a good Batman. He's already a dark guy, could you imagine what his take on Batman would be?

[Guest TheZsaszHorsemen]

Nolan: Cast Guy Pierce as Batman. You already KNOW he can play Bats. Tim Roth would be a great Joker. (the only conceivable complaint you could have with Roth is that he's rather short, and he can wear shoe lifts.)

 

Nolan is the man, I have faith.

[Guest Ravenbomb]

Nolan or David Fincher could do a really good Batman movie, so this should be good.

[Guest godthedog]

Yes, I LOVE Nolan.

 

M. Night, Sam Mendes and Nolan are all the next great directors of our generation.

no they're not. first, they can't really be the next generation, since they're already making acclaimed films. the "next generation" of great directors, by definition, don't have any success yet. and i wouldn't even say they're this generation of great directors. nolan i can see maybe, if he keeps his track record up, but mendes and shyamalan are so overrated it makes me want to puke. the 2 andersons, the coen brothers & zwigoff are way better.

[Guest TheZsaszHorsemen]

Yes, I LOVE Nolan.

 

M. Night, Sam Mendes and Nolan are all the next great directors of our generation.

no they're not. first, they can't really be the next generation, since they're already making acclaimed films. the "next generation" of great directors, by definition, don't have any success yet. and i wouldn't even say they're this generation of great directors. nolan i can see maybe, if he keeps his track record up, but mendes and shyamalan are so overrated it makes me want to puke. the 2 andersons, the coen brothers & zwigoff are way better.

The Coens came on the scene in 82, they're not this generations great filmmakers, they're the 80's.

 

The Wachowskis made Bound, a mediocre thriller, and The matrix which was every pop-sci-fi reference thrown into one film. If anyone's overrated, it's those two.

 

M. Night Shamalayan has made two very good films, and one average one. Right now, I don't know what the backlash is about.

 

Mendes has two films, both of which are excellent. They hasve a great visual style, and impeccable casting. I'd wait till he has a misfire before I decree he's overrated.

[Guest Lethargic]

Nolan: Cast Guy Pierce as Batman. You already KNOW he can play Bats. Tim Roth would be a great Joker. (the only conceivable complaint you could have with Roth is that he's rather short, and he can wear shoe lifts.)

 

Nolan is the man, I have faith.

Guy Pearce was appartently approached to do Daredevil but turned it down. Said he'd never do a superhero movie that he'd have to wear a costume in.

[Guest TheZsaszHorsemen]

Nolan: Cast Guy Pierce as Batman. You already KNOW he can play Bats. Tim Roth would be a great Joker. (the only conceivable complaint you could have with Roth is that he's rather short, and he can wear shoe lifts.)

 

Nolan is the man, I have faith.

Guy Pearce was appartently approached to do Daredevil but turned it down. Said he'd never do a superhero movie that he'd have to wear a costume in.

This is true.

 

It's also true that Pierce and Nolan are good friends and, it's very possible that he could persuade Pierce to take a risk.

[Guest Sassquatch]

Christian Bale as Batman would be nice but he is too young looking to look the role of a man who has fought for years.

 

Unless of course the new movie starts out like Year One where the movie takes a look at the budding career of a young Batman.

 

I really hope that the WB doesn't screw this up because if done right, we could experience Batmania all over again.

 

With the new buzz on the Batman comic books created by the new creative team of Jeph Loeb (writer) and Jim Lee (artist) now would be the right time to start to get to work on a Batman movie.

[Guest TheZsaszHorsemen]

Christian Bale as Batman would be nice but he is too young looking to look the role of a man who has fought for years.

 

Unless of course the new movie starts out like Year One where the movie takes a look at the budding career of a young Batman.

 

I really hope that the WB doesn't screw this up because if done right, we could experience Batmania all over again.

 

With the new buzz on the Batman comic books created by the new creative team of Jeph Loeb (writer) and Jim Lee (artist) now would be the right time to start to get to work on a Batman movie.

I didn't even think about how well the comicsa are doing. But won't the Lee/Loeb run be over by the time the movie hits?

 

Bale looks fin for a young Bruce Wayne, to be honest if he looked like a battle scarred warrior, people would notice. This isn't the Punisher.

[Guest Lethargic]

Bale looks exactly the right age for Batman to me. Doesn't look young in anyway, but doesn't look like an old man either. Just perfectly in the middle. Even if it is a continuation movie, I don't think they care about age. I look at it like the James Bond movies. They're all the same character but nobody wonders why he's suddenly lost 20 years in age from one movie to another. It's just a timeless and ageless character. And, of course, it's not possible to be worse than the first movie where Batman was just starting and was already 40 years old. I still say I'd scorch my shorts to see Bale as Batman and Pearce as Joker.

 

I just looked it up and Bale is 28. That shocked me. I assumed he was 32, 33 or so. I never would have thought he was still in his 20's. That makes him seem even more perfect to me. He's somebody young enough that he'd be realisticly able to pull the role off for years to come instead of just one or two times.

[Guest Sassquatch]

Bale would be more suited for the role of Nightwing if there was a movie with him in it who I think would do an awesome job of nailing the character's confusion as to whether or not he can reach his mentor's level of excellence and greatness.

 

The only glaring example of a James Bond looking more aged than the other actors who played him was Roger Moore who could have been Christopher Walken's father or the grandfather of some of the Bond girls.

 

Connery (minus NSN), Lazenbury, Dalton and Brosnan who were all in their late 30's or early 40's when they took on the role of Bond so the age difference between all of them was not as great as Roger Moore who was nearing middle age when he took over as Bond.

 

But like you said Lethargic, you see Bale as the perfect age to play Batman whether he is in his rookie year or is a hardened crime veteran but I don't think he looks old enough to to play the role of a Year Ten Batman.

 

[Guest Lethargic]

No, I don't really think he looks like he could play a "hardened veteran". With makeup work and stuff like that yeah, maybe. But I just don't think that if they do it, Batman will BE a hardened veteran. But then again I do think he can at least play 30-ish Batman. And if you think maybe that Batman really started going at around 24 or so I guess he would be 10 years into it then. I don't friggin know! I just think he'd be good! Besides, it really doesn't matter, if recent history tells us anything, the person cast will only play Bruce Wayne, Batman will end up mostly CGI. I really just want whoever it is to be somebody fairly young so they can stick with it. You can make somebody younger look older, you can't make somebody older actually BE younger. So they can keep making them and have come continuity without changing the lead role in every movie.

 

By the way, has anybody checked out the live action Batman Beyond: Year One movie some fans made? It's pretty cool. Exceeded my expectation of what a fan made Batman movie would be like.

[Guest TheZsaszHorsemen]

Bruce Wayne was 8 when his parents were killed. Assumeing he finished HS before embarking on his journey to learn the skills necessary to be become Batman, he was 18. He spent 12 years leanring to be Batman. He was thirty on his reurn to Gotham.

[Guest Lethargic]

That's what I always assumed as well. BUT, when the Year One movie first was announced and they were talking about casting people like Josh Hartnett I thought it was retared. Even in Year One I felt that was too young. So I did some research into it. I found a book, don't remember which one, maybe it was that Batman Unmasked book. Whatever it was it explained every little thing you could want to know about the character. But I THINK it said he was supposed to be 24 in Year One. I don't know if that's the correct number but it was early 20's. I remember because it shocked me. They could've just been making it up I suppose but that's what it said.

[Guest TheZsaszHorsemen]

That's what I always assumed as well. BUT, when the Year One movie first was announced and they were talking about casting people like Josh Hartnett I thought it was retared. Even in Year One I felt that was too young. So I did some research into it. I found a book, don't remember which one, maybe it was that Batman Unmasked book. Whatever it was it explained every little thing you could want to know about the character. But I THINK it said he was supposed to be 24 in Year One. I don't know if that's the correct number but it was early 20's. I remember because it shocked me. They could've just been making it up I suppose but that's what it said.

It's possible that he was tutored from 6th Grade on, but I assumed that it would be embarassing for Wayne Industries that it's head never got his degree.

 

 

Casting Batman: Year One

 

Guy Pierce as Batman

Tim Roth as Joker (You KNOW they'd add him in.)

Harvey Kietel as Lt. Gordon

John Rhys-Davies as Gillian Loeb

Christopher Lee as Alfred

 

 

Cast unknowns as Flass, Merkel, Barbara, etc.

[Guest Lethargic]

Christopher Lee as Alfred? No way could I watch that. That'd be too scary. A friggin vampire Alfred. haha

[Guest starvenger]

Casting Batman: Year One

 

Guy Pierce as Batman

Tim Roth as Joker (You KNOW they'd add him in.)

Harvey Kietel as Lt. Gordon

John Rhys-Davies as Gillian Loeb

Christopher Lee as Alfred

While I could see Roth do a good job as Joker, there's only one person in my mind who could do an incredible job, and that's Mark Hamill.

 

Everyone else, they can use whoever they want. Hamill as Joker is my only request here...

[Guest Lethargic]

I can not see Hamill pulling it off. And yes, I even mean the voice. Physically there's no way in hell I think he could do it. But that voice works as a cartoon. It would never work live action. That was even one of the weaker parts in Birds of Prey which had a lot of very weak parts. It was fun to hear and see in that setting once, but no way do I think it'd work for 2 hours. It's just too cartoony to be a real person's voice.

[Guest EQ]

Yeah, I agree. Hamill was a great choice for the Batman Animated Series, but I don't see him pulling off Joker in a movie.

[Guest El Satanico]

I agree that Christopher Lee looks too evil to be Alfred. People would be sitting there expecting a swerve with Alfred double crossing Batman just because Lee has the look of a villian.

 

However speaking of Christopher Lee...his rival wizard Ian McKellan would be a good Alfred.

[Guest Sassquatch]

DC had said that Batman was around 25 years old when he first started out fighting crime as the Batman.

 

Today's Batman is anywhere from 32 to 35.

 

Robin (Dick Grayson aka Nightwing) was around 13 to 15 when he first started out as a crime fighter with Batman. Today, Robin (now Nightwing) is pegged to be around 21 to 24 years old.

 

If the Batman franchise was continuing within the confines of the old movies (hopefully now) then I don't see Bale as playing the role of Batman.

 

But if the series was to start over again with a Batman in his first couple of years as a crime fighter, with a brand new story with no ties to the old movies, then I could see Bale in the role of Batman.

 

I think that Anthony Hopkins would be a fine Alfred when compared to Lee or MacKellan who don't look like him at all.

 

Besides, Lee would dwarf nearly everyone on the set on account that he is 6'5" while Bale and Co. are 6'2" or shorter. If Hammil was Lee's size and didn't ham it up along with the right make-up artists working with him, I could see him as the Joker but as it stands, he is too damn short to play the gangly tall man.

[Guest Lethargic]

Wiliam Powell needs to play Alfred. Sure, you know, he's dead and all but damn he'd be perfect.