We had already heard that Christian Bale wasn’t returning to the role of Batman after The Dark Knight Rises. He doesn’t want to play Batman again unless it’s under Christopher Nolan’s direction, and Man of Steel screenwriter/Dark Knight trilogy co-story writer David S. Goyer has said that the Batman appearing in the nebulous Justice League film will be a rebooted character. But on the other hand, Man of Steel, co-produced by Christopher Nolan, did pretty well for Warner Brothers, and rumors began to swirl. So what does Bale have to say on the matter?
As you’d expect, he’s made up his mind on the matter. “We were incredibly fortunate to get to make three [Batman films]. That’s enough. Let’s not get greedy,” he told Entertainment Weekly. “Chris [Nolan] always said he wanted to make it one film at a time. And we ended up sitting there looking at each other, saying ‘We’re about to make the third.’ We never really knew if we were going to get to be there, but if that was how it was going to be, this was where it should end as well.” Well put!
To dispel rumors even further, Bale stated that he hasn’t even been involved in any talks about a Justice League movie. “I have no information, no knowledge about anything. I’ve literally not had a conversation with a living soul. I understand that they may be making a Justice League movie, that’s it.” Since he’s completely done with Batman, Bale has no issue with anyone else playing the role. “It’s a torch that should be handed from one actor to another. So I enjoy looking forward to what somebody else will come up with.”
It was a good run, but I think it’s fine to let Bale retire his cowl. Besides, if he returned, it would tie Nolan’s more realistic Batman to a most likely hyper-realistic Justice League film. For all that was said about making a more realistic Superman, it would be very hard to fit Nolan’s Batman into the world of Man of Steel. Did you see the end of that movie? While Green Lantern or Wonder Woman or even the Flash would work in this world, a Batman film would be rather boring and ordinary compared to what is going on around him. (Disclaimer: I believe Batman works best alone and don’t really like the dynamics of the Justice League due to power disparities. I think what Marvel did with the Avengers, making every team member viable in some way, works far better than a team with nigh-invincible characters like Superman. The only reason Batman is in the Justice League is because he was popular, but he’s basically relegated to “the brains.” In short, I think Marvel’s shared universe and prominent headliners work better together than DC’s.)
Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy is already out on Blu-ray — in fact, I’m looking at my girlfriend’s classy box containing all three films on the shelf. But there was an ad included, mentioning the ability to later buy collectibles that would be included in an upcoming “Ultimate Collector’s Edition” of the trilogy. If this Polish Batman site is to be believed, these are the first images of what’s in the box. We don’t know what is on the nine discs besides the movies, but it looks like there’s at least an art book and a lithograph of some sort. There are toy models of significant vehicles from the series, though I’d argue that their coloring is off. And damn, look at what I assume are individual cases for each movie! There’s some amazing stylized art there, such as the Scarecrow’s mask being mixed with a straight jacket, or Bane’s mask and prison bars. It’s just a shame that Warner Brothers didn’t put this out before people bought the first trilogy set! Read more…
With Warner Brothers struggling to put together a Justice League film and a DC film universe to compete with The Avengers and the Marvel Cinematic Universe, there are lots of rumors swirling about how things will go down. While Man of Steel is being treated as the first step in DC’s rough plans, no one knows what’s happening with Batman. While Christian Bale is almost assuredly out of the picture, will the new Batman be a recasting of the same Batman, a new character taking over his mantle, or a completely rebooted character that ignores Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy? Well, there is a Batman reference in Man of Steel. There are spoilers ahead, but it’s something extremely minor that probably won’t help you feel better about WB’s DC plans either way. Read more…
Looking for some new Batman figures to add to your collection? Perhaps these Play Arts Kai figures will fit the bill – the Joker and Catwoman are now widely available for pre-order, so you can now own one or both of them. Sadly, PAK seems to have a weird fascination with black backgrounds, which makes it hard to make out the details of the figures, but from what you can see, they seem to be pretty solid. The paint work on the Joker’s coat is definitely a highlight, although Catwoman seems to lack the texture of her actual suit in the film. Perhaps it was difficult to replicate! Pre-order Catwoman here or here, and Joker here or here! Read more…
Did you like Christopher Nolan’s latest, The Dark Knight Rises? So did millions of others, I think I remember it did alright in the box office… Probably not a very big release, either way. Still, the Blu-ray is coming out December 4th, just in time for Christmas, so you can buy it for yourself and justify it a little easier. The special edition box set will include a bunch of extras, such as a documentary about the Batmobile, 17 featurettes about the making of the film, and a short on how they demolished an entire city street. Of course, most importantly, it comes with a broken Batman cowl, just like the one the film. No word on if it’ll fit on your face and shatter properly when a friend punches you. Read more…
Posted by Ben Huber on Aug 12, 2012 in Cinema, Fandom
After threatening to destroy a city and nearly doing so, you would imagine the penalty for a supervillain would be pretty severe. And it is! Just not how you might expect. Let’s just say Bane has a lot of community service lined up. Starring Chris Kattan of Saturday Night Live as the recovering Bane (who does a pretty good job with the voice), this short ends up being pretty clever. Just don’t get stuck in traffic with him.
Flickr user _Tiler has been getting some attention recently, and rightly so: his small LEGO models, while made of only a few parts, have a striking amount of detail and character! Ranging in subjects from The Dark Knight Rises, Blade Runner, and The Fifth Element, I’d hope LEGO would take note of these, as they’d make great sets, especially as stocking stuffers or the like. Click through for a mini-gallery! Read more…
Here’s a new television ad for The Dark Knight Rises that sheds a little more light on how the film starts. We see Bruce getting back in the game and building up his armoury to take on Bane, as well as the return of Lucius Fox. He offers up the new hovercraft to Bruce, reminding him that yes, “it does come in black.” A nice little callback to the first film, for sure, and while this does make me a little more excited for Rises, I still hope it stands on its own and doesn’t fall back on the previous films too much.
It’s nice to see some good advertising for Dark Knight Rises, especially after that terrible poster that surfaced earlier in the week. These two new TV spots aired recently, highlighting the trouble Gotham is going through and Catwoman. I’m still not totally sold on her outfit, but it certainly looks better in action than in photos. There’s also a little hint of humor as well, which is a change of tone from the previous ads as well. While the hype is nowhere near Dark Knight levels, there’s still a great sense of finality to everything we’ve seen of Rises, and I find that comforting in a way. It’ll be great to see Nolan’s Batman trilogy wrap up, I’m sure, just the way he intended. The second TV spot is after the break. Read more…
Here’s the latest trailer for Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight Rises. As reported earlier, fans attending The Avengers this week will be treated to it in theaters, but we figured you’d want to catch it sooner rather than later. It may reveal a tad more about the plot, such as the reason for Batman’s absence from Gotham, and along with an extended look at Catwoman’s role in the film. Unlike previous trailers, Bane’s dialog is actually intelligible, so that leads me to believe Tom Hardy had some additional ADR work in recent months — probably for the best. Oh and we finally get a look at Nolan’s take on the Batwing. Like the rest of the vehicles to appear in previous films, it’s a bit rugged, for lack of a better term, and not quite as whimsical as the design from Burton’s films.
This has to be the third or fourth spoof I’ve seen for The Dark Knight Rises trailer, and it’s probably the best one yet. Editor and director, Brad Hansen, decided to sync the audio from the trailer with clips from Disney’s The Lion King. It’s pretty amazing how it all fit together so well. It’s certainly more entertaining than the original trailer, but that’s not too hard to manage.
There’s a certain charm to “sweded” versions of films. Adding a dash of home-made ingenuity in trying to recreate big-budget scenes along with a little bit of child-like fun makes for entertaining videos. Dumb Drum recently created their own version of the Dark Knight Rises trailer that’s been hyped up quite a bit recently. There are some fairly creative bits in here, especially with the zoom out of the Batman logo and the football stadium! Click through to check it out. Read more…
Here’s a odd bit of news. Several outlets have reported that Christopher Nolan may be planning to shoot footage of the Occupy Wallstreet protests for his latest film, The Dark Knight Rises. The cast and crew will be spending two weeks filming in the big apple this month, and have apparently been told its a possibility. Personally, I’m not sure how legit it is, but if Nolan were to actually go through with those plans, it would be pretty ironic. After all, many of those protesters are having trouble finding decent jobs, but as one journalist put it, they’ll suddenly find themselves employed as unpaid extras. I’m sure that thought didn’t even cross his mind, so I hope that if he does decide to film the scenes, the message won’t get lost. If anything, I hope it helps to further cause, even if its simply to document it. Sadly, that might be more publicity than anyone has bothered to give the protesters to date.
Marion Cotillard was long ago confirmed as having been cast in The Dark Knight Returns, the third film in Chris Nolan’s Batman trilogy, but her character didn’t appear to be anyone particularly special; not with the name “Miranda Tate.” But there were rumors that perhaps her real role in the film was being obfuscated and that she was actually playing Talia Al Ghul, daughter of the main villain from Batman Begins. Well, those rumors may be right, if this set photo from the movie’s Chicago filming session has anything to say about it. I don’t think just anybody walks around in clothes like that, and certainly not with armed guards. At least, you could extrapolate that, anyway. Me, I’m far too busy just enjoying the feeling the merest glance at Miss Cotillard gives me.
Those of you who waded through lines last weekend to catch the final installment of Harry Potter were treated to several nifty little teasers. While we’re still waiting for Marvel to officially post their teaser for The Avengers — though, I’m sure we’ll probably get a decent leak later this week with Comic-Con happening — Warner Brothers have posted the teaser for Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight Rises on Facebook. Although it’s brief enough, the final film in the series looks as though it’ll focus heavily on Batman’s battle with Bane in a scene that’s very reminiscent of the graphic novel Batman:Knightfall — not to spoil the film or anything. That said, I’m really looking to seeing how Nolan intends on wrapping the series up, and I have to admit that I’m a little sad that it’s over so soon. At least we can all rest assured knowing that Joel Schumacher won’t ever touch our beloved franchise ever again.
You may recall The Dark Knight’s long, involved alternate-reality game, which had followers doing everything from decoding messages hidden in street addresses to taking pictures of themselves in clown makeup to attending fake Harvey Dent campaign events. Even though the film’s release is over a full year away, the marketing campaign for the third film in the trilogy, The Dark Knight Rises, is heating up. Literally. Today, Warner Bros. released a sound clip on the DKR website that, when viewed in a sound editing program, contained the phrase “#thefirerises”. Posting on Twitter with that in your message would add your icon to the page, which eventually filled up, revealing the above photo of Tom Hardy as Bane (click for a high-res version). If that sounds complicated, well, it is! And it’s only going to get more complicated from here. Also, Bane looks pretty imposing, doesn’t he? Read more…
Ever since Heath Ledger’s untimely death prior to the release of The Dark Knight, there’s been questions as to the fate of The Joker in the Batman film series. There’s even been rumors lately that director Christopher Nolan would bring Ledger’s Joker back in digital form for The Dark Knight Rises, using CGI and deleted scenes from The Dark Knight. IndieWire reports that they’ve spoken with Nolan and the rumors are not true — he says that Ledger’s performance in The Dark Knight is singular and he won’t be “imported” into The Dark Knight in any way. Good call. Read more…
Though it’s no great surprise to people who’ve been following the development of the past two Batman films, Christian Bale recently admitted that unless Chris Nolan tells him otherwise, the upcoming Dark Knight Rises will be his last Batman film. The statement does make sense — Bale is only contractually obligated to star in three Batman movies, and he’s said several times that he’d only star if Nolan was at the helm. He does leave some wiggle room, though; Nolan could very well decide to do another Batman film, and Bale could likely be convinced if that was the case. Read more…
Reportedly, the script for Christopher Nolan’s next (and likely final) Batman movie is almost complete, and rumors are pouring in as to its contents. The latest rumblings indicate that, contrary to previous speculation, there’s not a more supernatural villain like Killer Croc or Clayface — instead, so they say, the story arc is based on Doug Moench’s Prey storyline. For those who haven’t read it, it involves Hugo Strange hypnotizing a man into becoming a vigilante and pursuing Batman. Catwoman even makes an appearance, which would make sense given other casting rumors. Of course, we won’t know anything for certain until we get some details from Nolan himself, and that might be a while. The film doesn’t start shooting until next year. Read more…
We’ve been pretty pumped about Christopher Nolan’s next (and possibly last) Batman film, and some recent casting news has helped that feeling. Now we have some big news — the film’s title! Nolan spoke with Hero Complex and divulged that the movie will be titled “The Dark Knight Rises.” But that’s not all: we also know who the film’s villain won’t be. Nolan confirmed that the Riddler is out of the running as antagonist. There’ve been rumors swirling around that recently-cast Thomas Hardy will be playing Bane or even Killer Croc, but at this point it could be anybody — except for Mr. Freeze, who Nolan also recently deconfirmed. Read more…
