Will Christopher Nolan Do a Third Batman?

News

Will Christopher Nolan Do a Third Batman?

August 27, 2008

While the internet is going crazy with casting rumors that aren't true for Christopher Nolan's possible third Batman movie, the director himself is on vacation as The Dark Knight approaches $500 million domestically.

The Hollywood Reporter has published an interesting article about the film's marketing and the deaths of both Heath Ledger and Conway Wickliffe before the film's release. The piece ends with a bit on the third installment.

And Warners and Legendary are both interested in doing a third in the series, but all involved say it will be up to Nolan to come to them with a story and a plan.

"There are a lot of us who emotionally would love to do it," Roven says. "But it's really Chris' call. Chris is the kind of filmmaker who just doesn't think about the next movie before he has completely finished the movie he is working on."

For now, Nolan is taking a well-earned vacation.

Says Roven, "When he comes back, we will see how he feels."

We will be waiting patiently...

581 comments

Add a comment

Related Articles From Other Sites

Comments

Posted by: citizenpain on August 27, 2008 at 01:38:24

not a chance on nolan not coming back. he's gonna do it. as for the crazy casting rumors, it's funny what people will believe... they haven't even started putting this movie together and already there's all these casting rumors for characters that probably won't even be in the movie.

Posted by: Ken on August 27, 2008 at 01:38:36

Wow no comments until mine?

Posted by: Ken on August 27, 2008 at 01:39:20

I almost said first too...

Posted by: Aaric on August 27, 2008 at 01:44:30

I hope you're right citizepain, but he could be a director that won't be drawn to a movie because of the paycheck. Let's just hope him and his bro come up with another great story that he feels is worth telling.

Posted by: crowdog on August 27, 2008 at 01:44:44

I hope he comes back. The only way they can even hope to make a better batman movie than the dark knight, would be to have nolan make it. I loved what he did with the story, and the ending was incredible. If anybody else tries to pick up where he left off it would be a sad day...

Posted by: true_super_fan on August 27, 2008 at 01:47:32

heard on many other sites such as rotten tomatoes "fake news" that johnny depp and cher will play the riddler and catwoman, respectively. frankly, it's not a very funny joke.

Posted by: The Dude on August 27, 2008 at 01:48:01

If Nolan can come up with something to knock us off of our bloody feet again, he'll come back.

I'm still in awe of The Dark Knight so I have all the patience for a third entry.

Glad to hear Roven and everybody at WB is giving him a breather! The man really does deserve it!

Posted by: Shadow on August 27, 2008 at 01:50:28

I sure hope not. After the travesty that was The Dark Knight, I really don't want to see the character, cancer-throat Batman, ruined any further. They should stop at TDK because it's already failing. I don't care how much cash it's made it wasn't appealing to the true fans. I mean, let's be honest. The only reason TDK is making money is b/c Heath's untimely death, god rest his soul. TDK just blows aside from Ledger. =/

Posted by: Landfill on August 27, 2008 at 01:52:00

i cant wait to for the day chris finally says hes ready to do another one.

Posted by: true_super_fan on August 27, 2008 at 01:52:53

heard on many other sites such as rotten tomatoes "fake news" that johnny depp and cher will play the riddler and catwoman, respectively. frankly, it's not a very funny joke, especially if it turns out not to be a joke. even the johnny depp part. he's a good actor and all, but i'm kinda sick of seeing him in so many blockbusters i hope they get an unknown for the next villain. and no joker anymore, coz i dont think anyone can top ledger. nolan and bale and everyone else should be back, that's a given.

Posted by: ecko on August 27, 2008 at 02:02:28

@ Shadow

you are joking right? i have been a die hard batman fan all my life and this movie was amazing.

Posted by: Taiwarriorz21 on August 27, 2008 at 02:03:07

i would love to see johnny depp as the joker replacement. he reminds me of heath in many ways. depp does a great impression of soooo many characters especially jack sparrow. Angelina Jolie as Catwoman well I really hope Nolan would stay away from catwoman dont really thinks she's a good idea for the continuum of success proceeding The Dark Knight. Bring back Aaron Eckhart and use him as Two-Face the main villian in the movie.

Posted by: Ancient Fanboy on August 27, 2008 at 02:04:01

Regardless of speculation,just what is he going to do for a third act?

Posted by: Jay on August 27, 2008 at 02:05:21

Let the man enjoy his vacation, sheesh.

Posted by: Webhead2006 on August 27, 2008 at 02:06:59

Yea nolan is probably bound to sign a deal sooner then later. The film was great and is doing very well. He would probably love to wrap it all up with a 3rd and final film. Just let him rest and be ready and able to go with plans for another. I bet they will have nolan signed for 3rd once they are ready to go officially public with their dc slates in a month or so.

Posted by: Dan on August 27, 2008 at 02:07:39

the odd part about the casting rumors is the fact that we're throwing these curve balls out there. If Ledger hadn't been such an obscure pick for the Joker, Kevin Spacey wouldn't even be mentioned. But it's the diamond in the rough (meaning Ledger's incredible performance) that makes fans turn around and go "i can make bold decisions to!"

Posted by: Billiam86 on August 27, 2008 at 02:08:29

I would sure hope he'd come back to clean up the mess he left for Batman and Gotham City in TDK. Batman is now seen as a villain and Harvey Dent, the city's only hope is dead. You can't leave the saga on a tragic end!

Posted by: Steve on August 27, 2008 at 02:18:31

Shadow are you crazy? You are overuled by about 95 percent!

Posted by: biggz on August 27, 2008 at 02:19:32

I really think that catwomen will be in the film because batman needs a live interest, and honestly I think that Halle Berry should come back as catwomen if she changes up her style of the character she can do pretty amazing.

Posted by: Matt on August 27, 2008 at 02:19:41

I really hope they do not use Catwoman, her character has been destroyed and frankly, for me at least was never all that interesting. There is still alot of possibilities character wise, although we have seen the 4 main villains really there is still Hush who I think might be a nice addition, unfortunately I think Riddler or the Mad Hatter might just come off as bad Joker spin-off's

Posted by: allenjash on August 27, 2008 at 02:22:28

I would love to see guy pierce as the riddler, remember memento, i have loved nolan's work for a while and why not give the reigns to the actor who started his popularity. I think he has a dark side i saw it LA Confidential

Posted by: chvymn4x4 on August 27, 2008 at 02:29:44

All I have to say is if Cher is going to play catwoman in the 3rd movie, its going to flop.

Posted by: BATMAN HATE on August 27, 2008 at 02:34:08

Riddler?? Catwoman?? What are you people smoking! those villains are lame. Give me CLAY FACE and Mr. Freeze (Patrick Stewart or Christopher loyd) I think the Mr. Freeze and Clayface orgins would transition good on film if taken seriously. (Lets forget Arnolds version of Freeze he sucked!)

Posted by: ShadowMan on August 27, 2008 at 02:37:47

It's by no means guaranteed that he'll come back, and I'll tell you why, it's because The Dark Knight may well have been *too* successful.

I mean if Dark Knight was "only" the biggest hit of the year, making just a little more than Iron Man and Indy did, then I'd say his return would be all but guaranteed. But the problem is the film is now the second highest grossing film in the US of all time, based on dollars earnt, and the 15th highest worldwide. On top of that it was hugely successful with both critics and audiences. It is not just possible, but it's even probably that Nolan will never have a more successful film.

So being asked to follow up that film with a sequel, with the huge weight of inbuilt expectation that would come with that, critically, finacially, and audience wise, that may just be too much pressure to try to live up to, and it may just make Nolan reluctant to do another Batman, no matter how much money Warners throw his way. After all, any sequel that he made that wasn't quite as loved, as respected, and as financially successful as Dark Knight would be seen as a failure of sorts by many. Trying to capture that lightning in a bottle again, that's a hell of a thing to live up to.

I mean let's take Titanic as an example. Most successful film of all time, critics loved it, audiences loved it (it's since had a notable backlash against it admitedly), Oscar darling - the end result of all that? James Cameron hasn't made a proper theatrical film in over a decade. In fact by the time that Avatar comes out, if it meets it's release date of Christmas 2009, it will have been 12 years since the release of Titanic. Now to put that in perspective James Cameron worked as a writer and the director of The Terminator, Aliens, The Abyss, Terminator 2, True Lies and Titanic, as well as a co-writing the screenplays for Rambo: First Blood part 2, and Strange Days, and writing and directing the theme park attraction T2 3-D: Battle Across Time, all of which took him 13 years total. Just one year longer than he's currently been out of the picture.

And in the time since Titanic? He's co-directed three doco's, and directed solo one more, directed a single episode of Dark Angel, and written the first and last episode, and showed up on a few episodes of Entourage, an episode of Mad About You, both as himself, and popped his head in here and there as an interviewee on a few specials, narrated the Exodus Decoded doco, and pimped that Lost Tomb of Jesus doco, which soon vanished without a trace after much hooplah over it's revelations.

And you know why he hasn't written or directed a film in over a decade, because, quite simply, "how do you follow up the biggest film of all time?". No matter what he did, it would be compared to Titanic's success, so rather than face that challenge he basically retired for a decade plus, until enough time had passed where no one would give that much of a crap about Titanic's success any more. He probably hoped that some other film would knock it off the top spot as well.

So there is, very definitely, such a thing as being too successful. And Nolan's Dark Knight may have been too successful for him to now return to the franchise for a third film. The sheer level of success may have scared him off doing so in the same way that Titanic's success ground James Cameron's career to a halt, despite the fact that he could have made anything anywhere and studios would have lined up to give him the money to do so. I hope not, I hope Nolan has the balls to make a third Batman film, but it's a huge amount of pressure, and he now has the power to basically write his own cheque in hollywood and make pretty much whatever he likes for his next film or two at least, so it's far from guaranteed that he'll return I'd say.

We shall see.

Posted by: what the hell? on August 27, 2008 at 02:39:27

I'm not sure if Nolan will come back. Given how he left TDK, it's hard telling whether he'd come back or not, he know's its going to be hard to tackle what that movie was, to make something feel natural to connect to the end of it. I hope he comes back, but i'm not saying he will.

« Previous Page

Page 1 of 24

Total: 581 comments