When The Dark Knight opened to critical acclaim in 2008, voracious viewers had one question: When's the next one coming out? Internet rumors abounded about the possibility of a third Batman film by Christopher Nolan, who also directed the first reboot of the Batman series, Batman Begins as well as cult-classic Memento. Though the tragic death of Heath Ledger certainly leaves the Joker out of any new films, a new interview with L.A. Times has confirmed that a third movie is indeed in the works. When The Dark Knight opened to critical acclaim in 2008, voracious viewers had one question: When’s the next one coming out? Internet rumors abounded about the possibility of a third Batman film by Christopher Nolan, who also directed the first reboot of the Batman series, Batman Begins as well as cult-classic Memento. Though the tragic death of Heath Ledger certainly leaves the Joker out of any new films, a new interview with L.A. Times has confirmed that a third movie is indeed in the works.
Though he hasn’t put all of his cards on the table, he seems optimistic that the completion of the films will come to pass, saying “Without getting into specifics, the key thing that makes the third film a great possibility for us is that we want to finish our story…and in viewing it as the finishing of a story rather than infinitely blowing up the balloon and expanding the story.”
But for fans of the second film, which pulled in more than half a billion dollars at the box office alone, there’s a significant twist in this story. Before even getting off the ground with the third Batman, he plans on tackling the strongest superhero of all time–Superman. That, and of course, the press and promotion for his newest film Inception, starring Leonardo DeCaprio as a psychic thief, which will be released this July. [A sidenote: This move looks alluring and dark like his other films, for which you can see the trailer here.
While he wouldn’t say much on the Superman reboot, he did say it would most likely be released in 2012 or 2013 at the earliest, so Batman’s got a long way to go before we see him again on the silver screen. Nolan also clarified that he might not be directing the new Superman, rather supervising it in the way Peter Jackson kept a careful eye on the production of Neil Blomkamp’s directorial debut District 9. Perhaps he’ll direct Batman and produce Superman at the same time? Wishful thinking indeed. Of the third Batman, Nolan says that his brother “…is writing a script for me and we’ll wait to see how it turns out…He’s struggling to put it together into the epic story that you want it to be.”
Take your time writing Jonathan! The last movie redefined the “Superhero Genre” of film-making and I know that with the right script you can take it to uncharted territory once again. One thing that Nolan was clear about was that there will be no Frank Miller inspired Batman/Superman showdown in either of the upcoming films. He remained mum about the villains that will be in either films as well. But based on his past epic, mind-fuckingly brilliant films, I don’t think we have to worry about either of them sucking.
To read the entire article/interview on L.A. Times, click this link.
