It shouldn’t come as a surpise that pretty much everyone here at The Flickcast (and most of the civilized geek world) is anxiously waiting for more news on the third Batman film. With The Dark Knight pretty much being the ultimate treatment of the character and his world, any info about the third installment of the franchise, so artfully executed by Christpher Nolan and his team, is a very exciting development indeed.
Well, hold onto your seats because news of the third Batman film is just what we’ve got right now. But wait, there’s more. We’ve also got some news on the Superman reboot too. How’s that for awesome?
Speaking to Empire Magazine during an interview for his upcoming film Inception (which also loooks awesome, btw) Nolan gave some much needed updates on the Batman 3 production as well as some new info about his level of involvement with Superman.
According to Nolan, he still hasn’t officially signed on to direct new Batman movie. “No I haven’t. There is a point where you’re just being precious about it and people get annoyed, but the God’s honest truth is I work on one movie at a time. I’m only capable of doing that, so my head will continue to be firmly in [‘Inception’] for another few months.”
There are some things, though, that Nolan can confirm. “My brother is working on the screenplay. We came up with a story that we are very excited about. We particularly like where we are taking the characters and what the ending is… There are things for me to be very excited about in addressing the characters again. But ultimately it always comes down to the script, and can we make a great film from this?
That’s something I will firmly be turning my attention to figuring out fairly soon.” It will be, he said, “the finishing of a story rather than infinitely blowing up the balloon and expanding the story.”
Empire also asked whether the villain could be a returning (and recast) Joker. “No,” said Nolan resisting to elaborate, “I just don’t feel comfortable about it.”
Nolan was also able to give some clues on the new Superman, which he will be overseeing for the studio. Although, don’t call him the “godfather” of the movie as he’s not comfortable with that title. “It’s much more specific than that,” he explained, “What it is, while David Goyer and myself were putting together the story for another Batman film a few years ago – you know, thrashing out where we might move on from ‘The Dark Knight’ – we got stuck. We were just sitting there idly chatting and he said, ‘ By the way, I think I know how you approach Superman,’ and he told me his take on it. I thought it was really tremendous. It was the first time I had been able to conceive of how you would address Superman in a modern context. I thought it was a very exciting idea.”
Nolan said he took that idea and pitched it to Warner Bros., and the studio got excited, too. “But it’s not something for me to direct,” he added. “It’s something we were just trying to put together a vision for, and then find the right person to take it forward.”
Batman 3 is scheduled to hit theaters July 20, 2012. Superman is currently scheduled for a 2012 release sometime during the holidays.
