The Dark Knight Rises (CONTAINS SPOILERS)

[DC 536]

Credit: Total Film

 

Is Batman 3 winging into production?

David S Goyer could be entering the batcave...

Feb 9th 2010

BY Josh Winning

 

Approach with caution: this morning’s rumour lockdown comes courtesy of none other than the next entry in the Batman franchise.

 

Ever since The Dark Knight took a record-breaking haul at the box office, everybody’s been asking when a third rebooted adventure will be hitting the Gotham streets.

 

Well, Deadline Hollywood’s insider Nikki Finke seems to think writer David S Goyer is about to put pen to paper. See, he’s just left TV series FlashForward, and Nikki says it’s all thanks to the bat.

 

Says she: “Of course, Goyer’s feature career is really heating up, since he co-wrote Batman Begins, and penned the story for The Dark Knight, and is now writing the third Batman installment with Chris Nolan’s brother Jonah [aka Jonathan].”

 

Now, Finke doesn’t give any concrete reason (i.e. proof) for thinking that Goyer is currently writing the third flick other than the fact that he left ABC’s sci-fi series.

 

But Finke has always been a reliable source. Has she heard whispers in the Warner Bros corridors that the script is warming up? Or has she just got her facts wrong? (It happens.)

 

If anything, we bet Chris Nolan will time an announcement about the new Batman flick to coincide with the release of Inception. That’s what we’d do, anyway...

Inception, which looks fantastic, is due to be released on July 16th, 2010, so expect little snippets to leak between now and then.

 

Goyer, outwith the two previous Batman movies, has some really good films under his belt as a writer. Off the top of my head, there's the Blade Trilogy (well, the first two anyway), The Crow: City of Angels and Dark City that showcase his talents as a writer, so this is good news.

[etz 78]

Ok, seriously, how the hell did they get him for FlashForward... with that CV...it's ludicrous.

[DC 536]

They "got him" for FlashForward because the TV show was his idea, he wrote the pilot, he directed the pilot and is an executive producer for the rest of the series. Goyer is a very respected writer in Hollywood circles and, on top of that, having writing credits for Blade, Dark City, Batman Begins, The Dark Knight and FlashForward itself isn't something to be sniffed at.

[Guest Phil]

after the overhyped pile of crap that was 'the dark knight' I think I'd be happier if he stayed on the Flash Forward team.

[Guest Jung]

Pile of crap? I could understand if you didn't think it was amazing like it was hyped up to be, but pile of crap is a bit of a stretch surely?

 

I mean IMO at very worst it's a decent action film.

[Guest JC]

after the overhyped pile of crap that was 'the dark knight' I think I'd be happier if he stayed on the Flash Forward team.

 

Your an idiot. Good night.

[Guest Phil]

Pile of crap? I could understand if you didn't think it was amazing like it was hyped up to be, but pile of crap is a bit of a stretch surely?

 

I mean IMO at very worst it's a decent action film.

 

key word right there.

 

I thought it was far too long, I thought Bale was nowhere near as good as BB, Ledger was awesome, I can't deny that, but Eckhart and Gyllenhall really were shocking. They made a big deal of introducing an original character in Rachel Dawes and then kill her off, it didn't make sense. Plus, not only did they f*ck up the second half of the film by introducing Two Face with 30 minutes of screen time left, they then f*cking killed him. They could have spent an entire film focusing on the slow-burn that was Dent's descent into madness, and instead they crammed it into the final 30 minutes, completely shoddy. The one redeeming feature was the 'Batman is the hero Gotham needs' speech at the end.

 

It was such a massive letdown. It might have been a decent action film, but as a batman film it was ,IMO, truly bad. And to make matters worse, everyone I know keeps buttf*cking it because it was 'ZOMG the best film ever made!!!!' or some such other balls.

 

EDIT: Just to expand on the 'pile of crap comment', I thought Spiderman 3 was a very well made film, some good shots, good CGI, good action. But as a Spiderman film it was appalling, very badly written and badly performed for the most part. You can say what you want about 'oh but it's a well made film', which may be true. But I went there to see a Spiderman film, not Die Hard with costumes.

Edited February 10, 2010 by Phil

[Guest Jung]

key word right there.

 

I thought it was far too long, I thought Bale was nowhere near as good as BB, Ledger was awesome, I can't deny that, but Eckhart and Gyllenhall really were shocking. They made a big deal of introducing an original character in Rachel Dawes and then kill her off, it didn't make sense. Plus, not only did they f*ck up the second half of the film by introducing Two Face with 30 minutes of screen time left, they then f*cking killed him. They could have spent an entire film focusing on the slow-burn that was Dent's descent into madness, and instead they crammed it into the final 30 minutes, completely shoddy. The one redeeming feature was the 'Batman is the hero Gotham needs' speech at the end.

 

It was such a massive letdown. It might have been a decent action film, but as a batman film it was ,IMO, truly bad. And to make matters worse, everyone I know keeps buttf*cking it because it was 'ZOMG the best film ever made!!!!' or some such other balls.

 

EDIT: Just to expand on the 'pile of crap comment', I thought Spiderman 3 was a very well made film, some good shots, good CGI, good action. But as a Spiderman film it was appalling, very badly written and badly performed for the most part. You can say what you want about 'oh but it's a well made film', which may be true. But I went there to see a Spiderman film, not Die Hard with costumes.

 

It made perfect sense to kill Rachel Dawes off, I mean just link it to the context of the film with regards to Dent going mad, Batman/Wayne being at an emotional crossroads, The Joker always being one step ahead and the whole narrative structure of the film that everybody has a choice about which direction they go. You can say you didn't like it, but it makes perfect sense. Who cares if she's a new character? Where was her character going exactly?

 

And they did spend an entire film showing Dent's demise. They can't assume that everybody who watches these films knows everything about the characters, history etc already. They have to build Dent up as a morally fantastic person, who's vital to the city, and is the last hope of the city. That takes time.

 

If they just show him going mad from the start, why would the audience care? Who is he? Why has he gone mad? Why is it so important? Why is this linked to everything else in the story? It was completely logical. And why was killing him bad? It makes the story far more human, where everything is grey.

 

Would you rather they went the way of Batman Forever?

 

The Dark Knight is made for cinema fans, not just fans of Batman.

[Guest JC]

key word right there.

 

I thought it was far too long, I thought Bale was nowhere near as good as BB, Ledger was awesome, I can't deny that, but Eckhart and Gyllenhall really were shocking.

 

Don't get that at all. In fact many would agree Eckhart got really overlooked considering how well he performed in the movie.

They made a big deal of introducing an original character in Rachel Dawes and then kill her off, it didn't make sense.

 

..introduced her? Like in BB?

Plus, not only did they f*ck up the second half of the film by introducing Two Face with 30 minutes of screen time left, they then f*cking killed him. They could have spent an entire film focusing on the slow-burn that was Dent's descent into madness, and instead they crammed it into the final 30 minutes, completely shoddy. The one redeeming feature was the 'Batman is the hero Gotham needs' speech at the end.

 

It made sense that (given the story of how the Joker was trying to play with them) one of Batman, Dent & Gordon would die.

 

It was such a massive letdown. It might have been a decent action film, but as a batman film it was ,IMO, truly bad.

 

The fact I know at least 5-10 girls who loved it, is a testament to how it wasn't just a 'decent action flick' and it was a good movie overall at very worst.

 

Truly bad? Seriously cut that shit out and take a step back.

 

I'm aware there was a few select people (Belty hated it aswell from what I remember) who did not care for it but you're trying to talk for the majority with the way you're wording it all here and I'm sorry, for the majority it was the best movie of 2008.

 

And to make matters worse, everyone I know keeps buttf*cking it because it was 'ZOMG the best film ever made!!!!' or some such other balls.

 

Now you know how I feel about a series of movies which I found deeply flawed (Lord of the Rings.) There will always be fanboys and people who adore a movie far too much than it merits. Your problem is you seem to using that as a negative against the movie. You have to let that slide.

 

Just to expand on the 'pile of crap comment', I thought Spiderman 3 was a very well made film, some good shots, good CGI, good action. But as a Spiderman film it was appalling, very badly written and badly performed for the most part. You can say what you want about 'oh but it's a well made film', which may be true. But I went there to see a Spiderman film, not Die Hard with costumes.

 

Well that just confirms you're a fanboy.

 

If you expect every movie adaption of a comic book or video game to be tightly knitted to the source material, you're going to be hard pressed to find many of them any good.

 

I'm not saying it's not nice when a director does pay attention to the small minority who made the comic book popular but they're making movie to make money and gain recognition.

 

To hell with the fanboys, this is a business aswell you know.

 

The Dark Knight was the best comic-book adaption I've ever seen in terms of ticking off the most boxes needed to make it universely successfull.

[etz 78]

They "got him" for FlashForward because the TV show was his idea, he wrote the pilot, he directed the pilot and is an executive producer for the rest of the series. Goyer is a very respected writer in Hollywood circles and, on top of that, having writing credits for Blade, Dark City, Batman Begins, The Dark Knight and FlashForward itself isn't something to be sniffed at.

 

What I meant was that it must have been difficult to get someone with a CV like that (ie. massively, epically good) to do a TV show (which most film writers look down on), but as the show was his idea (I didn't realise that :P)..

[Guest Saz]

I thought Dark Knight was too long myself and I did get bored halfway through, but that's just me and let's see if we can put a cap on that discussion.

 

This is to talk about Batman 3, the only references to past parts should be things like, will someone replace Heath Ledger's role as the Joker? If not who should the bad guy be in your opinion and stuff like that :) [/modhat]

 

Actually, is there anyway to introduce Robin without it turning into a camp farce?

[Guest Nemesis Enforcer]

Nolan has said in the past he will leave the Batman franchise before he will direct a movie that has Robin in it so I doubt if Nolan is at the helm Robin will get a part.

 

As for Joker (who I want to be played by John C. McGinley), i'd like to see him get a cameo in Arkham introducing Harley Quinn to the movies, and i'd love to see a set up for a Bane storyline in there somewhere.

[Guest Jung]

The Riddler would make the most sense for me. Is an interesting, warped individual and much like how Ledger's Joker was, could easily be pretty horrifying.

[Guest Reno]

The Riddler would make the most sense, like Jung said. I'd like to see David Tennant or Michael C. Hall play him.

 

Though, I know most people would probably disagree with me, I'd love to see Christopher Mintz-Plasse (sp?) play the Riddler. But he's probably a bit too young.

 

I also really hope there's another Scarecrow cameo somewhere in the film. As my favourite Batman character, I loved him being in Batman Begins and then his little cameo in the Dark Knight. Even if it's just in Arkham Asylum, I'd be extremely happy.

[Guest MojoPogo]

If they did Robin, they could go down the Nightwing route to prevent the camp thing I suppose, but in terms of villains, im hoping for Penguin, Poison Ivy or Clayface.

[Guest Reno]

If they did Robin, they could go down the Nightwing route to prevent the camp thing I suppose, but in terms of villains, im hoping for Penguin, Poison Ivy or Clayface.

 

They could even base it on the current version of Robin, Damien Wayne, but keep it as Dick Grayson instead.

[DC 536]

Plus, not only did they f*ck up the second half of the film by introducing Two Face with 30 minutes of screen time left, they then f*cking killed him.

He's not dead if they don't want him to be dead. Harvey Dent, the DA, is dead, but Harvey Dent/Two Face can easily be still ticking. The service at the end could be explained as a cover up by the police to preserve Dent's good work before "seeing himself become the villain".

 

As for Robin, it's possible to work him into the current series, but Nolan is so dead set against it, I can't see it happening for a few movies yet. With Bane, they'd need to set him up over one movie and then introduce him at the end of it, breaking Batman in the process and leading into the second part, where Wayne hires someone to replace him and then, the third part as a finalé. In effect, the entire Knightfall saga over three movies is how I would do Bane.

 

Victor Zsasz, who was briefly shown in the Batman Begins, would be an interesting villain to use for a third film, as would Talia al Ghul.

[Guest Da Showstoppa]

The Riddler in the same style of the original animated series would be great, he was a lot more calculating and could easily be portrayed with menace. As for current actors who could play him, I couldn't say.

 

It's such a shame that they used the Arkham Asylum idea for a game, that could have been a great movie plot - however I really don't think they should use the Joker in this series again, Ledger was untouchable as the Clown Prince Of Crime.

[DC 536]

If they go with The Riddler, I'd give it to Jim Carrey again, but reign in the most outlandish aspects and infuse a little of The Cable Guy's dark personality. Carrey's version was pretty much spot on for the character, IMO, and I think he'd be the best bet again.

[Guest JC]

Yeah I really do think any actor will struggle out-do Carrey's performance as the Riddler.

 

Batman Forever might not be the best Batman movie ever or anything but Carrey was incredibly dark in that film.

 

That's not saying Johnny Depp etc couldn't do as good a job but I thought the character in the movie was spot on and if they changed it, I doubt I'd give a toss.