For A Few Movies More

Dean and Eden return with more news, more movies, more Batman and more podcast!

Movie of the Week: The Dark Knight Returns Parts I & II (warning on the spoilers. Highly recommend watching the films before listening to the last 20 minutes of the podcast)

Next Week: REC 3: Genesis

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According to a red-hot report from Latino Review, Christian Bale is currently in negotiations to reprise his role as Batman/Bruce Wayne in the turbulent Justice League movie, Christopher Nolan is set to oversee the project and Zack Snyder will produce, and possibly direct.

Read all the details below.

Tell me it isn’t so!

The reliable lads over at Batman-on-Film have revealed that the proposed Batman reboot originally due out in 2015 has possibly been pushed back even further. A long-time source of the site discussed the potential fate of the Caped Crusader, detailing exactly why it is we may have to wait even longer to see him fighting crime on the big screen once again.

Details after the jump.

Christopher Nolan has been doing the press rounds to promote the release of The Dark Knight Rises on DVD and Blu-Ray. But amongst all of the Batman chat, Nolan had a little time to talk to The Playlist about Zack Snyder’s The Man Of Steel, a film which he is acting as executive-producer on.

Read what he has to say about the highly anticipated superhero film after the jump.

It has been in the news for a while now that Warner Bros is desperate to capitalise on their rights to the DC catalogue. And following on the $1.5bn box office of Marvel’s The Avengers I don’t blame them. So when will this be happening? The studio has been bold enough to declare that the film will be ready for our eyes, ears and wallets by 2015, and while it may seem like a long way away there is a long list of things that need to be sorted before a film this big could be given the attention and care it deserves. So while a Justice League film is great news for everybody everywhere the seems to be a real lack of urgency and the project appears to be struggling to get itself out of first gear.

It is almost hard to fathom how DC/WB could have the two biggest comic book characters ever to headline this project and yet they are still lagging. Meanwhile Marvel took 2012 by storm, producing a brilliant movie with its own stable of stars and did it without their own poster boy Spiderman. So if WB really is serious about The Justice League then let’s take a look at some of the big moves and important calls that need to be made to really get this right.

Filmmaker extraordinaire Christopher Nolan recently sat down with Film Comment to discuss all aspects of The Dark Knight trilogy, from its realistic feel to its rogues gallery of villains.

It’s an interesting read, and while plot spoilers are mostly kept under wraps, I still have to issue a hefty SPOILER ALERT!

Read what Nolan has to say after the jump.

I’ll tag this with the rumour buffer just in case the whole internet is getting ahead of itself but it looks like the impending Justice League project has found its Batman! I will also tag it with the SPOILER warning as there are considerable The Dark Knight Rises spoilers to be had.

So if you haven’t already guessed with that then click on the jump to see who Warner Bros has in mind to play the Bat.

With the December 4 Blu-ray and DVD release date of The Dark Knight Rises looming ever closer, some of the film’s extra features have begun seeping online. ScreenCrush has highlighted one of these excellent features, providing an eye-opening look at the evolution of Bane’s mask.

On display is a variety of very early concept art of how Bane could have looked, ranging from the downright silly to the passable. However there’s no question that Nolan’s final choice was the right one.

Check out the many faces of Bane after the jump, as well as an image of Tom Hardy as the character before his tattoos were digitally removed. And here I was thinking that the guy couldn’t look any more imposing…

When you think of Gotham City in Nolan’s gritty imagining you are not exactly picturing the green and red tights of Batman’s trusty sidekick Robin. The classic crime fighting duo has unfortunate connotations with homo-erotic swinger parties, camp 1997 comic book movies and dressing up in costumes with your older brother when you were five and six (yes I was a year younger and always relegated to be Robin). Previous cinematic efforts to tell a Gotham tale with Robin have been dubious. He seems to be a character best suited to cartoons and early comics. There seemed little room in the “real” world for Robin. But in the final chapter where the legend is promised to end we are given an origins story that promises it will live on forever.

One of the reasons Nolan’s adaptation works so well is that whatever changes in tone he always stayed true to the characters’ motivations. Robin is young and naive but ultimately a good person, honest and just. He does not possess the presence or strength of Batman, but he is fit and willing to fight crime all the same. This is the Blake that we meet The Dark Knight Rises, the subplot to the film being Blake’s transformation into Robin, a loyal apprentice who believes the best path to justice is masked vigilantism.

The first time Officer Blake really shows up on our radar is when he approaches Bruce Wayne, in Wayne Manor, and openly states that he knows Bruce is the Batman. It is a bold move and reeks of youthful confidence but he is not there to accuse and interrogate, instead he is asking for help.  We learn that Blake grew up an orphan in a boys’ home funded by the Wayne Foundation, his youth mirrored that of Bruce and it drew him closer to the conclusion of Batman’s identity. Blake does not linger in Wayne Manor, he simply lets his point be heard: that there are people who still look for the bat symbol in the sky at night and that Gotham City still needs their hero.