Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Villains for The Dark Knight Rises

Christopher Nolan has kept his Batman adaptation within the realm of reality, not relying very heavily on supernatural explanations, and he has ruled out Mr. Freeze and The Riddler as villains for Batman 3.  So, who should be the main villain?  Here are three ideas to chew on:

Bane





We know that after The Dark Knight, Batman will be running from the law in the next movie, as alluded to in the closing scene of The Dark Knight.  Bane's charachter is complex enough to interest Nolan.  He's an intelligent foe that uses brains and brawn, though the whole Venom drug thing would possibly have to be changed or improved to fit into the current Batman universe.  Maybe Bane just needs a certain combination of steroids every 12 hours?

The Penguin





A great fit for the seedy underworld of the Dark Knight's Gotham.  If it was less campy and more gangsterish, it would make a great fit, just leave out the ridiculous penguin armys from Batman Returns.  A possible candidate for this Dark Knight Rises villain would be philip Seymour Hoffman.  How sweet would that be?

New Villain


After a long string of great stories that Christopher Nolan has crafted, don't be suprised if an entirely new villain arrives on the scene that has not been seen before.  Nolan is immaginative enough to craft a villain that is worthy of other greats in the Batman lore.

Batman 3 Officially Titled The Dark Knight Rises

MTV confirmed the title of the third Batman film in Christopher Nolan's fantastic trilogy to be The Dark Knight Rises.  Love the title and I can't wait for the July 2012 release date.  I will definitely be lined up outside my IMAX to be one of the first to see the latest in my favorite Batman franchise.

Here's how it went down, according to MTV:


From early rumors to drool-inducing reality, here's how it all went down:
September 30, 2008: Unnamed sources suggest a sort of pre-pre-production on "Batman 3" has begun — with set builders, stuntmen and film crews currently being hired — with an eye on shooting in February 2009.
October 7, 2008"Dark Knight" scribe David Goyer tells MTV News those rumors are "B.S.," adding, "Chris and I haven't even talked about it. He quite understandably is taking a long, long vacation and wants to purge himself."
September 30, 2008: One in a long string of casting rumors pops up, suggesting Rachel Weisz will star as Catwoman. In the next few years, other rumors will claim, among other things, that Eddie Murphy will play the Riddler, Johnny Depp will play the Riddler, Philip Seymour Hoffman will play the Penguin and Cher will play Catwoman.
January 8, 2009"Dark Knight" producer Chuck Roven tells us that Nolan and Goyer are "talking and thinking" about the next film.
February 11, 2009: News breaks that Nolan will delay production on "Batman 3" in favor of work on "Inception."
June 22, 2009: With Nolan's status uncertain, star Christian Bale tells us, "I truly don't know that we're ever going to see another Batman movie."
July 24, 2009: Co-star Gary Oldman tells us production will begin in 2010.
February 8, 2010Goyer is reportedly writing "Batman 3" with Chris Nolan's brother Jonah.
March 10, 20010Nolan announces that "Batman 3" will bring the series' story to a close. "I'm very excited about the end of the film, the conclusion, and what we've done with the characters," he said. "My brother has come up with some pretty exciting stuff. Unlike the comics, these things don't go on forever in film, and viewing it as a story with an end is useful."
April 30, 2010: Reports suggest "Batman 3" will hit theaters July 20, 2012.
June 4, 2010: Nolan confirms that the third film will not feature the Joker, a role played by Heath Ledger in "Dark Knight." "I just don't feel comfortable about it," he said.
June 28, 2010Nolan confirms the July 2012 release date, but declines to speculate on reports that production will begin in March 2011.
July 20, 2010"Dark Knight" cinematographer Wally Pfister tells us he wants to shoot "Batman 3" entirely in the large-scale IMAX film format.
September 29, 2010Nolan officially signs on to direct the film.
October 6, 2010: Reports suggest the movie will begin shooting in April 2011 in New Orleans.
October 13, 2010Tom Hardy signs on for an unspecified lead role in "Batman 3," giving rise to speculation that he'll play a villain opposite Bale.
October 27, 2010: Nolan announces the new movie will be called "The Dark Knight Rises." He also says the Riddler will not factor into the story.
Check out everything we've got on "The Dark Knight Rises."

Christopher Nolan Confirms: No Riddler in Dark Knight Rises

In a recent interview with the LA Times, Christopher Nolan revealed the title of the third Batman movie to be The Dark Knight Rises, as well as confirming that the Riddler will not be the main villain for the third Batman movie.

http://herocomplex.latimes.com/2010/10/27/christopher-nolan-reveals-title-of-third-batman-film-and-that-it-wont-be-the-riddler/

Nolan has also ruled out Mr. Freeze as a villain for the Dark Knight sequel in previous articles.  So who will the new Batman villain be?  Your guess is as good as mine, but I'd like to see a brand new conception for the villain.  If Nolan can produce great original films like Inception, I don't see why he shouldn't be allowed to create an all new Dark Knight villain to complete his reboot trilogy.

Also confirmed is that the movie will not be shot in 3D, instead going for high-definition approaches and IMAX scenes.  This is a great choice.  I still remember seeing The Dark Knight for the first time in IMAX and being amazed at the visual technique in the first scene in my now favorite Batman movie.  I saw Avatar in 3D sometime later and it just didn't compare.  It's a neat gimmick, but didn't deliver the wow factor as much as seeing that huge IMAX screen.  Movie theaters will probably hate it, since they can't charge an extra 5 bucks to see it in 3D, but I'd drop extra coin to see Batman battling it out on a massive IMAX screen when The Dark Knight Rises opens.