In every interview he did last year — including our interview with him from December — Christopher Nolan maintained that his take on Bruce Wayne and Batman was over with “The Dark Knight Rises.” Now, however, Latino Review (via Forbes) is reporting that Warner Bros. — after possibly scrapping Will Beall’s draft — is in talks to get the secretive director on board for the future of their superhero slate with a little help from his friends.
“Well, I’m producing Superman now and I’m enjoying time off and taking a break” is what Nolan said last year when we asked him if he was done with superheroes for good. However, if these reports are to be believed, it seems the studio has spent the past few months wooing Nolan into taking on the same “godfather” role that Joss Whedon has taken on at Marvel, in an effort to merge his highly successful “Dark Knight” films with the rest of the DC universe.
That’s right, the Nolan-verse may yet be seen again on the big screen, and rumor has it that Christian Bale would don the cape and cowl for a team-up film opposite Henry Cavill’s Kryptonian hero. It’s not exactly clear if the film will end up being “Justice League” or the latest iteration of a Batman & Superman film that the studio has been attempting for years, though at this point they might as well add a couple of lower-tier characters and just slap the title on that sucker. There is also speculation that WB could try some kind of “World’s Finest” adaptation before eventually moving on to “Justice League.”
Again, this is all just rumor so far, but the idea is to reunite the team behind “Man of Steel” for the new film with Nolan again stepping in as producer, David Goyer contributing the story, and Zack Snyder producing and possibly directing as well. Of course, we totally buy that WB are eager to save face (particularly with the nerd segment) and that roping in Nolan — or even the rumor of roping in Nolan — is a nice way to assure fans that “Justice League” and/or other DC properties are in good hands. But Bale returning after his arc was wrapped up so nicely in “The Dark Knight Rises” seems more wishlist than real, and it would undermine the entire thematic undercurrent of the closing film of Nolan’s trilogy — that Batman is a symbol as much he is Bruce Wayne.
Seeing as the rumors about “Justice League” have been all over the place — remember when Joseph Gordon-Levitt was rumored to take over the cowl? — take it all with a grain of salt for now (and remember that Latino Review, as often as they have been right, were also dead wrong about that whole Planet Hulk thing). And recall that this news comes about a month after it was reported that Warner Bros. were not going to make any decisions on “Justice League” until “Man Of Steel” opened (though recent early screening reports have apparently been ecstatic).
So basically, yes, no, maybe so…your thoughts? Do you want Nolan to continue with superhero movies, or just focus on getting “Interstellar” made?