Will Christopher Nolan direct a third Batman film?
I’d love to say yes, but The Dark Knight has made an insane amount of money, and that’s usually when the suits start getting more involved.
We’d all love to be able tell the money men to back away, to leave it alone, let Chris Nolan do his thing – after all it worked for The Dark Knight, right? Well, maybe.
How much would The Dark Knight have made if Heath Ledger hadn’t died? We don’t like to think it (but we do). I’m sure it would have been a success, it’s a great film, and Ledger’s Joker will be a classic role as long as there are movies. But his death also managed to push the film to a target audience that may not have cared about Batman before – witness Batman Begins jumping to the top of the DVD charts (rental, retail and download). A large number saddened by his passing and wanting to see his final memorable performance.
Last week there were many reports of Johnny Depp playing the Riddler and Philip Seymour Hoffman playing the Penguin in a third film.
What worries me most about these reports is lines such as “studio bosses want Johnny Depp to play…” and “execs want Philip Seymour Hoffman”.
Now these might just be your average rumours, someone “in-the-know” (read: script-runner) trying to make people like them, but it wouldn’t surprise me if the studio bosses were taking control. Dollar signs all round,
Nolan has already said he doesn’t want to do the Penguin – will he be presented with a situation where he’s told that the Penguin and the Riddler will be part of a third film? It would nice if he had the power, but this is a franchise, so who knows? Presented with this situation I’d like to think he’d turn it down, but then again who would we get stuck with? McG? Brett Ratner?
