Studio: Warner Bros.
Directed by: Chris Nolan (Memento, Insomnia)
Written by: David Goyer, Christopher Nolan
Starring:
Christian Bale: Bruce Wayne/Batman
Michael Caine: Alfred
Katie Holmes: Rachel Dodson
Liam Neeson: Henri Ducard
Morgan Freeman: Lucius Fox
Cillian Murphy: Jonathon Crane
Ken Watanabe: R'as al Ghul
Gary Oldman: Lieutenant Jim Gordon
Rutger Hauer: Earle
Tom Wilkinson: Carmine Falcone
Release Date: Summer 2005
News:
15 June, 2004
Newsweek has a great article on the shooting of the film. It goes into details on set design, costume design and even design of the Batmobile. Also discussed is how Christopher Nolan got the directing job and what the studio wants out of him. There are potential spoilers in the article so avoided if you want to be a virgin.
5 May, 2004
Entertainment Weekly spilled the beans first, producing a photo of the new Bat-suit before Warner Bros. could get around to releasing their own official photo.
The studio wasted no time though in getting out some more photos to show off.
The suit bears little resemblance to the heavily overstyled eyesores of the last couple Bat-movies. This one is much more about function over style. That fits with the story and the inspiration of Frank Miller's Batman Year One comic. This is a movie that takes the time to explain just where Batman gets those wonderful toys.
As a result, the suit looks fairly bulky and unfinished, as if it was a work in progress and not the result of years of tinkering and expensive engineering.
5 March, 2004
Stax over at FilmForce got a hold of David Goyer's script for Batman Begins. The movie is being directed by Christopher Nolan (Memento, Insomnia) and stars Christian Bale, Morgan Freeman, Gary Oldman, Liam Neeson, Michael Caine, Ken Watanabe, Katie Holmes and Cillian Murphy.
Stax liked the script very much. Here's a taste of the review:
Batman Begins, as you most likely already know, is an origin tale. The first 45 pages employ a non-linear structure that recounts what drove Bruce Wayne (Bale) to assume the mantle of Batman, how he developed his fighting skills (and who taught him some new tricks), and how he focused his rage into something beneficial rather than purely selfish and destructive.
During his bleak sojourn in the Far East, twenty-something Bruce Wayne's already impressive fighting skills are honed under the tutelage of Ducard (Neeson), the top henchman of enigmatic international criminal Ra's al Ghul (Watanabe). After breaking with Ra's and his League of Shadows, Bruce returns to Gotham City, which has hit rock bottom during his absence. Crime and corruption is fast eating away at the city and no one seems able to stem it.
An honest cop like Sgt. – later Lieutenant – Jim Gordon (Oldman) are outgunned, overwhelmed, and simply too vulnerable to cross the powers-that-be alone. His crooked partner Flass doesn't like it that Gordon won't take bribes (shades of Batman: Year One and even Serpico).
You can find the entire review here.
28 January, 2003
According to Variety, Christopher Nolan (Memento, Insomnia) has taken over the reigns of the project. "All I can say is that I grew up with Batman, I've been fascinated by him and I'm excited to contribute to the lore surrounding the character," Nolan was quoted as saying in Variety. "He is the most credible and realistic of the superheroes, and has the most complex human psychology. His superhero qualities come from within. He's not a magical character. I had a fantastic experience with the studio on Insomnia, and I'm keen to repeat that experience."
27 March, 2003
Variety is reporting that David Goyer is in negotiations to take on the Batman job. Goyer certainly knows his way around dark superheroes, having successfully written Blade and Blade II.
3 September, 2003
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Christopher Nolan has been looking at a lot of actors for the lead in his Bat-flick. Who you ask? How about Christian Bale, Cillian Murphy, Joshua Jackson, Jake Gyllenhaal, Henry Cavill, Eion Bailey and Hugh Dancy?
28 November, 2001
According to a report on Screenwriter's Utopia, this projected has been "accepted" by Warner Bros. Work is to begin promptly with an eye towards a 2003 release. Warners brass asked Aronofsky for some design concepts on Gotham City, the Joker, Catwoman, Batman and the Batmobile.
I'd classify this as serious rumor material for the moment folks. It just smells a bit fishy to me. While you're thinking that over, hop on over to Wizard's website where they have a couple of discarded designs for the Batmobile.
What do you think? Talk about it on the Forums
12 October, 2001
A big report on Coming Soon! goes over the status of Batman at Warner Bros. and the news is not good. For the Batman: Year One project, all versions of the script have been rejected. This has forced repeated clean sheet rewrites. As a result there has been absolutely no discussion of casting at this point. So you can ignore all the casting rumors to date.
What do you think? Talk about it on the Forums
13 June, 2001
Comics2Film is reporting that Warner Bros. is looking at a 2003 release date for the movie. This would appear to be an aggressive schedule since there is no script as of yet and Aronofsky is moving forward on directing a sci-fi movie in the near future.
What do you think? Talk about it on the Forums
15 November, 2000
Got theories on who will play Bruce Wayne in this movie? Throw 'em out. Darren Aronofsky, the writer and likely director hasn't gotten that far yet. "It's really premature. Honestly, I haven't thought about it," says Aronofsky in an interview with the Chicago Sun-Times.
He's putting a lot more thought into this script than is typical for a superhero movie. "I want to introduce some Freudian psychology and answer the question: What does it take for a real man to put on tights and fight crime. I promise that this time Batman will be a complex character with issues," he says. The director of Pi and Requiem for a Dream. is going to start writing the script this week.
"It's not the teen Batman. But we do tell the origins story," Aronofsky divulges. "We learn how Batman saw his parents killed in front of him by a gunman and then trained himself to fight crime."
13 October, 2000
Darren Aronofsky talked to Salon about the project. According to him, things are not quite as cut and dried as some would think. "I am going to write Batman [V] with Frank Miller. I'm also writing a science-fiction story, and that's going to be set up in a studio really soon. We'll see which one happens first, because it's not like I'm definitely doing Batman, which everyone seems to think." Asked to clarify that statement, Aronofsky responds, "Well, I'm going to write it and we'll see what happens. We'll see if they let me make the script that I'm interested in."
He was asked what about the character he was drawn to. "I just think it's a great story that's been told two different ways in the last 10 years, both interesting, but not the way I would tell it. I think it's an amazing story that touches very deep in the American consciousness. There's something about vengeance and justice that are really deep issues for Americans. And vigilantism. But to tell you the truth, I haven't even started on it. We've been talking about doing this for a long time. It seems like it's finally happening, but it's a long road."
12 October, 2000
Frank Miller spoke to Comic Shop News about writing the script for a Batman - Year One movie. "I expect to have a lot of fun with Year One," he said. "From the get go, I see many things that need changing -- but ultimately even if the movie gets made, mine will only be one of many voices calling the shots. I'll bring my very best efforts to the script. I won't write a single line I don't believe in."
Miller warns fans against getting to excited so early on. "The movie business is wild. There's so much money involved, and so many people, that anything can happen. Maybe Darren and I will set the world on fire. Maybe our script will wind up sitting next to all the other could-have-beens that litter the shelves of studio execs. I'm certain we can do a good job -- but anybody who isn't financing his own movie himself is foolish to predict his fate -- or his involvement in it."
He is pleased at working with Darren Aronofsky on it. "Darren and I had a lot of fun working together on the Ronin movie project," Miller said. "We make a good team, I think... Darren in particular wanted to make Year One."
21 September, 2000
Maybe Warner Bros. finally understands what went wrong with the Batman movie franchise. Variety announced today that Warner Bros. has officially signed Darren Aronofsky (Pi) to write and direct the fifth Batman movie. Aronofsky will team up with Frank Miller on the screenplay. Miller wrote the graphic novel Batman Year One that will serve as the basis for the movie.
This means a serious change in direction for the floundering franchise. This installment will look at Bruce Wayne's first year as Batman. He is by no means the supremely confidant superhero we've come to know. He is essentially a rookie at this, making big mistakes and doubting himself. Also featured is James Gordon, not the commissioner but instead just a lieutenant who has to deal with this weird costumed vigilante.
Aronofsky takes a huge step up in the film world by taking on this project. His first film Pi was a fascinating science fiction thriller filmed on a microscopic budget. It focused on that thin line between genius and madness. Apparently Warner Bros. production head Lorenzo di Bonaventura was a big fan of Aronofsky's second film Requiem. This helped get him the job over more established candidates like Bryan Singer (X-Men, The Usual Suspects).
11 September, 2000
Bad news if you were anxiously awaiting a sequel to Men in Black or the fifth Batman movie. According to Entertainment Weekly, the serious threat of an actors and writers strike next year has quite possibly put these two projects on the shelf for the time being.
Despite recent rumblings that the two projects might be finally moving forward after years of stalled development, it seems unlikely that these will begin production for the forseeable future. With Men in Black 2, Sony knew it would be impossible to get the movie in gear soon enough to avoid possibly lengthy delays in production should a strike occur. They hope that the project can be put into motion after the issue with the Screen Actors Guild and Writer's Guild of America is resolved.
The general feeling in Hollywood right now is that it isn't worth wasting time on projects that could suffer long delays due to the pending strike. Projects like Jumanji 2 and James Cameron's next film, possibly True Lies 2, are going to be temporarily shelved. If a production cannot begin by March first they won't be started at all. If a strike occured it would begin with a WGA walkout on May 1, 2001.
This doesn't necessarily mean these projects are dead. It does mean they could face a very long wait to get started though.
28 January, 2000
Hopefully the next Batman movie won't actually suck. However with a weak track record over the last two films, I'm going to be wary and cover it here until it proves it deserves a promotion to Movie News. Anyway, on to the news...
According to The Hollywood Reporter, director Darren Aronofsky (Pi) is in talks with producer Lorenzo DiBonaventura to take the reins of the fifth Batman movie. Warner Bros. appears to want to take the franchise back to its dark roots. Until the plan for the movie is cemented, the proposed Bruce Wayne TV series is being put on hold. That series would have been set in the time before Bruce Wayne actually put on the batsuit and became Batman. It would have covered the development of Wayne into the bat.
The good news here is that Warner Bros. wants to get away from the direction of the last two Batman flicks. They are looking at a director that made a well received movie on a tiny budget. That would indicate he would be putting the story ahead of the pyrotechnics.
19 April, 1999
No they aren't going to team these two up. According to Ain't It Cool News Michael Uslan (producer on all 4 Batman movies) gave a talk at New Jersey City University where he mentioned that there will be another Batman movie in 2000 or 2001. It would be smaller in scale and similar to the first one in tone. If that's true it might lift it out of the bad movie realm. Uslan also owns the rights to Swamp Thing and says that Warner Bros. has budgetted $28M for a new movie. No word as to when this might be out.
16 February, 2000
Joel Schumacher hasn't given up on the barely breathing Batman franchise yet. In an interview with the Calgary Sun, he says he would like to do another Batman movie, but only if it would deal with Bruce Wayne as a young man just becoming Batman. He would want to cast a complete unknown in the part. He also went on to say that George Clooney shouldn't blame himself for wrecking the franchise. Schumacher said he himself should shoulder most of the responsibility.
21 January, 2000
Just a quick follow up on the false Mel Gibson as the next Batman rumor. In an interview with the Toronto Sun, Gibson says the whole thing was a ridiculous rumor. He advises being wary of any news about him from a London source. "I once read in a London paper that I was seeing a therapist because of my obsession with tits. I mean, I am obsessed with tits, but it's certainly nothing I would ever seek help for." Well put.
16 January, 2000
Just a quick follow up. As expected the Donner/Gibson/Nicholson rumor is false.
11 January, 2000
The Daily Mail (British tabloid) has reported that Richard Donner is in discussions to direct, Mel Gibson has been approached to be Batman and Jack Nicholson has been asked to reprise his role as The Joker. George Clooney has said that he has no interest in doing another Batman movie. This sounds pretty shaky at best, but considering the staggering badness of Batman and Robin, I couldn't skip this one.
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