After reaching a creative and critical zenith with “The Dark Knight,” the man who revived the Batman franchise may be walking away.
According to the web-site Batman on Film, director Christoper Nolan may be ready to walk away from the Batman franchise. An anonymous source at Warner Brothers tells the site that Nolan was so shaken by the death of Heath Ledger that he has no desire to return for a third Batman installment.
Another factor is the third film was to have centered on the Joker as well and with the loss of Ledger, that puts Nolan and screenwriters David Goyer and Jonathan Nolan back to “square one” in developing a script and finding a suitable adversary for the Dark Knight. This report would apparently debunk a lot of the rumors circulating about the Penguin and/or Catwoman being the adversary for the next movie.
The news is also tempered by Nolan’s schedule and reports that the earliest the director could return to the franchise is 2011, so we might not see a new installment until 2012 or 2013. Given how big “The Dark Knight” was for Warner Brothers, the studio may not have the patience to wait that long for the next installment.
The report also indicates the studio has a short-list of directors should Nolan decide to step away. And the top name on the list appears to be Zac Snyder.
I can understand Nolan being shaken by Ledger’s death. And I think Zac Snyder would do a bang-up job with the next Batman. Speaking of which, whoever helms the next one, I hope they can either do a better job with the villains used by Burton and Schumacher or use a lesser-known adversary that hasn’t gotten the big-screen treatment yet like they did with Scarecrow.
I’m worried.
This is exactly what happened to X-Men. Bryan Singer revived the comic book series on the big screen, and improved it in the second film, and walked away from the third.
Nolan managed to give Batman realism, if such a thing is possible. I really hope he sticks with it as long as Batman is on the silver screen.
On the other hand, I wouldn’t mind seeing another film by Nolan outside the Batman franchise. His other films have been great.