Filmgaming

Cast BATMAN 3

The winners are discussed on page 6 of this thread and on the Filmspotting podcast.

CAST BATMAN 3

The unfortunate passing of Heath Ledger made The Dark Knight an even bigger cliffhanger than it was meant to be. If the Joker's story isn't resolved, it'll be like if Han Solo had never been freed from carbonite.

On the other hand, maybe there's another villain worthy of taking the spotlight after the Joker's turn in The Dark Knight.

Pick a villain and an actor to play him. Write a brief letter to Christopher Nolan, convincing him your villain is worthy of being the Dark Knight's adversary in Batman 3. Some people are saying Johnny Depp would make a great Riddler, but is the Riddler a great villain?

Re:Cast BATMAN 3

There are several directions the story might take.  If the mob as represented in the last two movies morphs into big business, either The Kingpin or a re-imagined Penguin (so called because he is a dandy and wears a tux, perhaps?) might be logical villains.  But I think the one thing we can be sure of is that Batman will enter the next movie depressed and bereft.  With the demise of Rachel and the disenchantment of Lucius, he’s got nobody left on the Bruce side of his life except Alfred, who can only do so much (and is too easily taken for granted).  Bruce is reviled as a wasted twit, and Batman is hated as a cop-killer.

I think it’s time to revive the thread from 1992’s Batman Returns in which Batman falls in love with the alter ego of his nemesis, and yes, that means Catwoman.

Handling the origins of the character briefly and believably will be the most difficult technical problem, but Chris, Jonathan and David certainly seem up to the task.  Early talk on the ’Net of Angelina Jolie for this role is misguided.  Unless you put her in full body armor and mask her voice like Darth Vader, no audience will buy it that Batman doesn’t recognize her when she’s on the prowl.

What’s required for the role:

1. Someone with a ‘look’ as malleable as Christian Bale’s or Gary Oldman’s.
2. Someone who is age appropriate, but can handle the stuntwork credibly.
3. Someone who can play the line between sanity and madness, perhaps between madness and genius.

I give you Charlize Theron, and submit as evidence her work as Aileen Wuornos in 2003’s Monster, and her work as the title character in 2005’s Aeon Flux.  I guarantee she would stand up perfectly against Bale whichever masks the two are wearing, and wipe the vision of Halle Barry from our collective memories.

Re:Cast BATMAN 3

Dear Mr. Nolan,

How do you follow a performance as mesmeric as Heath Ledger's Joker for a third film? I'm sure that's the question that's on your mind, just as it's the question that's probably going through most fans' minds at the moment.

Penguin - too camp
Poison Ivy - too "out there"
Mr. Freeze - well, it's another lost love story...
Catwoman - not really an out and out villain
Killer Croc - do I really need to address that one?

Who to go for? Perhaps we're looking in the wrong place. I think I have the answer...

Hugo Strange. Now, he is not a character that is particularly well known but he not only fits the "feel" of your reimagined Batverse, his story would tie really well into the "Batman on the run" ending from The Dark Knight.

In case you're unfamiliar with him, here's a bit of background. Strange was a lecturer of psychiatry at Gotham State University who loses his position because of his increasingly weird theories about genetic engineering. He is approached by a man who wants him to put his theories into practice to cure his sick brother. Strange borrows some money from Sal Maroni (an excuse for an Eric Roberts flashback sequence!) to set up a lab and bribes a corrupt orderly to get inmates from Arkham Asylum to experiment on.

His ideas however never quite work and he ends up producing mindless, monstrous creatures out of them with immense strength and bloodlust. I'm sure that you'll want to rethink these a little bit to give them more of a real world spin but I think the basic concept is usable. Alternatively you might want to begin from the next point...

Strange encounters Batman and becomes increasingly obsessed with him (tying in perhaps to the beginning of The Dark Knight with its Batman wannabes). He appears on Gotham TV speculating on the psychology and the identity of the Batman which leads to him being made part of a team with Jim Gordon to try to track him down.

Strange comes up with the plan that he wishes to kill Batman and take his place. He manages to conclude (the method changes from story to story) that Bruce Wayne is the most likely person to be Batman - making him unique in Batman's rogues gallery in that he knows his identity (yet keeps it to himself).

It is this twist that I think makes him a fascinating potential villain. His genetic experiments could also lead to him creating Bane as another threat to Batman (can you imagine the back-breaking sequence as a cliff-hanger leading into a fourth film?). Plus I think we need to see a Bane who is intelligent and devious villain rather than the thuggish monstrousity that was served up in Batman and Robin.

Now I'm sure that you're thinking - great idea, but who would be capable of playing Hugo Strange? Well, I think we're looking for an older actor. This is a character who needs to pose a more thoughtful threat to Bale's Batman, rather than simply a physical one.

I reckon that John Malkovich could portray the descent into obsession whilst remaining a credible figure as a psychology expert. He could portray Strange with a very different form of madness to The Joker, more cold and less unhinged, yet equally threatening. Identity theft is a theme that resonates at the moment with people and Hugo Strange is a character that could certainly be altered to fit the more realistic and psychological approach you have taken to the comics.

All the best,

Aidan

Re:Cast BATMAN 3

Now it would have to be a villain that could live in a realistic world. So no Mr. Freeze or Killer Croc.

Penguin - Phillip Seymour Hoffman or Bob Hoskins or I thought in a interesting turn Jack Black showing his dark side

Catwoman - Megan Fox

The Riddler - Kiefer Sutherland

Hugo Strange - I would love to see Michael Keaton make a comeback role. Shave his head and grow a goatee. Inspired casting.

Re:Cast BATMAN 3

SkyPilot:

CAST BATMAN 3

The unfortunate passing of Heath Ledger made The Dark Knight an even bigger cliffhanger than it was meant to be. If the Joker's story isn't resolved, it'll be like if Han Solo had never been freed from carbonite.

On the other hand, maybe there's another villain worthy of taking the spotlight after the Joker's turn in The Dark Knight.

Pick a villain and an actor to play him. Write a brief letter to Christopher Nolan, convincing him your villain is worthy of being the Dark Knight's adversary in Batman 3. Some people are saying Johnny Depp would make a great Riddler, but is the Riddler a great villain?

 So choose a villain and an actor, and the most exciting pair wins. The hard working publicists at spout.com will try their darndest to get the winning choices in front of Christopher Nolan. No guarantees, but it's worth a shot, huh?

New mob boss comes into play and it is "Black Mask" played by Ewan McGregor.  Emily Blunt plays a young cat burglar going by the name "Catwoman", but when she steals from the wrong person Batman must rescue her from "Black Mask".  Meanwhile back at police headquarters, the Mayor tells Commissioner Gordon he has enlisted help in finding Batman from the fed's by finding a profiler by the name of Edward Nygma played by Daniel Day Lewis.  Little does anyone know that corruption in law enforcement is not limited to the Gotham police force and Mr. Nygma has nefarious schemes of his own.

Re:Cast BATMAN 3

Re:Cast BATMAN 3

Re:Cast BATMAN 3

Dear Mr. Nolan,

Let’s face it, although your Joker was brilliantly conceived, he was also a complete failure.

Why?

He was, after all, quite successful at murder, destruction, and terror, but those were only tools used to achieve a broader goal: devolution. His wanted to remake Gotham into his chaotic fiefdom in which everyone’s basest instincts were brought to life. Of course, his tactics had the opposite effect. Whether it involved evacuating hospitals, or refusing to ignite detonators that would ensure personal survival at the cost of someone else’s life, Gotham’s citizens time and again thwarted the Joker’s Pied Piper complex. His imminent capture by Batman was an afterthought. Gotham had rendered the Joker impotent.

Mr. Nolan, your next villain needs to step it up a notch. If Gotham can’t turn on itself by way of the Joker’s social experiments, you need someone who can force it into madness through more direct means.

Enter the Mad Hatter.

The Hatter is not merely a mad social scientist; he is an expert in neurology and hypnotism. If he were to somehow get a hold of Batman’s cell phone tracking technology, perhaps by kidnapping Luscious Fox, think about the type of urban cacophony he could create.

Selecting the right actor will be difficult. You’ll need someone who is ostensibly affable, but who hides a troubling well of obsessive-compulsive and schizophrenic tendencies. This actor should also be rather diminutive in size and have a toothy, shit-eating grin that simultaneously makes you want to hug him and punch him in the face. He should have star power, but his resume should not tilt too heavily towards villainous roles. You’ll want to generate buzz by offering something new and unexpected from a familiar face.

Enter Tom Cruise.

Please hear me out. Even though Mr. Cruise has gone on auto-pilot in recent years; playing a series of inter-changeable heroes, his best performances have always come with more treacherous characters; most notably: the hedonistic doctor in “Eyes Wide Such”, the vainglorious self-help guru in “Magnolia”, and, of course, the batshit Lestadt in “Interview with the Vampire”. Plus, his recent public behavior, such as his bizarre marriage to your former Rachel Dawes, would provide the perfect outside narrative to his portrayal of an utterly mad character.

Please consider it, Mr. Nolan.

Sincerely,

Citizens for the Advancement of Fictional Malefactory

Losin' It (1982)

Re:Cast BATMAN 3

Batman 3 should be a murder mystery. With Batman branded a murder the police would be after him as the likely suspect. The Dark Knight's ending has left the next movie with the potential for a theme of trust. I would have that play out in the different storylines: 

a) Batman and Gotham

B) Gordon and his wife

C) Bruce Wayne and Selina Kyle

D) Batman and Catwoman

E) Bane and Selina Kyle

Basically I would have Bane hunting down Catwoman, and establishing a criminal enterprise in Gotham City. A series of murders make suspects of Batman, Catwoman, Bane, and Deadshot.

I would cast...

Catwoman .... Michelle Monaghan

Bane  .... Javier Bardem

Deadshot .... Johnny Depp

Why Monaghan, because she can play the sympathetic femme fatale (Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang)

Why Bardem, because he has proven himself able to embody a unstoppable force like Bane (No country for old men)

Why Depp, because he is the only man who can sport  the pencil thin mustache.

Re:Cast BATMAN 3

So all the interesting ideas that have been suggested so far aside, I don't think there's any chance we'll see anybody up on the screen that isn't a well-known member of the rogues' gallery.  So that means probably the Penguin or the Riddler.  I also think that we WILL get a Catwoman.  Since we've already had a CW/Penguin film, I think CW/Riddler is more likely.  So let's start from there.

I think Bruce's depression will lead him into an even darker place emotionally and physically.  I think we'll see him dishing out even more pain than usual on the criminals he fights, both out of an internal need to lash out and as a way to further the public's new vision of a deadly Batman (I wouldn't be surprised if we see a re-enactment of the famous "he's young, he'll walk again" scene from  Miller's The Dark Knight Returns).

So picture this, Bats stops a mugger from assaulting some women one night, unaware that the girls are prostitutes.  He is scorned by the Madam of the group, the gorgeous Selina Kyle who insists they can take care of themselves.  He becomes fascinated with her (she's dark where Rachel was light) and even starts visiting the brothel as Bruce Wayne.

Meanwhile he is investigating a series of upscale robberies throughout gotham which are being committed by a talented, daring robber calling herself Catwoman.

Of course, it doesn't take long for both to realize who the other is, but neither will reveal it to anyone else as it deepens their bond to each.  It is a dark partnership of sorts.

This would be the primary subplot.

The main plot (and villain) is, of course, the Riddler.  I'm imagining an older man, a former game show host who has a massive chip on his shoulder because he is the smartest man in Gotham but no one notices or acknowledges it.  Thus, it isn't enough to simply pull off crimes, he must do it in a way that proves how much smarter he is than his opponents. Where the Joker saw matching Batman's theatrics as a way to cause chaos, the Riddler sees it as a means to achieve glory.

Unlike the Joker's games which were all about misdirection and illusion, the Riddler's puzzles are overt.  He is more than happy to tell you exactly what the rules and stakes are, because he is supremely confident that his puzzles cannot he solved.  This will be the thematic crux of the film.  Impotence.  Whereas the Batman has found new strength through deeper brutality, this is an opponent who cannot be beaten through force.  'The Dark Knight' showed us the detective side of Batman onscreen for the first time (in any real way) and that can be deepened here.  The Riddler can only be defeated with reason.  In this post-Saw world, the character could do more than just give out riddles to solve, he can be obsessed with all sorts of puzzles and design all manner of Rube Goldberg devices to trip up our hero.  I could even envision a final action sequence where an entire portion of the city has become a Goldberg device through explosives and physics.

As I said, the character will be older, easily beatable if Batman could ever get his hands on him.  His 15 minutes of fame was hosting a game show 40 years ago where he was a quizmaster under the pseudonym Edward Nygma.  On the show he wore a green suit with a purple question mark on it (a uniform he pulls out of the mothballs for his final battle with Batman so that when he wins, the world will remember him from all those years ago).

Who to play him?

I think Frank Langella would be a perfect choice, particularly after seeing 'Starting Out in the Evening'.

My second choice would be a bit of stunt casting (since it would be a riff on a role he's played before) and that would be William H. Macy. 

For Catwoman?  Angelina Jolie - too obvious

Michelle Monoghan - a little too cute.  She could never be a madam.

Megan Fox - Sorry, we've already had one bad actress in this series

My Pick is Tricia Helfer.  We know she can act from Battlestar and she pulls off damaged goods very well.  Plus, her in a cat suit.  Uh, yeah.

Honorable mentions are Maria Bello and Sienna Miller (she might have been my first choice if she weren't already putting on the catsuit for G.I. Joe...still, Nolan does love his fellow Brits).

Ok, that's my list.  Enjoy.

-Jack

P.S.  I forgot to mention that I think Lucius Fox's comment about 'it might stop a cat' was an overt hint that Catwoman is in the plans for the third film...