January 20th, 2011
I guess so. Anne Hathaway (Havoc) and Tom Hardy (Layercake) have been cast for The Dark Knight Rises.
Speaking only for myself, I have absolutely no need of a sequel–or maybe even another Batman movie–after TDK. It’s a nearly perfect movie that is an absolutely perfect distillation of the character. If Warner and Nolan want to tell another story, good for them. But whatever follows TDK is going to be like giving us a movie about the adventures Rick and Renault have after the plane takes off. That Rick & Renault movie might be really great. But it ain’t going to be Casafuckingblanca.
Also, the only good thing about Catwoman’s presence, from a story perspective, is that it means Nolan is turning away from Talia A’gul, who is one of the biggest mistakes in the Batman mythology.
I’m actually more bullish on the idea of Bane who, as written, was pretty interesting–a much more cerebral villain than you might otherwise guess.
Even so. If this movie had to be done, it seemed like a city-wide war between the Mutant Gang and the Sons of Batman was the most promising ground.
Exit question: What’s the over-under on number of Dark Knight posts between now and July 2012? 250?
The good news is, the months between now and Dark Knight Rises are going to fly by.
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I am really depressed by this news. With Hardy as Bane, I’m moderately bullish — you could do a lot of things with him as a villain, treat him like a blank canvas, and not just have him as a one note character. But Catwoman? Hathaway? Really?
For an approach that was supposed to be all about seriousness and real world Gotham, it’s hard to view it as anything but camp. And there’s a deeper problem here: if Nolan has a key flaw as a director, it’s that he has difficulty directing women. His casting choices are often bizarre — he picks women who are generally appealing and makes them less so, or tries to make us like women who aren’t particularly appealing in a real world way at all. Katie Holmes was terrible in Batman Begins, and the idea that Sad Turtle Maggie Gylllllenhaal would be fought over by Wayne and Dent is just ludicrous. Carrie Anne-Moss never struck me as a particularly believable character in Memento, and Nolan completely wasted Rebecca Hall in Prestige. ScarJo was completely out of place playing the axis love interest in that film, and while she’s limited as an actress, she played a similar role to far greater effect in Match Point. Ellen Page is fine in Inception, but Cotillard seems very flat in that film (possibly by design? hard to say). In any case, I can’t help feeling a different director would’ve gotten more out of her.
The point is, it’s HARD to do Catwoman right — hard to write her, hard to direct her in a way that makes her seem like a real world character — not just as some crazy cat lady in a body suit, only on screen to titillate. I can’t think Nolan would let that happen, but I have a hard time seeing how he brings something deeper out of that character.
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Agreed, TDK coda: Zimmer, Oldman and Nolan should have been the end.
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[…] character over that motivational chassis. All of it in service of a Big Idea. (I’m already on record as really wanting a movie about the Mutant gang.) For some reason, Santino was nervous about […]
Jeff Singer January 20, 2011 at 9:26 pm
First of all, great comment from BTD about Nolan and women. I’m glad I’m not the only one who thought the only flaw with TDK was “Sad Turtle” (perhaps one of the greatest casting blunders of all time).
Second of all, the greatest thing about this post? Last’s choice of movies for the two stars. Genius.