This is from newsweek.com
The only major cast member on the set of the new "Batman" movie who doesn't have his own private trailer with his name on the door
is Batman himself, actor Christian Bale. Michael Caine, who plays Batman's trusted butler, Alfred, has one, as does Katie Holmes,
who plays love interest Rachel Dodson. But what about Bale? If you're looking for him, try knocking on the trailer door with a sign
that reads BRUCE WAYNE. If it all sounds a bit Method-actor fussy, well, it is. But Bale doesn't come across that way. Between takes
of a scene in the dank, monstrous Batcave - erected on a soundstage at Shepperton Studios outside London and complete with lagoon,
waterfall and subterranean bachelor pad - Holmes tries
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to engage Bale, 30, in a quick rehearsal. "Is Sergeant Gordon your friend?" she asks, running one of her lines. "Yes," a fully costumed
Bale answers in his thick, icy baritone. "He's very warm, very comforting. I like to be held." Later, Bale hums as a makeup guy gives
him a retouching. "The next one'll be a musical?" the man asks. Bale grins. "Yeah, they'll call it 'Batman!' with an exclamation point."
Let's just see how this new movie pans out first, shall we? After all, the comic-book franchise does have a checkered past. The new
chapter, which will hit theaters in June 2005, is called "Batman Begins". After the cultural phenomenon surrounding Tim Burton's
operatic 1989 original, which rang up $251 million at the box office, the series plummeted over three sequels. But now there is buzz
once again around the Warner Brothers franchise, and it's all because of the new film's 33-year-old director, England's Christopher
Nolan, the creator of "Memento." "Batman is an absolutely iconic character, one of the great figures in pop culture, really," says Nolan.
"But there has to be a reason for making this film as opposed to just renting Tim Burton's version." The hiring of the Welsh indie actor
Bale ("American Psycho") was a healthy start.
Warner Brothers might appear to be rolling the dice by handing over a $150 million summer blockbuster to a man who's never directed an
action movie before. But the real risk isn't Christopher Nolan. It's Batman. Seven years ago, moviegoers' interest in the character
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