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Volume 90
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Wednesday, October 19, 2005
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Page 1 of 1
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This is from usatoday.com
With a slew of Batman DVDs out Tuesday, speculation is rising about a new sequel.
Studio officials stop just short of saying a sequel to summer's $205 million box-office hit, Batman Begins, is a certainty.
Director Christopher Nolan has had meetings with Warner Bros., but neither he nor the studio will confirm that a new movie is
in the works.
"I'm not really able to discuss it at the moment, but it's something I'm definitely interested in," Nolan said last week. The
same day, The Hollywood Reporter quoted studio production president Jeff Robinov as saying, "Chris is going to come in and
tell us what the next Batman will be today." The studio would not elaborate.
Though he wouldn't confirm a 2008 sequel, DC Comics president and publisher Paul Levitz says: "We've had Batman on movie
screens since 1943. I don't think he'll be off it anytime soon."
Fans looking for hints at a sequel's plotline cite the ending of Batman Begins as one big clue. Detective Jim Gordon (Gary
Oldman) handed Batman a copy of the Joker's calling card, and Batman said he'd look into it. But director Nolan dismisses
that clue as any hint of things to come — if there are things to come.
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"We didn't put that in there specifically as a sign there would be a sequel. We wanted to give you an exciting sense that the
world of the characters is spinning on."
Though cagey about a next film, Nolan agrees with those who credit Christian Bale as central to Begins' success.
"Somehow he just really fit the bill and had that fire in his eyes that made you believe this guy could make himself fit into
a superhero role," Nolan says.
Bale believably brought across all three required characteristics of an actor playing Batman, Nolan says. In addition to the
costumed Batman, "you have the public face of Bruce Wayne, the dilettante and playboy, who is the least likely guy to be
Batman ever, and the private Bruce Wayne, whom only we and Alfred and the Katie Holmes character get to see to some extent,
which in a way is the most interesting face."
Bale has signed an option agreement for two more films, meaning that if there are sequels, he has agreed to take part.
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