Next Batman film casting news/speculation thread
 

K

I just felt like making a thread for this since I'm pretty psyched for what Nolan could possibly achieve with this.

Anyway

Christian Bale is Batman (confirmed)
Michael Caine is Alfred (confirmed)
Katie Holmes is Rachel - Bruce Wayne love interest (heavily rumoured - she's got a screentest scheduled apparently)
<a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0614165/">Cillian Murphy</a> is Scarecrow (I *think* I saw this confirmed but just take it as speculation for now)

So at the moment that still leaves Ra'as Al Ghul uncast, and potentially Talia as well (ELIZA DUSHKU DAMMIT :rant: [/predictable] )

Most heavily speculated for Ra'as:

John Malkovich
Alan Rickman
Christopher Ecclestone

Soooooooooo...thoughts?

who the hell are these new bad guys? did they create like a million more just so they can make more movies?

Well I know scarecrow

But Ra'as is a new one by me

I think Bale will be the best Batman since Keaton (who will not be topped imo)

When you see what he did with Patrick Bateman, you know the guy's gonna add something dark and nasty to the Bruce Wayne character. ;)

Ra'as Al Ghul has been in the comics since the 60s and has been Batman's most evenly matched opponent over the last 10-15 years :wtf:

He was in the animated series on a couple of occasions as well :wtf:

Never heard of him. :o

And I always thought Scarecrow was crap... suppose that's what they get for managing to use up 7 villains over the course of 4 movies, they're left with the cast offs...

Ha remember when somebody said Jude Law was going to be Batman and everyone kicked off saying "you can't have an englishman playing Batman"

http://www.dccomics.com/features/bma/ras.jpg ?

<a href="http://www.dccomics.com/secret_files/dc_character.html?sc_dc_itemCode=rasalghul">Here's a brief bio</a>

My bad he first appeared early 70s :o Still though he's been around a while. Seriously, this guy is to Batman as Luthor is to Superman, hot stuff that they're bringing him into the movie (just hope they don't kill him off :rant: )

Scarecrow on the surface is a pretty lame villain however given the right setting and treatment he can be a really good opponent...he won't be in the film for much though since the majority will focus on Ra's

Whatever happened to the cool Batman villains??

The Mad Hatter,Falseface,King Tut,The Bookworm,The Archer,The Minstrel,The Clock King,Marsha (The Queen Of Diamonds)Egghead,Shame & The Cowboys,The Sandman,Colonel Gumm,Black Widow,Nora Clavicle,The Puzzler,Louie The Lilac,Olga,Lord Phogg,and the great Minerva (Ms Gabor).

Liberace as Chandell rocked :y:

I'd like to see Egghead or King Tut just for laughs

Like a quick opening segment where Batman beats their shit up

I wanted the villian to be Clayface.

Icon:

Who would you cast as Egghead and King Tut?

They shouldn't have killed off the classics, such as Joker, two face, penguin, etc.

christian bale is the man. american psycho is my favourite movie, and if u haven't seen it i highly suggest you see it.

The American Psycho novel is fantastic, tied to Rules Of Attraction as my 2nd favourite... 1st being Glamorama

Eccelstone is a better Scarecrow. Tall, wiry and a sinister looking bastard…

The news most recently published, an article with Michael Caine, about the movie would seem to be that Nolan is going for Viggo Mortensen as Ra’s Al Ghul.

I’d have him rather than Alan Rickman or Malkovich although I’d have thought an Middle Eastern actor would be the best fit…although with current politics maybe not.

All the talk about the previous movies is, I'm hoping anyway, going to be proved redundant as long as this movie hits big - since this is a complete fresh start for the franchise they *could*, if they wanted, basically bring back and use anyone they wanted if they decide to make a series of these (though if they do that no swapping directors and stars and whatever the hell else, keep Nolan and Bale in throughout). And like I said before, don't f</>ucking kill of Ra's in the first movie, take a lead from Magneto in X-Men, you don't kill off the major major villains when they are infinitely re-usable.

I might have mixed those up and he might have been in the running for Scarecrow :o Pretty sure that Murphy is locked in now though.

*Topic resurrection*

To update:

Christian Bale - Batman
Michael Caine - Alfred
Katie Holmes - Bruce Wayne love interest
Cilian Murphy - unknown villain (most likely Scarecrow)
Liam Neeson - unknown villain (Ra'as? could work I guess, Neeson has the gravitas to be able to pull it off)

Those are all confirmed and locked castings. Still to be cast, from speculation anyway, is Jim Gordon (who will be in his 30s and a lieutenant, not the commissioner) and possibly the mayor and one or two other figurehead type characters.

After this they should be out of villians. Shouldnt they?

It's a new franchise, so they probably wont be going by the other movies. I wouldn't be surprized to see the Joker later on in the new series.

^^ Yep

They're basically rebooting the franchise, so it's as if the first four movies never happened. Some people will probably find that hard to wrap their heads around but the sooner Batman & Robin is banished from existance the better :nono:

I kind of wish that they could reboot the franchise but still use different characters and villains. I mean, I can't picture the Joker being anyone else besides Jack Nicholson. :nono:

They could always use clayface. The CGI they have these days could make him really come to life. Then there's the Manbat, and when they get to the bottom of the barrel crossing over villains from the justice league.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0372784/

Here's a little more inmfo on it. Liam Neeson is in the movie too.

Batman's had HUNDREDs of villains in his books over the years.

Yeah, this movie is supposed to be the last four movies what the last four movies were to the 70s movies...

It's a shame that Batman franchise had to go out on the note of Batman and Robin. That was a massively stupid movie.

However, there's a couple of major advantages to a reboot...

1) THEY HAVE A CHANCE TO NOT KILL OFF HIS TOP TEN VILLAINS IMMEDIATELY!!!!!!!

2) They get to do what I've done for years, and treat the fourth movie like it never existed

3) They hust might get a couple of movies out of the same Batman.

Do you really think it would make sense if they didn't kill off the villian at the end or at least have him clearly defeated to the point where he can't come back? I mean how can you have a film where the bad guy doesn't lose. Plus you can't just bring back a villian for another movie and make it seem like they have a better chance.

Unless you are talking about the idea of pairing villians up for no reason.

Oh and my number 1 thing that I want to see them do right is not f</>uck up Bane

X-Men - Magneto

Superman - Lex Luthor

:lol:

For a movie to make sense, the bad guy has to die.

And especially in a comic book movie...

Mystique too.

Daredevil - Kingpin

Although it's a shame he can't be used in Spiderman.
And no offence but Kingpin isn't black.

Anyone think they'll attempt a movie based on Batman Beyond? :shifty:

I was just watching Return Of The Joker. :)
I think they should just keep it as a cartoon.

:y:

I didn't use Kingpin as an example because he is pretty much incapacitated at the end of the movie, and that makes him an easy "con" argument.

However, he's not gonna go away, it's pretty obvious that he'll be back...I mean, the Kingpin's always been pretty much untouchable...

Besides, how often do you see someone like the Kingpin go away?

Normally, we elect them to office...

BTW...I'm still VERY apathetic towards the whole "Kingpin is black" thing.

Far as nitpicks go, that was a REALLY tiny one in a movie with plot holes so big you could lose a couple of Blue whales in it...

Lol, I know what you mean. It didn't make me really angry because I like Michael Clark Duncan and he's a good actor.
Kingpin will be back and I wonder Bullseye will be back with his adamantium spine, because they kept him alive too.

You're assuming they make a sequel to Daredevil. Affleck is very reluctant unless Kevin Smith writes it (well that's what he *says* anyway)

I wouldn't mind seeing Bullseye as a recurring villain...The problem with comic-based movie serieseseses is that you don't have the same chance to bring in the character a few hundred times...

Perhaps they've learned from the Batman series.

MCD is an awesome actor, which is one of the main reasons I didn't even blink when they said he was the Kingpin. HE's one scaaaaary motherfu</>cker...

Oh no. daredevil without Ben Affleck...:|

That's like...Batman without George Clooney...:|

Meh

I am still curious to see the DVD release which is supposed to feature the Director's Cut - meant to be a lot grittier/harsher/whatever

Anyway, back on track

According to Variety, Neeson is confirmed for Ra'as, as well as Morgan Freeman being confirmed for Lucious Fox (dunno where they're going to fit him in, but seeing as the movie is meant to focus a lot more on Bruce Wayne I guess it'll work)

one thing that has always made me wonder is that in the Batman cartoon...Harvey Dent was black, in the first two movies he was black, but Tommy Lee Jones played him as two face even thought he's white.

He was black in the cartoon? :?:

Nope...

Didn't think so. I was pretty damn sure he was white in the cartoon...Just like in the comics...

OH, actually, thinking about it...hmm. I guess I could understand why someone might think of him as black, he was drawn to almost look half-cast, very odd. But I'm pretty sure he was white.

Hmm..found this

http://riddler.batbad.com/links/bulle_harvey.gif

Judging by his hair though I'd say white.

Neeson is a great choice as Ra's, he'll dominate the screen with his size and seeing as he has had a bitof swordfighting experience it looks good for the movie.

This movie has a bloody great cast, one version of the script had a great review on latinoreview.com, so surely they can't **** it up...can they?

He looks kinda mediterranean there...

...Then again, a lot of people look pretty dark in that show...Including some of the blondes...

Source: Variety

Variety issued a correction today regarding their BATMAN casting article from yesterday. The trade had reported that Liam Neeson would be playing R'as al Ghul, the main villain in the new BATMAN film. However, Neeson isn't playing a bad guy at all; instead, the Irish actor has been cast as businessman Henri Ducard, a friend and mentor to billionaire Bruce Wayne. That leaves the role of Ghul open...but for whom?

Bastards. I wanted an immortal Ballymena man...

Viggo Mortensen would be a great choice as Ra's.

I always thought Harvey Dent was originally black...

http://members.xoom.virgilio.it/batm...vey%20Dent.gif

http://www.vacuumboy9.com/tlh/10p6.jpg

http://www.batmanguiavisual.com/guia...two-face01.jpg

Harvey Dent was always white.

Bizarrely Burton cast a black actor for his first Batman movie…this was conveniently forgotten as has already been pointed out for the third movie, Batman Forever.

Hopefully Nolan’s Batman will kick three shades of shite out of Burton’s movie…the only thing worth keeping from those movies is the main theme song.

Dent was pretty inconsequential in the first Batman movie. I don't think anyone thought much of it, except a few comic book geeks (And even then, I noticed, but was motsly amused by it).

The first movie attempted to be more pulp than superhero (Which is part of its charm to many), which caused a lot of distancing from the comics. Whether this was an intentional aspect of that or unintentional coincidence, I dunno, but it's there.

Batman Forever was much more comic-book, over the top, and actually bore very little resemblence to the first movie in the series (Though it was, in fact a sequel). a combination of scope, style, and scenery just made it a different kind of movie.

And yes, Two Face/Harvey Dent was always white in the comics, and the cartoon.

Ken Watanabe is Ra's Al Ghul in Batman
Source: Warner Bros. Pictures Tuesday, February 24, 2004

Oscar-nominated actor Ken Watanabe has joined the cast of director Christopher Nolan's highly anticipated film about the origins of the Batman legend. The announcement was made today by Jeff Robinov, President of Production, Warner Bros. Pictures.

Watanabe, who is nominated for Best Actor in a Supporting Role for his performance in The Last Samurai, will play the villainous Ra's Al Ghul, alongside stars Christian Bale as Bruce Wayne/Batman; Michael Caine as his trusted butler Alfred; Katie Holmes as a childhood friend of Wayne's; Liam Neeson as Wayne's mentor, Henri Ducard; and Morgan Freeman as Lucius Fox, a former board member and sidelined employee of Wayne Enterprises.

Directed by Christopher Nolan from a screenplay by David Goyer, the film is produced by Emma Thomas, Charles Roven and Larry Franco. The executive producers are Ben Melniker and Michael Uslan.

The project is scheduled to start production in London in March.

This is gonna be good.

Yup.

Nolan is supposed to be on Sky active entertainment at some point this weekend talking about the movie shooting in London. Apparently they begin filming on March 15th.

The film title has also been changed according to superherohype.com to Batman Begins.

Batman begins?

Oi.

Indeed :-\

I suppose it's catchier than Intimidation Game (ick) but still :-\

Catchier, but so are a lotta things. ;)

Dennis Quaid is reportedly 'close' to being signed as Jim Gordon.

I'm seriously staggered by the quality of this cast.

Yeah, it's gonna have some major quality in that aspect.

Quaid would be excellent. Great cast, potentially great director with great ideas and a scriptwriter with a good track record.

That new title is ****ing atrocious though. Why not just steal Batman year one :y:

I suppose they have a year or so to reconsider though.

Also very weird considering that WB were reported to have purchased Intimidation Game-sounding domain names :wtf:

Oh yeah I forgot, the official title is now "Batman Begins"

is Michael Gough still alive? I'm wondering as he was the opriginal Alfred in the first 4 films..

X-men is different because there is more than one battle going on. The movies aren't just about the Magneto and his team vs the Xmen, they are also about the fight that the mutants go through to be accepted in society.

http://superherohype.com/batman/index.php?id=942

Wow, where to start?! Warner Bros. has quietly started location shooting for Batman Begins and already a ton of information is hitting our desks and the Web. We'll start with scooper 'Joe Chill' who says the following is the official synopsis of the film from the WB's Intranet (includes possible spoilers)...

Director Christopher Nolan (Memento, Insomnia) and screenwriter David S. Goyer (the Blade trilogy) join forces for another action-packed chapter of the Batman saga!

As a young boy, Bruce Wayne watched in horror as his millionaire parents were slain in front of him--a trauma that leads him to become obsessed with revenge. But the opportunity to avenge his parent's deaths is cruelly taken away from him by fate.

Fleeing to the East, where he seeks counsel with the dangerous but honorable ninja cult leader known as Ra's Al-Ghul, Bruce returns to his now decaying Gotham City, which is overrun by organized crime and other dangerous individuals manipulating the system. Meanwhile, Bruce is slowly being swindled out of Wayne Industries, the company he inherited.

The discovery of a cave under his mansion, along with a prototype armored suit, leads him to assume a new persona, one which will strike fear into the hearts of men who do wrong; he becomes Batman!!!

In the new guise, and with the help of rising cop Jim Gordon, Batman sets out to take down the various nefarious schemes in motion by individuals such as mafia don Falcone, the twisted doctor/drug dealer Jonathan 'The Scarecrow' Crane, and a mysterious third party that is quite familiar with Wayne and waiting to strike when the time is right.

Meanwhile, many of you have written in to tell us that the Mentmore Towers in Buckinghamshire, UK will serve as the Wayne Manor in the film. You can check out a picture of the house here.

'Robert' has also done some more investigative work about the production and sent this bit...

It looks like production has already begun for Batman Begins. An article in the Icelandic newspaper suggests this. The crew have already become familar with the surroundings, proven by these exclusive shots (February 8 and 27), posted on the official site of the mountain guides (Isalp) in that area.

The shots are of Susan Whitaker (Assistant Art Director) and Quentin Davies (Propsman). By the looks of this report, it's not easy to reach. (Artic advisor) Nick Lewis, Krister Johnson (Transport captain) are there together with the safety team of Nick Lewis, Simon Abrahams and Paul Ramsd

They're putting Falcone in? Nice touch, although I doubt it'll be much more than a smallish cameo role

Wow. Can't believe I'm actually looking forward to another Batman movie.

BTW, Ken Watanabe as Ra's? Niiiiiiiiiice...

Maybe I’m going a bit soft in the head but wasn’t Ra’s of Middle Eastern descent? Can’t remember their ever being a specific origin for him but I always thought this.

Anyone?

I believe Ra'as is generally portrayed as being of Arabic descent, yes.

Anyway, news from Ain't It Cool (not always the most reliable source but I'll take this)-reportedly Jim Gordon will *not* be played by Dennis Quaid. Instead he'll be played by...








ready?





Gary F</>ucking Oldman

Shit yeah. I marked out when I read that. Apparently <a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0390227/">Larry Holden</a> has been cast as District Attorney Fisk as well, so presumably at some point in this film there might be a Harvey Dent cameo.

So, this makes the cast as we stand right now:

Christian Bale - Batman
Michael Caine - Alfred
Katie Holmes - Rachel Dodson (Bruce Wayne love interest)
Liam Neeson - Ducard (friend of Bruce Wayne's father, teacher figure to Bruce)
Morgan Freeman- Lucious Fox (Head of Wayne Enterprises, close friend of Bruce)
Ken Watanabe - Ra'as Al Ghul
Cilian Murphy - Scarecrow
Gary Oldman - Lt. Jim Gordon
Larry Holden - D.A. Fisk

It sounds strange saying it, but that is the sort of cast a Batman movie *should* have, and *deserves* to have, and Nolan is the sort of director it *needs* to have, especially when working from Goyer's script, as Goyer knows his shit when it comes to comics.

Damn, just....damn. I seriously cannot wait for this.

I'm thankful for this. Tim Burton is a god damn genious and the first 2 Batman movies were gold. Well besides the fact they killed of the joker. I can deal with Penguin being gone but not the Joker. Although I will say I thought Danny DeVito did an excellent job in that movie, considering the type of parts he usually plays. And I don't even have to explain about Jack Nicholson. And Michael Keaton owns all as Batman. He had the role down like nobody's business. The funny flirty guy as Bruce Wayne and then the silent assassin with no emotion as Batman. Val Kilmer sucked, he was always serious even as Bruce Wayne. And George Clooney was always joking around as Batman. The first 2 movies were just so dark and morbid, which is how Batman should be.

My advice, keep Joel Schumacher far far away from the series. And whoever wrote the screen plays for the 3rd and 4th movies, have them shot please.

Fat Bat
 

Bale's Batman Blues


Batman Begins star Christian Bale was left red-faced on the upcoming superhero movie's set last week - when he couldn't fit into his costume. The Captain Corelli's Mandolin hunk is currently in Iceland filming the fifth installment of the comic book franchise under the guidance of Memento director Christopher Nolan. But poor Christian had to suffer the indignity of the costume problems on his first day as Gotham City's crime fighting bat. A set insider explains, "The trouble is the suit is so tight, it takes three people to squeeze Christian into it. He ripped one suit then finally managed to get into another with the help of more than a few squirts of talcum powder."

From IMDB.com

LMAO

The Bat-suit arrives!
Tuesday, March 9, 2004: Another report has again surfaced with a description of the Bat-suit. It seems to confirm the description given to BOF by three separate and unrelated sources: dark gray body suit, with a black bat-symbol accross the chest. The cowl, cape, gloves, etc. are black, or dark enough to look black. This latest report comes from DARK HORIZONS....

"The suit looks unusual but it's very confusing because they have the hero and stunt versions and the pieces were covered in plastic and labels, they haven't been assembled yet," says the DH scooper. "The inner bodysuit is definitely dark grey but leather and used looking, not shiny like in the last movies but a material that looks like a second skin. The chest area features a large black bat emblem that doesn't look like the one from the movies or the comics but looks very cool."

The report goes on to say that "...all the other pieces are dark grey/granite but so dark its almost black. The cowl looks small and may stretch to fit the wearer, complete with longish ears. ... They (Nolan, Hemming, etc.) are going for the 'Spiderman/Daredevil' look where Batman looks like a more agile human being rather than a guy in a bulky muscle suit."

More stuff...

Tom Wilkinson has been cast as Falcone

Rutger Hauer (:|) has been cast as an old friend of Bruce's father

Truly this movie now has something for everyone...

Here's what the new logo looks like:

http://www2.freepichosting.com/Images/421479710/0.jpg

And here's the new batmobile:

http://www2.freepichosting.com/Images/421479710/1.jpg

http://www2.freepichosting.com/Images/421479713/0.jpg

source: www.batmanbegins.com

:wtf:

BTW, I like Rutger Hauer.

What are they thinking with the batmobile. Its a tank, its supposed to be sleek

I like how it looks except for the fact that the front end is way to exposed, it needs a bumper or sumptin.

Batman driving a Monster truck?

Bruce Wayne's mad gadgeteering skills are replaced by an ability to jury-rig anything. The Batmobile holds together by spit and bailing wire.

Tim Allen has been cast as Batman, BTW.

But seriously, if I were a villain, I'd be scared if that shit was chasing me during the night.

The Batmobile is based at least partly on the designs from Dark Knight Returns.

It's basically an all terrain vehicle that Wayne Enterprises developed for the military that never got commissioned. Bruce finds it and tinkers with it to create what is in essence the Batmobile.

Remember though this is an origins story, what you see above might just be a precursor to what eventually becomes the 'true' Batmobile.

No shit, that thing is bad ass.

And yeah, I bet the new batmobile comes into play in the last bit of the movie or something.

Yeah im guessing Bruce somehow modifies it too make it look more, well "batty" haha.

That is one screwed up looking batmobile.

Owing more than a bit to Dark Knight Returns…

Bale as Batman picture from Entertainment Weekly.

http://www.batman-on-film.com/bbimages/offbatmanew2.jpg

I like the new suit. Looks pretty cool.

Nice costume. I like how there's none of that shiny silver crap on it, like in the third and fourth movies. It's kinda hard to blend with the shadows when you reflect that much light.

Yeah I heard the suit is more like the old school style from the comics. Too bad you can't see the big black bat symbol on his chest in this picture.

I don't know. Perhaps villains like Bookworm, Egghead, or King Tut can comeback for one more run.

:roll:

More pics of Bats:

http://batmanbegins.warnerbros.com/images/batimage2.jpg

http://batmanbegins.warnerbros.com/images/batimage1.jpg