It's hard to believe it's been a year since The Dark Knight, and the Batman 3 rumor mill just hasn't stopped grinding. Someone, somewhere, is always trying to flog a rumor of who will be Catwoman, Penguin, Riddler, or Robin. When they get tired of fantasy casting, they ponder when Christopher Nolan will abandon this Inception thing, and get going on Batman 3.

In a piece passed wildly around the net, Batman on Film is reporting that Nolan is very uninterested in returning to Gotham City. The story goes that Heath Ledger's death upset him greatly, and dismantled any and all plans he had for a third installment. The Joker was set to return (is that really a surprise?), and now there's simply no story. While Nolan and David S. Goyer are working on ideas, it's unlikely you'll see anything before 2012 at the earliest, with 2013 being more likely.

Yes, it's April 1st, which means it's April Fool's Day ... and so all over the web today you have folks goofing around, playing practical jokes on their readers (ahem, why you lookin' at us?), and so on and so forth. Our various movie nerd friends are really having a good time -- creating the ultimate in ridiculous announcements, like Moviehole's four (!) pranks including one claiming Johnny Depp will play Freddy Krueger in the new Nightmare on Elm Street remake. Others went with the go-to film for high traffic, opting to create fake news for the next Batman movie (see JoBlo and InContention), while Slashfilm came at us with a new Matrix film starring Robert Pattinson.

My favorite April Fool's Day prank, however, is sitting over at ThinkGeek in the form of a fabulous Tauntaun Sleeping Bag (see above). You Star Wars geeks will immediately know what that image references, and while it's sorta gross, is it wrong of me to kinda want one of these? From ThinkGeek's description: "This high-quality sleeping bag looks just like a Tauntaun, complete with saddle, internal intestines and glowing lightsaber zipper pull. Now when your kids tell you their favorite Star Wars movie is "Attack of the Clones" you can nestle the wee-ones snug in simulated Tauntaun fur while regaling them with the amazing tale of "Empire Strikes Back".

You can check out a ginormous list of April Fool's Day jokes from around the web over here, and definitely let us know your favorites in the comments section below.

Just when we thought Warner Bros. was ready to tie Christopher Nolan to a really uncomfortable stool and force him to write the script to the next Batman film comes news that the same studio is actually eager to have the man direct something else first. Variety tells us that Warners is looking to get Nolan to direct a film called Inception (which he also wrote). Described as "a big-scale spec script" and "a contemporary sci-fi actioner set within the architecture of the mind [THR]," there's no word on what this is about* (or whether it involves bats or bat men), but the studio is aiming to begin production on the sci-fi flick this summer for a release the following summer of 2010.

One imagines Warners would try to lock Nolan up for both Inception and the next Batman film, and perhaps the only way he'd agree to do the latter was if they let him direct the former first. But that's just wild speculation on our part; fact is, we're dying to know what Inception is about, who it will star and how long it will be until the next Batman movie heats up. Something tells us summer 2011 is the best bet.

What do you think of Nolan making this film his next project? Also, does anyone know what this Inception is or was or is about to become?

*Cinematical reader dd tells us that Inception is about "a war for the colonization of Venus."

Does this current Batman franchise have the legs to go the Harry Potter route and churn out, say, eight films all together? Or has Christopher Nolan and Co. crafted the sort of universe that should come to a close after a third film? We ask this now because during a recent Warner Brothers conference call, CEO Jeff Bewkes made mention that they're interested in spinning Batman, Superman and Sherlock Holmes into potential multi-film franchises a la Harry Potter. He says, "The obvious thing we're going to take from it is more Dark Knight. We look at Harry Potter ... It's fantastic to have franchises that last that long. We want to do that with Batman and Superman and perhaps Sherlock Holmes. The sequels are as good, with new characters added, as were the originals. That wasn't the case in the years ago."

But will turning a franchise like Batman into an eight-picture epic mean that, like the previous franchise, those latter sequels will churn out crap? There's no way Christopher Nolan (or Christian Bale, for that matter) will remain involved for eight Batman films (he'll probably stop at three or mayyybe four), and so we'll be right back to finding a new director and a new Batman ... and then fans begin to squirm a little in their seats. Obviously Warners wants to turn this sucker into a cash cow, but there's definitely something to be said for a lean, mean trilogy featuring all the same actors and filmmakers.

So, I ask you: How many Batman films should they craft out of this current franchise?



[via Silicon Alley Insider]

What happens when you get a few of the stars from The Dark Knight on the red carpet at the Golden Globes? Well, you bombard them with sequel questions, of course. And even though Aaron Eckhart has previously said that the character of Harvey Dent/Two Face was (and we quote) "Dead as a door nail," the man has apparently had a change of heart (or should we say he's become a bit two-faced?). While speaking to MTV at the Globes last night, Eckhart had this to say about his character: "I think Harvey - if he's not dead - is in a serious coma ... and I'm not sure he's coming out. They might pull the plug on him."

Now MTV ran the video of this quote alongside the text, and Eckhart just laughs his way through the entire thing as if to say: "Ask me one more question about that freaking movie Horowitz and you're going down ... hard." On which villains he'd want in the next flick, Eckhart said he'd love to see Angelina Jolie play Catwoman and Johnny Depp play Riddler. And while it's quite obvious no one knows anything yet (there's not even a script!), remember that Nolan brought back Scarecrow for a brief scene in Dark Knight, and so Two Face may show up in the next sequel if it makes enough sense. Personally, I'd rather see different villains -- but that's me. What do you make of all this?

First, dear readers, let me get a little rant off my chest -- why can't the mainstream media run the quotes from tireless movie sites like Collider instead of preposterous casting rumors? Sure, it's fun and harmless, but they embed themselves into the public consciousness to the point that you'll be hearing "Eddie Murphy is going to be the Riddler!" at your watercooler for months. But this is real Batman news!

Now, let's read that news, directly from Warner Bros' president Alan Horn, who emphasized again that Batman is taking a break. "We've been talking to Chris Nolan and what we have to do is get him in the right place and have him tell us what he thinks the notion might be for a great story, but Chris did a great job and we'd love to have him come back and do another one ... The story is everything and we are very respectful of Chris. We have a wonderful relationship with him and we are going to be respectful of his timing and we want to get it right. Also, I think the fans expect that – they want us to make a terrific movie – we have to give them another great movie."

While folks at Warner Brothers and Christopher Nolan are remaining tight-lipped with regards to a third Batman film, rumor has it that a production office for the threequel could open in Chicago as early as this spring (via BoF) -- and now E! is reporting (through one of their sources inside the studio) that Rachel Weisz could be up for the role of Catwoman in the flick. They say, "The next Batman installment is alive and kicking-definitely. We already mentioned today certain Warners sources are leaking to us that Rachel Weisz is being considered for the Catwoman role, too fab. But Warners officially isn't saying bubkes. But other insiders working on the next installment, to follow up where The Dark Knight left off, say it's all so a go."

Now, I don't trust anyone who uses the words "too fab" in relation to a story about Batman, but we take what we can get, right? What this does tell us is that, from the looks of it -- and even though there's probably not a script written yet (E! says it's being written now) -- Catwoman will play a major role in the third film. And, personally, I'm glad Angelina Jolie's name is slipping out, because she'd just add too much "glam" to this role. Weisz would do a fantastic job in my opinion, and if you'd like to see her go a little nutty and eccentric, check her out in The Brothers Bloom.

So whaddya think? Catwoman? Rachel Weisz? Ya dig?

The idea that Christopher Nolan is beginning to scratch away at a third Batman installment will surely be fuel for the rumor mill for months to come. But there's just enough hesitation to make you wonder if The Dark Knight is the last we'll see until the next reboot.

Nolan's biggest hang-up is that third installments usually ... well, suck. As he told USA Today, "I don't know why they're hard to do. Maybe there's so much expectation to them. But I wouldn't want to do one if it weren't going to be as good as the first or second. That's not respectful to the fans." While he has been scribbling some notes and outlines, he hasn't found anything he's willing to convert from paper to celluloid. "It was obvious when the box office was so big that we had underestimated how ready fans were to reboot the franchise. The worst thing you could do now that you've gotten the plane back in the air is mess up the landing."

That leaves fans to vent their frustrations out on The Dark Knight DVD -- understandably, people wanted more on it (especially of Heath Ledger's Joker) be it rough footage, deleted scenes, or outtakes. But Nolan insists he's never included such leftovers on his DVDs, and wasn't about to start with this one. "For my past three films, I really haven't had scenes that didn't make it in the movie. If it's in the final script, I tend put it on screen ... I don't like outtakes or gag reels. I don't think it's respectful to the actors, who signed on to have their performance on screen, not the takes that didn't work out. It discourages actors from going all-out if they think every mistake is going on the disc."

A few days ago, we posted some quotes from Christopher Nolan featured in a three-part interview with the LA Times. Well, since that was only the first part, we're now back with a few more -- this time the writer-director talks about that potential Justice League movie, whether his Batman could fit into that universe and whether Warner Bros. is pressuring him to get moving, like, yesterday on the next Batman movie.

On Justice League: "I don't think our Batman, our Gotham, lends itself to that kind of cross-fertilization. It goes back to one of the first things we wrangled with when we first started putting the story together: Is this a world in which comic books already exist? Is this a world in which superheroes already exist? If you think of "Batman Begins" and you think of the philosophy of this character trying to reinvent himself as a symbol, we took the position -- we didn't address it directly in the film, but we did take the position philosophically -- that superheroes simply don't exist. If they did, if Bruce knew of Superman or even of comic books, then that's a completely different decision that he's making when he puts on a costume in an attempt to become a symbol. It's a paradox and a conundrum, but what we did is go back to the very original concept and idea of the character. In his first appearances, he invents himself as a totally original creation."

On the studio's pressure to make another Batman: "They're being extremely gracious. I have a very good relationship with the studio. They know that I really needed to go on holiday and take some time to figure what I want to do next. They've been very respectful of that, which is terrific and one of the reasons I enjoy working with Warner Bros."

What do you think? Do you agree with Nolan and feel his Batman doesn't belong in any sort of Justice League universe? Check out the rest over at the LA Times blog.

In a new three-part interview over at the LA Times, writer-director Christopher Nolan has returned from his Batman vacation and finally opens up a bit about The Dark Knight's ridiculous box office take, Heath Ledger's performance and whether or not he'd be interested in directing a third Batman film. Sure, on paper he'd appear stupid not to take a gig helming the next Bat-flick, but Nolan has always been a man who takes one thing at a time -- and notes in this interview how much he dislikes the whole act of "setting up the sequel," even though he kinda does it himself at the end of Batman Begins when Gordon shows Batman the Joker card. Regarding that scene, however, Nolan adds: "But for me that was just about the excitement of people leaving the theater with the sense that now we have the character up and running. I wanted people to walk away with that sense in their head. You know, that he's become the Batman in the movie."

Later on in the interview -- which covers Knight's box office, Ledger's performance and the inevitable sequel -- Nolan, who says he'd next want to take on a "very intimate, small story that happens to be photographed on a ridiculously large scale," questions whether he'd even want to make a third Batman film. He says, "There are two things to be said. One is the emphasis on story. What's the story? Is there a story that's going to keep me emotionally invested for the couple of years that it will take to make another one? That's the overriding question. On a more superficial level, I have to ask the question: How many good third movies in a franchise can people name? [Laughs.] At the same time, in taking on the second one, we had the challenge of trying to make a great second movie, and there haven't been too many of those either. It's all about the story really. If the story is there, everything is possible. I hope that was a suitably slippery answer."

What do you think? If Nolan doesn't direct it, do you egg his house next Halloween?