File Under Shocker
We’re tempted to file this one under, “no shit, sherlock,” but a) we’re back on our don’t-be-outraged medication this week and b) we’ll admit, this is, we suppose an interesting, if very foreseeable, development.
According to Australian site, MovieHole, Christopher Nolan‘s third, untitled “Batman” film (aka “Batman 3” for now), is on the hunt for a new female lead. Katie Holmes, then Maggie Gyllenhaal; there’s already been two female leads in Nolan’s previous Batman films, “Batman Begins” and “The Dark Knight” (both played the romantic interest Rachel Dawes). With Dawes out of the picture (spoiler, she dies in ‘TDK,’ where have you been?) it seems only natural that Christian Bale‘s Playboy-ish Bruce Wayne character would have some sort female interest in his life.
So without providing many details, Moviehole says, that a “revolving door will be in operation for the better part of this week as director Christopher Nolan and producers meet with their prospective female lead.” These are all apparently tentative meetings and while Moviehole claims to know names, they’re not naming any.
Really a non-story (wait, why did we start this piece?), but Moviehole does say that insiders “suspect” this could be the often-rumored Catwoman role. Frankly, we think that Catwoman is a pretty ridiculous character in the Nolan-directed Batman world as much as geek sites would like to think otherwise. We’re betting it’s another Dawes-like character.
So far, no word has been made on new casting news in “Batman 3” other than actor-of-the-moment Tom Hardy (“Inception“) who now has room on his schedule in 2011 thanks to “Mad Max: Fury Road” being pushed to a 2012 production start date. Christian Bale will be back and so too presumably will be actors like Michael Caine, Morgan Freeman and Gary Oldman , among others. “Batman 3” is eying an April, 2011 start date. No villains have been made, but that won’t stop the Internet from claiming any faint trace of “evidence” means XYZ character is in the movie. If any familiar villains do show up (Riddler, Penguin, Catwoman), we expect them to appear in some stripped-down, far less cartoony than the comic books much like the way Nolan made The Joker and Two-Face seem like very plausible, psychotic antagonists.
