I read a lot of the Hollywood pages where they talk about movies in development or in production. The talk surrounding the Superhero movies is always in high gear. Just talking about the DC characters (not to leave out Marvel, who is doing a MUCH better job of representing their’s) we have a Superman movie coming out this year, and talks about a Wonder Woman, Green Lantern 2 and a Justice League movie.
There is also talk of doing a Batman reboot. WHY? Christopher Nolan has already laid the foundation of an AWESOME Gotham City and list of characters! Why would you go back when there are so many stories that can be told in the current line?
Sherlock Holmes has been in hundreds of movies, some were remakes, I know, but how many “reboots” have they done with him?
What about James Bond? Twenty-something movies and how many portray him joining the agency?
My point exactly! Batman has had 11 theatrical movies since 1943. In my lifetime, there have been 8:
- “Batman” with Michael Keaton (Origin)
- “Batman Returns” with Michael Keaton
- “Batman: Mask of the Phantasm” (Animated)
- “Batman Forever” with Val Kimer
- “Batman and Robin” with George Clooney
- “Batman Begins” with Christian Bale
- “The Dark Knight” with Christian Bale
- “Dark Knight Rises” with Christian Bale
In those movies, the list of villains used include:
- The Joker (3)- Jack Nicholson, Mark Hamill and Heath Ledger
- Catwoman (2)- Michelle Pfeiffer and Anne Hathaway
- Two-Face (2)- Tommy Lee Jones and Aaron Eckhart
- Bane (2)- Jeep Swenson and Tom Hardy
- Penguin- Danny DeVitto
- Riddler- Jim Carrey
- Mr. Freeze- Arnold Schwarzenegger
- Poison Ivy- Uma Thurman
- Scarecrow- Cillian Murphy (appears in all 3 Bale movies)
There are many villains that would have fit well into the Christopher Nolan universe (and may, still)
- Ventriloquist- The Ventriloquist’s insanity has no bounds. Holding a doll aptly named Scarface, Arnold Wesker honestly believes that the doll is calling the shots, and this would have made an interesting dynamic in Nolan’s world. We could actually feel bad for the villain this time. He’s seriously mentally ill.
- Mad Hatter- Mind-control. That’s Mad Hatter’s game. And while The Joker played a mind-control game of his own with Batman inThe Dark Knight, the Mad Hatter (a.k.a. Jervis Tetch) would have other plans of controlling every mind in Gotham City if he were in a movie, possibly with another airborne chemical or hallucinogenic like the one Scarecrow used in Batman Begins. Or maybe a whole Alice in Wonderland complex.
- Firefly- Though he’s thought of by some to be one of the worst Batman villains, but the idea of a pyromaniac destroying Gotham City is plausible. I don’t know if he could be the main bad guy, but a side villain at least. He could really put serious heat to the Dark Knight. Perhaps make it a triangle story with Mr. Freeze and call it Batman: Fire and Ice
- Deadshot is so dangerous because he wants to go out in a blaze of glory. He’s also a killer shot. If Christopher Nolan’s Batman ever went toe to toe with him, it would be similar to the Beltway Sniper incident a few years back. He would be a killer who makes people afraid to leave their houses in Gotham City and also one who wants Batman to come after him. It would be really intense.
- Poison Ivy is one of Batman’s few “supervillains,” in that she can control plant life. But that’s the comic books, and Nolan clearly doesn’t follow the comic books to a T (Bane would be about four times Batman’s size if he did). So if we did see Poison Ivy, she’d probably be an environmentalist with a good heart, but poisonous lips—purely chemical, of course. Nothing biological like a mutation or anything like that.
- Calendar Man is one of those villains who sounds dumb on paper and would probably be dumb in the movies. But what if he wasn’t? Imagine a murderer similar to the Zodiac killer but with specific dates and times that he killed. And Batman had to track him down. The Long Halloween would of course be an inspiration for the movie’s tale. It would rule. You know it would.
- Professor Hugo Strange has a long history with Batman, preceding even Joker and Catwoman, and even knows that he’s Bruce Wayne. And if his appearance in the game Arkham City, where he locks the Dark Knight down in a super-prison with some of Gotham’s worst criminals, is any indication of what could be done with him, he’s definitely a character who would be put to great use in Nolan’s world. I wish he had been in Batman Begins, as he would have fit well with Scarecrow.
- A lot of people said that The Riddler would be a bad choice for a Christopher Nolan movie since we already had the Joker. The Riddler would be a totally different character in Nolan’s hands. Nolan would finally whip out the detective side of the Dark Knight, having the Riddler sprinkling crimes all over Gotham and Batman having to solve them before a church explodes, or something else terrible happens.
- Black Mask- In Christopher Nolan’s universe, the less supernatural the villain, the better, and how much less supernatural can you get than a guy who wears a black skull mask and a business suit? Not much, right? Decent background story of how Black Mask (Roman Sionis) and Bruce Wayne grew up together, and how Wayne ultimately bailed Sionis out when his company went belly-up.
It could be a great revenge story. One not really seen in the entirety of the Batman saga. A tale of business.
Harley Quinn, Hush, The Phantasm, Man-Bat, Solomon Grudy, Victor Zsasz, The Penguin, the list goes on and on.
Why do we need to reboot when so much of the story hasn’t been told?
All I ask from Warner Brothers is that they think about this idea before knocking over Christopher Nolan’s creation and starting over!
Terminal Optimism 