Bale lands Batman role

Dont be at yourself · 11-09-2003 9:53pm #1

WB have announced that Christian Bale is the next Batman.

Rumours are that the Christopher Nolan (Memento) directed film will be released next Christmas, and will almost certainly return to the roots of the franchise, with a darker, younger Batman at the centre of the story. Possible villians mentioned are Ras Al Guhl and Scarecrow.

Better than Kilmer and Clooney anyways, I guess.

tman · 11-09-2003 10:08pm

who?

would've been funny if wotsisname from 28 days later got the part, he looked like a recovering heroin junkie in that pic that AngelWhore posted in nerds

Magic Monkey · 11-09-2003 10:16pm

That's Christian Bale. He was in Empire of the Sun, Reign of Fire, American Psycho... ("you like Huey Lewis and the news?")

Makaveli · 11-09-2003 10:17pm

He's in Equilibrium and Reign of Fire. And he's the bad guy in Shaft.

http://us.imdb.com/name/nm0000288/

tman · 11-09-2003 10:21pm

groovy, he was great in american psycho, should be just right for a younger batman.

spooky donkey · 11-09-2003 11:21pm

this is great news any news of a batman film has to be good and im gald to see Bale land the part I havent seen him in a bad film yet, well i dont rember him from shaft, but then i dont rember much from that. He rocked in equilibruim!

Makaveli · 11-09-2003 11:35pm

Reign of Fire was crap.
Well, he was alright in it, but the film was crap.

Lord Nikon · 11-09-2003 11:41pm

Yeah, damn good choice me thinks. He's excellent in Equilibrium, so Batman will be a piece of cake to him.

This guy doesn't get enough credit, he's severly under-rated. maybe Batman will increase his Hollywood status.

Best of luck to the guy.

DMT · 11-09-2003 11:59pm

My weak attempt at previewing the new Batman (at least it gives a rough idea):

Pigman II · 12-09-2003 12:07am

Christ sake that is a fucking joke!

Bale is well known to start every movie with a new accent so who's to say Batman won't be starting with an O-irish accent next?

Personally I reckon it is just a pisstake based on his role from American Psycho. Batman, Bateman, geddit?

eggshapedfred · 12-09-2003 8:15am

I agree with pigman. bale would suck as batman. he sucked in american psycho (what a disaster of a movie). i'd still prefer to see david boreanaz as batman (it wouldn't be to much of a stretch from Angel). anyways good to hear theres a new batflick in the offing, and if its a roots story that means no chris o donnell. thank f uck.

Obscure · 12-09-2003 10:08am

American Psycho was pulled off brillantly! One of the VERY few books that was transferred to film well! Classic book, not for the faint hearted or unstable!

aside: i saw One Few over the cockoos nest and it sucked compared to the book. Also, The Beach (the book) was deadly, but the film was painfully bad. What good book adaptations are out there?

Grimlock · 12-09-2003 10:21am

Fight Club; lost very little if anything from the book, and the tone and imagery were captured brilliantly.
One of my favorite films!

Trainspotting also, but haven't read the book, but I hear it's a lot cruder than the film.

And the most obvious example: Lord of the Rings!!!!!

A little off topic but does anyone think they'll adapt The Hobbit into a film?

BTW I think Christian Bale will be excellent as the new Batman, and even if you don't like him things could have been worse;
that guy from Dawson's Crack was genuinely in the running for the role :eek:

KdjaCL · 12-09-2003 10:46am

Original Batman is one of the best movies ever ,it had a great story and the "who is crazier" plot from the comics came accross well thanks to Burton and Keaton.
Imo it doenst matter who is going to play him the movie will suck either way.

A little off topic but does anyone think they'll adapt The Hobbit into a film?

Afaik New Line own the rights and Jackson wants to do it but wont talk about it until after the 3 are complete.

kdjac

ixoy · 12-09-2003 12:29pm

I'm pretty sure Jackson has said he won't do "The Hobbit" because he's done a bit too much Middle Earth and needs a rest. Next up for him instead is King Kong.

Caesar_Bojangle · 12-09-2003 1:05pm

that guy from Dawson's Crack was genuinely in the running for the role

which one, forehead or chubby?

DMT · 12-09-2003 4:57pm

Originally posted by Caesar_Bojangle
which one, forehead or chubby?

Chubby JR Ewing look-a-like...

12-09-2003 7:14pm

Bale is a superb actor. Hopefully he will be able to portray Batman as someone with problems instead of some rich prat in fancy dress like Clooney did.

Ian Mc Kellan and Peter Jackson have been talking about adapting the Hobbit into a ten part television series with the budget of a major feature film.

Cork · 12-09-2003 10:02pm

The original Batman film was brill. Let us hope Batman can be revived.

eggshapedfred · 13-09-2003 12:34pm

Lord of the Rings was a f ucking woeful adaptation of the book. I've no problem with people leaving stuff out of the film that was in the book (Tom Bombadill) but adding in his own cr@p. jackson is a waste of space. he f ucking ruined Lord of the Rings.

bale will suck as batman. but thank f uck that guy from dawsons crack didnt get it.

davej · 13-09-2003 12:48pm

I've seen Bale in a couple of things and have always been impressed with him. Apparently some of his friends were worried about him during the American Pyscho shoot as it effected him a lot.

However I'm more interested in what sort of treatment Christopher Nolan will give the Batman franchise. Hopefully his first foray into blockbuster territory will yield some good results. There seems to be a new willingness on the part of hollywood producers to risk giving these big budget action movies to "quirky" directors. It worked with Sam Raimi and Peter Jackson.

davej

anthonymcg · 13-09-2003 3:16pm

Originally posted by eggshapedfred
Lord of the Rings was a f ucking woeful adaptation of the book. I've no problem with people leaving stuff out of the film that was in the book (Tom Bombadill) but adding in his own cr@p. jackson is a waste of space. he f ucking ruined Lord of the Rings.

bale will suck as batman. but thank f uck that guy from dawsons crack didnt get it.

Yeah, he "ruined the lord of the rings". Thank god I've been enlightened.

Christian Bale would have been my choice aswell. Showed in AP that he can play characters with edge and should pull off the role quite well.

Spacedog · 14-09-2003 4:24pm

Bale will make a cool batman, don't know about the director though, I heard a roumer that Darren Aronofsky was going to direct it (of Pi and Requem for a dream fame) and that it was going to be Batman Year 1 anter the poor ratings of Batman and Robin. That would have kicked ass, The darkest batman story made by the darkest director, would have been brill!

As for LOTR being crap, WTF? JK Rouling has too much power in the making of the Harry Potter films, the second HP film was really repetive after seeing the first, this is because JK imposed the pacing of the book to the film, what works in laterature is not always best to the medium of film. Jackson is a Film Maker and has the objectivetivity to avoid these pitfalls, A LOTR film will never be the same as the book unless it was 10 years long, filmed on the 'real' middle earth, and directed by JRR Tolkin's ghost.

eggshapedfred · 15-09-2003 8:33am

A LOTR film will never be the same as the book unless it was 10 years long, filmed on the 'real' middle earth, and directed by JRR Tolkin's ghost

Now that sounds like a plan. I've got the time, who's got the ouija board?

joseph brand · 16-09-2003 12:03am

eggshapedfred prob liked Spice girls the movie.:eek:

Christian Bale will be excellent as new Batman, and he was ANIMAL in American Psycho, "Whitney Houstons, The Greatest Love of All, ...". " You have a Whitney Houston cd, ha ha ha".

Don't know if he be better than Keaton, he IS the KING.

Both are pretty much under-rated.

BLITZ_Molloy · 16-09-2003 11:00am

Being faithful to the book makes for ****e cinema. You have to completely rework the story to make a good film.

Christian Bale sounds fine. I think the script and production are far more important factors however.

eggshapedfred · 16-09-2003 2:48pm

eggshapedfred prob liked Spice girls the movie

wasn't that fond of that one, to be honest. didn't like american psycho either. thought at one point Bale looked like Jim Carrey. really scary, that. shaking, I was.

anyways good news theres a new batman flick coming. good news also that Christopher Nolan is directing. I don't think i'll like Bale as batman (but then Clooney sucked, and Kilmer wasn't great), but as long as theres no camp neon cr@p I'll be happy.

adnans · 16-09-2003 2:51pm

bateman is batman!!

....

get it? bah, im wasting good material for nothing here. anyway, having starred as an emotionless ass kicking police cop in Equillibrium, he will make an excellent batman.

i'd like to see Scarface in the next movie. psycho story to go with the psycho cast!

him and harley quinn, cause she's hot (not to be confused with Amz and her avatar)

adnans

16-09-2003 7:13pm

Scarecrow has been mentioned as the most likely villan to appear.:D

Kalina · 17-09-2003 10:50am

As long as Bale does a better job than Clooney-Batman and Robin was a terrible movie, helped along the way by a crap script and bad performances by Chris O'Donnell, Alicia Silverstone and Uma Thurman. And let's not forget Arnie! The only character with any charisma in the movie was the big guy Bane!
I have high hopes for batman 5- if the director takes a look at the 1st movie and goes with the really dark theme (and the very cool batmobile) it should be a success!!

Panda · 17-09-2003 11:30am

Just watched Equilibrium last night,
ridiculous concept and a bit slow in parts but Bale was good in it.
not to mention some mad hatter action scenes.

I look forward to bale as batman, clooney was too much of a television series type batman.
not to mention the drivel that chris o'd and that silverstone girl brought to the film.

batman = dark
bale = dark

me maybe = happy

we'll see

ixoy · 17-09-2003 12:10pm

Originally posted by Panda
Just watched Equilibrium last night,
ridiculous concept and a bit slow in parts but Bale was good in it.
not to mention some mad hatter action scenes.

The opening action scene is absolutely brilliant! Y'know where he runs up to the door, knocks it down, and slides inside. And then the darkness and voices for about fifty seconds. Class.

batman = dark
bale = dark

me maybe = happy

we'll see

Also Christopher Nolan = Dark. Seriously I reckon Nolan is just as important as Bale in making the Dark Knight return to our screen. If we wanted ultra-dark we could get Darren Aronofsky, but he'd probably have everyone in the audience ringing the Samaritans by the end of it (god "Requiem for a Dream" is brilliant but sooo depressing. Although it ain't half as bad as "Dancer in the Dark" which has the most bleak outlook of any move I've ever seen and left me unable to move at the end because I was feeling so fatalistic).

JohnnyBravo · 17-09-2003 1:15pm

michael keaton was the best batman why didnt he and tim burton do the other ones

DMT · 17-09-2003 5:15pm

Originally posted by JohnnyBravo
michael keaton was the best batman why didnt he and tim burton do the other ones

If I remember correctly, Keaton didn't want to be stereotyped and Burton was either bored with Batman or didn't want to direct without Keaton...

18-09-2003 7:26pm

There are three reasons the last two Batman films sucked.
1. Akiva Goldsman atrocious script
2. Chris O Donnell and Alicia Silverstones acting abilities
3. Batman being portrayed as nice happy rich man

Elmo · 19-09-2003 12:08pm

There are three reasons the last two Batman films sucked.
1. Akiva Goldsman atrocious script
2. Chris O Donnell and Alicia Silverstones acting abilities
3. Batman being portrayed as nice happy rich man

Batman Forever only being good because of Tommy Lee Jones and Jim Carey.

Bail I don't like him at all. Ever since Rising Sun (is that the name of the WW2 movie by Speilberg?) that annoing little fu cking brat.

19-09-2003 7:38pm

Ever since Rising Sun (is that the name of the WW2 movie by Speilberg?) that annoing little fu cking brat.

Your thinking of Empire of the Sun. Wasnt Rising Sun that Sean Connery, Weasly Snipes cop film?

Bale lands Batman role

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