The Batman Reboot Casting Thread - Part 1

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This is a continuation thread, the old thread is Here

[Man of Steel]

Most people(not including myself) enjoyed Christian Bale's Batman and want him for the Justice League movie(s). The truth is, Bale, unlike Ryan Reynolds and Brandon Routh, who are real comic book fans, only wants to make money and won't be in any movie where he is not one of the two main characters. Imagine what he would do if there were at least seven others! After Batman 3, Bale is out. He'll be away from Batman forever(not the Joel Schumacher movie, but the character). Now post your ideas on who should play Batman in a Justice League movie and/or reboot. My pick is Henry Cavill for a Nolan-ized Justice League/future sequels and Sam Witwer for a reboot.

[Rockstar]

So here's my cast for the Batman film after TKDR. It doesn't use any villains already done in the Nolan triology:


Anson Mount (AMC's Hell on Wheels) as Bruce Wayne/Batman





Sam Neill as Commissioner Gordon



Bill Nighy as Alfred Pennyworth



Colin Firth as Edward Nigma



Viggo Mortensen as Black Mask



Jessica Chastain as Pamela Isley

[Rockstar]

Michael Madsen as Detective Bullock



Common as Detective Crispus Allen



Sarah Shahi as Renee Montoya



Stanley Tucci as Doctor Hugo Strange



Ray Liotta as Tony Zucco

[Majik1387]

Originally Posted by Man of Steel

Most people(not including myself) enjoyed Christian Bale's Batman and want him for the Justice League movie(s). The truth is, Bale, unlike Ryan Reynolds and Brandon Routh, who are real comic book fans, only wants to make money and won't be in any movie where he is not one of the two main characters. Imagine what he would do if there were at least seven others! After Batman 3, Bale is out. He'll be away from Batman forever(not the Joel Schumacher movie, but the character). Now post your ideas on who should play Batman in a Justice League movie and/or reboot. My pick is Henry Cavill for a Nolan-ized Justice League/future sequels and Sam Witwer for a reboot.

While he's not my favorite actor or anything, Bale is not a money hungry actor. He just has to like the script and who he's working with. He doesn't have to be one of the two main characters.
With that said though, he wouldn't do a Justice League movie simply because at the moment WB doesn't know how to make one with dignity.

[Steve Holt]

Originally Posted by Rockstar

Michael Madsen as Detective Bullock



Common as Detective Crispus Allen



Sarah Shahi as Renee Montoya



Stanley Tucci as Doctor Hugo Strange



Ray Liotta as Tony Zucco

She's been my pick for Montoya ever since Life, it was like watching The Question with Renee in a supporting role

[HoochRosevelt]

That's exactly how I felt about Life.

[Llama_Shepherd]

I like quite a few of your choices Rockstar, I guess for now I'll go for:

Main players-

Bruce Wayne- Michael Fassbender
Alfred Pennyworth- Bill Nighy
Jim Gordon- Bryan Cranston
Lucius Fox- Idris Elba
Richard Grayson- Douglas Booth
Roman Sionis (film 1)- Liev Schriber
Oswald Cobblepot (film 1)- Philip Seymour Hoffman (I know, predictable)
Eddie Nashton (film 2)- David Tennant
Tommy Elliot (film 2)- Jude Law
Hugo Strange (film 3)- Patrick Stewart
Joker (film 3)- ?

[Rowsdower!]

That's a pretty good cast you have up there, though I'm not sure about Firth as Nigma and Neill as Gordon. Great actors, just tough to see them in those roles.

I'll tell you though, if Sara Shahi was in this, it would be hard to pay attention to anything else in the movie.

[Eddie Dean]

I'd like to see Sam Neill as Alfred.

[Rowsdower!]

Batman - Rob McElhenney
The Joker - Glenn Howerton
Catwoman - Kaitlin Olson
The Riddler - Charlie Day
The Penguin- Danny DeVito
The Scarecrow - Jimmi Simpson
Alfred - Andrew Friedman
Poison Ivy - Brittany Daniel
Harley Quinn - Mary Elizabeth Ellis
Jim Gordon - Brian Unger
Zsasz - David Hornsby
Ra's al Ghul - Gregory Scott Cummins
Talia al Ghul - Judy Greer
Bane - Bob Rusch
Hush - Travis Schuldt
Thomas Wayne - Stephen Collins
Martha Wayne - Ann Archer
Leslie Tompkins - Lynne Marie Stewart

[Rockstar]

Originally Posted by Rowsdower!

That's a pretty good cast you have up there, though I'm not sure about Firth as Nigma and Neill as Gordon. Great actors, just tough to see them in those roles.

I'll tell you though, if Sara Shahi was in this, it would be hard to pay attention to anything else in the movie.

I reimagined Riddler in a more grounded real-world approach. He'd be a super intelligent terrorist, using riddles as clues to where he plants his explosives (think Die Hard with a Vengeance). He'd be more of an intellectual villian.

He wouldn't be a theatrical, animated villian. That would feel like a redux of TDK. He'd be someone who easily blends into society, that no one suspects.


Neill as Gordon would be a completely different approach than Oldman. He'd be more like the hardened old school version (he plays a similar role on Alcatraz). I didn't want to cast an actor who would be too close to Oldman's portrayal.

[BatBat]

Don't cast a ginger as Batman. Come on people.

[BatBat]

Originally Posted by Rockstar

Michael Madsen as Detective Bullock



Common as Detective Crispus Allen



Sarah Shahi as Renee Montoya



Stanley Tucci as Doctor Hugo Strange



Ray Liotta as Tony Zucco

Love the idea of Stanley Tucci as Hugo Strange

[B.A. Baracus]

Originally Posted by BatBat

Don't cast a ginger as Batman. Come on people.

Your being the ginger version of racist, ginger-ist?

[Majik1387]

Bringing it into the new thread

Bat-family:
Batman/Bruce Wayne - Jon Hamm
Alfred Pennyworth - Bill Nighy
Commissioner Gordon - Bryan Cranston
Nightwing/Dick Grayson - Ben Barnes
Robin/Tim Drake - Logan Lerman
Batgirl/Barbara Gordon - Jena Malone
Catwoman/Selina Kyle - Rachel Weisz
Red Hood/Jason Todd - Tom Sturridge
Batwoman/Kate Kane - Laura Benanti

Allies:
Dr. Leslie Thompkins - Helen Mirren
Lucius Fox - Idris Elba
Det. Sarah Essen - Cate Blanchett
Det. Harvey Bullock - John Travolta
Det. Renee Montoya - Michelle Rodriguez
Det. Jason Bard - Jamie Bamber
Vicki Vale - Olivia Wilde
Janice Porter - Rachel McAdams
Andrea Beaumont - Emily Blunt

Big Baddies:
Joker - Adrien Brody
Harley Quinn - Kristen Bell
Two-Face - Clive Owen
Riddler - Ewan McGregor
Scarecrow - David Tennant
Poison Ivy - Kate Winslet
Black Mask - Tom Hardy
Talia Head - Monica Bellucci
Dr. Hugo Strange - Timothy Dalton

Side villains/hired Henchmen:
Bane - Javier Bardem
Penguin - Jason Alexander
Mr. Freeze - Harrison Ford
Ubu - Oded Fehr
Killer Croc - Boris Kodjoe
Mad Hatter - Malcolm McDowell
Zsasz - James Marsters
Firefly - Ryan Phillipe
Roxy Rockett - Mila Kunis

[Hyden]

I wont be the first to say Jon Hamm: Bruce/Bats and Brian Cranston: Jim Gordon.

But this might be a new one. I've actually been thinking about this since Heath died.

howzabout Bill Hader as the Joker?

He can certainly do creepy and intense very well and he has an incredible vocal range. In my mind he could make a really great Joker that could really combine elements of Heath's twisted anarchist and Hamil's gleeful maniac.

[Eddie Dean]

I just love the idea of Don Draper and Walter White in the same movie.

[hellblazer103]

edit

[Brain Damage]

Originally Posted by Man of Steel

Most people(not including myself) enjoyed Christian Bale's Batman and want him for the Justice League movie(s). The truth is, Bale, unlike Ryan Reynolds and Brandon Routh, who are real comic book fans, only wants to make money and won't be in any movie where he is not one of the two main characters. Imagine what he would do if there were at least seven others! After Batman 3, Bale is out. He'll be away from Batman forever(not the Joel Schumacher movie, but the character)

Wow that's an unjustified biased statement if i've ever seen one.
Have you seen some of the movies Bale's done?
Films like The Machinist and Rescue Dawn certainly did not light up a fire at the box office but were extremely grueling to physically prepare for. That's not the mark of actor who only wants to make money.
While I won't say for certain, because, wouldntyouknowit, I'm not him and I don't know for certain, Bale doesn't appear to take movies based on the salary, but rather based on the script and his respect for the director.
That's why he won't do a Justice League movie, he has too much respect for Christopher Nolan and has stated many times that he simply would not do Batman if Chris wasn't involved.
Bale is Nolan's Batman, and he would never want to appear outside of that of that world, and personally, I wouldn't want to see him do it either.

[elgaz]

Originally Posted by Man of Steel

Most people(not including myself) enjoyed Christian Bale's Batman and want him for the Justice League movie(s). The truth is, Bale, unlike Ryan Reynolds and Brandon Routh, who are real comic book fans, only wants to make money and won't be in any movie where he is not one of the two main characters. Imagine what he would do if there were at least seven others! After Batman 3, Bale is out. He'll be away from Batman forever(not the Joel Schumacher movie, but the character). Now post your ideas on who should play Batman in a Justice League movie and/or reboot. My pick is Henry Cavill for a Nolan-ized Justice League/future sequels and Sam Witwer for a reboot.

No offence, but that's a load of rubbish.

Bale is an A-list actor and leading man. What do you expect him to do, turn down all the big roles offered to him? The thing is - he's proven himself. He can act. And he sometimes goes to extreme lengths to prepare himself for a role. If he was just in the business for the money, he could easily sit back and not make half the effort that he does. Don't kid yourself into thinking Ryan Reynolds and Brandon Routh are only in this business for artistic reasons, if they're offered big leading roles you can be sure as hell they'll go for them too.

Does this BB interview really suggest Bale has absolutely no interest in the character other than making money? .................. I think the opposite, it sounds like he totally gets Batman.

You know, we’re taking advantage of using the great story of how he came to invent Batman so [it's] his early days, the beginnings of Bruce Wayne. A very large part of the movie is taken up with that before you even see any ears at all. But then also I think that one very big difference, at least in my eyes, is just the way that we chose to portray the Batman himself. Just because I realized that the TV series was a spoof on what the original Bob Kane intentions had been. I never felt that I’d seen it adequately done in any of the other movies either, in that I really attempted to become a different creature that just kind of ceases to be human at that point. And frankly I had to do that out of necessity just because I felt like an idiot when I was just standing in the Batsuit and being a guy. You just can’t. You can’t hang out in that suit. You have to be in control. You have to be focused.

I would always remember about the fact that this is somebody who is fanatical, you know? If you think about the obsession that somebody must have to retain the pain and anger from an incident that happened 20 years previously and is still in the forefront of his mind. You know that’s an incredible obsession. I mean, that’s an unhealthy obsession. So concentrating on the fact that he’s attempting to take his pain and his guilt and his anger and the rage and do something good with it, even though his impulses are that he does just want to rage and break bones and do damage. So there’s always that conflict. And so, for me, it was very much about remembering that. I would refer to the different graphic novels. I had them on the set with me all the time just because I loved the imagery of it so much. And remembering that I never wanted to appear to be Bruce Wayne in a Batsuit when I was playing the Batman. That he just becomes - that it is an alter ego completely.

There is a legacy of "Batman" and the actors who've played him. How does your approach differ?
I think that you have with the Tim Burton ones a great stylized version. But to me, whilst I enjoyed those ones, it was more the stylization of the villains than Batman himself. I didn’t see a whole lot going on in Batman. The other ones just weren’t my thing at all. And I just felt that I wanted to attempt to base it in reality, starting from a realistic point of view of the pain and the trauma that a child has been through, and really looking at it as that instead of just [he's] this incredibly theatrical character that jumps around in a Batsuit, which to me would be kind of stupid if I met him in the street. You know, I don’t think I would be intimidated. I would laugh at him.
You had to get to a point where the audience would be drawn in enough to believe that this guy has gone through so much pain and anger, and then we have a really nice backstory about how he creates the Batman. And also, there’s a very nice practical backstory to every gadget, and to the Batsuit and to everything. Everything is explained in the movie. Nothing was taken for granted at all. There’s no assumptions that the audience would just understand it immediately. We wanted to show how did this happen and why did he choose everything. And it’s all explained very, very well and in detail. And in making that kind of approach, I think it couldn’t help but appear different because you got a real character, you know?
We were focusing on Bruce Wayne and Batman, whereas what I would find in watching most of the other movies, and also the TV series and things, I always found the villains much more interesting. And that was the main revelation to me in reading one of the graphic novels. Batman is the most interesting of them all, you know? I mean, he’s the really on-the-edge one because he’s the guy that, okay, he’s doing good but he’s the Dark Knight. I mean, a knight is meant to be in shining armor and he’s the Dark Knight. He could do good things but man, he could just as easily flip over and become like the ultimate villain. Hopefully we’ve been able to portray that in a more character-based way than has been shown before.

Of Michael Keaton, Val Kilmer, George Clooney – which one of the previous Batmans added the most amount of credibility to the role?
You know, they did it in different ways. I think what Adam West did was great. I just didn’t realize when I was watching it as a kid that it was a spoof, you know? It was a very campy kind of thing, performance that he was doing. After that, I would say Michael Keaton because of Tim Burton and the way that he approached the movie. However we didn’t want to do anything like that either. To me, that isn’t what I was seeing in the graphic novels at all. And I’d never really felt the danger of Batman that I felt should be appropriate.
It was also in reading a forward by Frank Miller that I believe is in "Batman Year One" about when he first saw Batman and how he says to him Batman was never funny. And I liked that because that’s what I had always thought. That this should not be that there can be a lot of comedy through it, but coming from other people. But the actual Batman himself, you know, I think had gotten lost in a lot of little one liners and quips that reduced the edge and the reason that he had become this Batman in the first place, which was this incredible pain, anger, guilt and rage that he had within.

[berikson]

[Rowsdower!]

Caviezel is lifeless on Person of Interest. I think he used to be a good actor but the last few things I've seen him in, he's just been terrible.

[elgaz]

If they decide to reboot the Batman franchise, it's unlikely to be straight away - I'd imagine there'll be at least 3 years after TDKR before we see another take on Batman, if not longer. That will place Caviezel in his late 40s also, and his 50s for any sequels. A bit too old IMO for playing Batman unless the film is deliberately set at a later point in Bruce Wayne's life.

[flickchick85]

Originally Posted by Rowsdower!

Caviezel is lifeless on Person of Interest. I think he used to be a good actor but the last few things I've seen him in, he's just been terrible.

I've always felt this way about him. I just never got the acclaim during the Passion of the Christ days.