Do you think WB is looking to take Batman in a different direction?

[Superman Lives]

Timm doesn't want to do live action properties. It's a different medium for him. He's said it plenty of times.

 

[CJ]

No.

Dark is what worked for them with Nolan's series, so dark is what WB will continue with.

 

[Superman Lives]

Exactly.

$328 Mil+ Domestic already. WB is going to want the next Batman films to maintain the approach of Nolan's films.


It's too financially risky to completely change things. They have a winning successful formula with the dark and gritty realism.

 

[TheWatcher]

But from what we've heard, they want to connect Batman to the JLA.

Dark and gritty or fantasy?

 

[Superman Lives]

Heard from where?

There has been no news about the reboot other than Christopher Nolan dropping off the project.

 

[Rodrigo90]

Nearly all superhero movies nowadays are dark and serious in tone. People prefer that most. After the stupidity of going camp and light, yet 'fun', such as BF B&R and Spider-Man 3, which resulted in their franchises deaths, studios now know best.

While Batman should retain that, I do want to see WB attempt to break away from anything that was too realistic in Nolan's stuff. No more Gotham City looking like a mash up of NYC and Chicago, please! Directors never attempt to stick to the comics, why? Cause Gotham looks what? Not gothic enough? Not neony enough? Not realistic enough? It's looks perfectly fine in all those regards, so I hope to God that a director gets picked who stays faithful to the comic look of Gotham, cause it's perfectly bloody fine!!!

Also the villains...please keep them plausible and believable, but not too realistic to prevent them from being their comic selves.

 

[metaphysician]

Nearly all superhero movies nowadays are dark and serious in tone. People prefer that most. After the stupidity of going camp and light, yet 'fun', such as BF B&R and Spider-Man 3, which resulted in their franchises deaths, studios now know best.

And thus continues the grossly simplified binary description. . . not everything that isn't B&R campy is "dark and serious", and conversely, not everything that is lighter in tone than TDK is "campy." There is a vast middle ground of stories that may be, say. . . serious but optimistic, if you wish for a name.

 

[ClarkLuther55]

If anything, DC has shown a tendency to take the wrong lessons from Nolan's films. They've wanted to darken their other heroes to emulate the success of Nolan's Batman films. Nolan is the "godfather" of Man of Steel, a movie taht looks like it wants to take a more somber approach to Superman.

And a Nolan-like Batman really isn't as hard to fit into the Justice League. The "realism" of Nolan's series has always been overstated. Every one of his movies could qualify as scifi. We had a roof jumping car, memory cloth gliding wings, and a fantasy microwave superweapon all in the first movie.

People really go too far in calling Nolan's movies "crime dramas" rather than superhero films. His Batman isn't even restricted to street level action, and fought to stop superweapon plots in two out of three movies. The one movie that didn't do that, The Dark Knight, basically elevated the Joker into an uber-terrorist who could bring down the entire city and require the National Guard to be called in.

 

[Artistsean]

The problem with the past movies wasn't that they made it lighter, it was that at that time comic movies weren't considered that valuable (not like today anyway) and the stories weren't given as much care as today I think. From the beginning Burton said he wanted Batman to be a revenge story. Nolan's was successful, in part, because he got the characterizations right and stuck very close the to source material. Batman never killed, etc.
If they redid the new movies the same way but lighter in that they allow more comic stuff in them then they too will be successful. That is why the Avengers succeeded too, it stuck to the comics in characterizations. And it was family friendly.

Thats why I was saying just make a live action version of the animated Timm series. DONT copy it, but just use the same tone, and the same level of fantasy. Allow for Batman to have that big Batcave,

allow for more fantastic things like Mr. Freeze to exist in Batman's world, allow him to be as skilled an expert as he is at so many things as he is in the comics.

and at the time I posted these they were the Batcave by Ross and Batman versus his enemies by Ross.
And here is a few costume pics just for fun. How they could maybe make it look more like the comics but formidable and cool at the same time.
Someone's costume based on the Alex Ross version of Batman. Imagine someone actually bulking up and then wearing this (plus pads because clothing always lessens the bulk.

Spoiler

And one I did a few years back, the gray spandex would be stretched over the rubber padded armor:

Spoiler

 

[Superman Lives]

If TDKR bombed, I'm pretty sure Warners would have gone that TAS/comicbook-inspired route for future films.

 

[Nathan]

I always wanted to know, how did Bruce get all that stuff into the Batcave in the first place? Or build stuff like all the moving platforms. I actually think there's an Episode of TAS, that explains it. Like he actually paid workers I think. But I haven watched it in ages.

 

[Rodrigo90]

He's Batman. He can do anything without any good explantion!

 

[Nathan]

You have a point.

 

[Rodrigo90]

 

[redfirebird2008]

I think they should go a bit lighter. Nolan's films are pretty bleak. I think to myself while watching them, "This is great for me as an adult but I can't imagine a 5 year old enjoying it." The Animated Series had the perfect tone. It was dark but still adventurous with colorful villains and stories. Adults and children can both enjoy that show because it has a good tone for all age groups. This is what WB should be striving for in the future, not the giant toy commercials of Batman Forever/Batman & Robin and not the pretty much adult-only Nolan trilogy.

 

[Bruce Malone]

I think they should go a bit lighter. Nolan's films are pretty bleak. I think to myself while watching them, "This is great for me as an adult but I can't imagine a 5 year old enjoying it."

Ha i've had that thought as well but i mean i'm so happy that there is indeed an adult level superhero franchise but i'm not sure how i'd enjoy the film at that age but perhaps were selling kids short?

The fact is though "dark" has made WB about 2 billion dollars so i can't see them running away from that anytime soon. The only issue i'd have is some director doing their own chris nolan impression and coming up with something half as good.

With the avengers and marvel taking up the light field, batman needs to stay dark for that counter balance the audience still craves. It's just that it has to be an original dark and not just a chris nolan re-tread.

 

[DaveMoral]

If by lighter we mean moving away from how Nolan's films are almost a deconstruction of the Batman story by asking you "just how miserable with this S.O.B. actually be?" then maybe they should go "lighter."

 

[Boosted]

i think they need to go lighter. I'm ready for the Batman i read in the comic books. For Batman to stand with a Justice League, they need to make the "batgod".

 

[T"Challa]

I'd like to see a more 'action-adventury' Batman film. Not to say they sacrifice story or anything but i want to see batman in all his high-tech ninja glory. we've had 7 films and i don't think any of them did justice to Batman as a hand-to hand combatant. So far, his fighting style has been closer to that of a heavyweight boxer than a 7th dan blackbelt. It will be cool to see that explored

 

[Destructus86]

They need to bring back the gothic feel of Batman...and some of the more amazing villains...like Clayface and Mr Freeze

 

[DaveMoral]

I'd like to see a more 'action-adventury' Batman film. Not to say they sacrifice story or anything but i want to see batman in all his high-tech ninja glory. we've had 7 films and i don't think any of them did justice to Batman as a hand-to hand combatant. So far, his fighting style has been closer to that of a heavyweight boxer than a 7th dan blackbelt. It will be cool to see that explored

Batman is a heavyweight, his fighting style as a high level martial artist really isn't going to be significantly different from that of a championship boxer when put in a street situation.

In fact, Bloody Elbow just had a great series of posts about Batman's fighting styles as outlined in the 1940s and how that is actually probably the most realistic portrayal of Batman's fighting abilities to this day. The base his boxing, then judo(which would include jiu-jitsu as the linguistic convention of the time didn't distinguish) and wrestling(catch, Roman-Greco). Judging from the illustrated kicking techniques in those days, there was probably also Savate.

Black belts don't tend to fight much different from a kickboxer in most situations. The Dark Knight Trilogy has done the best job of depicting a realistic fighting style for Batman... it's just that Keysi is so god-awful to look at. I'd rather see Batman fighting like Muhammad Ali any day than Keysi.

 

[Rodrigo90]

Batman in Nolan's films fights like Will Smith in The Fresh Prince, that weird elbow/forearm lunge thing

 

[ThePowerCosmic]

If TDKR bombed, I'm pretty sure Warners would have gone that TAS/comicbook-inspired route for future films.

You make it sound like you've been to the future and have seen the rebooted Batman films.

 

[Rodrigo90]

Flux Capacitor's for your car aren't going to be out til next year either.

 

[Rowsdower!]

I still wonder what they're going to call this reboot/re-imagining/re-quel/rehash.

Batman Begins Again
The Other Dark Knight
Before Batman Began
Batman Continues
Batman: The First Justice Leaguer
The Man in Black
Legends of the Dark Knight
Gotham's Most Wanted
Does it Come in Black?
The Bat Identity
The Amazing Bat-Man
Bat Dynamite