The Dark Knight Rises Ideas For Incorporating Characters Into the Nolanverse

[InfamousLegato]

Should they use the Riddler in the next movie I cast my vote for Hugh Laurie as the actor to play him.

As for how Nolan would potray the Riddler, I'd like to see a Zodiac Killer-esque thing going on. The Riddler is an arrogant character who wants recognition for the things he does. I figure elaborate murders combined with cryptic clues and messages leading Batman into a game of cat and mouse would make for an interesting story.

Another possible route would be to have the Riddler frame Batman for his murders as he's already taken the heat for Dent's killings in TDK. So Batman would have to stop this guy while at the same time clear his name and protect Harvey's name.

I think they should do a little mix and match on the costume. I would love to see the classy Riddler suit from Batman : The Animated Series but a little more subtle.

 

[Lando Dent]

i second that dr.house would be a great casting choose...

 

[Wedge A.]

Not only that, but each villain fits some archetype. You have:

The Mafioso (Falcone, Maroni)
The Psychopath (Crane, Joker)
The Vigilante (Ra's, Dent)

Therfore, the third film should also have one of each.

Roman Sionis, the Mafioso
The Riddler, the Psychopath
Bane, The Vigilante

Great thinking, but I think Catwoman would be better fit for the role of the Vigilante in the third film.

 

[TimidationGame]

i second that dr.house would be a great casting choose...

I third that, Hugh can most certainly hold his own against the great cast however Nolan wants to portray the part. He has such a great presence on House I can totally see him in the part.

 

[Melkay]

^ I agree, Catwoman instead of Bane.

And I prefer the Penguin to Black Mask.

Remember Phillip Seymour Hoffman's character in MI3? THAT was the Penguin.

 

[sabetoonth]

house is a simiolarly arraogant characterso it would be ocd house md

with riddles

 

[Artistsean]

There are lesser known Batman villains that have been in the comics.
These are characters who probably wouldn't get into a film or maybe only get a small cameo
Who are some lesser known Batman villains?
There is Anarchy, Maxi Zeus, who else?

 

[TheTrickster]

Done right, Maxie Zeus would be great. Remember the Batman TAS episode?

There was a Thor comic I think, or maybe a Silver Surfer I don't know, where the citizens of this world were worshiping a false god (who was actually a super powered being).

So I could really see Maxie Zeus claiming to be a god, and building a fallowing like a cult. Maybe even reaching high status as a really influential person in Gothem.
Thats just my idea though. Whats yours?


Tahts true, don't want to jump the gun and use a character in the comic, limiti8ng what they could do with him or her in the movie.
But some characters wouldn't fit or would be too expensive. Thats why Killer Croc and Deadshot (thats his name right?) were put in the Anime Batman movie.
You also wouldn't want to try and guess what they would do and then be wrong or just not as good.

But it would be great, yuou could bring Ras back, Joker back as many times as you want, and Dent back

Spoiler

And add in the multiple personality stuff that I loved about the character.

It'd come across no doubt as an attack on scientology. Warners would be too scared to put it out.

 

[sabetoonth]

then they should get guys in their who balls didnt fall off

 

[Hulkfan2008!]

nightwing.

i thing its possible for him to be adapted in to the nolanverse as gothams new 'savior' now that batman is an outlaw. have night wing be a person who thinks gotham needs a new hero whos not a vigilante, as someone who is working with gotham police. kind of like batmans 'competition' but they both want the same thing for gotham, change.

 

[ScarecrowMan666]

No because in order to have Nightwing you'd have to have Robin...Nolan doesn't want Robin. So no.

 

[Hulkfan2008!]

not really, let him keep his name but give him a new identity. make him as if he never was robin.

 

[Artistsean]

The problem with that would be that he is changed too much.
That is the problem with some of these characters.
To make them fit into Nolan's Batman world there has to be too much changing, and then the character is too different from his comic persona.

Nightwing might not be too much of a change though, I mean Wizard had an idea about making Robin/Nightwing not connected to Batman for their Ultimate DC article. So maybe it wouldn't be too bad. But in my own opinion he needs to be connected to Batman. But thats just me.

 

[Victarion]

Killer Croc:

Killer Croc—Waylon Jones is a malformed veteran who lives in the tunnels below the Narrows. With Batman’s advent, members of small time gangs in the Narrows began using the closed spaces of the tunnels in their dealings so that if Batman tracked them, they would face him in closed quarters. The gangs using the tunnels either chased the homeless from their shelters there or killed them outright. Jones is a leader in the Narrows underground homeless “tribes.” In a rare venture, Jones went above ground and sought out help from the GPD.


Unfortunately, the police in the area were cutting deals with the small time hoods and turned a deaf ear to Jones’s request. They assaulted him and left him for dead. Jones recovered and returned to his “tribe” in the tunnels under the Narrows. He rallied the homeless communities into a frenzy and led them against one of the hood gangs using the tunnels. In a flash of mad genius, Jones decided to kill the gang leader in a way that would catch the attention of Gotham: he partially at him. Surprisingly, Jones found that the taste of human flesh wasn’t all that bad. Other hoods began referring to him as the Killer Croc, and Jones decided to adopt the name as his own.
He could have a roughly textured skin condition similar to that tree man that made headlines a while back.

 

[sabetoonth]

i like it though i would give him the disease he actually has

 

[TNC9852002]

The issue here was always about the feasibility and plausibility about a character like Mr. Freeze and/or The Penguin in the real world.

I wouldn't necessarily want to see Mr. Freeze in a direct sequel to TDK, or anything (his wife's condition and retribution is too similar to TDK's Harvey Dent), but that's just my first thought on it. He'd make a nice side villain along with The Penguin in a 4th film.

Ok, here's my first shot (I didn't add any filler material, just barebones story):

Quick Plot Synopsis: Batman and Commissioner Gordon are forced to make peace between Gotham's largest criminal societies led by The Penguin and Black Mask while keeping tabs on the vengeful scientist Mr. Freeze, who shares a secret past with both men.

Barebones (highlighting on Mr. Freeze):
Suppose a Wayne-owned government cryogenics lab was broken into where Victor and his wife worked and she was attacked and assaulted. The night previous, Norma Fries turned down an offer from the notorious nightclub owner and former bounty hunter, "Oz" Cobblepot. On this night, Victor, in attempting to apprehend Oz and the criminals, there was an accident in the lab. He got exposed to chemicals for fire-******ant military prototypes and also as a result, his wife was partially frozen and either died of hypothermia from it or is freed from the ice, but stays in a seemingly irreversible coma under cryo-stasis (depends on the story). In the struggle with Victor, Oz would lose one of his legs from liquid-nitrogen frostbite numbness and would have a limp for the rest of his life. Sargent Gordon and co. were there to make the arrest on Cobblepot. Oz goes in for 9 months.

Three years later and Victor has been in a coma. He awakens to find that he's dying of a rare cancer and disease where his internal body temperature must be constantly cooled down to 86 degrees (any lower would be too ridiculous) to keep the inflammation to spreading and seizing his heart. In this rare case, his entire body successfully survives under the colder temperatures in keeping him alive. His wife is still in a cryo-stasis.

Norma Fries is the only person in the world that could reverse her condition, so Victor believes he's the only one that has a chance to save his wife, so he escapes his deathbed, but his health starts deteriorating rapidly as his body temperature rises. He borrows a gun and breaks back into his old lab in order to find a treatment to keep his body temperature low while mobile. I'd say, he doesn't necessarily need a bowl-helmet, but he should require some kind of modified high-tech military warm suit and cowl originally designed for desert warfare to keep his temperature down. At first, he's just a harmless thief who uses a special gauntlet of liquid nitrogen mixtures and compounds in order to steal from and disarm those in his way. Perhaps, he could turn to common thief in order to finance experiments to cure his wife, or he could fight or capture criminals for his own experiments. He recruits and persuades a few of his older co-workers as assistants and through this, he allies himself with Black Mask and he learns of the powerful mafia money launderer and mastermind called The Penguin (Lao's replacement from TDK).

He discovers and remembers him for being responsible for his and his wife's condition. Eventually, Batman publically captures the Penguin as bait to catch Victor as well (he knows to keep watch over him after Victor gets out of the coma). Batman of course, confronts Victor and gets the upper hand, as he usually does; he disarms Fries, but in return, Victor successfully kills Penguin (who was set up by Black Mask). When the cops arrive, Victor slips through them and escapes. Victor exposes Black Mask as the one that choreographed the lab break-in 3 years ago for his own gain in a failed assassination attempt on The Penguin. The final showdown comes to Victor attempting to kill himself in his failure to find a cure, but ironically, Batman thwarts him, only to have Victor to live the rest of his life along with his wife in a cryo-stasis coma.

My casting choices for Freeze:

-David Strathairn
-Ed Harris
-Jason Isaacs
-Miguel Ferrer
-Elias Koteas
-Viggo Mortensen
-William H Macy

-TNC

 

[Melkay]

I wouldn't necessarily want to see Mr. Freeze in a direct sequel to TDK, or anything (his wife's condition and retribution is too similar to TDK's Harvey Dent), but that's just my first thought on it.

Dent's and Freeze's plots may look similar, but they have a big difference between them. Freeze's story arc is even bigger than Dent’s. Why? Because (in his best stories) he is NOT about Retribution, but about Saving A Loved One...

Dent lost a love one and he couldn't handle the new world vision his traumatic experience gave him, so he went to take revenge on those that were responsible for Rachel's death.

The re-imagined Freeze by Paul Dini is different: he goes through good and vulnerable guy - desperate good guy who tries to save a life - tragic event - desperate guy who starts doing horrible things to save a loved one - he gets more and more focused on doing that and starts losing his humanity - at some point circumstances make him detest what he has done and helps Batman in some way - he gets redemption, in jail... or in exile... but he's happy because either his wife is now cured or she has a legitimate chance of getting a cure.

Freeze needs Nora alive to justify his crimes and to commit them in the first place. He needs to steal and kill his way to save her. That's a powerful idea... he's committing crimes... even killing people... to save the life of the one he loves... instead of learning how to let her go.
That's the most powerful and sad statement Freeze can make to the audience. And no matter how difficult it is to present him in a plausible way, that statement is worthy of the Nolan films. Nolan is very comfortable with the “dead wife” motivations. From Memento to The Prestige, from his Ra’s al Ghul to Two-Face, he keeps returning to the dead loved one motivation. And he has excelled himself in it. Nolan is the best in that theme. And he must explore redemption with that character…

And this is the real deal-breaker for me.
Can Freeze get Redemption after killing people? Can he be pardoned of his crimes?

That's exactly the point. Taunting with moral relativity. How do you deal with a guy that kills innocent people but later has a change of heart, helps an entire city (we're talking about millions of people) and then willingly goes to prison for his crimes? How do you deal with the idea of someone who takes lives... not because he's seeking revenge, but to save a good soul's life? To save a loved one's life?

Those who have seen Lost and it’s entire Second Season will remember Michael. How do you deal with Michael... a guy who killed two women (one not so innocent, intentionally, and one very innocent, unintentionally) to save the life of his son?

How do you deal with those things?



p.s. BTW, "Oz" Cobblepot? Good lord...

 

[Crook]

I don't think the "how" is really important nor difficult to handle. As long as the "why" can be justifiably expressed to the audience, then you've done an ample effort in translating Freeze.

It's integral that the audience understands his actions and motivations, but not necessarily feel sorry for him. He may stand for the most selfless act one can convey, but the means he goes about it is absolutely deplorable. I don't think anyone would really sympathize with him, given they know all the details into his crimes.

To comment on your Lost example....EVERYONE hated Michael. Granted he was written as a whiney little girl, but you would find it difficult to really forgive someone that has betrayed everyone's trust and lives.

 

[sabetoonth]

well my bro thinkds freeze is the best candidate for redemption, i think have bane beat bats ass half way or so into the film and have him secced a little and let bane do his job when bane starts attracting attention from th ordinary folk bats comes back to whoop his ass in mortal kombat but sparesz his muslced life, cuz he aint about killin gotham sees this and kaboom, hes redeemed

 

[CaptainClown]

to do Bane justice you would have to have him in like two movies.

 

[BatmanReborn]

Madd Hatter-
John Wayne Gacy meets Jim Jones with an obsession with Alice in Wonderland. Jervis Tech would abduct little girls that look like Alice from the childrens story by dressing up as The lovable Madd Hatter. He would hold tea parties and spike the Tea to drug the girls and keep them under his control.
This would be a completely differnt threat to Gotham City than anything done on film thus far, and could definately set the stage for an extremely dramatic film. Would it happen, probably not, why, difficult to avoid the R rating which wb will never allow.
but if....
cast Robin Williams as The Madd Hatter, he has already worked with Nolan on Insomnia, and I think he could portray the character brilliantly.

The Riddler
The Zodiak Killer meets Ted Bundy
self absorbed ego-maniac leaves clues to his next murder.

 

[ThePoisonPuppet]

I honestly can't stand the ideas of the Riddler as a super villain version of Zodiac or Jigsaw. The Riddler is just not a serial killer...Making him one is one of the most uncreative and deplorable things you could do. It simplifies him so much and makes him into something he is nothing about. The Riddler CAN kill, but he usually does not WANT to kill. The couple of times when I remember the Riddler killing or beating someone in the comics he seemed to get no pleasure out of it. In fact it stressed him out. The Riddler is about proving he is smarter then people, but there are tons of ways (which can be potentially dangerous to lots of people) where he does not have to be a serial killer.

The ideas to make every villain either a serial killer or a hit man is starting to get to me for some reason...I understand they are "realistic" ways to interpret characters, but they are not creative at all and tend to strip away some very fundamental elements.

 

[kid dropper]

^^^^
thank you. people just want to "badass" everything to death.

 

[CaptainClown]

i agree, I remember saying that Riddler should be like Zodiac in the sense he sends puzzles to the media to have it become cracked. His crimes wouldn't be these jigsaw killer games which I think are just ridiculous and straight overkill.

 

[Ace of Knaves]

I was thinking about how Nightwing could be used in the Nolan Bat-verse. I think he could just be a vigilante in Gotham who is more brutal than Batman. Batman could be about to break up a drug deal one night or something then this mysterious vigilante shows up and completely obliterates the crims, is about to actually kill one of them then Batman swoops down and stops him. He sees the potential in this youngster and tries to pursuade him to let Batman train and channel his anger for good. Something like that could be plausible and it would do away with the Robin idea that Nolan has stated he hates.