The Dark Knight Rises If you were Christopher Nolan, how would you make the third film in this series?

[d-roc]

I'd call it Shadow of the Bat

It would be about facing your inner demons

Tahlia Al Ghul - Femme Fatale / Represents the League of Shadows, ready to avenge her father's death and finish what he started, which was to destroy Gotham.

Penguin - Mob boss who seizes the opportunity to take over Gotham's underbelly.

Two-Face - The reason the League of Shadows is back and on Batman's tale. Much like the Scarecrow was on the League's payroll, so is Two-Face as he discovers how to take Gotham down for good. He also plots to destroy Batman by making him fall in love with Tahlia only to find out she is going to kill him. Sweet revenge for a lover scorned as Two-Face makes Batman pay like he did when Rachel Dawes died.

Batman always has a balancing act to perform because at every choice lies an unexpected outcome. If he fixes something here, something else will rear it's ugly head over there. Can he continue to strike fear in the hearts of his foes and have them not react to it. I think that question was answered in TDK with the Joker. Can he continue to take on a persona that is deeper and darker and bigger than himself and still come out on the other side? That remains to be seen...

Are you truly redeemed if you don't forgive yourself?

 

[Victarion]

Batman/Bruce Wayne: Emotionally detached, motivated, self-sufficient. No love interest, but he hates himself for the events of not just TDK, but BB as well. He's angrier, stronger and smaret than seen before. He hates being Batman, but wouldn't think for an instance to stop.

Commisioner Gordon: Graceful, responsible. His friendship with Batman is strong, and they help each other in every which way. He feels guilt about what happened to Harvey, but tries his best to forget and stay at the task at hand, with new villians filling Gotham.

Riddler: Zodiac meets John Doe. Makes his victims solve his riddles to decide their fates. Accomplice of Oswald Cobblepott. Ruthless, uses his cane to beat and mangle people.

Penguin: Legitimate business man. Runs the Iceberg Lounge. Accomplice of Riddler. Bruce, unwittingly, helps open his Iceberg Lounge. Riddler and him put a bid on Batman's true identity with the criminal underworld.

Bane: South American hitman, works for Penguin. Thinks that beating Batman will give him pride. No super-strength, but uses steroids, and works out non-stop.

Carmine Falcone: Released from Arkham for good behavior, tries to take back his empire. Criminal rival of the Penguin.

Spoiler

Two-Face: Was put away in Arkham by Batman and Gordon, under the name Roman Sionis. Escapes Arkham, wears a black wooden mask, under the moniker "Black Mask" Put a price on Gordon and Batman's head. Black Mask's identity isn't revealed until the 3rd act. Pits all of Gotham's criminals against each other.

Those are my 2 cents.

I love the idea for Black Mask.

Tell me, wouldn't him giving orders ruin the 3rd act reveal? And how does Riddler work with Penguin? Does he hang out and take care of his business in some kind of private room at the Iceberg Lounge or elsewhere? Finally, how do all your threads tie in together? The thing about Gordon: He seemed to gracefully accept his duty at the end of The Dark Knight, but that was only talk. I think at first he should really be stressed, on edge, all in order to show how heavy his responsibility is.

 

[TheDarkKnight08]

I love the idea for Black Mask.

Tell me, wouldn't him giving orders ruin the 3rd act reveal? And how does Riddler work with Penguin? Does he hang out and take care of his business in some kind of private room at the Iceberg Lounge or elsewhere? Finally, how do all your threads tie in together?

Spoiler

Well, there are very subtle hints, like moving his coin on his fingers, ala Balthazar in Contantine. When he gives an order, he'll stop, and what ever side it's on, that's what he'll do. But you won't know that's what he does till the 3rd act. You think he just puts it away.

And yeah, that's how Riddler and Penguin would work. They're not friends, just accomplices. they don't muddle in each other business.

It'll tie up like so: Batman and Gordon are secretly working together, feeding each other info under the radar. Then comes wind of Riddler, this genius of a sadist, who leaves ciphers at everyone of his crime scene. In the ciphers are riddles. His game is to toy with the police, so in these riddles, he gives them clues on where to find him, but he know better.

Penguin is a businessman who wants to take part in Gotham growing underworld, after the whole Dent business went awry. He brings with him and up-and-coming hitman, Bane, who finds Batman as his only fair game. Riddler and Penguin come to a certain accord that to achive great success in the underworld they must unveil Batman's identity.

Meanwhile Falcone want out of Arkham to take back Gotham. Him wanting to leave causes the underworld to freak, thinking he'll just **** things up again... Then comes Black Mask. While he seems to want to unite them, he turns them against each other by offering them $10 mil for Batman and Gordon. Now, Riddler, Penguin, Bane, etc are at war. So starts this massive crime war on Gotham.

Batman won't have any of that. Even though he feels this extreme guilt over the past few events in his life, and hating the whole idea of Batman, Bruce Wayne tries to get past that, knowing that Gotham needs him now, more than ever. He fight corrput cops, the criminals, all with Gordon hidden help. I'd like a scene very similar to the one in Year One, where he, wounded and bleeding, realizes that he should become a bat, but here, he'll realize how much Gotham really needs him. He tries to solve Riddler's riddles, tries to track down Gotham's new weapons dealer (Penguin), and tries to figure out who Black Mask is, and how the hell he winded in Gotham in the first place.

That's just me, though. What I'm actually sending Nolan will be much longer and detailed then this, but here ya go.