Nolan: Marvel’s Crossover Agenda Won’t Work For Batman
While The Dark Knight dominated the summer movie market, Marvel pulled off something incredible as well: creating the foundations for a Marvel movieverse. From Nick Fury mentioning The Avengers to Tony Stark’s cameo in The Incredible Hulk, Marvel Studios began a new era of crossover events that will culminate in The Avengers in 2011. Most fans are elated by this method, but there’s one guy who isn’t totally down with the concept, at least on his own franchise: Chris Nolan.
In the final portion of a three-part interview, The Dark Knight director Nolan tells The L.A. Times that "cross-fertilization" isn’t something that bodes well for his vision of the Caped Crusader.
"I don’t think our Batman, our Gotham, lends itself to that kind of cross-fertilization," says the filmmaker. "It goes back to one of the first things we wrangled with when we first started putting the story together: Is this a world in which comic books already exist? Is this a world in which superheroes already exist? If you think of Batman Begins and you think of the philosophy of this character trying to reinvent himself as a symbol, we took the position — we didn’t address it directly in the film, but we did take the position philosophically — that superheroes simply don’t exist. If they did, if Bruce knew of Superman or even of comic books, then that’s a completely different decision that he’s making when he puts on a costume in an attempt to become a symbol."
Nolan regards other super-hero films such as Superman Returns as coming from "a different universe. It’s a different way of looking at it. Now, it’s been done successfully, very successfully, in the comics so I don’t dispute it as an approach. It just isn’t the approach we took. We had to make a decision for Batman Begins."
Warner Bros. unleashed the wrath of a million super-hero lovers when they unveiled their plans for Justice League: Mortal. The film would have been released prior to solo adventures for the majority of the team’s roster, including The Flash, Green Lantern and Wonder Woman. Another strike against the film was its alleged casting choices, pitting newcomers and undesired stars alike in the roles of fan favorite characters. Adam Brody (The O.C.) would’ve played Wally West, Common (Wanted) would’ve played John Stewart, and Megan Gale (Stealth) would’ve played Wonder Woman.
One of the biggest casting controversies came in the form of Armie Hammer. The 22-year-old actor, whose most high profile project to date is a guest stint on Desperate Housewives, was attached to the play Batman in Justice League. For fans of Nolan’s work, it was bad enough that Bale wouldn’t be involved in the team-up flick. Hammer’s involvement was the salt in the wound.
Some comfort can be taken in the fact that the WB announced a refocusing of their DC Comics properties, taking a cue from Marvel’s crossover agenda. To date, Green Lantern is moving forward with Hal Jordan as the hero and Green Arrow will headline the super-human prison escape flick Super Max. There’s already talk about a third Nolan-helmed Batman and active plans for a Superman relaunch, which Mark Millar is heavily lobbying for.
But despite all of this, the Justice League: Mortal actors are still attached to the project on IMDb, which is slated for a 2011 release date. Within the last few months, Armie Hammer has spoken about the film as if it’s still on the horizon. In the end, it might take a real life Justice League to ensure that Justice League the movie can match the inevitable success that The Avengers is poised to see.
I'm not sure I agree with Christopher Nolan. I think that more superheroes in his version of the DC universe are absolutely viable. How can you have a world where an international organization of supercriminal ninjas exists but supersamaritans do not? It is not a stretch that if Bruce mustered up the motivation to become something great that other people could come to the same conclusion. Or that the available science at the time couldnot create something 'super'.I do understand where is coming from on a strictly creative sense however. I think he personally doesn't want to get involved with the idea of people who can shoot heat out of their eyes and such because that would take his particular vision of the world in a different direction creatively. I akin his point of view to the decision to make the events from Frank Miller's Return of the Dark Knight take place in a universe parallel to the DC norm. A future where Superman becomes a governement agent and all of the world's heroes are forced to retire is not something that would sell many future comics. The idea reflects a grim sensibility that is far apart from the ideas that allow DC to continue to grow.As aside note, I am disappointed that DC is going to go with Hal Jordan as their first film version Green Lantern. Personally i feel that there are not enough "minority" superheroes. I was excited when the news broke that Common was cast as John Stewart for the Justice League movie. I thought 'finally we get an alternative to the norm'. Plus that would set an opportunity to tell the stories of Hal Jordan, Guy Gardner and Kyle Rayner at a later date. Maybe even set the stage for a GL Corps movie… Well nothing is set in stone, so we'll see what the future brings.
Chris Nolan wanted to make the character of Batman as realistic as possible. Those super-criminal ninjas you were talking about are just a terrorist organization, which can be seen anywhere in the real world, not only in movies, but instead of ninjas they are (usually) people who hate a country or religion and they start bombing it. So, I'm sorry, but you didn't make a very good comparison with those "supercriminal ninjas". Oh and one more thing. So, what you're saying is that if they've already put the "supercriminal ninjas" in the Batman movie, then it would be okay to put a Man Of Steel from another planet in the movie as well, right? I mean, it's VERY realistic, isn't it? I think I saw one of them at my window last night. Or maybe it was Green Lantern looking for his Green Flashlight. I hope I cleared that, at least for a few of you guys who were planning to leave comments like Duncan Kyle.
I never saw crossovers being viable at all in Christopher Nolan's Batman films and I'm perfectly fine with that. Not everything in comics or other mediums translates well to screen. I didn't go into Dark Knight hoping for a Superman or Green Lantern cameo.
Multiple continuities are perfectly acceptable. That fact that Nolan's batman isnt the same batman as the JL movie won't make me love it or hate it anymore than I already would. What is important is the quality of the film. Comics have had continuity glitches for years. Marvel still states that anything that happened in past issues happened in an alternate universe if it doesnt fit in with current storylines. Besides, how cool would it be if we could get films based off of some of those great elseworld tales DC spins out every so often
way to go, nolan ^^, keep batman raw as he is, and please do not add robin/batgirl either >_>