New Batman reboot coming...

[Grissom]

http://filmonic.com/batman-reboot-already-planned-at-warner-bros

To be honest I have a problem with this, I like Nolan and enjoy what he has done with the franchise but my personal feeling ist that after TDKR, let Batman lie for a while, concentrate on some of the other DC characters and then get at it again in a few years time. I was thinking of The Dark KNight Returns movie or a Batman Beyond movie or even an Elseworlds type film. To reboot it again, especially if it's from the start, doesn't make much sense to me.

What do you guys think?

[Paul (ral)]

I'm not sure if a reboot is required. I'm all for a re-imagining though!

But, take the approach Batman89 and Forever did...reference his origins. All the best comics do it, IMO. It gives the character motive and reminds the audience of his overall mission.

That's all a new approach needs.

Batman should already exist, his villians should already exist. We should be visiting Gotham and all it's woes...we don't need to see them introduced again.

[Gotham Knight]

Saw this coming. Reboots happen at the drop of a dime. Is it a terrible idea. Yes. It's even worse news for Nolan's work, because whether they are connected or not it will cause a cheapening of the entire franchise in one stroke because honestly, 8 movies? Look I know everybody likes to wave James Bond as prove positive that it can work. But, lets stop lying to ourselves, that string of movies is so stale I'm surprised that James doesn't walk around with patches of green and blue mold on him. James Bond is cheap entertainment. Do we really want the same for Batman. Even worse, Nolan's films have a rabid fan-base that will A) divide between TDK and TDKR, turn its poison on itself, and start slitting their own throats this time, and B) feverishly deny that, by all accounts, this THIRD feature will, like all other comic book attempts at 3, will be disastrous, and by no small fault of The Dark Knight's psychotic over hype.

The reboot will in fact accelerate Nolan's movies move into relative obscurity, when it's revealed that a large portion of TDK's fan base is in fact band wagon hoppers taken in by TDK's over exposure, who will immediately jump to the next fad, leaving TDK fanboys to moan and shout at the wind, like a homeless street preacher waving his bible, forecasting the apocalypse, as the maelstrom passes him by and shakes it's head.

Yes its true, since 2008 TDK's fanboys were and are the equivalent of a powerful political party, able to force its views on the public by simply having enough of a fringe base that could pass misinformation off as truth to support it's elected leader. And they have already organized and flooded the airwaves with their counter offensive against the upcoming candidate, which will ultimately fail because they have forgotten that the people really don't dictate what's produced, Warner Brothers does, and they see money, money, money. CHEAP money. Money makes the world go around..that clinking clanking sound.

It's the Malcolm effect.

[The Dark Knight]

*Fist pump*

I hoped this would happen. I'm all for scrapping realism. Get rid of it. Bring back Burton-esque expressionism and fantasy. I will not relent with that stance. That is my preferred take on the character. When you're at war, you kick the enemy when they're down.

Nolan lovers will have more than just Burton to compare to. Everything that is new is always the 'best'. Let them go crazy with TDKR. Because after that, the years will pass and everyone will be on board with the new direction.  Nolan is not above Batman. The Nolan nuts will soon realize they are not the be-all and end-all. They are just another cog in the wheel. A drop in the ocean. Just as BTAS had it's time in the sun. And now it's all about The Brave and the Bold. Etc, etc.

But, take the approach Batman89 and Forever did...reference his origins. All the best comics do it, IMO. It gives the character motive and reminds the audience of his overall mission.

That's all a new approach needs.

Batman should already exist, his villians should already exist. We should be visiting Gotham and all it's woes...we don't need to see them introduced again.

Agree 100%

[Seantastic]

Read this earlier in the week, and I couldn't be happier, seriously, to me Nolan's films are nothing more than 'meh'.  I'd like it to be like 89 and like someone else said, reference his origins, and start out the film with Batman as Batman.  Plus with CGI at its peak, I'd love to see the more supernatural villians (ClayFace, Croc, Freeze, ect.).

[The Dark Knight]

I'd like it to be like 89 and like someone else said, reference his origins, and start out the film with Batman as Batman.  Plus with CGI at its peak, I'd love to see the more supernatural villians (ClayFace, Croc, Freeze, ect.).

Absolutely. We've reached a point where origin stories are not needed IMO. Especially with Batman. Batman Begins serves all of the films, even if it's in a different universe. It's the same overall result. And we've had Batman and Joker meeting for the first time twice. That is not needed for a third time. Throw us right into the world of an established Batman. With all of the rogues gallery already established, and have been for quite some time. Case in point, how BF dealt with their Two-Face. At most, a brief snippet of his past in some fashion, ala the news reel. Just give us straight up adventures in a place where time does not exist.

[Seantastic]

I'd like it to be like 89 and like someone else said, reference his origins, and start out the film with Batman as Batman.  Plus with CGI at its peak, I'd love to see the more supernatural villians (ClayFace, Croc, Freeze, ect.).

Absolutely. We've reached a point where origin stories are not needed IMO. Especially with Batman. Batman Begins serves all of the films, even if it's in a different universe. It's the same overall result. And we've had Batman and Joker meeting for the first time twice. That is not needed for a third time. Throw us right into the world of an established Batman. With all of the rogues gallery already established, and have been for quite some time. Case in point, how BF dealt with their Two-Face. At most, a brief snippet of his past in some fashion, ala the news reel. Just give us straight up adventures in a place where time does not exist.

I don't know about them all, but I would like some to be created, kinda like how they did Clayface in The Batman Season 1, I want to see a villian be set up for the next film.

[johnnygobbs]

*Fist pump*

I hoped this would happen. I'm all for scrapping realism. Get rid of it. Bring back Burton-esque expressionism and fantasy. I will not relent with that stance. That is my preferred take on the character. When you're at war, you kick the enemy when they're down.

Nolan lovers will have more than just Burton to compare to. Everything that is new is always the 'best'. Let them go crazy with TDKR. Because after that, the years will pass and everyone will be on board with the new direction.  Nolan is not above Batman. The Nolan nuts will soon realize they are not the be-all and end-all. They are just another cog in the wheel. A drop in the ocean. Just as BTAS had it's time in the sun. And now it's all about The Brave and the Bold. Etc, etc.

I'm with you on this one Dark Knight.  As long as Warners hires a decent A-list director for a future 'reboot' who takes the requisite time to develop the best possible movie, rather than just simply rushing a new franchise into release simply to fill the studio's annual summer tentpole slot, I'm all for it.

I love Nolan's Batman movies, I really love Burton's Batman movies (that's why I'm here of course), I like bits of the 60s tv series and although I'm not a massive fan, I even have some respect for Schumacher's vision, if not the execution of his respective Batman-films, but there's plenty of scope for another version of the character.  I would preferably like to see a live-action Batman series that pays some homage to B:TAS, with a heightened art-deco-style Gotham, a larger-than-life, distinctively stylised but non-campy 'rogue gallery', and a willingness to embrace some of the more fantastical, supernatural/science-fiction-type characters like Poison Ivy, Mr Freeze, and even Man-Bat and Clayface.

I agree with Ral that there is no real need to re-explore Batman's origins again, at least not for a long while.  Instead, I would like to see stand-alone movies that deal with the grand scheme of one, or two villains who easily compliment one-another (i.e. The Joker and Harley Quinn), with a precise plot that has a beginning, middle and end.  Ideally, I'd like to see Harley Quinn as the lead villain in a new movie, with an incarcerated Joker pulling the strings from Arkham Asylum.  By limiting The Joker's screen-time in favour of his 'puppet' in the outside-world, Harley Quinn, the filmmakers can avoid any the inevitable attempts by certain fans to compare the new Joker unfavourably to Heath Ledger's performance.

[Azrael]

I'd like it to be like 89 and like someone else said, reference his origins, and start out the film with Batman as Batman.  Plus with CGI at its peak, I'd love to see the more supernatural villians (ClayFace, Croc, Freeze, ect.).

Absolutely. We've reached a point where origin stories are not needed IMO. Especially with Batman. Batman Begins serves all of the films, even if it's in a different universe. It's the same overall result. And we've had Batman and Joker meeting for the first time twice. That is not needed for a third time. Throw us right into the world of an established Batman. With all of the rogues gallery already established, and have been for quite some time. Case in point, how BF dealt with their Two-Face. At most, a brief snippet of his past in some fashion, ala the news reel. Just give us straight up adventures in a place where time does not exist.

I agree with almost everything, but maybe some villains might work best if they have a complete arc with an origin story. But I agree 100% that they shouldn't retell the origin. Present an already established Batman in his mid-to-late 30s, and that's all.

[The Dark Knight]

What really annoys me is the arrogance that everyone must follow Nolan's way. As if it's the definitive blueprint for everything. To have everything "real" from now on. Batman is all about change and variety. Showing the character in different lights. How insulting would it be to demand a director to direct like somebody else.

Everybody has their own style, and that should be embraced. Because that's why they would be hired in the first place. I am not interested in somebody doing a Nolan impersonation. If they want to do that, hire Nolan again. Burton did it his way. Schumacher did it his. The sheer one eyed delusion that Batman cannot be handled any other way gets to me. Even if it's a reboot where the impossible is possible, it's shouted down because it's "goofy". Yet they read the comics and accept it there.

Regarding the villains, I think it's time for something different. Of course only certain characters will appear in the story you want to tell. And when the others do, they have little background to them. I mean, if it's a flashforward in time, the characters have already been through that discovery phase. They know. And we all know as well. I'm not asking for *every* villain to appear in each film.