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Since being cast as the villain Bane in director Christopher Nolan's upcoming sequel, The Dark Knight Rises, Inception actor Tom Hardy has remained relatively quiet about the situation, until he appeared on British talk show Alan Carr: Chatty Man (via Batman-News). Hardy won't be the first actor to portray the character of Bane in a Batman movie, a fact that Hardy himself mentioned.
"Have you seen Joel Schumacher's Batman & Robin?" asked Hardy, after which a photo of the character (played by the late Jeep Swenson) next to fellow villain Poison Ivy (Uma Thurman). "Doesn't look very menacing does he?"
Hardy maintains that his Bane will be very different from the 1997 version. "Christopher Nolan will revisit that territory entirely, so I wouldn't go by that at all."
Tom Hardy needs to get more stones? >> Posted 02.22.11 by Ryan -
Back in 2003, Warner Bros. was desperately trying to figure out how to bring two of their most iconic characters back to the big screen. The Batman franchise had crumbled beneath the neon campiness of Joel Schumacher's Batman & Robin five years earlier and there had not been a new Superman movie in theaters since the equally terrible The Quest for Peace in 1987.
The answer to Warners' dilemma seemed to be to combine both characters in one spectacular movie: Batman vs. Superman. The title alone is enough to make many comic book movie fans quiver in anticipation. And, with Andrew Kevin Walker (Se7en) working on the screenplay and Wolfgang Petersen (Troy) attached to direct, the movie seemed like a sure-fire blockbuster.
Fast-forward seven years and we now have director Christopher Nolan's brilliant Batman Begins and The Dark Knight, as well as the mediocre Superman Returns, Bryan Singer's homage to the original Superman, but no Batman vs. Superman. So, whatever happened to the team-up movie? In a recent interview with MTV, Petersen said that it came "pretty close" to being made.
And then the studio got a single Superman script I think from J.J. Abrams at that time, and [Warner Bros. chief] Alan Horn was so torn – because it’s such a fascinating concept to do a Batman versus Superman film. And I still think it would be to do that. But the studio decided to try separate versions of Superman and Batman, and then maybe think about down the road if you want to bring them together in one film.
It's long been known that Warners had been pursuing Josh Hartnett for the role of Superman. What was not known before now is that the only other actor in serious contention for the role was Christian Bale, who stars in Nolan's Batman movies as Bruce Wayne/Batman. Considered for Superman and now playing Batman? Obviously, Bale has "superhero" written all over him.
For his part, Petersen has no regrets about Batman vs. Superman falling by the wayside. Warners offered him the job directing Troy shortly thereafter, and he has nothing but praise for Nolan's take on Batman.
I loved Dark Knight! I was completely sucked into it, blown away by it. I thought right away it deserved an Academy Award for Best Picture, and I was really disappointed that it didn’t get it. I thought Heath Ledger was just phenomenal. I am a big fan of that movie.
Posted 03.16.10 by BrentJS -
Comic book fans can be some of the most relentless critics of movies that attempt to adapt the adventures of the heroes and villains that they have grown to love. A perfect example of this is Joel Schumacher's almost universally-maligned Batman & Robin. The demise of the original Batman franchise is often attributed to this feature and its screenwriter, Akiva Goldsman, is still answering for it even after penning movies as acclaimed as A Beautiful Mind.
With that in mind, it's no wonder that screenwriter Ashley Edward Miller has attempted to assure comic book fans during a recent interview with Alpha Waves Radio that the Thor they will see in director Kenneth Branagh's live-action Thor movie will be true to his comic origins.
It's about as close as you can reasonably expect it to be [to the comic version]. Obviously, you have to make some adjustments, and you have to compress some things simply for the sake of being able to get a lot of information out and being able to create a believable fantasy world that intersects with ours.
Look at Batman Begins for example. It does actually play fast and loose with the history of the character, but at the same time, it brings in real cool elements from different interpretations of the character and puts them all together in cool ways.
Thor went into production just last week, amidst a controversy over the loss of Stuart Townsend in a supporting role. The release date of the movie has been moved up two weeks to take advantage of the prime moviegoing slot left vacant by the demise of Spider-Man 4.
Posted 01.14.10 by BrentJS -
Award-winning screenwriter Akiva Goldsman (A Beautiful Mind) has thrown off the shackles of his comic book movie mistake, Batman & Robin, and is forging ahead with multiple comic adaptations. One he's especially excited about is a live-action version of DC Comics' Lobo, a nearly-immortal alien bounty hunter with a penchant for heavy metal, loose women, and extreme violence.
Guy Ritchie (RocknRolla) is attached to direct, and Goldsman told the LA Times that he is excited to see what Ritchie can do with the character.
There's something hyperbolic and authentic about a Guy Ritchie movie. His best movie are deeply, deeply stylized yet they are all grounded; there's a grit of stylization, which sounds like an oxymoron but it makes perfect sense when you've seen his films.
We've never seen Guy's sensibility married to a project with such a large special effects budget.
While no plot details have been released and no casting decisions have been made yet, Goldsman said that at least one phase of pre-production is nearly done.
We've got the character design pretty much done and the test will get us moving forward to the next step.
Next up for Ritchie is Sherlock Holmes starring Robert Downey Jr. as Holmes and Jude Law as Dr. Watson.
Posted 10.20.09 by BrentJS -
It may be unfair to place the blame for the demise of the original Batman franchise at the feet of Akiva Goldsman, but he did write the screenplay for the Joel Schumacher-directed disaster that was Batman & Robin, a fact that does not escape Goldsman.
What got lost in Batman & Robin is the emotions aren't real. The worst thing to do with a serious comic book is to make it a cartoon. I'm still answering for that movie with some people.
Following Batman & Robin, Goldsman's screenwriting career took a hit. However, writing the screenplay for the multiple Academy Award-winning film A Beautiful Mind helped put Goldsman back on the map and he followed it up with a string of high-profile scripts, including The Da Vinci Code, Angels & Demons, I Am Legend, and I, Robot. Despite Batman & Robin, Goldsman has not sworn off superheroes or comic book properties. Goldsman is currently producing four DC Comics properties: Jonah Hex, The Losers, Lobo, and Swamp Thing.
In a recent interview with the LA Times, Goldsman compared his Jonah Hex to a classic "Spaghetti Western."
[Hex is] a character that has been described as having one foot on Earth and one foot beyond the grave, that he speaks to the dead ... at the same time he is very much [like Italian director Sergio Leone's] The Man With No Name.
For Swamp Thing, Goldsman is hoping to avoid comparisons to the 1982 Wes Craven movie, instead aiming for a tone more closely in line with the classic Alan Moore comic book stories.
We want a film with real Southern, dark horror overtones, a little bit like a classic Universal horror film.
Posted 10.18.09 by BrentJS -
An interview io9 had with Marlon Wayans revealed that G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra wasn't the first comic book movie Wayans has been involved in, just the first one he was able to complete. Back in 1992, Wayans was cast as Robin for the sequel to Batman, only he was never used:
I was actually supposed to play Robin, in Batman Returns, about 15 years ago. But there was too many characters. I was cast, I was paid and everything. I still get residual checks. Tim Burton didn't wind up doing three, Joel Schumacher did it and he had a different vision for who Robin was. So he hired Chris O' Donnell.
Not that Wayans is at all bitter about it:
No, look — I get why they picked Chris O' Donnell, because it would be messed up to have Batman and you've got Robin, and his bulge is somewhat bigger than Batman's. Batman would have a serious problem with that.
Take that, O'Donnell! Little Man just owned you! In all seriousness, avoiding playing Robin, and eventually taking part in the embarrassing Batman And Robin, is a positive move, even for the guy from White Chicks.
Posted 08.06.09 by Ryan