Check This Out: Awesome Fan Made Dark Knight Sequel Poster!

August 14, 2008
by Alex Billington

I just got an e-mail with an interesting attachment - a poster for the sequel to The Dark Knight called The Dark Knight Returns. I'm pretty damn sure its fake, but it looks impressive, so I thought I'd put it up anyway. Not only is the Riddler not the official villain for the third movie, but a third movie hasn't even been announced! If indeed Warner Brothers has put out a poster for a movie three years out that hasn't been officially announced - that might be groundbreaking in and of itself. However, I'm guessing this is just a brilliant fan creation that deserves to be mentioned simply for the aesthetic and design fundamentals. Bravo to whoever created this. And if I'm wrong and this is real, then even I'll be shocked!

No need for any further introduction, let's just get down to it. Thanks to reader "Hilander" for send this.

I think it's an interesting idea and I would be all for the appearance of the Riddler in a third movie, I just want to actually give the writers time to write the movie first. This might have all stemmed from our contest for the best story for a Dark Knight sequel. Most of the winners featured the Riddler in some fashion, which I quite enjoyed. The reason why I think the Riddler could be an amazing choice for a villain comes from Christopher Nolan's background. Imagine the intricate story full of twists and turns in The Prestige implemented into the dark and visceral world of The Dark Knight. The Riddler starts asking riddles throughout the movie and it takes the story to an even deeper level. Thoughts?

Source : www.firstshowing.net

Superman Reboot To Have Darker Tone, Thanks To Batman's Success

Aug 22 2008 6:21 PM EDT

Along with another caped crusader sequel, Warner Bros. readying flicks for at least two more DC Comics heroes.
By Shawn Adler

In over 70 years of shared comic history they've existed mostly as reluctant friends, memorably coming to blows on several occasions. The bottom line is that Superman doesn't really like Batman at all, so it's worth wondering how he'd feel now that he's been saved by him.

Flush with the success of "The Dark Knight," Warner Bros. has announced an ambitious slate of upcoming movies based on its DC Comics properties to be released within the next three years — notably a third Batman movie and a Superman reboot, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Announcement of the reboot — a complete reimagining along the lines of this year's "The Incredible Hulk" — comes two years after director Bryan Singer failed to capture public imagination with a conflicted take on the Big Blue Boy Scout, and nearly two months after the gritty, nihilistic "The Dark Knight" opened to record-breaking numbers.

So how will Warner Bros. turn Superman around? By making him even darker, Warner Bros. Pictures Group President Jeff Robinov told the newspaper.

" 'Superman' didn't quite work as a film in the way that we wanted it to," Robinov said of Singer's movie, which made just $215 million domestically. "It didn't position the character the way he needed to be positioned," he continued. "Had 'Superman' worked in 2006, we would have had a movie for Christmas of this year or 2009, but now the plan is just to reintroduce Superman. We're going to try to go dark to the extent that the character allows it."

In addition to a "Batman 3" and a new "Superman," Warner Bros. also plans to release two other comic book movies (not including "Watchmen") by 2012. Among the likely candidates for the big-screen treatment are the Flash, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern and, of course, the Green Arrow, whose film, "Super Max" takes place in a high-security prison for meta-humans.

Like rival Marvel Studios — who this year released the mega-successful "Iron Man" as well as "The Incredible Hulk" — Warner Bros. plans to release standalone films for all of its heroes with the ultimate goal of creating a super team-up, Robinov told the Journal. "The Avengers," a superhero consortium of Iron Man, Hulk, Captain America, Ant-Man and Thor, will get a release in 2011.

DC's analogue, "Justice League of America," which had been slated to open next year, will instead wait until after the next four films.

For breaking news and previews of the latest comic book movies — updated around the clock — visit SplashPage.MTV.com.

Source : http://www.mtv.com/movies/

The Villains of Batman 3

IGN wonders who might terrorize Gotham City in the next movie.
by Jim Vejvoda

July 22, 2008 -With The Dark Knight now in theaters, IGN Movies is already looking ahead to a third Christopher Nolan-directed Batman movie and pondering what it might be about. Just as the ending of Batman Begins introduced the theme of escalation that its sequel explored, The Dark Knight established that things were going to get much worse for Batman and for Gotham City before they will get better. (PLEASE BE ADVISED OF SPOILERS FROM HERE ON OUT.)

TDK ends with Batman a wanted man, falsely accused of murdering five people including police officers. Batman sacrificed his own reputation in order to protect the memory of fallen district attorney Harvey Dent, who had transformed into the vengeful Two-Face. Gotham needed a hero, a figure of hope to believe in so that it could remain inspired to save itself from crime and corruption. In the end, Batman finds himself alone, hunted by his former police allies, and mourning the loss of his beloved Rachel Dawes.

A third Batman film would likely focus on the redemption of the Caped Crusader in the eyes of the public. What better or more obvious way for that to happen than for Batman to save the city (once again) from a villain bent on its destruction. The trick is to select villains that can be adapted to a real world environment AND fit in thematically with the storyline and stakes established in the first two films. That's a rather tall order and would seem to narrow down the list of potential villains quite a bit.

Why not just recast the Joker and bring back Two-Face, you ask? With Heath Ledger dead and his portrayal of the Joker now indelibly etched into filmgoers' minds, we think it highly unlikely that the filmmakers would recast the role to bring the Clown Prince back. It would also be tough for that character to top what he did to Batman and Gotham in TDK so perhaps once is enough. Likewise, the ending of TDK seemed to suggest that Harvey Dent/Two-Face was dead, although producer Emma Thomas told IGN after an early press screening that Dent's last scene was ambiguous enough to suggest that perhaps he was still alive.

If Dent is still alive, did Gordon have him covertly locked away in Arkham? Given TDK's overt political overtones, the idea of a secret prisoner hidden from the world would be in line with the ethical questions raised in the second film. Having Dent escape and show the city what he'd really become would at least get Batman off the hook for the murders that he didn't commit, but we don't see the filmmakers bringing Dent back either. Story-wise, what more could be done with Joker or Two-Face that TDK didn't accomplish? We suggest the filmmakers bring in new villains for the third movie, but that doesn't mean they can't be tied to the events of the first two films.

Source : http://movies.ign.com/articles

The Dark Knight Kicks The Mummy'Ass - Headed for $480 Million

August 3, 2008
Source: Box Office Mojo
by Alex Billington

As most readers know, we normally never cover box office stats, but considering history is being made this year with The Dark Knight, I can't help but mention the latest news. This past weekend resulted in an interesting turn of events, as Universal's The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor ended up performing well below early estimates, only taking in $42.5 million. In comparison, The Dark Knight kicked Brendan Fraser's ass and earned another $43.8 million, beating The Mummy for the #1 spot this weekend for the third weekend in a row. However, the big news is that this puts the cumulative domestic total for Nolan's sequel up to $395 million. In just over two weeks, The Dark Knight has already pushed its way up to the #8 spot on the all-time box office totals list, right below Spider-Man - and this is just the beginning!

What the heck was Entertainment Weekly thinking when they only predicted $255 million?! The best part is that most of the movies that are up at the top of the all-time box office totals list only reach that point after months of showing in the theater. Steve Mason of Fantasy Moguls is already predicting that The Dark Knight is going to make enough on Monday to beat out Spider-Man for the highest grossing comic book movie of all-time. Mason's prediction is that The Dark Knight will end up with a domestic total of $480 million by the end of its run (which could be through to November). That would it put in the #2 spot directly below Titanic, which holds the record with an unbeatable $600 million domestically. That would also put it directly above Star Wars, which has earned $461 million since 1977.

The other great part about this news is that The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor got its ass kicked. On Friday, I was reading news saying that The Mummy might finally give Batman a run for his money and just barely nudge it out for the #1 spot. But anyone who was seen both of those movies knows that The Mummy doesn't even deserve one cent of the $42.5 million that it made. Thankfully The Dark Knight prevailed and is on its way to going down in history. It's truly gratifying to see The Dark Knight doing as well as I originally predicted and proving all of the nay-sayers wrong. However, I'm not going to start any fights about who was right or wrong. Instead, let's just focus on the incredible success of one of the best movies of the decade. And I leave you all with one last question… Will it beat Titanic?

Source : www.firstshowing.net