Chris Nolan writes “GROWLY VOICE” and underlines it three times

The Justice League rumor mill has been working overtime for months now – for years, if you count George Miller’s thankfully-scrapped attempt to bring it to theaters – and with all the problems facing our country and planet, I can think of few things more important than the whens, hows, and whys of Superman broing down with Batman and Mighty Mouse. Last we heard, WB had sh*tcanned Will Beall’s script, which is probably a good thing. A. because it proves that someone actually read it (remember: no one ever reads anything in Hollywood), and B. because Will Beall last wrote Gangster Squad, a film which included the line “I miss that red snatch.”

Which brings us to today. LatinoReview, who have a pretty decent track record breaking comic book scoops, claim that Christopher Nolan, despite saying over and over and over again that producing Man of Steel would be his last involvement in superhero movies, has “taken over the DC Universe at Warner Bros.”

“Chris Nolan has completely taken over the DC Universe at Warner Bros. So anything having to do with these superheroes goes through him now. [...] He’s going to be involved in Godfathering/producing the movie. While Zack Snyder is also going to be producing, and also, possibly, the director.”

And, according to their story, having Nolan involved, with Justice League happening before a Batman reboot, would mean in turn that Christian Bale would be back as Batman.

Latino Review’s sources tell them that Nolan is shaping Justice League as a team-up between Man of Steel star Henry Cavill and Christian Bale, reprising his role as Batman. As Latino Review’s El Mayimbe puts it, Superman will arrive and find Bruce Wayne somewhere in his peaceful retirement, tell him he’s putting a team together, and get all the new action started. [CinemaBlend]

Ooh, the old “I’m puttin’ a team together!” I hope it includes a “gettin’ dressed” montage a la Gordy Gekko in Wall Street 2, where Superman pulls on his big red boots and straightens his codpiece. Anyway, I don’t doubt LatinoReview’s scoop insomuch that I’m sure Warner wants all this to happen, it just seems like there are a lot of ifs and scheduling issues to work out. For one thing, this plan assumes that Man of Steel will be a billion-dollar franchise, which is certainly possible. But it didn’t quite work out that way with Superman Returns, and that came out when Bryan Singer was arguably a lot hotter than Zack Snyder is now. And Chris Nolan just seems too… British… to want to do another comic book movie. But hey, if JJ Abrams can direct both Star Trek and Star Wars, why can’t Chris Nolan handle every non-Marvel superhero movie? Eventually we’re just going to have six directors doing all the blockbusters.

Chris Nolan is certainly talented, and better than 95 percent of the alternatives. but his “gritty” approach to Batman started to annoy me about halfway through TDKR. His style seemed to get grittier even as the story stayed just as silly as any non-Nolan comic book movie. Maybe that effect won’t be as pronounced with him just producing? I don’t know. Look, I’m just excited to see Superman and Batman party down with Antman and Mothra and Silent Bob and the whole Justice League gang down at the Peach Pit. That Skeletor doesn’t stand a chance. Read the rest of this entry »

Here’s a video of Christian Bale talking about Batman with an 8-year-old leukemia patient named Zach. They chat for almost ten minutes, which is incredible. I can’t even make small talk with family members for that long.

“I don’t know if you can hear it in my voice, but I wasn’t born in America,” Bale said. “I was actually born in a country called England. A lot of people tell me that Seattle is a lot like England, because it’s kind of rainy.”
Bale thanked Zach for watching his films and said the boy embodied the film’s message. “The whole point of the movie is anybody can be Batman. Anybody can be as strong as that and help people and put good out into the world,” Bale said.
As Bale wrapped up the chat, he said he’d tell “the lady who plays Catwoman” (Anne Hathaway) — and, yes, even the man who played the evil Bane (Tom Hardy) — about their conversation.
“Even though he was not a good guy in the film, the man who played him is a very good guy. I’ll tell him…and the director as well,” Bale said. “He loves to hear when I speak to someone who is a big fan of the movies. It makes us all so happy.”
Bale ended the conversation by saying speaking with Zach had made his day. [THR]

Bale also tells Zach about his wife surprising him at the set dressed as Catwoman, and their cosplay sex life seems a little risque for a talk with an 8-year-old. But yes, Christian Bale is a good dude, and if you can make it through this whole video without tearing up a little I think you get a prize. What I want is to meet the five YouTube users who gave this a thumbs down on YouTube. Really, guy? You felt compelled to express your dislike of Christian Bale trying to cheer up an 8-year-old with leukemia? “Poor quality, shaky camera (why she doesn’t own tripod?). 2/10, would not watch again.”

Is it just me, or does Zach kind of look like the lead singer of Midnight Oil?

[ZachAttacksLeukemia, THR]

People like to say our society loves tearing apart celebrities and standing by while they self destruct, but it’s just as true that we like watching them do nice things and grant wishes to sick kids (this goes triple if the celebrity in question is Ryan Gosling or Bill Murray). The mother of a 4-year-old with bone cancer recently took to Facebook to describe how Christian Bale flew her whole family to Disneyland and hung out with them over lunch.

The Dark Knight Rises star flew 4-year-old leukemia patient Jayden Barber and his family out to California for lunch date at Disneyland’s Club 33 earlier this week.
“Finally can share!!! Christian sent us to LA and we had lunch at Disney club 33 on wed,” Barber’s mother wrote with a picture of the two on her Lighting the Batsignal for Jayden Facebook page. “He and his family were so awesome and down to earth!!!”
Charlene Barber continued by sharing her family’s experience with Bale at the Anaheim theme park, “The entire interaction was like old friends having lunch. Jayden did not get star struck but was well aware of who we were with!”
“They talked movies and super Heros an he was genuinely happy to hear about everything Jayden wanted to tell him. Christian, his wife and daughter are three of the most beautiful people we have ever met!
According to WYTV in Ohio, Barber was undergoing chemotherapy for bone cancer for two years before it turned into MDS leukemia last year. Jayden is now in remission. [E!]

Some people might say that hanging out with a sick kid for a meal requires very little of a rich and famous actor, but I give Christian Bale all the credit in the world, because sick kids creep me the hell out. If that kid even had a lisp I would’ve demanded a hazmat suit, I’m not taking any chances.

My sources also tell me that when they were talking movies, non-starstruck Jayden asked Bale, “Okay, so you were fighting Bane and he beat you up and broke your back, because you were too slow and old. So then you lived in some Tibetan prison with ropes for a bed for a few months, and when you came back you beat him up? What the hell kind of sense does that make? No offense, bro, but for a minute there I felt like the cancer had spread to my brain.”

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There’s really no way to explain this, except to say that it’s the best thing I’ve seen since Parkour Dog this morning, and the longer I watch it, the funnier it gets. This has enriched my life. I hope it enriches yours. Says YouTuber JensScholz:

Just 5 minutes of Bale nodding to a DJ Champion sample.

Yep. I have nothing to add except bra-vo, internet. You’ve done it again. How do you rate this against Luke We’re Gonna Have Company and Jurassic Park on a melodica in the annals of inexplicable internet whats-its? Discuss.

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Christian Bale did the right thing and stopped by Aurora Medical Center in Colorado yesterday to meet with seven people being treated for their injuries from the shooting last Friday, even stopping to take a picture with Carey Rottman here, who’s apparently some kind of Sox fan. “Hey, Tawmmy, go git Squeezebawx and Dago Steve an tell em ta come to the hawspital, the fackin dahk knight just signed my Sawx hat.”

Bill Voloch, interim president of Medical Center of Aurora, said Bale spent about 2½ hours at the hospital, where he met with five people still being treated for their injuries. Two others came from Swedish Medical Center to meet Bale.
Bale and his wife, Sibi Blazic, also met with a number of doctors, Aurora police officers and emergency medicial technicians who were first reponders when James Eagan Holmes allegedly killed 12 people and injured 58 others at Century Aurora 16 theater early Friday morning. Bale spent about 10 minutes with each person.
Voloch said Bale notified that he wanted to visit the injured, but asked that media not be notified. “He just wanted to meet with victims and police.” [DenverPost]

Bale flew in from Europe, where the Paris premiere of the Dark Knight Rises had been canceled, to make the visit. It’s cooler to think he came because he just knew it was the right thing to do (and that might still be the case), but there was also a social media campaign to get him to come:

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