Rumor: Christian Bale will return as Batman in Justice League

Written by Vince Mancini / 03.04.13

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 »

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More ‘Justice League’ Rumors: It Could Be 6 Years Before We See Batman Again

Written by Ashley Burns / 02.15.13

“Damn you… *hic*… Chris Nolan.”

Last we checked in on the perpetually-crumbling Justice League film, writer Will Beall’s first script was allegedly locked in the deepest, darkest cell of Arkham Asylum, never to be seen again. Almost everything about this seemingly doomed DC and Warner Bros. answer to Marvel’s The Avengers has been bad news, and now the rumor mill would have us believe that this cinematic kryptonite is poisoning the Batman franchise as well.

After the Beall script news hit the Intertubes, another report suggested that Warner just wanted to wait to see how Zack Snyder’s Man of Steel performs this summer before moving ahead with Justice League’s targeted release date of 2015, which of course coincides with the Avengers sequel. The only problem with that, suggests one questionable-but-intense source, is that it leaves Bruce Wayne trapped in silver screen limbo.

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‘Justice League’ Script Doused In Gasoline, Tossed Into Massive Dumpster Fire

Written by Ashley Burns / 02.08.13

It wouldn’t be a day of the week ending in –y if we didn’t have some juicy HOTT GOSS about the Justice League movie, and wouldn’t you know it – it’s all really bad. First up, there’s a fat nugget of rumor jizz drying on our prom dresses regarding the first screenplay, penned by Gangster Squad’s Will Beall. According to Badass Digest, which is like Reader’s Digest but in a monster truck, Warner Bros. and DC read it and determined that they had approximately 110 pages of toilet paper.

The story from each source is the same: it’s terrible. Some sources seem to think the whole movie is going to fall apart and never happen, while some believe that Warner Bros will keep moving forward, unwilling to lose the superhero arms race.

Beall’s script was focusing on a 4-man and 1-woman Justice League, as Superman, The Flash, Green Lantern, Batman and Wonder Woman would be taking on Darkseid in an Avengers-like battle to save the Earth. Unfortunately, it seems that the Warner and DC execs have been f*cking with the story so much that Beall never stood a chance.

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The Justice League Movie Has Its Lineup (what, no Hawkman?!)

Written by Ashley Burns / 01.25.13

Not so fast, metal dude and fish boy.

The other day we talked about how Marvel Studios was possibly going to screw the pooch by casting Adam Sandler to voice Rocket the Raccoon in Guardians of the Galaxy, but the good news to take away from that was that at least Marvel was actually casting. On the other hand, it’s another day and another rumor for Justice League, which has a writer, villain and possibly a storyline, but still has no director or cast. Oh, and it has a targeted release for the summer of 2015 to nut up to the Avengers sequel, so you could say that this movie is an absolute mess right now.

But DC and Warner Brothers work in baby steps, because they supposedly have the main heroes finally picked out. According to the comic movie scoops at Latino Review, 2015 is going to be a terrible year for Aquaman fans.

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The Justice League Film Has A Writer, Possibly A Storyline, But Still No Director

Written by Ashley Burns / 12.14.12

Despite having no director, presumably just one actor and simply existing as a clump of muddled rumors that all involve some variation of the phrase, “You know, just like Marvel’s The Avengers”, Warner Bros. and DC Comics are still gung ho on getting a Justice League super-movie into theaters in 2015 to compete with Avengers 2. Last we checked in on the rumors, we were sweeping the idea that Joseph Gordon-Levitt may pick up the Batman torch in time to join the League under the rug, and focusing on Latino Review’s scoop that DC had selected Darkseid to be the villain.

We now also know that Will Beall is penning the JLA script, and that’s great news for anyone who was hesitant to see Justice League unless it was more like Castle. In fairness, Beall has a hot run ahead with Gangster Squad, Logan’s Run and Lethal Weapon 5, which is strange, because I swear that was already made.

Latino Review has another exclusive bombshell this week, as they claim to know that the storyline of this new superhero franchise will revolve around Justice League issues 183-185, and I am not going to describe them because I just assume that you have them committed to memory. Oh fine…

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