The LA Times recently wrapped up their three-part interview with Dark Knight director Chris Nolan.  Of interest is a question they ask him about cross-over films like The Avengers or, God forbid, Justice League.  In his response, Nolan displays the kind of having a brain which often characterizes people who make good movies.

“I don’t think our Batman, our Gotham, lends itself to that kind of cross-fertilization. It goes back to one of the first things we wrangled with when we first started putting the story together: Is this a world in which comic books already exist? Is this a world in which superheroes already exist? If you think of “Batman Begins” and you think of the philosophy of this character trying to reinvent himself as a symbol, we took the position — we didn’t address it directly in the film, but we did take the position philosophically — that superheroes simply don’t exist. If they did, if Bruce knew of Superman or even of comic books, then that’s a completely different decision that he’s making when he puts on a costume in an attempt to become a symbol. It’s a paradox and a conundrum, but what we did is go back to the very original concept and idea of the character. In his first appearances, he invents himself as a totally original creation.”

It’s a nice way of saying that it’d be dumb to do a movie with Batman and Superman because the kind of world Superman could live in is much different than the world where Batman lives (among other things).  Now Warner has a choice.  Heed the advice of the guy who made them $600 million and hope he works with them again on a sequel people might actually want to see, or slap together some bullshit Dawson’s Creek Justice League movie and probably durst the entire superhero movie concept like Batman and Robin did in ’97.

I hope they go with door #1 but either way I’m gonna be here eating handisnacks in my underwear.  You know what else pisses me off?  This spreadable cheese compartment.  Why isn’t it bigger?  This is an outrage!

Other stories other people are covering:

Chris Nolan responds to Dark Knight sequel rumors.  Long story short, if they can’t come up with a good story he doesn’t want to do it.  Similarly, Samuel L. Jackson says he’ll only take jobs if they pay him.

Watchmen co-writer hired to script Ninja Scroll live-action adaptation.  I know nothing about anime, but supposedly Ninja Scroll is super popular, so I imagine all of the fans are either going to be really stoked or really pissed about this.  Maybe.

Christian Bale to play Dr. Strange???  Those three question marks are me being skeptical.  Livenews.au reports that Bale is the studio’s “number one choice” to play the Marvel superhero.  In other news, Anne Hathaway is my number one choice of people I’d like to motorboat, and barring a restraining order, I bet the outcome of both of these stories will be the same.

This guy wants to bone dead chicks or something.

Wall E is being pushed as a Best Picture candidate.  And with zero knowledge of how probability works, I gotta say it’s the odds-on favorite.

Zac Efron Footloose remake gets fast-tracked.  He’ll reteam with HSM3 director Kenny Ortega. Nick and Nora director Peter Sollet is rewriting the script. Said a studio spokesman, “We thought he’d be a perfect fit for Footloose, and the success of HSM clinched it.  No one’s as light in the sneakers as Zac.”  …What?  Look, people, every day I promise myself I’m going to stop making Zac Efron-gay jokes, but just look at the guy.

Little girl beats up her attempted molester. Fake fake fake. I guaranteed this is viral marketing or a promo for whatever flashes on the upper right corner at 1:17. Why would he wait till she was about to get off to try to molest her? That’s just illogical.

The studio plans to rerelease The Dark Knight in January, at the height of Oscar season.  Execs hope the move will improve their chances to rub it in Spike Lee’s face.

Warners domestic distribution president Dan Fellman acknowledged ongoing talks with Imax executives about the prospect of restoring the Christian Bale starrer to some number of giant-screen venues in January. It’s uncertain if “Dark Knight” also will reappear in conventional venues at that point.

“It’s just a matter of bringing it back as a reminder for people,” a studio insider said. [THR]

“The who what now?” said an Academy voter of the $952 million dollar-grossing movie.  “Never heard of it.”

MTV has a good scam going.  Basically, they take something popular, like say, Arrested Development, and spend six months generating traffic by starting rumors of an Arrested Development movie, and then generate even more traffic by subsequently dismissing their own rumors.  They pulled this crap all last year, where almost every day they’d ask a different cast member if he’d be interested in an Arrested Development movie, their responses trumpeted in articles with shouted headlines, all variations on “Arrested Development Movie???!?”

This year it’s The Dark Knight sequel rumors.  Yesterday MTV ran a story in which Michael Caine supposedly told them Warner wanted Phillip Seymour Hoffman for the Penguin and Johnny Depp for the Riddler in “Batman 3″.  Today, PhilHoff is calling bullshit on those rumors, according to reports by…. you guessed it, MTV!

“No one has talked to me about it ever — never,” replied Hoffman. “It happened, like, five years ago, too. It was a rumor back then and it’s still a rumor. [laughs] It’s just in the press. It’s funny.”

When further pressed for his level of interest if Warner Bros. approached him about the role, Hoffman said, “I don’t know. I think I’m more interested in seeing someone else do it. I don’t know if I’d be a good Penguin to be quite honest. [laughs]”

Why do I allow MTV to play this stupid game, you’re probably wondering.  Well, when it comes down to it, let’s face it, I’m kind of lazy.  That I have a job that doesn’t require pants is not coincidence.

As far as anyone official is concerned, Chris Nolan is expected but not confirmed for a Dark Knight sequel.  Of course, that doesn’t stop people from printing ridiculous casting rumors, the worst of which probably being that Cher was in the running for Catwoman.  And now, Michael Caine has “confirmed” the most pervasive of those rumors to MTV:

“They’ve already got them in mind,” said Caine. “It’s Johnny Depp as The Riddler. And The Penguin is Philip Seymour Hoffman. I read it in the paper.”

“When Christopher [Nolan] said we were going to do ‘The Dark Knight’ next, I didn’t what that meant in Batman terms,” related Caine.  “I said, ‘What’s the story?’ and he said The Joker. I said, ‘Oh, s–t! How are you going to top Jack [Nicholson]?’ He said, ‘Well, I’ve cast Heath Ledger. And I went ‘Ha! I couldn’t top Jack, but if anyone could, maybe Heath could.’ And he did.

“I was with [a Warner Bros.] executive and I said, ‘Are we going to make another one?’ They said yeah. I said, ‘How the hell are we going to top Heath? And he says ‘I’ll tell you how you top Heath — Johnny Depp as The Riddler and Philip Seymour Hoffman as The Penguin.’ I said, ‘S–t, they’ve done it again!’” [Laughs]

Anyone reporting this as fact is a moron.  You can’t cast huge stars when you don’t have a director, a script, or a timeframe for shooting yet.  Clearly Caine was just being sarcastic or droll or ribald or one of those other words old British people use.