News & Notes

• Batman On Film points to some potentially great news that Batman 3 is rumored to be scouting locations, an early step that, if true, means filming probably starts this year.


• ComicsAlliance has the strangest moments from golden age Batman, including the housecat wrestling pictured above.


• Cracked has a comic about what it'd be like if Bruce Wayne had a more typical childhood.


• Bleeding Cool reports on Warner Brothers acquiring the company that made the Arkham Asylum video game.


• Bleeding Cool also has some safe-for-work images from the Batman porn parody film here.


• Buzzfeed has a really poorly translated Batman Begins synopsis here. I don't know if that's supposed to be from a bootleg DVD or what, but somehow I feel like it might be fake.

Riddler Poll #5

As expected, Johnny Depp ran away with the last poll, taking 56% of the vote, compared to Jeff Goldblum's 20% for second place. Full results are to the right, bumped down to the bottom of the sidebar. This week ought to be closer, with an Oscar winner and four nerd-favorite actors:

• Michael Emerson (pictured)
  You might know him from: Lost, and apparently he was in Saw
  
  His character on Lost, Benjamin Linus, is very Riddler-like. He's intelligent, manipulative, and creepy as hell. The creepy thing is as much Emerson as it is Ben Linus, as demonstrated by his ability to make even nursery rhymes frightening, which I think means he'd make a great Mad Hatter as well.


• Neil Patrick Harris
  You might know him from: Doogie Howser, MD, Harold & Kumar, How I Met Your Mother, Dr. Horrible
  
  Technically no stranger to Batman, having voiced the Music Meister on an episode of Batman: the Brave and the Bold, NPH is in pretty high demand these days. And I like him a lot, he's a high energy performer, very talented, but he's not a guy who you could ever imagine posing a threat to Batman. Maybe it's just me, I don't know.


• Viggo Mortensen
  You might know him from: The Lord of the Rings, other stuff
  
  Viggo Mortensen is kind of the opposite of the Riddler in every way I can think of. He's in good shape, handsome, seems like he'd hold his own in a fight, and has a commanding voice. He's Aragorn, not Eddie Nygma.


• Kevin Spacey
  You might know him from: The Usual Suspects, Seven, American Beauty, Superman Returns
  
  I have no doubt that he'd figure out a way to do the Riddler well, but I seriously doubt he'd actually want to do it. He played Lex Luthor, and I think he'd do it again if the circumstances were right, but I think that's going to be it for him and superhero movies.


• Elijah Wood
  You might know him from The Lord of the Rings, and he was apparently that little kid in Back to the Future II who didn't like the idea of video games where you have to use your hands
  
  A much better fit, physically, than Mortensen, and he had some nice moments of kind of evilness in Lord of the Rings, so I could see this. Far from my first choice, but I wouldn't hate the idea.

The poll will be up for a week, vote on the right side of the page.

News & Notes

With the follow-up to The Dark Knight actually being worked on, we have our first rumor that may actually be more than speculation:

• This post on comicbookmovie.com claims that, among other things, The Riddler will be the main villain. Technically that link could contain some spoilers. I find parts of this to be far-fetched, so I don't think it's legitimate, but it's possible, I guess.


• Christopher Nolan explains his philosophy on comic book movies.


• Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths isn't released until next week, but details are already emerging about the next DC direct-to-disc animated feature, Batman: Under The Hood.


• Quiz site sporcle.com challenges you to name the actors and actresses from the Batman films. Just '89-present, no need to worry about 1966's Batman: The Movie.


• And I'm a day late here, but Comics Alliance posts some Batman valentine cards from the 60s.

Don't forget to vote in the Riddler poll over to the right, there are still three days left.

Riddler Poll #4

Last week's poll was the first one that was actually close, with Lance Reddick edging out Jackie Earle Haley by a single vote. Here are this week's actors:

• Steve Carell
  You might know him from: The Office, The Daily Show, The 40 Year Old Virgin
  
  He's a very funny man who should never play the Riddler.



• Johnny Depp
  You might know him from: 21 Jump Street, Nick of Time, The Astronaut's Wife
  
  Obviously he's a really good actor, and one of the most popular choices. I suspect that if the Riddler is in the next movie, and Depp wants to do it, there'd be tremendous pressure to cast him, even if Nolan and company want someone else.



• Lee Evans (pictured)
  You might know him from: He's a comedian, but I know him as the guy on crutches from There's Something About Mary, and the timid guy from The Fifth Element
  
  If you remember him in The Fifth Element, you know he can capture the cowardly aspects of the character. I can see him playing an intellectual, slightly goofy Riddler, somewhere in between Frank Gorshin and the John Glover version from Batman: The Animated Series. However, he is basically an unknown to American audiences, and I'm not sure it's very likely that his name would even come up in casting discussions.



• James Franco
  You might know him from: Spider-Man, Freaks and Geeks, Pineapple Express
  
  He looks stoned all the time, and seems to be making unusual career choices lately (General Hospital), but I still like him as an actor. However, he has absolutely none of the qualities I'd expect for the part.


Jeff Goldblum
You might know him from: The Fly, Independence Day, Jurassic Park, or as the voice of Troy McClure's agent in that Simpsons episode with the Planet of the Apes musical

I like Jeff Goldblum, but too often he just plays Jeff Goldblum, especially as he's gotten older. Which is fine, I think he can have a nice career playing a quirky, unusual guy with a wink. But that's not how I see the Riddler at all.

Voting will be open for a week.

News & Notes

• Buried in the news that Christopher Nolan will be involved in a reboot of the Superman franchise is this:
  

  This does not in any way replace the third installment of Nolan’s Batman movies, which his brother Jonah Nolan and just-left-FlashForward David Goyer, are working on right now.

  Goyer co-wrote Batman Begins and received a story credit for The Dark Knight, but had been serving as showrunner on the ABC series FlashForward (which started off interesting but got boring quickly, IMO). He recently stepped down citing the "ramping up" of work on movies. So even though we're still without official confirmation, it really seems like Christopher Nolan will be back.


• Morgan Freeman expects a third Batman movie shortly, if only because of the billions the studio would stand to make.


• MTV's Splash Page has some suggestions for actresses should DC ever include Zatanna in one of their movies (don't bother with the video, btw, it's terrible). I can't imagine Zatanna in a Batman movie any time soon, though she has been an occasional love interest for Bruce Wayne, just because the character would involve the wackier aspects of Batman mythology.


• Comic writer Kurt Busiek writes a thoughtful piece on why Batman isn't a green lantern, more from a writer's point of view than an elaborate in-universe explanation.


• The Hurting lists the 5 worst Batman villains, surely in an effort to irritate me by picking some of my favorites.


• I don't know what you call this thing, it's sort of like a motorcycle rickshaw, but whatever it is, this Cambodian guy has made it awesome.


• DC's The Source Blog has been showing preview images of The Return of Bruce Wayne like the Pilgrim Batman one above. See here and here for more.

Expect another Riddler poll soon.