News & Notes

Superhero Hype reports on the above Gotham police truck spotted in Chicago. Some news:

• After The Dark Knight Rises, Warner Bros. plans a Justice League movie and then a reboot of the Batman franchise.


• Christopher Nolan has let Gary Oldman read some, but not all, of the Dark Knight Rises script.


• Some site called Car Design Fetish hosted a Batmobile design competition, with some pretty cool results. Bleeding Cool has even more of the entries.

Or Maybe Not

The news that Joseph Gordon-Levitt would be playing Alberto Falcone seemed pretty legit, coming from industry paper Variety and all, but now Entertainment Weekly says it's bunk. They contend that JGL will be in The Dark Knight Rises, but in a different role (though they don't know what that might be). Confusing.

Implausible Rumor of the Day

Buried in the news about Alberto Falcone was a little item that Juno Temple was believed to be up for a part in The Dark Knight Rises. Blastr.com believes it to be a female Robin, presumably Carrie Kelly from The Dark Knight Returns. Christopher Nolan and Christian Bale have both expressed an aversion to the entire concept of Robin in their movies, so I'm quite confident Juno Temple will not be playing any kind or Robin.

Since original Juno Temple blurb used the phrase "a street-smart Gotham girl," a much more likely part from the comics would be Holly Robinson. She's a long-time friend of Catwoman who first appeared in Batman: Year One as a teenage runaway/prostitute under the protection of Selina Kyle who actually stabs Bruce Wayne in the leg. Much later, Holly would go on to briefly assume the identity of Catwoman. You can read a lot more about Holly at wikipedia.

Joseph Gordon-Levitt is Alberto Falcone

Joseph Gordon-Levitt has long been rumored to be joining the Dark Knight Rises cast, but until today we didn't know who he'd be playing. Now, everyone seems certain that he is playing Alberto Falcone, the son of Carmine Falcone from Batman Begins. Most sources for this news include plenty of spoilers for what happens to Falcone in The Long Halloween comic (like Variety's article). If you want the whole spoiler-filled background on Alberto Falcone, you can click here.

Other news:

• Michael Gough, who played Alfred Pennyworth in all the Michael Keaton/Val Kilmer/George Clooney movies has died.


• Yale University makes the case that Bruce Wayne went to law school at Yale.


• I don't know how I haven't seen this before, but a blogger has undertaken the completely insane challenge of reading/viewing all Batman comics, TV, and film in chronological order. This should take him at least a couple decades, I'd think, since he's actually writing about them all. Comicvine lists Batman as being in 6839 comics to date, and more are constantly coming out (I don't read all the current titles, but looking at what came out I'd guess Batman was in 2 this week and 4 last week, so every year it takes I'd guess he's got 150 new comics to read).


• An artist did a really nice rendition of 9 villains from Batman: The Animated Series and put them up on his wall.


• Screenjunkies lists 9 Batman villains who should never be in a film, but incorrectly includes the Ventriloquist and Scarface, who I think could be a fine addition to a movie.


• For a Batman enthusiast who is in Taiwan and needs a hotel that books hourly (and we all know what that means), this is the place for you.


• And a commenter recently mentioned that with the Batmobile destroyed in the last movie, we could be expecting a new one. Which reminded me to link to this site with just about every Batmobile design ever.

News & Notes

Some non-news rumor-y type things, plus some bookmarks I've had piling up:

• While doing press for Red Riding Hood, Gary Oldman implies there's another, as-yet-unknown villain, and that it's someone from the early days of Batman comics. The oldest of the old are Doctor Death, The Monk, and, most likely of the oldies, Hugo Strange.


• While doing press for Battle: Los Angeles, Aaron Eckhart, who had previously always made it clear that Harvey Dent died at the end of The Dark Knight, suddenly got coy about that issue. I suspect he's either sick of answering that question and decided to mess with people, or he thought changing his story around would get people to mention Battle: Los Angeles. If it's the latter, then well played, Eckhart.


• Scroll past Star Wars and Spider-Man to see Batman & friends dancing.


• According to this theory, consider investing in Warren Buffet's company in early 2012. Supposedly, whenever Anne Hathaway is in the news, automated computer traders pick that up and misinterpret it as news about Buffet's company Berkshire Hathaway, then buy it, causing the price to jump.


• Batman meets Rocky Horror


• Artist Francesco Francavilla is having some fun with the idea of a 1935 version of the Batmobile here and here.


• And finally, why make a snowman when you can make a snowBatman?

SPOILERS (if this is reliable)

We're getting to the point where I may have to quit following all the Dark Knight Rises news, because I want to be surprised by the movie. But the latest out of the rumor mill from a site called Badass Digest is pretty specific. I've never heard of the site, so I have absolutely no idea how reliable it is (which is to say, I don't think very).

Spoilers below, followed by my thoughts:

...by the end of the story Catwoman isn’t a villain but rather an ally of Batman. And who are they teaming up to take out? The League of Shadows. Headed by Talia Al’Ghul. With Bane, who is her muscle/possible love interest. And with Joseph Gordon-Levitt in tow. Is he playing Black Mask? My source didn’t know, but did know that Levitt is certainly an antagonist and involved with the League of Shadows.

I find it hard to believe that a movie would reintroduce the League of Shadows, Talia, Catwoman, Bane, and Black Mask all in the same movie. Especially when this is what Christopher Nolan considers to be the conclusion of the trilogy, so he wouldn't introduce them and leave hanging plot threads. And with all those characters, there's still the matter of Batman being the most wanted man in Gotham left over from The Dark Knight. All that said, I still do trust Christopher Nolan and company completely, and if this is what they want to do, I'm sure they will find a way.

Via Bleeding Cool.

News & Notes

Batman News grabbed video of Anne Hathaway referring to her part in The Dark Knight Rises as Catwoman, while everyone else connected with the production had always referred to the part as Selina Kyle. So everyone with theories about Selina being just some normal girl is pretty much guaranteed to be wrong at this point.



Also, MTV's Splash Page talked to Christopher Nolan about The Dark Knight Rises at the Oscars, and he basically said nothing. But you can follow the link and watch the video if you want.