Empire sprak met Christopher Nolan over zijn aankomende film Inception. Het tijdschrift maakte van de gelegenheid gebruik en vroeg de regisseur naar zijn derde Batman film en naar het volgende deel in de Superman reeks, waarbij Nolan optreedt als een soort 'godfather'. Hij is zelf overigens niet zo heel erg blij met die benaming.
"It's much more specific than that. What it is, while David Goyer and myself were putting together the story for another Batman film a few years ago - you know, thrashing out where we might move on from 'The Dark Knight' - we got stuck. We were just sitting there idly chatting and he said, ' By the way, I think I know how you approach Superman,' and he told me his take on it. I thought it was really tremendous. It was the first time I had been able to conceive of how you would address Superman in a modern context. I thought it was a very exciting idea."
Nolan nam dit idee mee naar Warner Bros, waar ze meteen net zo enthousiast werden. Nu wordt er gezocht naar een geschikte regisseur, want Nolan is niet van plan Superman zelf te gaan regisseren.
"It's not something for me to direct. It's something we were just trying to put together a vision for, and then find the right person to take it forward."
Nolan vindt het belangrijk om er bij een personage achter te komen wat hem of haar nou zo onvergetelijk maakt.
"What you have to remember with both Batman and Superman, is that what makes those the best superhero characters there are, the most beloved after all this time, is the essence of who those characters were when they were created and when they were first developed. And you can't ever move too far from that."
Hij heeft overigens nog steeds niet officieel getekend om een derde Batman te gaan regisseren.
"No I haven't. There is a point where you're just being precious about it and people get annoyed, but the God's honest truth is I work on one movie at a time. I'm only capable of doing that, so my head will continue to be firmly in ['Inception'] for another few months."
"My brother is working on the screenplay. We came up with a story that we are very excited about. We particularly like where we are taking the characters and what the ending is... There are things for me to be very excited about in addressing the characters again. But ultimately it always comes down to the script, and can we make a great film from this? That's something I will firmly be turning my attention to figuring out fairly soon. It will be the finishing of a story rather than infintely blowing up the balloon and expanding the story."
En hoe zit het met de Joker, in The Dark Knight met zeer veel overtuiging gespeeld door de inmiddels overleden Heath Ledger. Zien we Batmans aartsvijand nog terug in het derde deel?
"No, I just don't feel comfortable about it."
Tot slot zal er geen sprake zijn van een Batman/Superman crossover in de films, zoals Marvel dat momenteel uitgebreid doet in aanloop naar The Avengers (2012).
"Marvel are doing what they do and people will respond to that really well, or they won't. It's not something I ever really applied a blanket rule to, but Marvel characters are very different to DC characters, and the key DC characters are very different to the minor DC characters. You've got to go back to that element of, 'What do I see when I close my eyes and think of Batman? What do I see when I close my eyes and think of Superman?' And for me a big part of that is their individuality. The yare extraordinary beings in an ordinary world. And the reason I think the two are fascinating is because Superman is very specifically superpowered and obviously otherworldly; Batman is very human and flawed. Theyr'e two very different characters, but there's an elemental feeling of power in the iconography of those characters. To me that's originally because they stood alone. I need to hang on to that in my imagining of them."
Batman 3 en Superman staan beiden gepland voor 2012.
