With the release of The Dark Knight Rises bringing the curtain down on Christopher Nolan ‘Dark Knight Trilogy’ earlier this year, Warner Bros. is now faced with the unenviable task of finding a new director to pick up the mantle of the Bat and launch the next chapter of The Dark Knight’s illustrious screen career.
Naturally there have been lots of names thrown about as potential candidates to succeed Nolan – one of those being Rian Johnson, writer-director of Brick, The Brothers Bloom and this year’s hit sci-fi action thriller Looper; Flickering Myth’s Martin Deer has been chatting with the acclaimed filmmaker for an interview we’ll be posting tomorrow, and took the opportunity to ask whether he’d be interested in taking on the reins of the Batman franchise for the eventual reboot…
Martin Deer: Well we’ve mentioned Batman and I am a huge Batman fan. Hypothetical situation – Warner Bros. rings you up, next Batman movie, would you do it?
Rian Johnson: I like that hypothetical. You know I love Batman, I didn’t grow up reading the comics but Batman movies, when that first Tim Burton Batman movie came out that kind of defined, in kind of like a weird way for the generation that I was in, that first Batman movie in a way it defined what a blockbuster was for me, more so than any of the 70s movies. When that first Batman movie hit it was like this cultural volcano that defined what the superhero blockbuster was in a way that was just completely drew me in as a kid. So Batman is definitely the one superhero movie franchise that I’m 100% just completely in love with, and I love [Christopher] Nolan’s so much man. Right now I’m just focusing on doing my own thing. And that hypothetical that you mentioned has so many variables to it in terms of what kind of movie they’re looking to make and all of that so, you know, that call hasn’t happened and in the meanwhile I’m not gonna sit by the phone, I’m just gonna keep writing my own stuff.
Seems like a great choice to us. Come on WB, pick up the phone…
Check out Martin’s full interview here, where Rian discusses his feature debut Brick, this year’s sci-fi action hit Looper, the filmmaking process, and working with Joseph Gordon-Levitt.
Holy Franchise, Batman! Bringing the Caped Crusader to the Screen – Available now via Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.com
Originally published November 11, 2012. Updated November 6, 2019.
