|
The Unofficial Christopher Nolan Website / Archived News / October - December 2003 |
||
|
Archived News October - December 2003 December 31, 2003 Batman Casting / Website News A scooper for LatinoReview reported some news which came apparently from Chris Nolan's former manager at the UTA. There's two villains. There's one love interest. There's a young Comm. Gordon. There's a young Harvey Dent. The cast are Christian Bale [Batman], Michael Caine [Alfred], Judson Caspian [Viggo Mortensen], Cillian Murphy [Harvey Dent], Katie Holmes [Rachel Caspian], Chris Cooper [Gordon], Elle Fanning [Barbara], Noah Emmerich, as of 11/29/03 They apparently are still finalising the two main villain roles, but everyone from Robert De Niro to Dennis Quaid has tried out, and they should have their man-times two, in a week or two. (Thanks to Eloy for the heads-up!) In other news SuperHeroHype reported that WB has registered some new batman domains confirming the Batman: Intimidation title (these are BatmanIntimidation.net, Batman-Intimidation.com and Batman-Intimidation.net.) Hope you all have a good new year's eve. See you in the next year. I'd like to end this year here at cn.net with a quote from when of the best filmmakers in history: "If it can be written, or thought, it can be filmed." - Stanley Kubrick December 27, 2003 Cillian Murphy / Batman Crew Additions Well there hasn't been much to report over the last days... Most importantly it has been confirmed that Cillian Murphy (28 Days Later) will have a part in Batman although it remains unclear as which villain he will star. There have also been some additions to the crew (discovered by LatinoReview). So, happy holidays to you all - see you in the next year...! December 12, 2003 Lots of Bat-news I am sorry that I couldn't keep this site quite up do date in the last days. I was busy filming a documentary on the Turkish musician DJ Arkin Allen/Mercan Dede and will direct a short film in the next week. I hope I can dedicate more time again to this site in the next year. But now onto the news: There have been a lot of casting rumors in the last couple of days, the most believable for me seems to be about Katie Holmes being cast as 'Rachel' (a possible Bruce Wayne love interest?). Variety reported that: "while Nolan considered many young actresses to play Batman's love interest Rachel, Holmes is the only actress who will do a screen test. It is considered likely that a deal will follow shortly after." There were also a couple of rumors about Viggo Mortensen and Cillian Murphy getting cast as villains (I have summed up all these rumors at Batman Cast & Crew). Michael Caine has given some interviews on Batman you can find some excerpts at Batman Quotes or read the full interviews here (About.com) and here (chud). I also started to collect assorted Batman facts and there is also some new fan-art (thanks to Arief Leuvenardi). November 25, 2003 Michael Caine cast as Alfred  Variety reports that British actor Sir Michael Caine (who most recently starred in The Quiet American) has officially been cast as Alfred. This is an interesting choice regarding that Caine is 70 years old and some recent reports claimed that the studio was looking for someone a little younger. In the meanwhile Batman on Film mentioned the rumor of Daniel Day-Lewis being associated with Ra's Al Ghul... November 24, 2003 Memento Parody? / Amensia Films Thought it might be of interest: Zap2it reports that a film is apparently being produced spoofing all the "independent" films. Chris Gore, critic for the Film Threat website, will produce his screenplay "My Big Fat Independent Movie," a parody of iconic indie films. Like the "Scary Movie" franchise, "Fat" will skewer a slew of indie greats such as "Pulp Fiction," "Swingers," "Run Lola Run," "My Big Fat Greek Wedding," "Amelie," "Secretary" and "Memento." "The film is a love letter to the indie community and those who take the kinds of risks that Hollywood traditionally avoids," says Gore. "It's a low-brow comedy for the high-brow crowd." Gore co-wrote the "Fat" screenplay with Adam Schwartz and Yoni Berkovits. Philip Zlotorynski will direct the project, which will shoot in Los Angeles and Las Vegas. I am really not a big fan of these parody movies, but as it seemes like this is aimed at a slightly different audience (the independet film audience) than usually, it might actually be cleverer, too. Not connected to that, the International Herlad Tribune Online has an article called After long lapse, amnesia films are back analyzing the recent - and upcoming - trend of amnesia in films. November 23, 2003 Batman:IG - Restart or sequel? A source from BoF reports that Batman: Intimidation Game might just not be the big restart of the franchise it seemed to be a while a go (there were also recent rumors about Pat Hingle and Michael Gough returning as Gordon and Alfred repectively): I don't know about Gough and Hingle returning for this film--I wouldn't put too much stock into that one. But I wouldn't be shocked if they did return....Remember when I told you that this film wouldn't scream restart? That is looking more and more the case. If people want to go view this film as a sequel, they can. If they want to go watch the movie and believe that they are seeing a restart, they can do that as well. The film is going to look different than the previous four, no doubt. But it is my opinion that fans will be able to view this either way. There won't be a big disclaimer at the beginning saying "This is a restart" or "This is a sequel." It's just going to be Nolan's BATMAN film. November 20, 2003 The Batman villains: A cameo for the Scarecrow? The news come from a scooper for Cinescape that although Ra's Al Ghul will be the main villain in Batman: Intimidation Game there will be probably be a short appearance by The Scarecrow, maybe portrait by British Christopher Eccleston who was most recently seen in Danny Boyle's post-apocalyptic zombie movie 28 Days Later as Major West.. [...] the idea is to introduce the Scarecrow early in the film to show audiences that this Batmanmovie is different than its predecessors; namely, that it's darker and scarier, and that the rogues that Batman face in Nolan's vision of Gotham City are far more dangerous than the ones seen in Joel Schumacher's Batman movies. [...] the idea is to show the Scarecrow terrorizing Gotham so Nolan's version of Batman (played by Christopher Bale) can be introduced. After bringing down Scarecrow the plot would then move on to Batman having to leave Gotham City, possibly as a result of the actions of this opening segment, and travelling to London where al Ghul is located. There the majority of the film's story takes place. The part is small and isn't like the previous three Batman films which have seen the Dark Knight face two villains throughout the picture. There may be a possibility that Scarecrow could return in a future Batman movie but for now it's meant to be a one-time appearance and that's all. The production is also looking to cast the role of R'as al Ghul sooner rather than later and have been considering actors from around the world. [...] the talk is "of people like a younger Anthony Hopkins-type". November 19, 2003 Costume Designer Lindy Hemming officially on Batman According to Latino Review Lindy Hemming is now officially hired for Batman: Intimidation Game. The Welsh-born costume designer attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, studying stage management and design. In 1983, Hemming began working in feature films for directors Richard Eyre (Loose Connections, Laughterhouse) and Mike Leigh (Meantime, High Hopes, Life is Sweet and Naked). In 1985, she worked on Stephen Frear’s highly acclaimed My Beautiful Launderette and on 84 Charing Cross Road. In 1999 she won the Academy Award for the costume design for the Mike Leigh film Topsy-Turvy. Other credits include the recent films of the Bond franchise, the Tomb Raider films and the second Harry Potter movie. There is an interview with Lindy Hemming available over at DVDTimes. November 10, 2003 No Egghead in Batman According to a BoF site reader pro-wrestler Edge, who was rumored to act in Batman as Egghead, denied that rumor in an online chat session. November 5, 2003 Studio confirmation of Batman Intimidation Game / A wrestler in Batman? Now first of all, the official website of the Shepperton Studios lists "Intimidation Game" as being "in pre-production, shooting, in production or post production at Shepperton Studios". In other news ProWreslting.com writes in an article that a wrestler called Edge is "rumored to be playing 'Egghead', a villain in the upcoming 'Batman: Intimidation Game'". I suspect - no - I hope this turns out to be not more then a silly rumor. (Thanks anyway to "bransunwolf" for the heads-up!) November 1, 2003 Batman casting news: Morgan Freeman? Anthony Hopkins? While the news is that Warner Bros wont probably release any official casting news untill the year. A scooper for AICN send in some inofficial ones: "[...] the producers are looking at a few high level actors for a few of the supporting roles. It looks like they are focused on Morgan Freeman for a "Dr./Scientist" role. What this role is, I don't know for sure...but it's possibly one of the main villian roles. And get this.....they are considering Anthony Hopkins for "Alfred". [...]" Now these two names sound really nice and Harry from AICN says that this is a very reliable source - but of course nothing has been decided yet. For the omnious Dr. role - Jett from BoF assumes that this would be indeed the Scarecrow...  I also added some Batman fan-art and the BBC caricature above. Again I am sorry that the updates to this site are a little rare these days... October 7, 2003 "The Exec" to be Nolan's next project after Batman? Various sources reported that Chris Nolan has signed on to direct a film adaptation of the cult comic book "The Exec" for Warner Brothers. His brother Jonathan will write the script, while Emma Thomas will produce once again, this time together with David Heyman (Producer of the Harry Potter franchise). The Exec is a slightly futuristic look at a society where corporations govern and business is waged like warfare. "It has the elements of the tension Chris created in Memento and Insomnia," Heyman said. "But it is also a major-sized film, and it will be useful for Chris and Emma to apply the lessons they are learning in mounting the Batman film." Thanks to Jamie and Jonathan for the heads-up! October 3, 2003 Insomnia TV Series & more Batman fanart According to Yahoo News ABC is developing a TV series based on Chris Nolan's Insomnia. "It is basically serving as a Chapter 2 to the actual movie, so it's its own entity with its own story lines, but it still has the same tone and feeling of what I hope the movie captured, which is the real Alaska," said Hillary Seitz, who wrote the feature and is attached to write and co-executive produce the series. "Not so much the cute-lumberjack, quirky Alaska that we've seen before, but sort of the more menacing, secretive Alaska that was my experience from when I went up there to do research for the movie." The series will focus on detective Ellie Burr (played by Hillary Swank in the movie) and some other local characters from the film. There is no indication that Chris Nolan will be involved in any way... For more details see the article at Yahoo. (Thanks to Jonathan for the heads-up!) I have created a seperate section for the Batman fan-art which can be found here. Thanks to Jesse Kwe for sending in a new picture. |
              
| |
|
Website created and maintained by Johannes Duncker (
) | ||
