Hey, all. "Moriarty" here. I'm going to be running some BATMAN rumors down over the next few days, but by all accounts I've been hearing, Warner Bros. has been quietly creeping closer to production on the next installment in their enormously successful franchise. As a longtime BATMAN freak and as an enormous advocate of both the animated television series and the proposed BRUCE WAYNE live action series, I have been very curious to see how they would justify the next feature film.
Hiring Darren Ararnofsky is starting to sound like the masterstroke of judgement this series has needed for a while. Not sure if it was Jeff Rubinov or Lorenzo who made this leap of faith, but I'd like to commend them for what may turn out to be a visionary leap if things continue to come together in the way they're starting to. For example, The Preying One contacted the Labs earlier this week, having overheard a series of conversations between Aranofsky and David Twohy during the prep of the upcoming monster movie PROTEUS, in which wish lists were thrown around regarding the casting of the new YEAR ONE style Gotham that Aranofsky is creating. Keep in mind... these are names that have been discussed, but are not set yet. All this does is give us an indicator of the kinds of names he is willing to consider.
"... Aronofsky told Twohy that he thought Vin Diesel, Twohy's PITCH BLACK star, would be an excellent young Victor Fries, a character Aronofsky is trying to convince Warner Brothers to revisit in the Batman Year One scenario. He feels the greatness of that villain was unexplored with Arnold and Schumacher. Diesel is said to love the idea. Aronofsky also got to meet Martin Scorcese, who apparently was blown away by the raw filmmaking of PI. Scorcese was in the midst of executive directing DEUCES WILD, a film directed by the guy who did Basketball Diaries. Aronofsky visited the set by Scorcese invite because he wanted to get a look at two of the film's actors, Josh Hartnett (VIRGIN SUICIDES, THE FACULTY) and Norman Reedus (6 WAYS TO SUNDAY, GOSSIP) who the future Batman director sees as a potential young Bruce Wayne and a potential young Joker, respectively. If any of this works out with Diesel, Hartnett or Reedus, we could actually have a cool Batman."
That casting indicates that Aranofsky's going for a younger cast, and he seems to be leaning towards some promising actors, guys groomed in the indie scene who have the charisma to become stars, rather than just blindly chasing Leo Di Caprio or Ben Affleck or someone whose heat outweights their appropriateness for the parts. Diesel as Fries? Sign me up. Hartnett and Reedus? Interesting young guys, and certainly the right types for the roles mentioned. Another spy, the oddly named YAPH, just fired a quick telegraph message off, and it indicates that the film is actually pretty far along in the development process. They are starting to talk to key technical personnel, a good indication that this isn't hypothetical... this is a film that they're getting ready to make.
"I have a wee tid-bit for you. Darren Aronofsky has tapped Pop Will Eat Itself frontman Clint Mansell to do the score for BATMAN YEAR ONE. Clint did the music for PI as well as having a small role in that movie."
True? I'm not sure yet. I'll be working to confirm both of these rumors over the next few days, and I'll keep you posted. For now, though, it seems that the decision to use Aronofsky is paying off by at least keeping me interested. That's more than I can say for the last few chapters of the series. Let's hear what you think below.
