Such is the times we live in that only four days after "The Dark Knight Rises" opened and broke box office records, we're already wondering about where the franchise goes next. And it's not entirely an absurd notion. This summer, Sony is having a solid success with "The Amazing Spider-Man" (over $600 million worldwide and counting), only five years after Sam Raimi's "Spider-Man 3." And while there is no timeline on when the cowl and cape will be back in action with a new actor and director, Christopher Nolan does have some words of advice for the next director – and it's not to listen to the fans.
"The only advice I would have is that … when I first met with Paul Levitz of DC Comics prior to 'Batman Begins,' he explained to me clearly that Batman, of all superheroes, has thrived on reinterpretation and almost is strengthened by it. And I'm talking about over the years in the comic books but also in the movie," he told Empire (via JoBlo). "So when the time is right, whenever someone does whatever the next iteration of the character is, they simply need to be true to whatever it is they want to see, to what they believe in, not worry too much about what everyone else is telling them it should be."
It's a statement that more or less underscores Nolan's own approach, in which has favored gritty and psychogically and emotionally textured, versus the more right-off-the-page tone of Marvel's films. And according to 'Rises' and "Man Of Steel" producer Charles Roven, it's that same approach that will guide the Superman film which involves a story by Batman series writer David Goyer and is being executive produced by Nolan. "We knew we were going to have to give that film also a great deal of spectacle and fun and action, but we really wanted to make the character — even though he has superpowers — very compelling emotionally," Roven said.
Of course, studios can't ignore the fans entirely, and this weekend there were certainly more than a handful who would've preferred to se Batman just zipping around Gotham kicking ass in a film that leaned more Tim Burton than Christopher Nolan. Anyway, there is lots of time for Warner Bros. to think about what they'll do with the character next, but until then, hear what Nolan has to say on the full Empire podcast below. After that is a brief interview with Roven.