It may be foggy now, but if memory serves us right, people reacted pretty kindly to helmer Christopher Nolan’s introduction to his own Batman world with 2005’s “Batman Begins.” While director Tim Burton delivered the comic book goods in 1989’s “Batman” and 1992’s marvelously underrated “Batman Returns” – with Joel Schumacher ratcheting up the comic book excess to an unnecessary degree with “Batman Forever” and “Batman & Robin” – Nolan introduced a darker tint to the superhero than we'd had before, and would later lead “The Dark Knight” to become a box office sensation in 2008.
So it’s strange to think that Nolan might be self-conscious about any of the choices he has made during his lucrative run at the series so far, but as he recently told Empire (who have also unveiled a few new images), the inclusion of one feline-loving baddie had him second guessing himself. Though it was brother and “The Dark Knight Rises” co-writer Jonathan Nolan who insisted that "what we're endeavoring to do here is tell a complete take on the Batman mythos. And a complete take of the Batman mythos without the character for me was sacrilegious." He continued, "You've gotta have her, because she has a delicious greyness to her that helps define who Batman is. She keeps wavering on this line of, 'Is she a good guy or a bad guy?' Well, she's kind of neither. And that's why, to me, that relationship and that character only enhances the universe — and the Batman character."
Well everything we’ve seen so far in the numerous trailers for 'Rises' continues to assure us that Ms. Selina Kyle certainly makes for a morally ambiguous character in the form of Catwoman – as fans of the comics or “Batman Returns” will certainly recall. "Catwoman is a very iconic figure in the Batman pantheon," Christopher Nolan added. "I was nervous about how she would fit into our world. But [Jonathan] was very much convinced that there would be a great way to do it and eventually turned me around. Once I got my head around the idea of looking at that character through the prism of our films, saying, 'Who could that person be in real life?' we figured it out. She's a bit of a con-woman, something of a grifter. A hard-edged kind of criminal."
Seeming as he’s interpreted his saga in a vision that’s been deeply rooted in realism, and while they certainly didn’t start on such a serious-minded villain run with Liam Neeson’s not-quite-real-world Henry Ducard (aka Ra’s al Ghul), Nolan certainly got things on track with his Joker character in “The Dark Knight” which leaned more towards international terrorist than the laugh-a-minute prankster of yore. Also, since female characters are generally relegated to minor parts in this sort of comic book fare (i.e. Black Widow in “The Avengers,” Rachel Dawes in Nolan’s first Batman films) perhaps Nolan wasn’t sure about how such a dominant female character would fit into the world of his Batman movies.
Outside of these snippets, there’s no shortage of “The Dark Knight Rises” talk in Empire, with screenwriter David Goyer also addressing the rumors about the possible ending of Nolan's series of Batman movies. “The final scene of ‘The Dark Knight Rises’ is exactly [the] scene we talked about [when Christopher Nolan and I started the trilogy with 'Batman Begins']. It remained completely unchanged. We both knew in our hearts that we were onto something special. I have to tell you, having finally seen everything strung together a little while ago and seeing that scene, I got a complete lump in my throat,” he teased. While many have speculated as to how “The Dark Knight Rises” will end – some even predicting the death of our hero – when Empire pushed Goyer for comment on whether it would be “commercial sacrilege” he simply replied “Yup! That’s why it’s ****ing exciting!”
As a key creative mind in helping Nolan string together the first two films and 'Rises,' is Goyer perhaps speaking out of a turn and a little too soon? After all, we still have a long haul to make it to the July release date, but then again we assume we’d be pretty excited — and tearful — if a ten-year vision of ours was being brought to a conclusion as well. We’ll see how it all plays out on July 20th, when all our questions will be answered. [via MTV/ScreenRant]