The Dark Knight Trilogy (Christopher Nolan, 2005-2012)

[Jean-Luc Garbo]

She did? When was this?

[DrewReiber]

She did? When was this?

I just looked it up for clarification and basically she temporarily worked with Two-Face during No Man's Land to help spread humanitarian aid in Gotham. His Harvey Dent persona fell in love with her and after rebuking him, he later outed her as a lesbian in the Gotham Central series in an attempt to ruin her life. Man, a lot of stuff happened since I stopped reading comics...

Anyway, I can only presume that we'll see a similar connection in terms of the feature films.

[Jeff]

Coming Soon (via Variety) reports that Gyllenhaal is in final negotiations, and will indeed be playing the same character as Holmes.

[Jean-Luc Garbo]

Oh come on! No offense, but WHY? Not only is that character still in the movie, but now it'll be played by Maggie Gyllenhaal? Is there some reason why she is so important to the next script?

[Mr Sausage]

Oh come on! No offense, but WHY? Not only is that character still in the movie, but now it'll be played by Maggie Gyllenhaal? Is there some reason why she is so important to the next script?

I suppose they're trying to get away from the previous treatment of Bruce Wayne/Batman love interests where they disappear come next movie, requiring a whole new love interest.

Anyway, it furthers already established character arcs, which is certainly more appealing than popping in new characters who need to be set-up and developed. Especially considering the villains must always be new, and you only have so much time for these people.

[DrewReiber]

I know this will probably just get ignored again, but I'll go ahead and point out Rachel Caspian's various incarnations one more time. Check out Batman: Year Two or Batman: Mask of the Phantasm (known here as Andrea Beaumont) to find some minor but interesting similarities between Wayne's character arcs and Rachel Dawes. The only element that doesn't fit is Dawes' employment as assistant D.A., but that is easily explained away for the purpose of contrasting Bruce's disregard for the law and to get all the characters in the neccessary places for plot's sake.

I'm not saying that she is going to become The Reaper/Phantasm, I am simply pointing out that bits of Year Two show up in their sequences together in Batman Begins and it's likely that Rachel Dawes is at least some kind of composite. It's also interesting to note that despite both Mask of the Phantasm and Batman Begins drawing from Year One, neither feature used the same material.

[flyonthewall2983]

It's kind of a clever way of distancing themselves from the earlier franchise. Especially in the casting since Maggie isn't a big star, but can deliver as an actress. I just hope they (meaning WB) doesn't become tempted to tie in this next movie with a song like they did with the former franchise.

[Antoine Doinel]

I don't think they are distancing themselves from the first film in the least. If anything, they are distancing themselves from Katie Holmes who, since the movie came out, and especially after Tom Cruise's M:I III tabloid bonanza, was quickly removed from most talk surrounding the sequel.

They just replaced Holmes with a far better actress, and one who won't have an entourage of security people and hangers-on for the shoot. The added bonus is that any press by time the film comes out will thankfully skim over the inevitable Holmes/Cruise angle that would've been the focus if Katie had stayed on.

[Mr Sausage]

I don't think they are distancing themselves from the first film in the least. If anything, they are distancing themselves from Katie Holmes who, since the movie came out, and especially after Tom Cruise's M:I III tabloid bonanza, was quickly removed from most talk surrounding the sequel.

I don't think he meant the first Nolan Batman film; I think he meant the previous franchise that culminated in Batman and Robin.

[Jean-Luc Garbo]

Okay, that's a good point, Drew Reiber.

[DrewReiber]

Thanks, Garbo. Just trying to generate some discussion regarding speculative topics we can actually look into.

[DrewReiber]

An interesting bit of rumor/news hit about The Dark Knight that's helping put it all together for me. Here (not original article, but less to load).

Ok, now check out this wikipedia article on Batman's first love interest:

And [url=ttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Batman_and_the_Monster_Men]this series[/url] that was published shortly after Batman Begins came out, based off the early Bob Kane years:

Now you have a comic that ties together Batman: Year Two, Mask of the Phantasm (which is similar to "Joker's Five-Way Revenge" too) and storylines from both the early Bill Finger/Bob Kane run and Dennis O'Neil/Neal Adams' work. All of this material has been cited numerous times by both Nolan and Goyer in the development of this series, so I thought it would be interesting to point out a character who has actually been around forever, yet barely noticed. I had no idea who she was until today, nor that she was already in the film series (Batman & Robin).

I'm now betting that she is another character that was composited into Rachel Dawes, and it's especially interesting that Matt Wagner combined Julie Madison with bits of Andrea Beaumont. I just hope I gave you guys enough pointers so you can see how it all connects. I think it's obvious that there is this sort of "Year One" headspace that many of the Batman creators keep dipping into and recombining to get different variations. It helps a lot that Goyer has frequently worked as a DC writer and knows this stuff in and out. Trust me when I say I wouldn't put together such a seemingly complicated theory unless it made a lot of sense.

[Antoine Doinel]

If James Gandolfini really does join the cast, this is going to be unbelievable. Ray Winstone would also be a great choice for Maroni.

But please, for the love of God, I hope Nolan doesn't cast Fergie.

[Antoine Doinel]

Now rumors are circulating that Sarah Michelle Gellar will be joining the cast as well. From JoBlo:

Buffy vs. Batman? Mar. 29, 2007

Source: Whedon.info by: Dave Davis

Despite having battled bloodsuckers for seven years on BUFFY, Sarah Michelle Gellar hasn't really had a movie role with any kind of bite since her devious vixen in 1999's CRUEL INTENTIONS. Will she be taking her stake (Mr. Pointy?) out of retirement to battle another creature of the night?

The rumor currently making the rounds is that Gellar may be in the Batman sequel THE DARK KNIGHT. Speculation then immediately arose that she'd play the Joker's lover and accomplice Harley Quinn, an acrobatic Arkham Asylum therapist who goes ga-ga for the grinning psycho and dons a jester costume to assist in his crimes.

Only time and/or an official Variety announcement will tell if this holds true, but the Bats sequel (to a prequel/reboot, making it... a seprequelboot?) starts production in the coming weeks, so if Gellar's involved we'll know soon. The Harley Quinn character first appeared on the outstanding animated Batman series and was then transitioned into the ongoing comics, much like Detective Renee Montoya, who we also hear might make an appearance in the new movie.

[exte]

Now rumors are circulating that Sarah Michelle Gellar will be joining the cast as well.

Am I the only one who does not like this broad?

[lord_clyde]

Now rumors are circulating that Sarah Michelle Gellar will be joining the cast as well.

Am I the only one who does not like this broad?

Yes.

[Antoine Doinel]

Now rumors are circulating that Sarah Michelle Gellar will be joining the cast as well.

Am I the only one who does not like this broad?

I'm largely indifferent to her.

[Mental Mike]

She's good as a two-timing femme fatale as in Cruel Intentions (not such a good movie but it was fun!).

[Highway 61]

Am I the only one who does not like this broad?

No. She's awful. I can't see why Nolan & Co. would go to the effort to recast Katie Holmes, but then throw Gellar into the mix.

[a.khan]

THE DARK KNIGHT starring Christian Bale, Heath Ledger, Michael Caine, Morgan Freeman, Aaron Eckhart, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Gary Oldman....and Sarah Michelle Gellar.

I rest my case.

[Kirkinson]

As a mostly later-season Buffy fan, my feeling is that she's great as long as she has three or four years to work on getting her performance right. I dread any new appearance of hers.

[John Cope]

Why not Kristy Swanson?

[Greathinker]

I don't mind Gellar's casting, I don't know how good an actress she is but it's not as if bad acting can do much to hurt a character that is supposed to be loony.

Does Nolan care either way? I'm beginning to see this as his paycheck franchise-- the first film was good entertainment, but it's obvious that he's not digging into the material like he just did with The Prestige.

[Antoine Doinel]

Can we really judge Gellar's acting anyway? She's largely done kid's films or shitty Japanese horror remakes. If she does end up in the film it will be her most mature project ever. I'm willing to at least give her a shot.

[dx23]

I'm also indifferent to Gellar. I always thought that the perfect Harlequinn would have been Cameron Diaz, since her ditzy personality would match well with the character. Still, the problem with Batman Returns and Batman and Robin was the inclusion of too many characters and too many hot actors/big stars. WB should have learned about this mistake and just focus on the story/script development to keep things on the right track.