The Dark Knight and Beyond – What’s Next For Bruce Wayne and Christopher Nolan?

At the weekend Batman – The Dark Knight took pole position in the UK box office and over in America it became the fastest 300 million dollar grossing movie beating Pirates of the Caribbean’s 16 days to reach reach the same numbers in only 10.

As a explosive, dark, roller coaster of a movie it has succeeded probably to the level that Chris Nolan intended. But how to top it? What is next for Syncopy Productions and the team?

Syncopy are already known to have two major projects in the pipeline with Number Six and the Exec.

Number Six is a cinema based retake on the the popular TV show from the 1960 – The Prisoner which starred Patrick McGoohan. David and Janet Peoples (Twelve Monkeys) will be writing and it’s expected that Universal will be looking for the feature to go into production now that both The Prestige and The Dark Knight are out of the way. Expect to see Nolan’s trademark story telling skills on full show in Number Six when it hits the screens and since the original TV series was a convoluted, complicated and sometimes confusing affair Nolan is perfectly placed to bring some action and clarity to the production.

The Exec is a different kettle of fish. Based on Doug Miers futuristic comic it is the story of big business where Corporate Warfare is taken seriously and literally. Handshakes and AK 47 go together to make a manager’s tool kit to die for. This project has been in the pipeline for a while (it was rumoured that it would be made straight after The Prestige but we guess The Dark Knight got in the way of Jonathan Nolan’s adaptation or the comic).

So two films in the pipe. One a big cult TV series spin off and another comic book adaptation. Nolan’s skill at taking the seeds of other’s stories and bringing them to glorious fruition is well known but we hope that there will be an original story coming up soon. Something we haven’t read or seen before and with the impact of The Following and Memento. Not that we don’t like what we are seeing at the moment of course – it’s all great.

And speaking of great….. what about the next Batman film?

Batman Begins and The Dark Knight have taken our hero through his evolution and initial trials so what’s next for Bruce Wayne?

Those who have read Batman: Year One, Killing Joke, Long Halloween and Dark Knight Returns will know how close the Nolans and Goyer have kept to the world that Batman inhabits. A world that has the darkness of an Alan Moore storyline coupled with the gritty roughness of Frank Miller all depicted through the lens of Bill Sienkiewicz.

Nolan likes Gotham, he like the complex society, the police with their divisions, the mobs and gangs, the subway and the elevated railway, the ferry and the rivalry with Pettsburgh and of course, the duality of Bruce Wayne and The Batman.

One thing is for sure, we are not going to get a whiz bang action fest with no depth or subtlety (Batman and Robin anyone?). We are also not going to be going darker and deeper – it would be a joy to see Nolan’s take on Arkham Asylum – Grant Morrison’s take on Gotham and way the way it screws up everyone.

At this stage we think:

The Riddler

Two Face back once again

Dick Grayson

No Joker – just imagine – if there was a posthumous Oscar for Ledger, which actor would then want to step into the role (sit down Mr Day-Lewis)

Christopher Nolan will direct the third but no more.

(The feeling in the offices here is that Nolan will want the franchise to earn a billion under his helming. This would put him in the Billion Dollar Club – alongside Spielberg, Lucas, Silver, Jackson and Cameron amongst others. Not that he’d like to be in such an exclusive club, just because he’d like to prove that he can do it and the knock on effect will be that he can pretty much write his own cheque and make the films of his choice from now onwards.)

Take a look at Dark Victory if you can find it, along with Arkham Asylum, Killing Joke, The Jokers Five Way Revenge (look for reprints) and The Dark Knight Returns. They all bear a good looking at to get personal inspiration on waht we hope will be the topper for the trilogy and set the standard that says Superhero movies do not mean cash cow, it means depth and storytelling.