Batman 3 is titled The Dark Knight Rises

News to satiate Bat-fans keeps coming thick and fast of late. First we had the announcement of Hardy’s lead role and now Christopher Nolan has revealed two crucial pieces of information in an article in the L.A. Times; firstly that the title for his third Batman film will be ‘The Dark Knight Rises’ (certainly a mouthful; clearly they have opted to put ‘the dark knight’ in the title to tie the film as closely as possible to the last and more successful film – what would be wrong with plain old ‘Batman Rises’, however?), and secondly, to many people’s surprise, that the villain The Riddler will definitely not feature in the new film.

Most assumed The Riddler’s appearance a given at this point, and also that this might be the role in which Hardy has been cast, but it seems Nolan is drawing from elsewhere for Batman’s next foe.

Nolan also gave one other, rather enigmatic quote: “We’ll use many of the same characters as we have all along, and we’ll be introducing some new ones.” Some are taking this as Nolan implying that old characters might be brought back from the dead. It could also, however, be a simple statement used to avoid giving anything else away or committing to anything.

Nolan also reaffirmed that it definitely won’t be in 3D and that he’ll be sticking to 2D, as well as the usual high-def IMAX sequences. It is good to know that not all directors are jumping on the 3D wagon. Coincidentally, James Cameron also announced today that he would definitely be making Avatar 2 and 3, and both in 3D.

Do fans think that The Riddler’s non-inclusion is a good or bad thing? Just which villains do people think are the most plausible choices now (bearing in mind it will likely be Hardy who will fill these shoes)? Is the title a good or bad choice, and is it what you were expecting (‘Batman Reigns’ was always a speculative favourite of mine for the third film, since Batman Begins’ release)?

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Darren Aronofsky to direct Machine Man

While Darren Aronofsky is currently locking down his deal to direct Wolverine 2, he has also just signed on to develop and direct Machine Man, a cyber-thriller about a gadget geek at a forward thinking tech firm who is tired of being average and unnoticed in his life, and so decides to replace his weak flesh with high-end performance titanium upgrades of his own design. However, he then discovers that dark entities have heard about his changes and have formed plans to use him for their own ends.

Mandalay Films picked up the rights for the partial manuscript written by Max Barry last year. Barry is also publishing one page of his story online per day as a real time serial, which you can read here, and the complete story is set to be published as a novel by Vintage books in 2011.

Mark Heyman, who co-wrote Black Swan and co-produced The Wrestler, will be adapting the story into a screenplay for Aronofsky. Cathy Schulman will produce, with Barry himself serving as executive producer.

Being that Aronofsky was originally set to direct a reboot of Robocop, a project which was declared dead a while back, it seems like more than a coincidence that Aronofsky has chosen something that shares strong similarities to the former. There also seems to be strong themes of obsession and power within Machine Man, topics that Aronofsky has dealt with successfully many times, making him a great choice for this adaptation.

Aronofsky is looking to schedule to shoot this film straight after Wolverine 2 is completed, which he is no doubt currently busy with, trying to figure how to bring his own unique stamp to a superhero sequel.

Do Aronofsky fans feel that this is a worthwhile venture for the acclaimed director? Which are you looking forward to more: his Wolverine 2 or his Machine Man?

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Tom Hardy given a lead role in Batman 3

After his appearance in Nolan’s Inception, the news has hit that Tom Hardy will be playing one of the lead roles in Nolan’s immensely anticipated third Batman film.

Lips are sealed regarding whether he'll be playing a villain, but that is probably a safe assumption to make (not only because the source for this news insinuates such). Just which villain, however, is anyone’s guess.

The Riddler seems to be the highest on the list of fans’ speculations regarding which villain Nolan will hinge the third film upon. Could we be looking at our prime antagonist right here? Although it is not surprising that Nolan chose Hardy after he gave such a good turn in Inception, many thought Joseph Gordon-Levitt (another great Inception star) the far more likely choice (and perhaps he may appear on the cast list yet).

Hardy is set to play Mad Max in the reboot Mad Max: Fury Road, but luckily for bat-fans this has hit another delay and won't resurface for a while. Hardy has recently been shooting Thomas Alfredson’s Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy and is scheduled to soon start filming McG’s This Means War, alongside Reese Witherspoon. Presumably after completing these two films he would be free to start shooting Batman 3. And when Mad Max does eventually come back to light, we are assured he will still be playing the role.

The first lead role having been cast for Batman 3, bat-fans can feel satiated by the fact that this project is now truly underway.

Do fans feel that Hardy would make a good Batman villain? If he is to play a villain, just which one do you think it might be?

(This news feature was written by me for the site www.thefilmpilgrim.com, on which it can also be found)

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Josh Holloway joins the cast of 'Mission: Impossible IV'

(This news feature was written by me for the site www.thefilmpilgrim.com, on which it can also be found)

'Lost' fans rejoice - we have more Holloway heading our way. The 'Lost' star is in final negotiations to appear in the as yet untitled fourth Mission: Impossible installment, in his first major role since the hit show wrapped up this year.

J.J. Abrams (who was the executive producer on 'Lost'), having directed Mission: Impossible 3, is only co-writing and producing this time around, with directing duties being handed over to Brad Bird, whose previous directing credits (curiously) are limited to children’s films such as The Incredibles and Ratatouille.

Abrams, as expected, is making sure that the crew and ever growing cast remain tight-lipped on any details about the film.

Starring alongside Holloway and Tom Cruise will be Jeremy Renner (The Hurt Locker, The Town), as well as franchise veterans Maggie Q, Jonathan Ryhs Meyers, Simon Pegg and Ving Rhames.

This will be Holloway’s biggest film role to date. His career started with an appearance in the Joss Whedon show Angel as a ‘Good looking guy’. After that he acted in a series of low key films (even once working with future Lost-colleague Jeff Fahey), appeared in several single episodes of TV shows such as CSI and NCIS, and lent his voice to the video game Command & Conquer: Tiberium Wars, before finally landing his role as James ‘Sawyer’ Ford on 'Lost'. During the show's six year run he was only able to appear in a couple of little-known indie films – Whisper and Stay Cool – him having to pass on larger opportunities since they tended to overlap with the filming of the show.

Other 'Lost' cast members, however, were far more fortunate with their scheduling commitments; many of them managed to grab roles in major films: most notably, Naveen Andrews appeared in Robert Rodriguez’s Planet Terror; Evangeline Lilly nabbed a small role in The Hurt Locker; Matthew Fox appeared in Vantage Point and Street Racer; Emilie De Ravin appeared in popular noir feature Brick, horror remake The Hills Have Eyes, as well as Public Enemies and Remember Me; Henry Ian Cusick appeared in Hitman; Nestor Carbonell had a small role in The Dark Knight; and even Maggie Grace returned to the public’s attention with the The Fog remake.

The casting of Holloway is a smart move by Abrams. To reveal a small insight into the psyche of one die hard 'Lost' fan’s mind: I would go and see any film that had Holloway, Evangeline Lilly or Henry Ian Cusick in it, just for that simple fact, and the same goes for several other members of the show’s cast. Add to this the huge female draw that Holloway’s undeniable sex-appeal will bring and that’s a considerably large number of people you have managed to add to your potential audience.



Previous Mission: Impossible films have managed to further raise the profiles of such actresses as Thandie Newton and Michelle Monaghan, so hopefully, if Holloway is given a role that both makes use of the Sawyer-esque charm that we all love and also shows him capable of acting outside of that persona, this film could do the same for his career.

Other members of the 'Lost' cast are also throwing themselves headlong into films now that Lost is over; both Evangeline Lilly and Kevin Durand will appear in Real Steel, a boxing drama about robots doing battle; Jeff Fahey and Michelle Rodriguez will appear in Robert Rodriguez’s Machete, as well as Michelle Rodriguez appearing in the upcoming alien invasion film Battle: Los Angeles; Daniel Dae Kim will appear in The Killing Game and the Philip K. Dick short story adaptation The Adjustment Bureau; Dominic Monaghan will appear in Soldiers of Fortune; and others, such as Harold Perrineau and Nestor Carbonell, are involved in various other projects.

The film production crew of 'Mission: Impossible IV' are scouting locations in Vancouver, Prague and Dubai for a fall shoot, aiming for a December 2011 release.

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