Originally posted on Facebook - March 21, 2009
Having just watched "The Dark Knight" on DVD, I was impressed with the weight of material that Christopher Nolan and his team managed to deftly include in the film. How would I continue the heftiness of the franchise while respecting what has been established?
"Batman Begins" established the ongoing characters of Bruce Wayne, Lucius Fox, Alfred Pennyworth, and James Gordon, as well as introducing Ra's Al Ghul, the Scarecrow, Rachel Dawes, and Carmine Falcone.
"The Dark Knight" continued the story, introducing the Joker, Boss Maroni, and Harvey Two-Face. Rachel Dawes was dead by the end of the film, as were Maroni and Two-Face. Batman, after facing the possiblity of retiring and/or becoming a publicly-embraced hero, instead opts to become a pariah. This movie also teased the transformation of Gotham's criminals into super-henchmen (the "clown-faces") as well as the presence of copycat vigilante groups that imitate Batman's appearance and activities.
So where does the story go from here? There are some elements that, IMO, anyone making a follow-up picture must include, and some others that are a bit more optional.
Automatic:
The big four characters of Bruce Wayne, Lucius Fox, Jim Gordon, and Alfred Pennyworth will of course have to return. The relationship between Batman and Gordon will be strained by the official position Gordon will have to take as Commissioner, hunting Batman as public enemy, while struggling to retain his friendship and confidence. The triangular relationship between Gordon, Bats, and the public will threaten to tear everything apart. Fox may also begin to show more reluctance to help Batman as time goes on, as shown in his resistance to the city-wide sonar device in "Dark Knight."
Five Must-haves:
1. Wayne Manor - Bruce's stately family home was destroyed by fire in "Batman Begins". While the Penthouse/Warehouse set-up for Bruce and Bats was fun in "The Dark Knight", we need to get back to the mansion as soon as possible - not to mention the Cave. A key element of Batman's psyche is his desire to live up to his father's example. The mansion is part of that compulsion.
2. Dick Grayson - The introduction of Robin is a delicate and complicated storyline, as demonstrated by Joel Schumacher's failure to treat it properly in "Batman Forever." Robin should not be a major player in the next Batman movie, but Dick Grayson absolutely should be. Forget about the super-villain origin - make it the good old mob. Dick's story is that he is a young circus performer whose parents refuse to pay an exorbitant level of graft in order to put on a show in Gotham. He sees them murdered and vows to fight organized crime at Batman's side. Use the character of Rupert Thorne to add a smuggling component to the story (travelling circus? smuggling? makes sense), explore the grief and rage of the boy, and tease the unveiling of Robin for the fourth film. While we don't want Robin to be too young (he needs to have near-adult physical strength, at least), Chris O'Donnell was much too old for the origin story. Cast a 14-year old actor for this movie, so that he can be 15-16 when Robin really swings into action.
3. Copycat Vigilantes - With Batman's heroic status in question, we are assuming that he is continuing to operate but perhaps on a lower profile. Look for the vigilantes who act in his name to become more organized, better equipped, and more ideological as they defend his reputation and act according to [what they believe is] his example. Batman himself should be progressively less concerned about their safety and about how they represent him, as he becomes more and more alienated from the city and the public.
4. New Batmobile - the "Tumbler" vehicle was destroyed in "Dark Knight", and Batman should be looking for a different kind of ride for the next film. I suggest something with a lower profile and better capacity to blend in. Think less "military vehicle" and more "James Bond car."
5. World's Greatest Detective - Leave behind, for a while, the flashy super-hero stuff. Bats will continue to wear a costume and utility belt, but give this film more of a whodunnit suspense atmosphere. Especially since he is alienated from the police, he will have to rely more and more on his own detective work. Picture him cracking safes, collecting fingerprints, and moving through the shadows of the city without a trace.
Five Should-dos:
1. With Rachel Dawes' death, Bruce needs a new love interest. The obvious choice is Catwoman/Selina Kyle, which I will bring up further down the page. I think the less-obvious but correct choice for this film is Talia al Ghul, who in the comics is Batman's baby-mama. She could be in Gotham representing the League of Assassins or searching for the remains of her father...
2. Ra's al Ghul - Ra's, as a character, is notoriously hard to kill. With the secret of the Lazarus pit, as long as there is life in his body he can be restored to full health and vigour. His death at the end of "Batman Begins" was never confirmed, which with Ra's means that he WILL be back. Now that the relationship between Batman and Gotham has been destabilized, Ra's may see an opportunity to bring Bruce around to his way of thinking.
3. In "Batman Begins", Ra's used a local criminal in his scheme (The Scarecrow). One of the problems with Batman movies is that there are few great villains who translate well into film. I suggest using The Penguin - in his incarnation as an eccentric nightclub owner who is also involved in fencing stolen goods, smuggling, and information trafficking. Let him represent the gray zone in which Bats now finds himself - while Bats is a public enemy who fights crime, the Penguin is tolerated in Gotham while profiting from its criminal underworld. Batman would love to bring down the Penguin, but finds his information helpful and begins to lose sight of his mission.
4. Catwoman - She will also serve to highlight Batman's moral ambiguity. She is a burglar who only steals from mobsters, to support her life in Gotham's high society. She and Bats cross paths when her burglary activities interfere with his investigations. He is reluctant to waste time on her, since she's only stealing from criminals and he has bigger fish to fry, but she continues to show up and throw a wrench in the works, so he is forced to confront her. As Selina Kyle, she is a foil for Bruce. Bruce pretends to live a wild, playboy lifestyle, but in this film he will get darker and more depressed. Selina lives the wild, high life that he pretends to, and in his loneliness he finds this very appealing. However, given what I said about Talia, Bruce's interest in Selina should be held off until the next film and the Catwoman character carried over for full development in the future (like Robin).
5. "Matches" Malone - Bruce Wayne's underworld alter-ego, Matches can see and do things that neither Bruce nor Bats would be able to. Given the story I've described above, Matches Malone is the perfect fit for this film, and would give Christian Bale an opportunity to play yet another persona to go along with "private Bruce", "public Bruce", and "Batman".
This might seem like a lot, but remember how much was so skillfully included in "Dark Knight". Many of these ideas are intended to set-up a fourth film, and not a lot of screen time needs to be spent on them. Without them, though, there is not the feeling of growth and expansion that seems to be necessary for franchises like this. The key element of this plan is the pyschological story of the man alone against the world, navigating a murky gray area, trusting no one but relying on the help of others who are all morally compromised.
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