I’m not sure how many of these rumours will actually turn out to be true…though the logical choice does seem like the Riddler. As many believe that Nolan’s Batman universe doesn’t lend itself to the more “out there” or typically comic booky villains of Batman’s Rogue gallery. Of course, one of the problems is that they’ve already used The Joker. In my opinion, once you’ve used him there’s nobody else who can really be that exciting. Of course, you could just recast The Joker, but I don’t see many people going for that. Even though the character is stronger and will endure any longer than an actor’s legacy.
Personally, I think they need to re-introduce a lot of things back into the Batman movies. Arkham Asylum in particular, as I believe psychosis to be a very important theme of Batman’s character. Most of his villains being insane, after all. But that’s neither here nor there.
I also think that they need to dwell heavily upon the Riddler’s obsession with being smarter than everyone else. As what was said above, The Riddler is all about persona, ego, and narcissism. His hatred for Batman comes from his own vanity and desire to be smarter than Batman. I suppose, in a sense, there’s almost an honour about their confrontations. As most end without violence and are completely focused on a person’s mental capabilities rather than their physical abilities.
I would hope that they start to move away from the romantic side of Batman, as well. As things like that often slow these movies down. We’ve seen that Batman has lost and now I believe he has to start his steady decline into his obsession with criminals and crime. He is very much someone who is married to his work, so much so that Bruce Wayne is no longer much of an identity, let alone a person anymore.
These are all fairly important parts of Batman’s mythology that have yet to be seen in any live-action movie. So I think this is the road that the series needs to travel down, hopefully they’ll not fail in making the movie by trying to top The Dark Knight in terms of scale and what have you. Just let the characters speak for themselves and have a good story (there are lots to draw inspiration from), and I’m sure they’ll make something decent.
But I sincerely doubt that the movie will be made by 2011…unless it was getting a release in the latter part of the year. 2012 seems more accurate to me, as we all have Inception to look forward to in the meantime.
It’ll be worth the wait, though. I’m sure!
I’ve been hearing rumors about the villian and who he is being played by and, so far, all fingers are pointing to the Riddler. As for Johnny Depp playing him, I have some doubts that he might be playing him, but we’ll have to wait for a confirmation from the studio to find out.