Christopher Nolan to guide rebooting of Superman and is already working on the third Batman movie!

The cinematic future of DC Comics' two most classic heroes is in good hands.

Christopher Nolan is set to "godfather" the relaunch of the Superman film franchise. This will not be a sequel to Superman Returns, but will begin its own new continuity. Nolan won't be directing or writing, just kinda shepherding and mentoring the process along into the kind of movie series that Superman needs to become.

(I'm probably one of the few who'll admit to honestly liking Superman Returns a whole lot. It wasn't perfect, but I thought it hit on some of the right tones for a Superman flick. But hey, I also liked Ang Lee's Hulk and still loved 2008's non-sequel The Incredible Hulk :-)

But that's not all folks! According to the same report at GeekTyrant, David Goyer and Jonah Nolan are already at work on the third installment of their Batman series.

Gotta wonder how that'll turn out. The Dark Knight was darn nearly the most perfect comic book movie in the history of anything. But I've faith in the Nolans and Goyer. I'm thinking that where Batman Begins ended with "escalation" and The Dark Knight built on that, the next logical step would be how Gotham City goes from being run by organized crime, to now a place where the mob has been toppled and the time of the "freaks" like Joker, Scarecrow etc. will finally be at hand. At which point the people will have no choice but to turn to Batman and embrace his role as protector of Gotham.

The best thing about that scenario is that it opens up Nolan's Batman continuity indefinitely! We could see a movie or two for everyone in the Batman rogue's gallery. And regardless of what Chris Nolan has said, I'm confident that the Penguin could be set loose in his Batman 'verse and still be convincing. That's what I most wanna see anyway :-P

Read More

Finally watched THE PRESTIGE

The Prestige is a movie that I really wanted to see when it came out but I was too wrapped up in my school board campaign to do so at the time. It's just come out on DVD and it arrived at our place via Netflix a few days ago. So tonight Lisa and I put it in and checked it out...

Man, I can't remember when was the last time I saw a movie that I just had to watch again. I'll probably watch it at least two more times before it goes back into the mail.

The Prestige, directed by Christopher Nolan (from a script he co-wrote with his brother Jonathan based on a novel by Christopher Priest) is about the bitter rivalry between two magicians at the turn of the twentieth century. Alfred Borden (played by Christian Bale, who was also in Nolan's Batman Begins) and Robert Angier (Hugh Jackman aka Wolverine from the X-Men movies among other things) start out as friends who work as "ringers" for a veteran magician. Then during one night's performance something goes horribly wrong with an act and Angier's wife is killed. Angier blames Borden for what happened. That's all I really want to say because The Prestige really is a movie that someone should go in fairly unawares on.

I really, really liked this movie. Period pieces are a big thing for me and in that regard alone, The Prestige shines. The fact that it throws in a few things from real-life history definitely doesn't hurt either. Speaking of which, David Bowie does an excellent job portraying Nikola Tesla, and there's plenty of touching-on the very real rivalry (which I thought mirrored the one between Borden and Angier) between Tesla and Thomas Edison at work in the movie. The Prestige also stars Michael Caine and Scarlett Johansson... which is the very first time I've ever seen Johansson in a movie or anything else for that matter (does that show how out-of-touch I've become with a lot of pop-culture things or what?)

Very enthralling, oftentimes horrifying and thoroughly entertaining, The Prestige is recommended viewing not once, but twice. Maybe even three or four times. The only real question is: "Are you watching closely?"

Read More