Sure, we’d all love the current incarnation of Batman to last forever, especially with the winning combination of Christian Bale and Christopher Nolan.
Still, every ride has to end, and The Dark Knight Rises – currently shooting and due next July – will be the last Batman film with Chris and Christian.
So riddle me this. You come off the biggest superhero reboot franchise there is – but what’s next? Only Bale knows for sure, and even he may not know for sure right now.
Now that Bale will soon be free for other roles, reports have surfaced about what he choose to may tackle once his Batman duties are finished.
In the meantime, Bale is understandably focusing on playing the Dark Knight before he even thinks about anything new.
According to Variety, one of the films Bale is up for is the umpteenth remake of A Star is Born with Beyonce to be directed by Clint Eastwood, (does this mean Bale will be singing)?
Bale is also up for the next Michael Mann flick, Gold, which the Hollywood Reporter says is a thriller in the vein of The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, and with gold value going through the roof in modern times, it could make for a very timely thriller as well.
Bale’s name has also been mentioned for Darren Aronofsky’s Noah, a retelling of the classic Bible story of Noah’s Ark. As IFilm reported, Aronofsky said he was “doing a comic book of a script that’s really hard to make and we’re going to do a comic version first and see what happens.”
But the news that’s really got geeks salivating is a story about Bale being looked at to play the villain in the remake of the Korean cult film, Oldboy, which Spike Lee will direct.
The hardcore fans of Oldboy have been hoping the American version won’t be watered down, which is reportedly would have been when Will Smith was attached. (Mark Protosevich, who adapted the screenplay for I Am Legend, also wrote the Oldboy remake script, but it’s not certain if that script will be made, or if Lee will commission a new draft).
Entertainment Weekly for one isn’t sure if this is the right project for Lee, as it will probably be very controversial. Then again, Lee’s an old pro at handling controversy, and his biggest hit, Inside Man, proves he’s got range beyond his usual smaller, more personal work.
Yet as EW notes, “In the case of Oldboy, what drew viewers to it are exactly the kind of things that will be seen as too graphic for American audiences.” (The scene where a live octopus is eaten keeping coming up, and it may be one of those sticking points with the producer and the studio, like the head in the box scene in Seven).
Of course, always remember that reports like this pop up in the trades all the time, then poof, we never hear anything about these movies again. Whatever Bale decides to take on next, The Dark Knight Rises is reportedly slated to wrap in November, and then he’ll begin weighing his options.
