The as-yet-untitled Batman 3 was included in the 20-film deal announced between Warner Bros. and IMAX last week, but no other information was given. Warner Bros. has now announced that they are releasing Batman 3 on July 20, 2012.

Director Christopher Nolan does not want to film in 3D, but sources believe that the movie will come out in both IMAX and conventional theaters. Nolan is working on the storyline for his next Batman installment, co-writing with David Goyer and brother Jonathan Nolan.

Christian Bale is set to return as the titular crime-fighter. Also rumored to return for Batman 3 are Morgan Freeman, Michael Caine, and Gary Oldman.

Batman Begins earned $352 million worldwide, while The Dark Night topped out around $1 billion. As the movie is set to premiere in 2012, to keep on schedule they should go into production this fall, with filming into swing by winter.

Nolan is currently in post-production of his highly anticipated sci-fi thriller Inception, starring Leonardo Di Caprio. Inception will be released in theaters on July 16, 2010.

Okay, this is starting to get confusing. Reports began swirling about a month ago that Batman Begins an d The Dark Knight director Christopher Nolan was being brought in as a producer to oversee the next Superman film, and both movie and comic fans alike rejoiced. Shortly after, DC Entertainment president Diane Nelson outright rejected the rumors, leaving those fans feeling slightly cheated. It seemed like such a great idea that the man who wrangled the Batman franchise into one of the most lucrative and acclaimed series in history would step in to aid with the “Big Blue boyscout.”

Luckily, Nelson’s statements were apparently just meant as misdirection, as Nolan himself opened up to the LA Times about his involvement and the high hopes and plans he, his screenwriter brother Jonathan, and his producer wife Emma Thomas have for Superman.

“It’s very exciting, we have a fantastic story. And we feel we can do it right. We know the milieu, if you will, we know the genre and how to get it done right…[it] is a way of approaching the story I’ve never seen before that makes it incredibly exciting. I wanted to get Emma and I involved in shepherding the project right away and getting it to the studio and getting it going in an exciting way. We’re approaching it in a not dissimilar way [to the Batman films] in terms of trying to find an incredible story in a way that audiences can engage with it the way they engage with contemporary action films.”

The best guess as far as who will helm the project seems to be that Begins writer and Dark Knight co-plotter David Goyer will handle the script, with his sights set on also directing. This will leave brothers Chris and Jonathan free to tackle the third Batman picture, on which Chris claims Jonah is now “doing the hand work.”

Christopher spoke a little about the approach they are taking for the next installment:

“The key thing that makes the third film an great possibility for us is that we want to finish our story. And in viewing it as the finishing of a story rather than infinitely blowing up the balloon and expanding the story…I’m very excited about the end of the film, the conclusion, and what we’ve done with the characters. My brother has come up with some pretty exciting stuff. Unlike the comics, these thing don’t go on forever in film and viewing it as a story with an end is useful. Viewing it as an ending, that sets you very much on the right track about the appropriate conclusion and the essence of what tale we’re telling.”

So there you have it, straight from the horse’s mouth. Nolan will be overseeing Superman while working on Batman. Pretty exciting stuff for fans. So we want to hear your thoughts. How do you feel about Nolan taking the reins as DC’s golden boy?

As a Green Lantern fan I am excited of this news. It is being reported all over the Internet that the Green Lantern movie will start shooting this upcoming Spring.

Newsarama.com ( a great comic book site with news and reviews) has the below to say:

Producer Donald De Line, who tells First Showing that a new draft of the script has been submitted, and the studio is “gearing up to start shooting early spring.”

While it’s not confirmed, he added that “it’s coming together and I’m excited about it. Hopefully we’ll make it to start gate. We’re really close – really close.”

The movie, directed by Greg Berlanti and written by Berlanti, Marc Guggenheim and Michael Green, will detail the origin of Hal Jordan, “with all the heroics and action inherent with that character.”

According to a script review — spoilers! — posted earlier this month at Latino Review, “The structure adheres closely to what I call — the ’superhero origin movie paradigm.’ Our hero, in this case Hal Jordan has a fear, limitation, block, or wound at the beginning of the story which he has to overcome (his character arc) or have some control by the midpoint of the script which is usually the time he becomes the superhero for the first time ie: Batman Begins.”

My opinion is if done right and true to the character this will be Warner Brother’s Iron Man.  I can’t wait to hear the Green Lantern oath on the big screen….”In brightes day and blackest night, no evil shall escape my sight. Let those who worship evil’s might, beware my power…GREEN LANTERN’S LIGHT!”

And for those Duck Doger fans, “In Blackest Day or Brightest Night… uh, watermelon, cantalope, yada yada… a superstitious and cowardly lot… with liberty and justice for all!”

(Here is to hoping that Gnort or Chip never show up in a Green Lantern movie)

A few weeks ago DC Comics and Warner Brothers got together and realized that they need to fix their broken comic book to movie formula. Except for 5 movies in 30 years, they have had tons of problems with the rest. Superman: The Movie (1978), Superman II (1983)Batman (1989), Batman Begins (2005), and The Dark Knight (2008) are the only movies to really make money in the box office and do well. Superman III and IV were garbage. Batman Returns, Batman Forever, and Batman & Robin were not nearly as well received as the first. Add to the fact that the last two featuring Robin didn’t have any chemistry between Batman and Robin. Catwoman bombed during the trailer process of the movie. And Steele had a decent plot but with the likes of Big Daddy Shaquile O’Neil as the leading man, you knew this wasn’t going to be a big box office draw.

So over the Summer Marvel Comics made this movie called Iron Man and followed that up with a new take on the Incredible Hulk. Both were leading down the path toward an Avengers movie in the not to distant future.  DC Comics and Warner both realized that this was the coures they wanted to take and the first thing they did was scrap the poorly received Justice League of America film that George Miller was working on.

Why is it that today it comes out that unknown actor Armie Hammer is still saying that he is going to be Batman in the JLA movie?  Dude, get a clue…the movie is dead, done, finished before it started. I know you’re upset that you won’t get to be Batman but move on already. The project is FINISHED! Is that so hard for you to understand?

Here is a quote from Armie to E! Online regarding his future as the next Caped Crusaider.

I would spend hours training with actual guns to prepare me for this stuff. It was very intense. Our workout regimens were so rigorous that most of us would vomit. We weren’t trying to get ourselves aesthetically good looking. We were trying to get ready for the demands of shooting.

The story even goes on to mention that the Batman suit was a workable costume ready for him to step into.

He’s already been fitted for the superhero costume, which he says features functioning equipment, including trademark Batman weapons like spring-loaded titanium Bat-erangs. “I was looking down, and I was thinking, This is the best,” Hammer said of the first time he put on the entire ensemble. “Then I stood up, and they turned me around, and I faced a mirror—there was Batman. But then it hit me like a ton of bricks—it’s not just Batman, it’s me!”

The bottom line is this…the project is dead. Stop trying to drag up a role that won’t get filled till after the Christian Bale movies are finished. The first things fan said when the project was announced last year is the same thing being said now…you can’t make a movie starring a Superman and a Batman while other Superman and Batman movies are in production. Having two actors playing different takes on the same character will make it harder for the average fans to connect to AND will confuse a lot of people as to which version of said character is the one they should follow on the big screen.

Let’s focus on getting a Green Lantern, Flash, and Green Arrow movie out there before we start to build a team movie. Let the audience get to see how the characters came to be before you group them into one big “blockbuster” battle.

Why cook the goose that is laying the golden eggs?

This just in from the Wall Street Journal…Warner Bros to reboot Superman for the big screen. Look for Brian Singer to not be involved with this new take on the Man of Steel as the bad taste that was 2006′s “Superman Returns” is still lingering in the water.

Realizing that Marvel Comics has been hitting home run after home run with film adaptations of their comic book characters, DC and Warner Bros are going to get aggressive with Super Hero movies based off of the DC Comics properties. They will also follow the blueprint setup in Iron Man and the Incredible Hulk from this past summer and build upon the characters that will make up the Justice League.

There has been a rumor floating around for months that comic book scribe Mark Millar has a script and business plan ready to present to the WB and DC in hopes of making Superman the be-all-end-all movie that we were expecting in 2006.  Here is to hoping that this announcement will be made prior to the end of 2008.

“Superheroes are more global than ever in today’s commercial world, existing in 30 languages and in more than 60 countries,” says Paul Levitz, president and publisher of DC Comics. The characters are “a world-wide export,” he says.

With the major box-office sucess that is “Batman Begins” and the follow-up “The Dark Knight” it was only a matter of time that WB would realize they needed to do something to jump start the failing movies based on DC Characters.

The studio is set to announce its plans for future DC movies in the next month. For now, though, it is focused on releasing four comic-book films in the next three years, including a third Batman film, a new film reintroducing Superman, and two movies focusing on other DC Comics characters. Movies featuring Green Lantern, Flash, Green Arrow, and Wonder Woman are all in active development.

As a comic book fan and a movie junkie, I hope they can keep the tidal wave that is the recent comic book adaptation hits going and compliment the work Marvel is doing. We don’t want to have to sit through another “Batman & Robin” or “Superman 4: The Quest for Peace” any time soon.

The Dark Knight’s shattering records left and right, and has already surpassed
the box-office total of Batman Begins. However it’s beaten its predecessor’s
total in another area too, as eagle-eyed fans have spotted 22 mistakes, listed
on movie website moviemistakes.com, as opposed to only 12 bloopers in the first
film. That total’s propelled it straight into the top 10 most mistake-ridden
movies of 2008 so far, despite only being released less than two weeks ago.
They range from give-away landmarks from being filmed in Chicago, through to
changing hairstyles and mis-matched audio. A few examples are below.

When Harvey is in hospital talking to the Joker, from one angle Harvey is
wearing the heart monitor clamp on his middle finger with a grey wire, from the
other angle it has vanished. It disappears and re-appears every time the camera
angle changes.

When Two-Face is holding a child hostage and is flipping the coin to decide who
gets to live, he flips and catches it in his left hand, but we then see a
close-up of the kid’s face – Two-Face is suddenly stroking the kid’s hair with
his left hand, and the coin has vanished.

In the car chase, the convoy has 2 police cars at the back, behind the SWAT
van. A garbage truck pulls up next to the convoy and takes out the second to
last cruiser first. Another police cruiser then magically appears in front of
the truck, which has to be destroyed before the truck can get to the SWAT van.

After the tunnel ambush when they get air support again, they show the view
from the helicopter of a SWAT member with an M16 and an EOTech sight attached.
The red dot scope is mounted backwards on the weapon.

The full list can be found at http://www.moviemistakes.com/film6359.

The Dark Knight is looking well on the way to beat the current most
mistake-filled film of 2008: Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal
Skull, which has 61 errors.

With less than 4 days before some of us get to see The Dark Knight, HBO’s first look has hit the net. Below is the two part series of TDK from HBO’s perspective.

I have yet to see the film and will have to grovel for a good seat with the rest of. But, I cannot wait for this film. After re-watching Batman Begins last night I am super excited. Batman: Gotham Knight is showing on Blu-Ray tonight at my place!!

[flv:/trailers/hbo1.flv 500 325]

[flv:/trailers/hbo2.flv 500 325]

Let me know what you all think!!

The Dark Knight opens this Friday at 12:01am nationwide.

For all of us Batman Begins fans who have been chomping at the bit for a Blu-Ray release , we shall wait no longer. The guys over at DVDActive have some great news for us! Batman Begins will be out on Blu- ray and in my hands by July 8th. While this is not new news, it is great news. The even better news is the special edition version of the film (seen to the right) coming out on the same date.

Also coming at us is some great news about the Gotham Knight Anime disc coming out on the same day. Man the wife is going to be pissed! Great news, great pictures and over all great for all of us Batman fans!

More photos can be seen at here.