Source:Courier-Post January 25, 2009
New Jersey's Courier-Post talked to Batman Begins and The Dark Knight executive producer Michael Uslan, who expects the third installment of the Christopher Nolan-directed films, starring Christian Bale, to hit theaters in 2011:
Uslan will be onboard as executive producer for the "Dark Knight" sequel, which he estimates will be theaters by 2011. As for the identity of the next round of Batman's supervillains and love interests, Uslan remains tight-lipped. "It's one of those deals where if I told you, I'd have to kill you," he says with a chuckle.
In related news, while The Dark Knight did not receive the Producer of the Year Award at the Producers Guild of America Awards on Saturday (it went to Slumdog Millionaire), the movie did receive awards at the Screen Actors Guild Awards on Sunday - Heath Ledger won for Best Supporting Actor and The Dark Knight also won Outstanding Performance by a Stunt Ensemble in a Motion Picture.
In other news, the first review of Batman: Arkham Asylum has been posted in Spin Magazine. The following review is by Dan Ackerman (a regular contributor to Spin)
It’s enough to make a man hang up his cowl.
Few iconic characters have been treated as shabbily by the video game industry as Batman, who’s been subjected to a painful procession of strength-sapping clunkers. The superhero’s digital mojo is so low that the producers of The Dark Knight didn’t even negotiate an accompanying game, normally a given for a genre. (Even 2008’s lackluster The Incredible Hulk got one) But by selectively ignoring the inessential history preferred by previous movies, cartoon series and comic books, Batman: Arkham Asylum has steadily built up buzz since the project was announced last year; despite the lack of a major film tie-in or A-list celebrity involvement (though much of the cast will be familiar to those who watch the cartoons). The game is easily one of the year’s best.
The sterling effort is long overdue. Though games and comics share similarities in their reliance on outlandish character design, far-flung plots and staccato snippets of dialogue, previous attempts to translate Batman to the digital realm have failed because publishers have refused to recognize that the two formats are very different beasts. How so? Most comic book tales follow the ebb and flow of traditional fiction narrative, with character-driven story arcs that build to a climax, punctuated by superhero throw downs. In contrast, video game story telling generally serves as mere background for setting up the basic mode of play (first-person shooting, puzzle solving, etc…) But Asylum, inspired in part by a 1989 graphic novel by Grant Morrison and Dave McKean reconciles these two formats’ disparate aesthetics, striking the right balance between narrative depth and a fun interactive gaming experience.
The plot places a rogue’s gallery of villains (Joker, Harley, Killer Croc & others) together in the titular loony bin. Problems start when the Joker (voiced by Mark Hamill) busts his fellow inmates out during a riot. It’s up to Bruce Wayne’s masked alter ego to recapture them one by one and disrupt a McGuffin-filled plan that reveals a method behind the clown’s madness.
In the free-roaming manner of Grand Theft Auto much of the asylum’s elaborate Gothic landscape is open for Batman to explore. And as with covert-ops titles such as Splinter Cell, players must sneak past armed enemies and stick to the shadows (This bat ain’t bulletproof). Hand-to-hand combat requires a button-mashing series of combos that wouldn’t seem out of place in a straight up actioner like God of War. But you’ll need ample brainpower to follow a suspect’s DNA trail or find the many hidden clues. By nimbly jumping these different gaming approaches as well as honoring the protagonist’s four color origins, Arkham Asylum proves that a video game is capable of capturing Batman’s entertaining complexity. Justice, at last has been served.
Also, just in NewEra has released it's latest line! I own the Superman hat and I wear it quite frequently. I love art and I love comics. I wanted to buy the Batman one, but I didn't like the four-color logo. I will definitely be purchasing the black and gold edition once I accrue the income and financial means to do so. I will support D.C. for life. Batman and I are not so different. We both have a means to an end and we strive for the same ideal.
"People think it's an obsession. A compulsion. As if there were an irresistible impulse to act. It's never been like that. I chose this life. I know what I'm doing. And on any given day, I could stop doing it. Today, however, isn't that day. And tomorrow won't be either" - Batman
Shop New Era and Receive Same Day Shipping. *Orders must be placed by 2pm EST.
