Author Topic: Christopher Nolan's Farewell Letter (Read 2101 times)

Master KChief · « **on:** July 28, 2012, 05:29:16 AM »

From the forward of the The Art and Making of The Dark Knight Trilogy book:

Alfred. Gordon. Lucius. Bruce . . . Wayne. Names that have come to mean so much to me. Today, I’m three weeks from saying a final good-bye to these characters and their world. It’s my son’s ninth birthday. He was born as the Tumbler was being glued together in my garage from random parts of model kits. Much time, many changes. A shift from sets where some gunplay or a helicopter were extraordinary events to working days where crowds of extras, building demolitions, or mayhem thousands of feet in the air have become familiar.

People ask if we’d always planned a trilogy. This is like being asked whether you had planned on growing up, getting married, having kids. The answer is complicated. When David and I first started cracking open Bruce’s story, we flirted with what might come after, then backed away, not wanting to look too deep into the future. I didn’t want to know everything that Bruce couldn’t; I wanted to live it with him. I told David and Jonah to put everything they knew into each film as we made it. The entire cast and crew put all they had into the first film. Nothing held back. Nothing saved for next time. They built an entire city. Then Christian and Michael and Gary and Morgan and Liam and Cillian started living in it. Christian bit off a big chunk of Bruce Wayne’s life and made it utterly compelling. He took us into a pop icon’s mind and never let us notice for an instant the fanciful nature of Bruce’s methods.

I never thought we’d do a second—how many good sequels are there? Why roll those dice? But once I knew where it would take Bruce, and when I started to see glimpses of the antagonist, it became essential. We re-assembled the team and went back to Gotham. It had changed in three years. Bigger. More real. More modern. And a new force of chaos was coming to the fore. The ultimate scary clown, as brought to terrifying life by Heath. We’d held nothing back, but there were things we hadn’t been able to do the first time out—a Batsuit with a flexible neck, shooting on Imax. And things we’d chickened out on—destroying the Batmobile, burning up the villain’s blood money to show a complete disregard for conventional motivation. We took the supposed security of a sequel as license to throw caution to the wind and headed for the darkest corners of Gotham.

I never thought we’d do a third—are there any great second sequels? But I kept wondering about the end of Bruce’s journey, and once David and I discovered it, I had to see it for myself. We had come back to what we had barely dared whisper about in those first days in my garage. We had been making a trilogy. I called everyone back together for another tour of Gotham. Four years later, it was still there. It even seemed a little cleaner, a little more polished. Wayne Manor had been rebuilt. Familiar faces were back—a little older, a little wiser . . . but not all was as it seemed.

Gotham was rotting away at its foundations. A new evil bubbling up from beneath. Bruce had thought Batman was not needed anymore, but Bruce was wrong, just as I had been wrong. The Batman had to come back. I suppose he always will.

Michael, Morgan, Gary, Cillian, Liam, Heath, Christian . . . Bale. Names that have come to mean so much to me. My time in Gotham, looking after one of the greatest and most enduring figures in pop culture, has been the most challenging and rewarding experience a filmmaker could hope for. I will miss the Batman. I like to think that he’ll miss me, but he’s never been particularly sentimental.

So where do we go from here? What should happen next? Traditional sequel? Unconventional prequel? Spinoff for a supporting character? Or maybe a complete franchise reboot?

Ironica · « **Reply #1 on:** July 28, 2012, 02:05:47 PM »

Or maybe they should just leave it alone and let it be while thinking of new things to do... like Teen Titans movie

sk · « **Reply #2 on:** July 28, 2012, 04:17:30 PM »

A reboot is already planned within the next 5-7 years. I'm hoping somebody at DC wises up and convinces them to skip a new origin story.

Prof Underwood · « **Reply #3 on:** July 28, 2012, 05:27:54 PM »

I think a complete Batman saga needs to have more than 3 movies. There's just too much material to fit into a trilogy.

1 - Origin story, setting up main characters, and Batman rising to fame
2 - Taking on the responsibility of a sidekick, and then letting him leave (Robin/Nightwing)
3 - Replacing a sidekick, and then dealing with his death (Robin 2/Joker)
4 - Dealing with failure, and replacing yourself (Bane/Azrael)
5 - Learning to work with a team (Justice League)

I really think that all of those stories are essential to really telling the story of Batman. The villains for the first two movies could really be any of the big name Batman baddies (Riddler, Two-Face, Penguin, Catwoman, etc.)

Minister Polarius · « **Reply #4 on:** July 28, 2012, 06:57:30 PM »

Rebooting the Batman universe is ridiculous. Nolan's is the definitive Batman. And Robin is awful (the character, not Batman's successor).

Prof Underwood · « **Reply #5 on:** July 29, 2012, 02:25:25 AM »

You are of course entitled to your opinion. However as a parent, I find the story of Robin to be one of interest. Discovering how Bruce Wayne learns to basically parent an orphan when he grew up without parents himself is innately interesting. And to watch him do that while at the same time training a sidekick, and personally dealing with how much danger he is willing to expose someone else to is also interesting.

And as for Robin, I also think it is interesting to see how he deals with growing up. Starting in a state of brokenness from his own parent's deaths and his desire for revenge and his distrust of Bruce Wayne. Then transitioning to a developing sense of justice as well as trust and even admiration for Bruce later. And finally transitioning again into adulthood, and having to figure out how to separate from Bruce AND Batman in a way that can end well for both of them. I just think that is a story worth telling.

To put it another way, their relationship evolves from dork needing Bruce without knowing it, but Bruce not needing dork. Then to both of them needing each other but Bruce not knowing it. Then dork not needing Bruce anymore. And finally to Bruce being alone and realizing that he needed dork after all.

*** I just realized that Robin's real first name gets changed here on the forum to dork. It is really an abbreviation for Richard, for anyone who doesn't know that for some reason.***

Master KChief · « **Reply #6 on:** July 29, 2012, 03:41:16 AM »

Dork Grayson. Sounds legit.

Minister Polarius · « **Reply #7 on:** July 29, 2012, 04:34:22 AM »

That was the most hilarious thing I've ever read on the boards. At first I was like, "wait, dork? I thought he was pro-Robin" and then when I realized what was going on I lost it for real.

But seriously, Robin just can't work anymore. Brangelina jokes aside, you can't just go get an orphan these days, even if you are Bruce Wayne. It's possible that the series could be a period piece and the JLA set in the past (I don't remember seeing anything in the Man of Steel trailer that fixes it in time), which could actually be kind of cool, but a present-day (future, no less) setting has no place for Robin.

Prof Underwood · « **Reply #8 on:** July 30, 2012, 08:57:03 AM »

Quote from: Minister Polarius on July 29, 2012, 04:34:22 AM

But seriously, Robin just can't work anymore. Brangelina jokes aside, you can't just go get an orphan these days, even if you are Bruce Wayne.

That would definitely be an issue. You'd probably have to make the Graysons and Waynes relatives of some sort for it to work. The only other way I see it happening would be to make Robin 18 already so that he could choose to live wherever he wanted.

Then it could work based on mutual self-interest. Perhaps Bruce just feels bad for Robin due to remembering losing his own parents, or perhaps he sees Robin's desire for revenge and wants to prevent that. Either of those could explain why he would invite Robin to move to the manor.

Robin could be motivated by the money. He could assume that he could sell off some mansion stuff at a pawn shop in order to finance his revenge. He also could use a connection with someone like Bruce Wayne to gain audience with important Gothamites who he might discover had connections to his parent's deaths. Either of these could explain why he would accept Bruce's invitation.

drb1200 · « **Reply #9 on:** July 30, 2012, 04:59:53 PM »

Jonny Nolan should direct a spin-off trilogy involving Robin John Blake, Batman's successor.

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Author Topic: Christopher Nolan's Farewell Letter (Read 2101 times)

Master KChief

Christopher Nolan's Farewell Letter

Ironica

Re: Christopher Nolan's Farewell Letter

sk

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Prof Underwood

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Minister Polarius

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Prof Underwood

Re: Christopher Nolan's Farewell Letter

Master KChief

Re: Christopher Nolan's Farewell Letter

Minister Polarius

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Prof Underwood

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drb1200

Re: Christopher Nolan's Farewell Letter