Full disclosure from the writer: I was involved with the last great casting war for BATMAN when I was Christian Bale‘s marketer. That nail-biting experience provides an insight to the BATMAN casting wars happening right now. The stakes are bigger, but the types of actors fighting for the Dark Knight’s cowl are still the same. The marketing strategies are timeless.
The early 2000s were very different when Christian Bale won the part of BATMAN in BATMAN BEGINS. Warner Brothers was looking to reboot a franchise that had been dormant after the dreadful 1990s BATMAN & ROBIN which starred George Clooney and BATMAN FOREVER which starred Val Kilmer. Common to both movies was director Joel Schumacher, so there was enough blame to go around – Kilmer, Clooney, Schumacher, or screenwriter Akiva Goldsman. WB’s ham-fisted approach to pouring money on special effects and casts wasn’t translating into box office gold or fanboy respect.
Indeed, while the Schumacher movies were getting glitzier and campier (nipples and codpieces on the Batsuit?!?), the Batman graphic novels were getting darker and grittier thanks to the works of Frank Miller and Alan Moore. The gap between movie Batman and graphic novel Batman was becoming a liability. It was obvious that WB needed to clean house.
Fast forward to the Christopher Nolan era. Nolan’s dark post-9/11 vision of BATMAN matched the mood of the nation. It’s no coincidence that the Nolan DARK KNIGHT trilogy made every superhero movie darker. And poor Superman with his squeaky clean “truth, justice, and the American way” motto seemed terribly out of sync with a world hungry for vigilante and nihilism.
So Nolan’s three BATMANs all starred Christian Bale in a role that he has come to own, thanks to the commercial and critically success of the trilogy. But Bale signed a three part deal and has already expressed that he would NOT return to the role of Batman unless Nolan would again write and direct.
At this summer’s COMIC-CON, MAN OF STEEL director Zack Snyder announced that the sequel would be coming out 2015. And to the roar of the audience, he presented a Superman logo superimposed on the Bat logo. The next movie? BATMAN VERSUS SUPERMAN. To be loosely based on Frank Miller’s DARK KNIGHT RETURNS graphic novel.
But who would play Batman? The Twitterverse erupted. First to tweet? Aussie actor, Liam McIntyre, best known for his strong work in SPARTACUS. Let’s apply the Batman litmus test: American accent? Unknown. Looks good in a Bruce Wayne tux: probably. Buff? Yes.
In the 4 weeks since the stunning Comic-Con announcement, a number of actors’ names have been floating around. Let’s have a quick look at the major contenders, shall we?
Ryan Gosling – American accent? Yes. Tux-able? Yes. Buff? Yes. But Gosling has spoken clearly that he is not interested in the part. Bat fans were also hypercritical about Gosling’s nasal delivery. And even with his fans trying to rally around the House of Gosling, if an actor isn’t interested, the fan rallies are all for naught. Gosling has an established career with an Oscar nomination and he knows that whoever inherits Batman will always be compared to Bale’s performance – rightly or wrongly. Those are big Batboots to fill.
Orlando Bloom – American accent? Yes. Tux-able? If a tailor can tighten up a kids suit for him. Buff? Ummmm…… his name has been floating up more recently as a “sure thing” and this has caused the Batfans to flip out. Will they accept the slender elven Bloom as the Dark Knight? Will audiences accept Orlando, the whimpering coward from TROY who had to get rescued by big brother, Eric Bana? This leads us to another rumored contender.
Eric Bana – American accent? Yes. Tux-able? Yes. Buff? Hell yeah. Older than Bale himself, Bana is an interesting choice. He’s played warriors. He’s played a hunky survivalist in HANNA, a ruthless assassin in MUNICH and of course, HULK. Bana’s name has been bantered about when WB sources have signaled that Batman should be in his 40s – to better align with the Frank Miller graphic novel.
Josh Brolin – American accent? Yes Tux-able? In a craggy way. Buff? Yet to be seen. If the WB goes for an older Bruce Wayne, Brolin might fit the bill with his already well-lined face. He is the same age as Eric Bana.
Ethan Hawke – American accent? yes. Tux-able? Yes, but please iron the suit first! Buff? See GATTACA. Hawke would be an interesting choice, but he brings too much baggage from his work to let the fanboys accept him. He’d be nicknamed the Slacker Crimefighter.
Just when the casting game couldn’t get interesting enough, Christopher Nolan himself decided to bless Wes Bentley as BATMAN contender. American accent? Yes. Tux-able? Yes. Buff? Yet to be seen. If the name Wes Bentley doesn’t ring a bell, he was The Young Hollywood star of the future when he impressed in AMERICAN BEAUTY as the moody, stalker kid across the street who liked to video a plastic bag floating in the wind. Bentley has been out of sight for the past years as he completed a very public drug rehab. And it’s Bentley’s almost nobody status which might help him land BATMAN since he doesn’t bring any of the baggage and image from the previously mentioned candidates.
Oh, there are other names mentioned out there for BATMAN, including Jake Gyllenhaal who was originally after the part for BATMAN BEGINS.
Rising British star, actor Scott Adkins supposedly has already screen-tested for the part. Working against Adkins is that his past roles have not been starring roles.
Non-starter Nathan Fillion (FIREFLY) got a lot of press talking about how he wouldn’t make a good Batman.
So, who will Warner Bros pick? There’s a good chance that they’ll go with a lesser known actor. When Christian landed the part, he was not an A-list actor by any means. The audience will be coming in to see Batman, not the actor.
Another factor is budget. A stupid recent rumor had the WB offering $50 million to Bale to reprise his part. This rumor was a clever bit of book marketing to promote an e-book about the Batman casting wars, but it’s easy to do the math. Let’s say BATMAN VS SUPERMAN will cost $200 million. Will a studio really give up a quarter of its budget to one actor? And after the hit MAN OF STEEL, Henry Cavill is not going to sit still if his co-star gets $50 million while he makes his paltry $12 million. With the special effects, we can expect BATMAN VS SUPERMAN will be an expensive movie, so the best place for the WB to save some bucks is on casting.
Let’s also not discount Bale’s desire to leave the franchise on top. If he did a Zack Snyder directed BATMAN and the movie stunk, it would make movie goers rethink the actor/director team of Nolan/Bale if Bale can’t stand on his own.
Think back to BATMAN BEGINS – a movie that WB built with a large supporting cast (Michael Caine, Liam Neeson, Katie Holmes, Gary Oldman, Morgan Freeman, etc…). I can see the same strategy for BATMAN VS SUPERMAN.
Whoever is Batman next will have a tough time to make the role his own. They will face the high expectations of the Batfans who will not tolerate any movie they consider less than the Nolan era. And they will not accept an actor with no less growl and gravitas like Bale. And guess what, Batfans? They will also have to accept a movie piloted by Zack Synder. That’s a lot of change coming in 2015. I can’t wait that long!
Harrison Cheung is the award-winning author of the Christian Bale biography, THE INSIDE STORY OF THE DARKEST BATMAN. Learn more at bale-biography.com