Will Christopher Nolan Return to Direct BATMAN 3?

We were all working on an assumption that Christopher Nolan would return to direct the third (or seventh, depending on how you want to count them) “Batman” movie because “The Dark Knight” made an ungodly sum of money and because trilogies are mandatory for all creative personnel involved unless they’re actors playing villains and screenwriters.  But directors and leading actors are all required to keep coming back to play the same role or else the fans will start with the whaling and the gnashing of the teeth.

But now such whaling and gnashing may well begin as Batman-on-Film is reporting that Nolan returning for a third go-around with Bats is far from a done deal.  You see, in order for it to be a done deal, Warner Brothers has to drive a dump truck full of non-sequential, unmarked bills to Nolan’s home and leave the money on his front porch.  They have not done so and thus there is some “indecision” from Nolan’s camp, especially since there’s no story for the third film as the original plan was to have Heath Ledger return as The Joker.  Wait to blow it for everyone, Heath.*

As for when we’ll even seen the next “Batman” movie, BOF’s source says that while Nolan is developing ideas with his brother Jonathan and David Goyer, the next film wouldn’t hit theatres until at least 2012 and possibly even 2013.  I would bet more for 2012 as Nolan could begin pre-production on “Batman 3″ while he’s doing post-production on his current film, “Inception”.  I’m sure WB will do whatever it takes to bring Nolan back but personally, since there’s a 99% chance he won’t be able to top himself with a third film, it may be better to hand it over to someone else and a different vision of Gotham City.

Begin fanboy revolt in 3…2…1…

*2 soooon!