Riddler May Be Prime Villain In Batman 3; Nolan's Cinematographer Talks IMAX

Fans have been hungry for reliable info on Batman 3, but while presumed director Christopher Nolan finished his latest movie, Inception, he was reluctant to talk about the third film in his Batman series. Now that Inception is out and making money, it's time for Batman 3 to kick into gear. Accordingly, we've got some new info: Nolan's cinematographer Wally Pfister talks about ambitious desires for the use of IMAX in the third film.

And, probably more important to most of you, is a report, a bit more reliable than most, that says at least one of the villains in the film will be the Riddler, with Joseph Gordon-Levitt a prime candidate to play him.

There have been rumors of a JGL Riddler in the Batman sequel for some time. Today, FirstShowing got info from a source with a studio casting grid for Batman 3, so their report about the Riddler and Joseph Gordon-Levitt is more than pure speculation. In short, the casting gird is a data array with the roles in the film, possible actors, and scheduling needs. It shows talent availability and  which roles have actually been offered out. It can also be crucial in noting what actors can cover roles other then the ones they're primarily wanted for.

So this info lists the Riddler, and has JGL as a primary candidate marked as 'interested'. As FirstShowing says, don't take this as any report that Levitt is in the film, but it may be a good sign that the Riddler will be.

Easy to see how Levitt could be right for the part, and after his work in Inception it is also easy to see how Nolan would want to work with him again. Without knowing how the role is written I can project an idea of what a JGL Riddler would be like, and I dig it. (The fact that he's a lead candidate does suggest vague possibilities about how the role is being written.)

Meanwhile, cinematographer Wally Pfister is talking once more about whether the third Batman film might feature native IMAX footage to match the IMAX sequences from The Dark Knight.

Before even getting to Batman 3, IMAX was discussed for Inception. Those who've seen the film will immediately understand why the bulky cameras were unsuitable — it's a more mobile and hand-held film than The Dark Knight. "That's just not physically possible with the IMAX camera. We ruled out shooting in IMAX," Pfister told MTV.

But Batman 3 might use the format. In fact, it might use a lot of it. "I can't say until I read the script, but it would certainly be my preferred, amazing goal to shoot the whole movie in IMAX," says Pfister.

What's the chance of that? Probably not high, even though there have been rumors since last summer that the film would be all-IMAX. But we could see a big chunk of the film shot in IMAX, at least. Pfister continues,

I must say I'm a huge IMAX fan. I like IMAX more than I like 3-D...Chris' films are so densely layered and have so much going on visually in every way that IMAX helps enhance that because of the scope and the scale of it — it becomes a much larger canvas to paint on. That's what we found on 'Dark Knight'...I'm not a big fan of 3-D...I liken it to my View-Master I had 40 years ago. Are you really getting more out of the story with 3-D? When you separate those different planes and you're creating artificial depth, it looks phony to me.

So that's a good statement on the possibility of 3D, too. Although Christopher Nolan has expressed disinterest, but also said that he'll eventually make a 3D film when he's pressured to by a studio. He's said that when he does, it'll likely be a post-conversion job as shooting in native 3D degrades the image in a way he's not comfortable with. So will Batman 3 be post-converted? Inception is doing well, and hopefully Nolan has enough clout that he can successfully lobby to keep his three Batman films all of a piece and shoot the final chapter in a traditional format.