Double Duty

Stax of Filmforce gives us some updated details on two high profile sequels...

Director Christopher Nolan is talking about his notions for The Dark Knight script and why he hired his brother to write it:

Filmmaker Christopher Nolan says the reason was "more circumstances than anything else" for why his writer brother Jonathan "Jonah" Nolan was tapped to write the screenplay for The Dark Knight, the sequel to Batman Begins. Jonah served in a consulting capacity on the 2005 film.

"When [Batman Begins co-screenwriter] David Goyer and I sat down about a year ago to hammer out the story treatment for another Batman, he was going off to direct a film [The Invisible] and I was going off to direct a film [The Prestige]," Chris Nolan recalls in the Sept./Oct. issue of Creative Screenwriting magazine.

He continued, "Jonah seemed the most obvious choice for someone to crack on the script and see if our story held any water. You sit there with your cue cards [note cards], but till you have to write a screenplay you never actually know what you've got. So we pulled the pin and tossed the grenade."

Jonah credits Chris with turning him onto Batman in the first place after buying him Frank Miller's graphic novel The Dark Knight Returns for his 14th birthday. "I have loved and cherished that character from that point, but through the lens of Frank Miller: Batman: Dark Knight Returns and Batman: Year One."

Jonah also draws comparisons between Batman and the magician protagonists in The Prestige.

"What's cool about Bruce Wayne and these magicians is that they are a stand-in for the filmmaker. They recognize that it's a normal world, and so they build a more interesting one."

Hey, Nolan can hire his entire family to work on the film, if he wants. As long as its as good as the first one is...

Meanwhile, actor Michael Caine, is giving us his thoughts on the Batman sequel as well

In related news, Michael Caine says on his official site "that in March I reprise my Butler roll [as Alfred] in the second Batman again directed by Christopher Nola and starring Christian Bale. This one is 'The Joker' and the Joker is Heath Ledger. Great casting."

The latest on which team is doing the special effects and some confirmed casting news on Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer:

Weta Digital, the Oscar-winning, New Zealand-based visual effects house behind the Lord of the Rings trilogy, has been selected by 20th Century Fox to work on the studio's sequel, The Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer.

Doug Jones (Hellboy, Pan's Labyrinth) has also been confirmed as the Silver Surfer. Much like Andy Serkis did for Gollum and King Kong, Jones will, according to The Hollywood Reporter, "provide performance and movement references for Weta."

The trade adds, "Weta has developed an advanced computer-generated animation process that employs motion-capture techniques updated to add further dimensionality to the liquid-metal hero."

The voice of the Silver Surfer has not yet been cast. For Hellboy, Jones played the role of Abe Sapien on-set while David Hyde Pierce provided the voice of the character.

IGN has [also] learned that Julian McMahon is indeed reprising his role as Dr. Doom for the sequel, balancing his Nip/Tuck schedule so that he can do his role as Dr. Doom for the sequel, so that he can do his TV series as well as the Fantastic Four follow-up, which is now shooting in Vancouver.

Weta Digital Ltd has done fine work in the past. I just hope that the effects for FF 2 are given a proper budget.

Doug Jones will do good work--too bad it all goes largely unnoticed.

Julian McMahon's talents were under-used in the first film in an underwritten part. I love him on Nip/Tuck. Hopefully his role in the follow-up will be worth the headache of dividing his time.