It's possible. Nolan has adapted bits and pieces of that thing. Love the moment w/ the bats at Arkham.

Yeah. That's probably another reason I'm wondering this'd happen.

And the bats scene in Arkham was fantastic.

My mind is hazy....did TDK use anything from Batman: Year One?

JGL not playing Alberto Falcone?

Got this from wikipedia about influences of Year One on Batman Begins and TDK:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Batman:_Year_One

Never thought about the whole saving JG's kid like that.

Since we're getting Bane...I'm assuming we'll see a nod to the back breaking of Batman? That'd be kind of scary visually. I'd be thinking no....he won't let that happen..but what if just Bane does that? Maybe not literally throwing him to his knee but that image of Batman at his physically weakest about to be destroyed. That'd be a shock moment from me. I'd like to see that captured in some way via Nolan.

Then how about Jean Paul Valley? He takes over as Batman after Bane breaks Bruce Wayne's back, and later becomes Azrael.

I'd rather he play Aunt Harriet than Jean Paul Valley.

I could see TDKR taking its inspiration in part from Knightfall Part 1 (in the same vein that BB and TDK did for Year One). Everything about the mind games and physical battle between Bane and Bruce minus the sidekicks and JPV/Azrael.

BTW, I'm not completely buying that JGL isn't playing Alberto Falcone. I'm wondering if Variety made a slip up similar to what they did when they announced Liam Neeson as Ras Al Ghul before correcting it to state he was playing Henri Ducard. I can see JGL playing somebody like Black Mask, leader of the new generation mob who is revealed to be the son of an old school mobster.

Of course, Variety might've just reported the same conjecture as on many boards...

Can you seriously see JGL as Batman? I see him as a Riddler type but that's not likely to happen.

I hope JGL is playing a unique character to the Nolanverse so all you comic nerds will be wrong.

It could happen and if it's a good character, I'll be happy to be wrong... Though the solo major original character didn't exactly work out too well. She served her purpose for sure but she was the weakest link in both films.

ditto. THOUGH her end in the story was surprising and effective. I like that aspect of her....that and Maggie G. as her....EXCEPT...she was a very underwritten character. Not a bad one, just underwritten. At least she was much more convincing than Holmes was.

Also...NO to JPV/Azrael. Somebody taking the mantle of Batman in a Nolan verse doesn't mesh well. Again...JPV was an interesting moment in that arc in the comics..but...not written well.

since they are so hush on who JGL is playing, maybe he actually is going to play as joker in a scene, he could easily match the joker performance based on looks and charisma

Sorry, but I'll never accept somebody who was in 10 Things I Hate About You as Joker.

Does that include the actor who won an Oscar for playing the Joker?

I'll give you effective but surprising that she died? Not so much as it seems that's why the character was created to begin with. I do agree MG was an upgrade over Holmes and did the best she could with a limited role.

Once again, someone gonged by Groucho.

Julia Stiles could pull it off.

Well considering how in superhero movies not many "good people" die in these things...yeah it surprised me, and that was good. The thing that made it less surprising was how well received she was to begin with...not that great. I didn't expect her to go w/ the boom. I thought that was cool and interesting considering that Batman, in an uneducated media consumer adult's view, is a kid product. A lot of people still think it's a property directed to kids all the time, which it isn't. So to have the superhero fail like that..yeah....surprising.

Fair enough, I just knew before hand her character was created to die and add depth to the character. It was done in a clever way, though.

I wonder if that "depth" will be shown to Batman. I mean..he's kind of an absolute type of guy. No offense to the way she was killed, it was cool and it only stamps Bat's War on Crime very well too but...I wonder how those emotions, if at all, will be shown in TDKR.

I would certainly hope so since that's something that will define him. Before he thought criminals were just that and you can, with brain and brawn, stop them because their motivations were simple. Yet he faced somebody like The Joker whose only motivation is chaos. So when he faced the moral dilemma that the way to stop The Joker was to kill him, that threw everything he knew out the window. Before The Joker came to town, I wonder if he would have dropped Maroni. Obviously he knew it wouldn't kill him but that was aggressive interrogation and you could see Batman cross a line that I wonder if he wouldn't have before. I'm no longer an avid Batman comic book reader and while he's certainly beaten up criminals, did he ever go that far to break their legs?

I am curious to see how TDKR answers some of the questions. What about Reese and his knowing who Batman is? From some fans' perspectives, they think his story is done but for me, Nolan can't just drop that as now both the cops and criminals will be very interested to know the identity thus Reese is a liability. What about the people killed that Batman takes responsibility for? I can't remember off hand now but I do remember a discrepancy with the number of deaths they said and what we saw. According to Nolan, that will be addressed.

So there's a lot that I'm hoping gets answered as well as to see how Batman/Bruce Wayne will evolve. Sorry for the rambling and I'm not really sure if I answered your post or not, it all just kind of came out.

You did.

I have to admit...I can't say I remember Batman hurting a guy that bad, who wasn't a super villain especially. I mean...it's kind of extreme. Maroni COULD have died too if he fell on his head somehow. So...it is kind of extreme. Maybe a hand or some fingers...I THINK.

Reese is object of interest as well for me. If it isn't answered, it'd be sooooo out of character for Batman to just leave that be. I'd like to say his story is done and out but....Nolan has to know that it's just a VERY big strand to leave there hanging. Maybe a crime boss/Bane/League of Shadows/whomever will kill him in an attempt of getting that info? Yeah, Nolan also said about the number of deaths. That was the one thing that bothered..who exactly was killed and are they included in that number?

So is Marion Cotillard confirmed or was she ever really attached? I know that cnn.com is where I got the info, not some place like AICN, so I would like to think they're a little more reliable.

The end of Batman Begins does raise the question as to whether or not Batman is actually doing good for Gotham. The final conversation with Gordon suggests that due to a "superhero" type appearing, the opposite "super villains" will now start to rise, starting with the Joker. TDK basically illustrates the demise of the old school criminal in Gotham represented by the mob and the rise of the more dangerous/unpredictable one. I think that might be why TDKR has several villains, to continue this theme.