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With writer/director/producer Christopher Nolan putting together THE DARK KNIGHT RISES (the third installment of his BATMAN movies) and director Zack Snyder busy working a SUPERMAN reboot, many have posed the question as to whether or not these films might interact with one another, the way all of the Marvel films have been lately. As you may already know, IRON MAN crossed over with Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) and THE AVENGERS movie, THE INCREDIBLE HULK did the latter, and IRON MAN 2 featured a THOR teaser. Next summer we see the release of THOR and CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE FIRST AVENGER. All of those films are building up to THE AVENGERS movie by Joss Whedon, which will put Robert Downey Jr. as Iron Man, Chris Evans as Captain America, Sam Jackson as Nick Fury, Chris Hemworth as Thor, Scarlett Johansson as Black Widow, Mark Ruffalo as The Hulk, Jeremy Renner as Hawkeye, and Don Cheadle as War Machine together in the same blockbuster comic book film. It’s only natural to wonder if DC would consider putting The Caped Crusader together with Supes. ShockTillYouDrop recently interviewed producer Charles Roven for SEASON OF THE WITCH, which opens this weekend, and Roven dropped some interesting info on the upcoming DC franchises.
For starters, Roven responded to the idea of doing a crossover with the two characters, and makes it seem pretty clear that’s not in the cards:
No. That may be in somebody’s mind but right now the Batman lives in his world and the Superman lives in his world. Those stories are those stories and we haven’t thought beyond each individual picture.
In response to whether or not the BATMAN movies might continue past THE DARK KNIGHT RISES, he had another rather definitive answer:
I think that Chris Nolan has said that he wanted to make a trilogy and this is a trilogy. As far as we all know, this is it. This is the trilogy. The Dark Knight Rises is the third part of what Chris created with Batman Begins and we’re not looking past that. I’ve said this about Chris before: I’ve never known Chris to do anything but focus on the movie he’s making. He gets completely immersed in the movie he’s doing and I know that all he’s thinking about right now when it comes to Batman, the Dark Knight Rises, is making it the best movie he can. He’s not thinking, “will there be another one?” And he’s already said, in his mind, it’s a trilogy. So I think he’s just focusing on making this the best he possibly can and that’s it.
In response to balancing both the BATMAN sequel and a new take on SUPERMAN, and whether or not the schedules of shooting might possibly overlap:
It’s a huge workload, but there’s a way we’ve been talking about how to make it work. Hopefully, there will be a little bit of time in-between the start of production on both of them. Right now Dark Knight Rises is coming out in the summer of 2012 and Superman is coming out in the winter of 2012. So hopefully — and we’re just at the beginning phases of both of them. We haven’t even entered official pre-production on either one of them — there will be a little bit of room. They’re both going to be long shoots. I’m sure there’s going to be some overlap, but hopefully there’ll be as little overlap as possible.
Finally, they managed to squeeze in a question about to chances of seeing a CGI costume in SUPERMAN: MAN OF STEEL similar to what DC did with Ryan Reynolds costume in GREEN LANTERN. The response was:
You know, one of the things that you probably know about me and us working on this movie is that the rumors are the rumors and when we have something to say, we’ll say it. Until we do, there’s nothing to say.
Well, there ya go. Some nice tidbits about both films, which are still in the early production stages. It’s going to be a while before we start hearing anything really juicy, but it’s always nice to get at least an idea of what is going on, or at least know what we won’t be seeing. I’m seeing SEASON OF THE WITCH tomorrow night, and actually kind of looking forward to it. It feels like a scary movie from my childhood, which Silas Lesnick of ShockTillYouDrop even eluded to. Roven is currently working on the Kathryn Bigelow and Mark Boal project TRIPLE FRONTIER starring Tom Hanks and (is in talks with) Johnny Depp. What are your thoughts on the upcoming SUPERMAN and BATMAN movies? Tell us in the comments.
Born and raised in Dallas, Mark has been a movie critic since 1994, with reviews featured in print, radio and National TV. In 2001 he started the Entertainment section of the Herorealm website, where he contributed film reviews and celebrity interviews until 2004. After three years of service there, he started Bigfanboy.com, which has become one of the Dallas film community's leading information websites. Bigfanboy hosts several movie screenings in the Texas area, and works closely with film and TV studios and promotional partners to host exciting events and contests. The site also features a variety of rare celebrity and filmmaker interviews, and Bigfanboy.com regularly covers the film festival circuit as well. In addition to Hollywood reporting, Mark has worked for many years as an advertising and sci-fi/comic book artist. Clients have included Lucasfilm Ltd., Topps Trading Cards, The Dallas Mavericks and The Dallas Stars. From 2002 until 2015 he managed the Dallas Comic Con, Sci-Fi Expo and Fan Days events in the DFW area. He currently catalogs rare comic books and movie memorabilia for Heritage Auctions, and runs the Dallas Comic Show conventions, but remains an avid moviegoer and cinema buff. 
