As Christian Bale racks up rave reviews for his performance as Gorr the God Butcher in Thor: Love and Thunder, the actor has opened up about his first foray into the comic book realm: Batman Begins. While the 2005 film launched the critically-lauded Dark Knight Trilogy thanks to Bale’s now-iconic portrayal of the DC Comics hero, apparently, Hollywood didn’t have a whole lot of faith in the project.
Before Bale slapped on the cape and cowl, the last live-action film starring the Caped Crusader was the 1997 franchise-killing bomb, Batman and Robin, starring George Clooney. So when Bale started going around telling people about Christopher Nolan‘s new take on the character for Batman Begins, they didn’t hold back their thoughts. Via The Washington Post:
“I would [tell people] we’re going to sort of do Batman, but take him seriously. I had tons of people laugh at me and just say, ‘well that’s just not going to work at all,’” Bale said. “So, it’s wonderful to be a part of a trilogy that proved those people wrong. I’m not certain if it kick-started [the MCU] but it certainly helped along the way.”
Obviously, Bale is correct and The Dark Knight Trilogy was a freaking juggernaut and the last time DC Comics really went toe-to-toe with the still-burgeoning Marvel Cinematic Universe. In fact, it might not be the end of the story. While working the Love and Thunder promotional rounds, Bale recently admitted that he’s game for a fourth Batman movie if Nolan is on board.
“If he wished to tell that story with me, I’d be in,” Bale told Screen Rant. Needless to say, nobody laughed at that idea.
(Via The Washington Post)
