Looper Director Talks Rebooting Batman for Warner Brothers

In a brief interview with cinema website Flickering Myth, Looper director Rian Johnson, whose last film starred The Dark Knight Rises standout Joseph Gordon-Levitt, was asked, basically, what he would say if, in a hypothetical world, he got a call from Warner Brothers asking him to pitch the next Batman movie, which is widely assumed to be a reboot of the franchise set in the same world as Man of Steel and Justice League.”I like that hypothetical. You know I love Batman, I didn’t grow up reading the comics but Batman movies, when that first Tim Burton Batman movie came out that kind of defined, in kind of like a weird way for the generation that I was in, that first Batman movie in a way it defined what a blockbuster was for me, more so than any of the ’70s movies,” Johnson said. “When that first Batman movie hit it was like this cultural volcano that defined what the superhero blockbuster was in a way that was just completely drew me in as a kid. So Batman is definitely the one superhero movie franchise that I’m 100% just completely in love with, and I love [Christopher] Nolan’s so much man. Right now I’m just focusing on doing my own thing. And that hypothetical that you mentioned has so many variables to it in terms of what kind of movie they’re looking to make and all of that so, you know, that call hasn’t happened and in the meanwhile I’m not gonna sit by the phone, I’m just gonna keep writing my own stuff.”The film, which is rumored to be set for a 2016 release, will be produced by Christopher Nolan, and he and his brother Johnathan have been rumored to be informally committed as creative consultants on the film. Reports are that the actual casting for Batman will happen with the Justice League filmmakers, so it’s unlikely we’ll get any kind of formal creative announcement on the next Batman until after that film enters production. Joseph Gordon-Levitt remains a fan favorite to take over as Batman but it seems unlikely, as Warners will likely want as clean a break as they can manage from the previous franchise.