GOTHAM WEEKLY NEWS #179

September 12th, 2003

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CHRISTIAN BALE IS THE NEW BATMAN

(Source: Warner Bros Pictures)

Christian Bale has been cast in the starring role of Bruce Wayne in Warner Bros. Pictures' upcoming Batman movie, to be directed by Christopher Nolan and produced by Emma Thomas. The announcement was made today by Jeff Robinov, President of production for Warner Bros. Pictures.

Principal photography on the film is expected to begin in early 2004. The movie is written by David Goyer and Nolan, and will follow the early career of The Dark Knight.

Said Nolan, "What I see in Christian is the ultimate embodiment of Bruce Wayne. He has exactly the balance of darkness and light that we were looking for."

Robinov stated, "Now that we've found the best person to play Batman, we are really looking forward to moving ahead with the rest of our casting, and are excited about the exceptional group we are assembling."

So it looks like everything is in place for The Dark Knight to make his return to the movie theaters. After that exciting and long awaited news enjoy the rest of this week's BATMAN news below. For the round up of other devlopments on the movie see MOVIE NEWS below.

All the best.. - Alan J. Porter

IN THIS ISSUE

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Comics News

Latest Sales Charts

The Comics Sales Charts for August 2003 have been released and for the first time in many months BATMAN is not the top selling book, having been pushed down to the number 2 slot by Neil Gaiman's 1602 mini-series. Here's the chart positions for all the Batman related books this month.

And the Graphic Novels / Trade-Paperback chart positions:

Miller's Next Batman Project?

The "Lying In The Gutters" rumor column has posted a note speculating that Frank Miller's next project for DC could be a 300 Page BATMAN graphic novel done in the style of his Sin City series - i.e. Black & White. It also speculates that Miller won't be getting paid up front for the work but will share the profits with DC on a 50/50 basis.

Kingdom Come Figures Delayed

DC has announced that Wave 2 the KINGDOM COME ACTION FIGURES, which included a BATMAN figure, has been delayed and will now ship on October 15th

Comics Shipping (September 17th)

BATGIRL #44 - Written by Dylan Horrocks; art by Adrian Sibar and Andy Owens; painted cover by James Jean.
Batman and Batgirl must team up with Black Wind to take out Dr. Death before Death can unleash a genocidal weapon on the innocents of Tarakstan!  -  32pg.  |   Color  |  $2.50

BATMAN ADVENTURES #6 - Written by Dan Slott and Ty Templeton; art by Rick Burchett and Terry Beatty; cover by Kelsey Shannon.
Batman's out to bust the various rackets of the gangster named Black Mask...but he's playing with fire when he goes after the Mask's pet arsonist: Firefly! -   32pg.  |  Color  |  $2.25

BATMAN: BLACK AND WHITE VOL. 2 - Written by Chris Claremont, Paul Dini, Kelley Puckett, Steven T. Seagle, Ty Templeton, John Arcudi, Brian Azzarello, Alan Brennert, John Byrne, Howard Chaykin, Warren Ellis, Harlan Ellison, Alan Grant, Dave Gibbons, Bob Kanigher, Paul Levitz, Tom Peyer, Paul Pope, and Walter Simonson; art by Alex Ross, Steve Rude, Tim Sale, Marie Severin, Daniel Torres, Kyle Baker, Jordi Bernet, Enrique Breccia, John Buscema, Byrne, Gene Colan, Ronnie Del Carmen, José Luis García-López, Gibbons, Gene Ha, Jim Lee, John Paul Leon, Pope, Eduardo Risso, Paul Rivoche, Tony Salmons, Mark Buckingham, and Tom Palmer; cover by Mike Mignola.
Collecting the first sixteen Batman backups from BATMAN: GOTHAM KNIGHTS plus 40 pages of material commissioned for the hardcover in a softcover edition! Get a healthy dose of noir-flavored short stories featuring the Dark Knight &mdash mdash;written and drawn by a stellar lineup of creators!  -   176pg.  |  Softcover  |  Color  |  $19.95

BATMAN: GOTHAM KNIGHTS #45 - Written by Scott Beatty and Kimo Temperance; art by Dave Ross, John Floyd and Nathan Fox; cover by Brian Bolland.
"Knights Passed" ends with a bang as Man-Bat enters the picture! But what does he want, and why is shredding Batman part of the answer? Meanwhile, the people closest to Bruce Wayne find themselves targeted by someone who wants the truth about the death of Jason Todd. Plus, in the black-and-white backup, a tale of action, adventure...and babysitting? Batman hunts down a band of crooks in a warehouse and finds an infant. Fisticuffs and teething collide as the Dark Knight must rescue the hapless tot!  -    40pg.  |  Color  |  $2.75

BIRDS OF PREY #59 - Written by Gail Simone; art and cover by Ed Benes and Alex Lei.
Master extortionist Savant has pushed Oracle's courage and Canary's will to their very limits! Now Babs reluctantly recruits the Huntress, while Dinah must make a sacrifice that leaves her more vulnerable than ever. Their final confrontation with the man who knows their weaknesses will have repercussions for months to come! -   32pg.  |   Color  |  $2.50

JLA/JSA: VIRTUE AND VICE - Written by David S. Goyer and Geoff Johns; art and cover by Carlos Pacheco and Jesús Meriño.
A softcover edition of 2002's thrilling, critically acclaimed hardcover! What starts as a friendly get-together between the JLA and JSA degenerates into a destructive melee...and from the ashes emerges a villainous uber-team made up of select members from each group. What's made these former heroes of virtue turn into agents of vice? And who can possibly stop them once they get really mad? -  96 pg.  |  Softcover  |   Color  |  $17.95

JLA-Z #1 - Written by Mike McAvennie; art by Jim Lee, Scott McDaniel, Scott Kolins, Rob Haynes, Patrick Gleason, Dan Jurgens, Jeff Parker, Pascual Ferry, Tom Nguyen, Peter Pachoumis, Scott Williams, Christian Alamy, and various; cover by Phil Jimenez.
A handbook to DC's greatest super-team featuring artwork by some of the biggest names in comics, timed to coincide with the debut of JLA/AVENGERS! Featuring the first of a triptych of covers by Phil Jimenez (originally featured in Wizard magazine), this stunning issue includes villains and heroes from Amazo to Green Arrow, and features artwork by BATMAN's Jim Lee, SUPERMAN's Scott McDaniel and indie comics superstars including Jeff Parker (The Interman). -  32pg.  |  1 of 3  |  Color  |   $2.25 (RESCHEDULED)

OUTSIDERS #4 - Written by Judd Winick; art and cover by Tom Raney and Scott Hanna.
A month into the Outsiders' tenure, the group feels frustrated to be hunting "low-rent super villains." They set their collective sights on the bigger guns, but that way leads to blood...Brother Blood, to be exact. -  32pg.  |   Color  |  $2.50

ROBIN #118 - Written by Jon Lewis; art by Pete Woods and Andrew Pepoy; cover by Jo Chen.
The storyline that redefines Robin's role continues! Burdened with a horrible secret and certain there's a traitor within the Bat-group, Robin nears his breaking point. And while his investigation into the traitor's identity produces a possible lead, Robin finds himself being stalked! -  32pg.  |  Color  |  $2.25

SUPERMAN/BATMAN #2 - Written by Jeph Loeb; art and cover by Ed McGuinness and Dexter Vines.
Teaming DC's two mightiest heroes in one action-packed monthly book! Badly injured, Superman and Batman must make it back to the Batcave, where they confront the most unexpected guest-star of the year! Plus, Lex Luthor makes a startling announcement that will have an impact on the lives of both heroes! -   32pg.  |  Color  |  $2.95

TV Schedules

BATMAN: THE ANIMATED SERIES (Cartoon Network)

JUSTICE LEAGUE (Cartoon Network)

SUPER FRIENDS (Boomerang)

SUPERMAN/BATMAN ADVENTURES (Boomerang)

TEEN TITANS (Cartoon Network)

UK TV SCHEDULE

Toonami, Turner's new UK cartoon Network has just started broadcasting. The following Batman shows will be running.

BATMAN OF THE FUTURE (Batman Beyond) :

JUSTICE LEAGUE

Movie News

LATEST "BATMAN 5" NEWS

The news about the set design at Shepperton last week, raised the possibility that the next movie villian could be Ra's Al Ghul, but this week an on-site source told the Batman-on-Film site that it may be The Scarecrow, and that the "Egyptian looking" sets are for a fear-gas induced hallucination scene. bear in mind that The Scarecrow has been been the villian most consitently mentioned in connection with "Batman 5" over the last 5 years. The appearence of Dr. Crane is also mentioned by the Chrisptopher Nolan site as being "99.9%" certain. However Ain't It Cool News maintains that while The Scarcrow will appear, it will be a "short apperence" and that the main bad guy will be Ra's and that some of the action will be set in London.

This week's rumor round-up:

CROWE TO BATTLE THE BAT?

At the end of last week Dark Horizons reported that during a gig for his band 30 Odd Foot Of Grunts, Russell Crowe apparently mentioned that he had been offered a "damn bad guy role thing that the guy from Memento's doing".?

STONE AND LAMBERT CONFIRM CATWOMAN

The Comics Continuum website reports that Sharon Stone has confirmed she will be in the upcoming Catwoman movie from Warner Bros. In an interview on Entertainment Tonight she had little to say about her character beyond "I can't say what I do, but I am the head of a cosmetics company," she also said she is looking forward to working with Halle Berry, who plays the lead role. "We've wanted to work together for some time, and I can't imagine it could be anything but a complete blast."  While Dark Horizons confirms that Lambert Wilson has signed on for the role of Stone's husband.

CATWOMAN's $100M BUDGET

According to a report on the Super-hero Hype page, the president of the Village Roadshow production company has publicly stated that they have commited to a budget of $100M for the upcoming CATWOMAN movie.

See our own CATWOMAN MOVIE PAGE for a round up of all the latest news on this in-production movie.

2nd BATWOMAN PREVIEW SHOWING

According to The Toon Zone, the upcoming direct to video.DVD animated movie Mystery of the Batwoman will be shown again in Los Angeles, during the Comic Book and Sci-Fi Con on September 28th. The movie starts at 12:00pm, and following it at 1:30 will be an on-stage discussion with screenwriter Michael Reaves, director Curt Geda and producer Margaret Dean.

On The Web

Batman Charity Contest

Made any charitable donations recently? The take a xerox of your reciept, it may give you a chance to win these great looking Neal Adams styled BATMAN figures. Check out the Iron Cow Productions Charity Contest page for more details.

Defender of Gotham Returns

Welcome return to Defender Of Gotham website, which went live again this week following a short absence.

Meet The Bat Team

SEATTLE COMICARD CONVENTION - Seattle Center  - Sept 14th

Guests include: PAUL GULACY,

ITHACON 28 - Ithaca NY - Sept 20th

Guests include: SCOTT BEATTY, BOB ROZAKIS,

BALTIMORE COMIC-CON - Baltimore Convention Center - Sept 20th to 21st

The Baltimore show continues to grow each year with more visitors and more guests. Confirmed attendees this year include: JIM LEE (Saturday only), GREG RUCKA, BRIAN STELFREEZE.

SUPER-MEGA SHOW - Meadowlands, Secaucus NJ - Sept 20th to 21st

This media and pop-culture show will feature LEE MERIWEATHER who played Catwoman in the 1966 Batman movie.

MAJESTICON - Denver CO - Sept 21st

Featuring Detective Comics penciller TOM CASTILLO

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GOTHAM WEEKLY NEWS is a FOREST COMICS Publication.

 FOREST COMICS and GOTHAM WEEKLY NEWS are (c) and TM  - Alan J. Porter (1994 - 2003)

 "GOTHAM WEEKLY NEWS", "GOTHAM GAZETTE - The BATMAN Magazine On the Web" and "THE UNAUTHORIZED BATMAN COLLECTORS GUIDE" are not affiliated to, or endorsed by, either Warner Bros. or DC Comics.

BATMAN and all related characters and indicia are acknowledged as Trademark and copyright DC Comics Inc..

 BATMAN created by Bob Kane & Bill Finger