Uwe Boll is still planning to make his next film The Dark Knight, starring Armie Hammer. Warner Bros has written him a letter.
According to Uwe Boll, Warner Bros has issued him with a cease and desist over his plans to release a film titled The Dark Knight. Nobody at all saw that move coming, and it must be an enormous shock to all concerned.
Despite being about a vigilante, starring Armie Hammer (who once came close to playing Batman in George Miller’s aborted Justice League: Mortal) and having the same title as Christopher Nolan’s acclaimed 2008 superhero sequel, the provocative filmmaker claims that using the same title would cause no confusion and is insisting that it has to stay.
In an effort to win over the affections of Warner Bros, Boll added on his podcast that the studio’s Batman films were all terrible anyway, saying, “Most of the DC and Marvel films suck. They’re too long and with endless CGI, and everything is fake and the stories suck. Especially Batman, how many Batmans do we want to watch? They suck.”
Reading between the lines, he doesn’t appear to be a fan.
Uwe Boll has described his film as being “very dark and very violent”, and said that it addresses the current landscape in Europe. Yikes.
Naturally, Warner Bros isn’t too keen having a film which addresses “rape and knife crime” bearing the same name as its acclaimed superhero film, and as such has told Boll to change the title. Boll, on the other hand, believes that the studio owes him a favour in this regard, and uses his podcast to outline his case:
“DC and Warner already contacted and said I can’t use the title. I understand that but I told them, ‘Guys, remember Rampage, the Rock movie? You used my title.’ The fact that they did that, and called me for permission, they could show gratefulness and say, listen it’s not a Batman movie and you can use the title.”
It doesn’t look as though Warner Bros is going to go with Boll’s argument. Though perhaps a compromise could yet be reached: according to World Of Reel, who also covered the story, Boll claims to have pitched DC head James Gunn with an idea for a ‘very violent and sexual’ Batman film. Maybe if that gambit comes off, he can finally get his title?
We’ll let you know more as we hear it. We suspect we know how it’ll end, though…
