I finally joined the 21st Century and got around to seeing both “Batman Begins” and “The Dark Knight”.  I had to have in on the hype at some point.  I will say, overall, I was impressed, but who needs another tired review of the biggest movie of the summer?

Instead, lets look ahead to the inevitable part 3.  Because even if supermo-director Chris Nolan passes up the chance, Warner Bros. have just scored the third biggest film in movie history and are sitting on possibly the biggest film franchise since Star Wars.  So why not a third?  And fourth?  And probably even a fifth!

Much discussion has occurred as to whether a third film can and will happen.  Whilst the story of Batman is a lengthy ongoing saga that Nolan could go on reimagining for years, the death of Heath Ledger leaves a hole where a Joker may be.  So the biggest question on everyone’s lips, is who the next big villain should be?

For a rundown of the top 5 possibilities and rumours, which may include a few spoilers from “The Dark Knight”, follow the jump.

Batman was a comic book series, and later a television series, that ran for years.  Throughout his time the dark one faced many evil crooks, psychopaths and general wrongens, the most famous being the star of “The Dark Knight”, The Joker.  But whilst The Joker is perhaps the best known villain, a few others are also closely associated with the series, and could be due a comeback:

1. Catwoman

Catwoman is perhaps the ‘favourite’ to be Batman’s newest nemesis.  Whilst The Joker is locked up in the bowels of Arkham Insane Asylum, word on the street is that Angelina Jolie will be stepping into the thigh high boots and whiskers to cause some disruption to Gotham.

Catwoman would make the perfect villain for the next installment in the series, because she is not a psychopathic killer in the vein of The Joker, but a thief, seductress and above all, rival to Bruce Wayne.  A new Batman film could focus less on the theatrical explosions, and more on the intimate relationship between Catwoman and Batman.

Fuel has been added to this fire by the revelation that Maggie Gyllenhaal, the actress who took over from Katie Holmes in the role of Rachel Dawes, is signed up for the next installment.  This is a suprise since Rachel’s death in “The Dark Knight” is one of the major plot points, but apparantly, this could all be a part of the grand plan.  Under Nolan’s vision, perhaps, Rachel Dawes is not dead but returns a master criminal, in the form of Catwoman.  This gives the tortured love story between Rachel and Bruce room to continue, and gives the usually flimsy back-story to Catwoman a greater depth than ever before.

2. Two-Face

“The Dark Knight” gave us the creation of Two-Face, the master criminal born from the disfigurement and disillusionment of Harvey Dent.  Allegedly, the next installment was to build upon the Two-Face/Joker storyline, following the plotline of “Dark Victory”, the sequel to the graphic novel “The Long Halloween”, the basis for “The Dark Knight”.  In “Dark Victory”, Dent and The Joker join forces to take down the Gotham Mafia as part of a turf war.  With the passing of Heath Ledger, this particular storyline seems out of the picture, but Two-Face does seem set to return in the next film.

3. The Penguin

The Penguin is a name that is being banded about alot in connection to the next film.  Rumour has it that the role of the mad, umbrella carrying crime boss, will be played by Philip Seymour Hoffman,  Whilst in early comics, and indeed previous films, The Penguin has been displayed as some kind of mad, half-penguin, half-man character, in recent years The Penguin has taken on a darker and more realistic role as a crime lord.  This would certainly match up with Nolan’s vision for a more “realistic” Batman.

4. The Riddler

Probably the least likely of the villains to appear, many critics have already cast Johnny Depp in this role.

5. A Lesser-Known Batman Villain

The most likely idea of all is that the super-villain Batman will have to face will not be one of the “popular” characters at all, but another from the 70 year archive.  Series screenwriter David Goyer recently said on the subject:

“Batman has been published for 70 years. In the first movie, we used Ra’s Al Ghul and the Scarecrow, who had not been in the movies before, and had not been in the ’60s TV show before.

“There are dozens if not hundreds of other characters that fit that bill. Everyone says it’s got to be the Penguin or Catwoman [in the next film]… well I completely disagree.”

So there you have it.  The next villain may be one that you, me and Batman didn’t see coming.  However, one thing is for certain, whoever the next super-villain is, he or she will be downright creepy, if not slightly toned down for the PG/12 audience.  Take a look at the following concept shots for The Joker in “The Dark Knight”.  They’re fucking terrifying.

Scary shit.

What has Paris Hilton been upto since being released from jail last year?  Finally we have an answer - “Repo! The Genetic Opera“.  Repo! is a new musical film that takes some obvious pointers from “The Rocky Horror Picture Show”, which stars none-other than a singing Paris Hilton in a black wig.  Recoiling in horror?  Don’t.  Although she still can’t sing, word is she turns in a pretty convincing performance as a rich, heiress with some addiction problems.  Ok, probably not too hard a role to fill.  Here’s a preview of Paris in action:

Repo! is a multithreaded story set in the future, after mass organ failure has hit the world and the Gene Co. corporation have moved in to keep things running.  The different plots centre around characters involved with the Gene Co. corporation, and aswell as Paris Hilton there’s that woman who used to be married to Andrew Lloyd Webber, who sings a bit of Opera, and Giles from Buffy.  Here’s the trailer:

The film is due for release in November.  I’m up for it. You?

What is the most important lesson your tween will learn this year?  Is it how to do long multiplication? No.  Is it not to carry knives, because, rather than being a good defense it infacts put you at greater risk of violent crime?  Unlikely.  No, it is a lesson taught by Disney - how to make a buck.

Coming this ‘fall’ is the third and final installment in a consumerist icon, “High School Musical 3: Senior Year”.  Cheesy music and bad dance routines in place, morality laden script ready and a team of teen sluts doing their best virginity impressions waiting at the door - this installment, the only film of the series to get a big screen debut, is set to take High School Musical to a new level of nauseation.

And yet it’s all so addictive, isn’t it?  Maybe it’s because we all have a secret desire to live in a world where the most complicated problem you face is being overshadowed by Sharpay in the school play, or maybe it’s because Zac Efron is just so fuckable.  Either way, I see Disney eschewing any kind of economic recession with this one.

Here’s the official trailer:

Proof that Disney wants a hit - here’s a photo of a giant Wall-E at Hollywood’s El Capitan Theatre.

Ok, you’ve probably heard this by now, but incase you haven’t, here’s the news: Following the enormous success of the “Sex And The City” movie, a big screen adaptation of “Friends” is now said to be in the works.  Apparantly Jennifer Aniston, being the most famous and successful of the bunch, was the outsider.  But having seen what the Sex film has done for Sarah Jessica Parker’s bank balance, inspite of her rapidly aging face, Aniston is sold.

One word: EURGHGHGH!

“Sex and the City” worked as  a film, because the series was shot like a series of mini-movies.  High fashion and meticulous set-dressing, film like direction and a great mix of comedy and drama.  Transforming the series, comfortably, into a film didn’t take too much word - the film is just an extended episode with some added glitter.  ”Friends” was a sitcom, shot with an audience and with an audience perspective.  Would a film be shot in the same way?  Would they leave in the canned laughter?  Will it be a bit like sitting through a DVD marathon of “Friends”.

“Friends” was probably the best loved comedy series of the 90’s/00’s, but even at the end it was beginning to drag.  It was great to see the 20-something’s grow up, get married, have kids and build their lives, but by the time they come back, we will have been out of the picture for atleast 6 or 7 years.  Do we really need to see these people get middle-management jobs to pay their suburban mortgages?  Sure, it will make alot of money because people will be curious to see the lives of the characters they followed so closesly, but will it tarnish the memory?