A New Batman TV Series?

[Derrick]

www.denofgeek.com/television/685635/is_warner_bros_planning_a_new_batman_television_series.html

[Dino]

Doubtful. This is from io9's article, which casts suspicion on this anonymous source:

It just sounds like something a fan would obsess about, rather than a television exec's deliberations. And then there's the fact that a powerful TV exec (whose name is redacted to protect his/her identity) is supposed to be involved — and this person supposedly helped to develop ER, Friends, The West Wing, The Mentalist and Two and a Half Men — except that The West Wing and ER were developed by John Wells Productions for Warner Bros. TV, while Without A Trace came from Jerry Bruckheimer Productions and other productions were developed in-house. And other than all of those shows being products of Warner Bros. TV, we couldn't find any other common factors in the producers behind them.

People may or may not remember, but before Smallville, Alfred Gough and Miles Millar had originally planned to do another superhero series in a before-the-tights fashion -- and it was supposed to be Bruce Wayne. The project never panned out and Gough and Millar moved on to do Smallville. After it became a hit, they tried unsuccessfully to bring Bruce into Smallville with hopes of spinning it off into the Bruce Wayne series they originally wanted to do.

Because of Batman Begins, the WB said no. They didn't want to step on Nolan's toes.

Since then, The Dark Knight has been an unbelievable success, even becoming the first superhero movie to win an Oscar (in fact, I think it's the first time a superhero film was even nominated for an Oscar outside of special effects or music). With The Prestige and Inception also being very successful and Nolan serving as "grandfather" to the Superman reboot, he's become WB's new golden boy. If they didn't want to step on his toes before when no one knew if Batman Begins would be a success, I really, really, REALLY doubt they would dare take that risk when they've got so much invested in him.

And TV series or not, Ledger's Joker was an Oscar-winning performance and is probably what he will be most remembered for. If WB even considers recasting the role anything less than ten years after his death, it'll be viewed as too soon and insensitive.

That being said, I think WB will attempt to bring some of Batman's silver screen success to the CW. They're going to need something to fill the void once Smallville is gone. It won't be Batman, though -- I think it's more likely to be a series that they can tangentially tie into Batman without directly referencing it. For example, the Question or Nightwing would be good contenders for a solo TV series. Maybe a Gotham Central series. Catwoman.

But as for Batman himself, the only way I could see him making another TV appearance is as a new animated series. We won't see a TV version of Batman as long as the Nolan films continue to be successful.

[tombitd]

Nov 19, 2010 6:08:01 GMT -5 Dino said:

That being said, I think WB will attempt to bring some of Batman's silver screen success to the CW. They're going to need something to fill the void once Smallville is gone. It won't be Batman, though -- I think it's more likely to be a series that they can tangentially tie into Batman without directly referencing it. For example, the Question or Nightwing would be good contenders for a solo TV series. Maybe a Gotham Central series. Catwoman.

I dunno...let's remember the last time Warners tried to do a 'Batman-without-Batman' series, Birds of Prey, and how well that turned out.

[Dino]

BOP's problem wasn't that it was Batman without Batman, its problem was it was a godawful series with ham-fisted acting and crappy writing. Which isn't surprising considering it's from the same people who created Smallville.

[Derrick]

Thanks for the input, Dino.

See, that's the main reason why I posted the link to this article as I was getting a strong whiff of bovine excrement as I read it and I wanted to see if others did as well. I mean, Karl Urban committing to a TV series when his movie career is going great guns? He's got both the STAR TREK sequel and JUDGE DREDD on his plate. When's he going to have time to do a TV series?

And that whole thing about The Joker episode being shot under tight security. You mean you don't know or can't tell us a thing about the cast, scripts, producers, etc. but you know that. The whole thing just didn't smell right.

[Dino]

Right, plus the whole thing io9 uncovered about this mysterious executive who not only oversaw all these other successful shows, but also wants to do everything perfectly right for a Batman TV series? The whole thing just stinks of fanboy wank. Whoever started this rumor must've restrained himself quite a bit to avoid saying Mark Hamill had been cast as the Joker.