Scifiwire Movie News

Drunk hits batmobile from Batman Begins
Producer Joel Silver talks upcoming projects

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Drunk hits batmobile from Batman Begins

Christian Bale, who plays the title character in the upcoming comic-book movie Batman Begins, told SCI FI Wire that a drunk driver sideswiped one of the film's stunt Batmobiles while it was being moved during a break in shooting on the streets of Chicago last year. "There were a couple of times driving down the street in Chicago and when it was like, we can load it on the truck or just drive five minutes down there, and they just drove five minutes down there, and you see that thing just going down the street, and everybody is stopping and looking," Bale said in an interview at WonderCon in San Francisco over the weekend. "There was even this guy who crashed into it, this poor drunken guy who didn't have a license. [He] said he got so panicked when he saw the car that he thought aliens were landing, and he put the pedal to the metal."

Bale wasn't in the car at the time, and no one was hurt. Bale said that several Batmobiles were built for the film, with a design unlike any from previous films or TV incarnations. "They've done such a radically different thing with it," he said. "And what I love about it is that, aesthetically, it kicks ***. It looks f--king stunning. ... It looks nothing like any Batmobile that has come before it, and it completely has practical applications that are explained, and [are] very smart and make complete sense. And that's indicative of what we've done with everything to do with the movie, including the explanations of the suit, the cowl, all the different gadgets that he comes up with and where he comes to them."

Did Bale eventually get to keep one of the stealth-black vehicles? "That was the first question," he said with a smile. "They looked at me, and they went, 'Are you f--king kidding?' I didn't."
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Producer Joel Silver talks upcoming projects

Producer Joel Silver told SCI FI Wire that his upcoming film version of Alan Moore's graphic novel V for Vendetta is eyeing a Nov. 5 release date—Guy Fawkes Day in the United Kingdom and the 400th anniversary of the Gunpowder Plot to overthrow the English throne. That's in keeping with the lead character in Moore's novel, set in a retro-futuristic alternate-universe U.K., who wears a Guy Fawkes mask as he sets about to undermine the nation's fascistic government. "The tagline [is] 'Remember the Fifth of November,'" Silver said.

Silver, speaking in an interview at WonderCon in San Francisco over the weekend, added that the film will begin shooting March 7 in Berlin, with Natalie Portman leading the cast. The Wachowski brothers (The Matrix) are producing, with their Matrix second unit director, James McTeigue, at the helm.

Silver also updated SCI FI Wire on his other upcoming projects:

•The Reaping. "It's a supernatural horror film," he said. "Female protagonist in a weird story about a town where the plagues all of a sudden start occurring and what it's all about. [We'll] probably shoot it in the Carolinas" starting in May. The modern-day story will be directed by James Cox (Wonderland), based on a script by Carey and Chad Hayes.

•Logan's Run remake. Chris McQuarrie (The Usual Suspects) is the latest writer to take a run at a script. McQuarrie's Usual Suspects director, Bryan Singer, "had to kind of postpone his work on [Logan] to go do Superman," Silver said. "And hopefully, if all goes well, and it seems to be going fine, he'll commence that when he finishes Superman. So hopefully it will come out the summer of 2007." Silver added that he didn't think the 1976 film lived up to the potential of William F. Nolan's original novel. "It was groundbreaking in some ways when it came out, but it was kind of stupid," he said. "And ... having read the book recently, it's really smart. And the movie we're going to make is really smart. The age is much younger. ... We're prepping now." The film is slated to shoot in Australia.

Also....

Producer Joel Silver confirmed to SCI FI Wire that he is wooing Buffy the Vampire Slayer creator Joss Whedon to write and direct a new film version of Wonder Woman. "I'm trying," Silver said in an interview at WonderCon in San Francisco on Feb. 19. "I'm trying to work a deal with Joss. ... I was just in the other room [where Whedon was talking about his upcoming SF movie, Serenity]. I don't know if I could work that out. It's a complicated deal to do, but I would love him to do it. It would be great if he could do it."

Silver (the Matrix films and the upcoming House of Wax) said that Whedon, an avowed comic fanatic and current author of Marvel's Astonishing X-Men series, came to him with a new twist on the venerable character. "It's just a great, legendary comic-book hero, and it's one that has never been kind of brought back to life after Lynda Carter [who starred in the 1970s Wonder Woman TV series]. I mean, it's a reinvention. ... Tim Burton reinvented Batman after Adam West, and ... [director Richard] Donner reinvented Superman after George Reeves. It's time to do that to Wonder Woman. It's a thing that could be great if it's done great. ... The idea is to try to find a way to make it, and I thought Joss has a great idea, because he understands a kind of female superhero character, and also he's great at what he does. So I'm trying to find the best way to do it. ... We're working our way through it."