Christian Bale Turned Down the Fourth Batman Movie; Rejected it for Christopher Nolan's Vision of a Trilogy

Christian Bale was offered a fourth Batman movie but he turned it down for the vision of Christopher Nolan.

It is safe to say the 'Batman' trilogy is probably is the best superhero trilogy in the history of superhero movies. The combination of villains and the actors hired to play the roles was perfect in itself, but what made it all click and brought everything into its place was the master director, Christopher Nolan.

Christopher Nolan’s movies are innovative, they are unique and almost always try to explore new subject matter in his stories. He’s also got one of the most respected catalogs of varying movies in the history of cinema. What Christopher Nolan’s done for the art of movie-making is nothing sort of legendary, and his preference in music also shaped how sci-fi movies were made and scored in the 2010s.

Source: Hollywood Reporter

But fans were not certain of his potential back in the day when he made one mind-bending movie in 'Memento,' a low budget student film in 'Following' and a confusing but interesting 'Insomnia.' A director with three directorial credit to his name was hired to direct the 'Batman' movie.

Fans did not know what to make of the hiring, and Christian Bale was also an off kilt choice to play 'Batman,' and so the fans stayed away with the movie coming short in reaching the $400 million mark. But then the second movie happened, and it was nothing short of legendary, a film of historic proportion, probably the best film since the turn of the century.

Source: IMDb

'The Dark Knight' sent the director to Hollywood infamy, and it was because of one movie which allowed Christopher to be the last director to be trusted with hundreds of millions of dollars on projects, for which others would’ve been laughed at.

There is a simple explanation as to why the 'Batman' movie worked after two mediocre sequels in the 90s, which almost ruined the franchise. The acting was sublime, and the filming was next level, but the reason why the movies look and feel the way they did and still do is there was an idea behind the entire project.

Watch: The trailer for the legendary Batman movie The Dark Knight

Christopher knew the path he was going to create for himself, and he made the possibility into a reality. But when he started filming, the director talked to the 'Batman' actor Christian Bale about doing a trilogy if they ever get the chance, and when all three movies were a critical and commercial success, the studio inevitably asked Christian to return for a fourth movie, which is declined.

“When they came [to us after ‘Batman Begins’] and said, ‘You want to go make another?’ It was fantastic, but we still said, ‘This is it. We will not get another opportunity,’” the actor said. “Then they came, and they said, ‘OK, let’s do the third one.’ Chris had always said to me that if we were fortunate to be able to make three, we would stop. ‘Let’s walk away after that,’ he said.”

Source: IndieWire

But the studio did come with an offer for a fourth movie, and Christian Bale was not feeling it at all. He said, “Then when they inevitably came to us and said, ‘How about a No. 4?’ I said, ‘No. We have to stick to Chris’ dream, which was always to, hopefully, do a trilogy. Let’s not stretch too far and become overindulgent and go for a fourth,’”

After the actor declined, the studio went to Ben Affleck, who also impressed in the role but left soon after he was done filming the two movies. After he refused to come back as the character, the studio hired Robert Pattinson for the role, which was highly debated and received a lot of backlashes, but the movie is still happening with a release date set for 2021.

Source: ScreenGeek

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