After the success of The Dark Knight you would think it would be impossible for there not to be a third film. It broke just about every box office record upon release generating a box office total that was just over US $1 billion and garnered a best supporting actor Oscar for Heath Ledger's mesmerizing and maniacal performance as The Joker. Rumours swelled after the films release as to what direction the next film would take with The Riddler being rumoured as the new villain and famous actors like Casey Affleck, Johnny Depp and Eddie Murphy attached to the role. Almost a year after the films release though we have no solid information on the third film. Director Christopher Nolan has said that he may not return for the third film, saying that Warner Brothers will have to come up with a very convincing story and deal to sway him. The director said he was rocked to the core by the death of Ledger and that is what is leading him to give away the Batman franchise. I have tremendous respect for him, the guilt he must be feeling knowing he cast him for the role and spent so much time with him and yet likee veryone else could not forsee his unfortunate and unexpected death. So whilst it would be terrible to lose Nolan as a director it's even more disturbing to hear that Christain Bale, probably the best Batman seen on film, is not a fan of Nolan leaving the project. In good news IGN recently spoke to David Goyer who is a writer for the Batman movies who said that they are discussing ideas for a third film and it has been reported that we will not be seeing Batman back on our screens until at elast 2012 or 2013, a real bummer. Obviously though with the extreme success of the The Dark Knight there will be so much pressure on the third film, regarding financial succes and the performance of the new villain so I'd rather them take their time.











In other sequel news Jurassic Park IV may not be dead in the water yet. In December of 2008 producer Kathleen Kennedy said that the prospects of doing another Jurassic Park were effectively ended after the unfortunate passing of author Michael Crichton. Many of us were disappointed as we were eagerly anticipating another foray in to the Jurassic world, working udner the title of Extinction but producer Frank Marshall has hinted recently that if they can get a good story together then their is a possibility of another film. The possibilities the Jurassic Park franchise creates are amazing, they are the best looking dinosaurs we have ever seen on film and everyone likes the idea of these creatures being brought back to life in our modern world. I hope these rumours start a buzz about a 4th film again but as we remember the 3rd film was not directed by Steven Spielberg and not directly based on a Crichton novel and it was a lesser film for those reasons. A real effort would have to be put in to this film to make it good.









When I heard they were making a new Indiana Jones I was filled with so much excitement. I grew up on the orginal three Indiana Jones movies and coupled with his performances in Star Wars as Harrison Ford he was pretty much my idol. Indiana Jones AND Han Solo, could one man be any more awesome??!! The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull came and whilst I thoroughly enjoyed it and it was a financial success the critic and overall fan response was not that spectacular. We all thought that four would be enough for Indy and Harrison Ford, I mean he is 67 this year, and I personally cringed at the potential nod to Shia LeBouef taking over the franchise. Harrison Ford is what made this series and is the iconic Indiana Jones, it should end with him just like it started but Spielberg does not seem finsihed with Indy. Shia LaBouef told BBC News whilst promoting Transformers Revenge of the Fallen that Steven Spielberg and George Lucas have already formulated the basic story for Indy V and are beginning production. It remains to be seen whether Ford will return and whilst I'm scpetical of this project to begin with if Ford does not return as Dr Jones then they should give it a complete miss altogether, it's best some things go out on a high.














In terrible news regarding potential sequels Michael Bay, the godfather of explosions and generally epic films has left the Transformers franchise. He believes that after 3 and a half years straight working on the franchise he needs to get away from it as he has taken it as far as he can. He said he needs to do something without explosions which is just ridiculous, explosion is Michael Bay's middle name. Obviously Hasbro and Paramount will be wanting to exploit this franchise for more films and rightly so it is kick ass but how good will it be without Bay? I think someone like Spielberg, who was a producer on the film could take over seeing as he has worked on films like War of the Worlds or John Favreau the director of Iron Man but I really do think Bay is a massive loss to the series. He created these robots and their world has definetley become a Michael Bay one. Another director may want to explore the emotional side of these robots or develop the human characters into the star but Bay understood that the sole reason people see these films are for explosions, giant robots fighting each other and more explosions.