COMING SOON

As Daniel Craig says goodbye to the British spy, James Bond in his final film as the iconic character in the long-running franchise, "No Time To Die" (with the search for a replacement to begin in earnest next year), another legendary fighter against crime is in line for a reboot: Batman. This follows Christopher Nolan's critically praised, box-office sensation trilogy that ended with "The Dark Knight Rises" in 2012 and the brief fling with Ben Affleck filling in for the character in the less revered films, "Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice" and "Justice League".

Now Matt Reeves, the filmmaker behind "Cloverfield" and the admired franchise sequels, "Dawn of the Planet of the Apes" and "War for the Planet of the Apes", is taking over this iteration, directing and co-writing the script with Peter Craig which is based on the classic Frank Miller 1987 comic-book story arc, "Batman: Year One" and the limited comic-book series, "Batman: The Long Halloween". The new guy in the Bat suit (following Michael Keaton, Val Kilmer, George Clooney, Christian Bale and Affleck, in case you might have forgotten) will be Robert Pattinson, the British actor who first found fame in the popular "Twilight" film series and has been fighting against being typecast in the image of a sexy vampire heartthrob ever since. I guess enough time has passed for him to decide to get back in to another franchise.

A new sneak-peek of "The Batman" has dropped and this looks to be an even darker version of the Dark Knight. The focus of this film will be on Batman's initial period of fighting crime in the increasingly corrupt Gotham City and his first meeting of the recently transferred police detective, James Gordon (played by Jeffrey Wright) and their developing relationship. This is also when he first encounters his famous arch-enemies, the Riddler (Paul Dano, not actually seen completely in the trailer), the Penguin (an unrecognizable Colin Farrell) and Catwoman (Zoë Kravitz). Based on the spotty track record over the long, cinematic history, it's still unclear if "The Batman" will be really intriguing or incredibly disappointing.

"The Batman" is due in U.S. theaters on March 4, 2022