MICHAEL CAINE'S INTERVIEW

Michael Caine Says The Riddler Is next Batman Villain

By: Eddie Jenkins

Batman Begins and The Dark Knight’s Michael Caine sat down for a Q&A recently with Collider to promote his new film Is There Anybody There? in Los Angeles. During the interview he spoke about Heath Ledger, Christopher Nolan and who he thinks the villain is going to be in the the next Batman film. Check out the Bat-related exurb below.

From Collider.com:

Q: Are you not expecting there to be a third Batman?

MC: Well Christopher is doing a picture called Inception with Leonardo DiCaprio which I saw on the Internet. So I imagine another Batman is quite a long way away.

Q: What kinds of films and roles are you drawn to at this point in your career? Is it smaller films?

MC: It’s just the writing. Like Dark Knight, I chose a long time ago with Batman Begins but that was because of Christopher Nolan. But also, on this film, this John Crowley who is a brilliant young Irish director that I saw two small films that he did and I loved them. And then on Harry Brown, there’s a young English director called Daniel Barber and I saw a small film that he did. He actually got nominated for an Academy Award for that film and I forget the bloody title (The Tonto Woman). I like working with younger directors as I’m going to do these small films. A young director can get a chance in a small, cheap film. He can’t get a chance in a big one.

Q: Weren’t you signed for 3 Batmans?

MC: Yes, if they do another one, I’ll probably be the butler. I hope I’m still alive. Michael Goth, who played Batman before me, the last time he played in Batman he was 84.

Q: Didn’t Christopher Nolan do this the last time also? He wanted to make another film in between?

MC: He did. I was in that too. The Prestige. (Laughs) Christopher doesn’t make pictures without me.

Q: Do you think he’ll come around to doing a third one?

MC: I would imagine so. That would be probably The Riddler.

Q: What did Heath Ledger’s victory at the Oscars mean to you in terms of his legacy?

MC: I thought it was very important for his family as well. I was a big fan of his from the first time I met him. I’d never met him before. I met him on the set where he invades the party we’re having. I’m standing in front of the lift and I’m expected to greet people and there’s all these gangs behind him and he came in. But, before that, I’d met him obviously on the set and we were chatting. He had this make-up on and I was saying how fantastic I thought it was. We were just chatting quietly and then they said, “We’re ready to shoot.” And I had never seen the performance. We were just talking, you know. And then he came out the elevator and I was absolutely stunned by the way he did it and the energy that went into it. And then when I saw the movie, there’s an opening monologue and a closing monologue that he does which I felt if anybody’s going to better that and get an Academy Award above him, I would pay good money to see that and nobody did beat him. I’m so pleased.

Q: That will be a tough act to follow for anyone who plays the Riddler though?

MC: Yeah, I thought it would be a tough act to follow for anybody who played against The Joker after Jack Nicholson. (Laughs) You know what I’m saying? Heath is The Joker. We’ll see.