Christian Bale Reportedly Offered $50 Million To Return For 20 Minutes In New 'Batman

[Steve Williams]

By Kirsten Acuna | Business Insider

Warner Bros.
Could Christian Bale receive a big offer to return as Batbale in a future Justice League movie?
It looks like there may still be hope that Christian Bale could return as Gotham's finest in the Batman / Superman film.
A new ebook, " Beyond Batman: The Unauthorized True Story of Christian Bale and His Dark Knight Dilemma," suggests the actor is being offered up to $50 million to reprise his role of the Caped Crusader.
The book comes from Vince Russel who simultaneously put out another unauthorized biography of WWE's Phil Brooks earlier this month.
The excerpts that sparked the fervor occur between author Vince Russel and a Legendary Pictures insider who speculates Bale could receive a big pay day to return as the dark knight.


Via The Press Association:
"Why would Christian Bale walk away from what is certainly going to be either the first or second highest grossing movie in the history of cinema?
"He could probably make 50 million dollars for being in the movie 20 minutes. And it would be worth every penny to the studio."
"Sources close to Christian Bale have reportedly begun expressing their suspicions that Bale now views the Batman films in the same light that Robert Downey Jr views the Iron Man films."
The latter isn't a surprise as we've previously said Bale is to Warner Bros. and the Batman franchise as Robert Downey Jr. is to Marvel's "Iron Man" legacy.
Just to be clear, a lot of people are running with the report that Warner Bros. has actually offered Bale $50 million to return in the role. That doesn't seem to be the case.
Rather, it's just someone speculating that Bale could get that much money to appear in the film. Robert Downey Jr. reportedly earned $50 million for his role in last year's "The Avengers."
The price for the actor paid off when the film went on to earn more than $1.5 billion at theaters worldwide .
Downey Jr. has since re-signed with Disney and Marvel to appear in two more "Avengers" films.
Previously, Bale told Entertainment Weekly he won't be in any "Justice League" movie unless Christopher Nolan approached him with an idea.
Currently, The Hollywood Reporter says a few middle-aged actors including Joe Manganiello ("True Blood) and Ryan Gosling are up for the role as the Caped Crusader in the Batman/Superman movie due out in 2015. That would still leave room for Bale to return as Batman in the future if one of these other men play a different version of Bats (think Batman Beyond).

 

[Johnny Vinyl]

For $50 MIL I'd swallow my pride or backtrack on saying I wouldn't do another. Hell....it's $50MIL!!!!!! If he does I hope he's honest about it and doesn't just say he had to do it because the script was just too good!

 

[mep]

Someone saying "he could be offered $50 million for 20 minutes" is much different than a statement of fact that he was offered $50 million for 20 minutes. The way movies have been flopping right and left lately, somehow I doubt a studio would give him $50 million.

 

[JackD201]

Marvel took years to prime the market for the Avengers with all those end of movie scenes in the individual hero movies. Fantastic marketing. Iron Man, Hulk, Captain America, Thor were all successful on their own.

Justice League? I just don't know. Aside from the Nolan Batman Trilogy and the Superman reboot, who really wants to see a non-Bale Batman, new Supes with lame-o Aquaman, Wonder Woman and the poor flopped Green Lantern together in one movie? I am intrigued who they would cast as Wonder Woman. Who can ever be as bombshellicious as Linda Carter?

 

[Bruce B]

You'll also have to remember that 20 minutes of film can take days/weeks to shoot!