In Batman Begins and The Dark Knight Christopher Nolan, his brother Jonathan, David Goyer and Christian Bale have created the greatest celluloid Batman thus far, and also, arguably, the best comic book movie ever made. There is so much rumour about a third instalment that the supposed villains featured would be anyone from The Riddler, played by Eddie Murphy, to Catwoman, played by Cher. So the question is who would you like to see in the movie? Which characters and played by whom? What would you like the film to be about?

The first film, Batman Begins, was about fear. The Dark Knight was about corruption and the nature of heroism. For the third, in what I believe should end as a trilogy, I believe that the film should continue to explore the nature of heroism and also duality. The perfect villains to explore this concept, I think, would be The Penguin and Catwoman.

The Penguin comes from a place of high society just like Bruce Wayne. I would see him portrayed in the film as not the claw handed, sharp toothed, ice water bathing cartoon that the comic books show him as, but rather as a Gangster fighting for the top spot in Gotham's underworld. His name could come from the fact that he waddles (he could have a foot deformity from polio as a child), dresses well, and has a prominent nose. Many gangsters have nicknames either amongst themselves or given to them by the media. I mentioned that, like Bruce Wayne, the penguins origins stem from high society, so why, you ask, has he become a gangster? This is where the penguin is tweaked to serve the films purposes. As far as I know there is no real established origin for The Penguin so, again for the purpose of showing his dual nature to Batman, why not have him be the victim of a terrible tragedy. For instance, why not have the young Oswald Cobblepot be orphaned as a child in the exact same way as what happened to the Waynes. Bruce Wayne saw tragedy and decided to become a force that opposed injustice. Cobblepot will take the decision that he will never be a victim again. Rather than want to protect others his self pity turns to rage and he decides that to survive in the harsh world of Gotham you have to be at the top of the food chain.

Catwoman will be born out of necessity. Forced by his true outlaw status, as transpired from The Dark Knight, Batman has been forced to make a triage style choice about where to concentrate his crime fighting efforts. Batman decides to concentrate on cutting the head of the snake and takes on the upper echelons of the mob but, as an effect of doing so, is now neglecting victims at the street level. Enter Catwoman. Keeping her Frank Miller written origin as a hooker who fights back in mind, Selina Kyle would be inspired by the idea of Batman but not has the resources to tackle crime from the moral high ground that Bruce Wayne can afford. In order to bankroll her fight on crime Catwoman would have to take on a Robin Hood esque approach, stealing the money from the criminals that she takes down. The question then becomes: should stop her? Is she any worse than he might have been had he not had billions of dollars to fund him? To use paraphrase a line from The Dark Knight, spoken by a Batman impersonator, what gives him the right?

I think both villains would present an interesting inner struggle for Batman, but lets not forget the outer struggles too. The movie would be action packed between the Penguin's gang war with the controlling mob with Batman in the middle, to Catwoman's battles on the streets and, of course, with Batman himself.

Now the fun part, by which, of course, I mean casting.

Toby Jones as The Penguin










As Truman Capote in Infamous (2006) the diminutive actor said "you have to be tough to be tiny". The phrase stuck is my head and after seeing the character actors work in that film, The Mist (2007) and Frost/Nixon (2008), I think he has the right qualities to make The Penguin into a real and empathetic character that fit comfortably into the world that the Nolan brothers have created.

Emily Blunt as Catwoman










Not only is Blunt stunning but she is emerging as the next big thing in Hollywood after stand-out roles in The Devil Wears Prada (2006) and The Young Victoria (2009), and has shown she has the versatility to play a complex character (as I would hope Selina Kyle would be presented as) in both those films. Look for her earlier roles in the British film My Summer of Love (2004) and the BBC's Gideon's Daughter (2005) to see more of this great actress and why I think she could go toe-to-toe with Christian Bale.

Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje as Waylon 'Killer Croc' Jones










See Brian Azzarello's depiction of Killer Croc in his Joker graphic novel for an idea of how he would appear in the Nolan series. The character was once depicted as drug/arms dealer with an unfortunate skin condition, though here I would depict him more as muscle for The Penguin, I would, of course, follow the skin condition, rather than (ridiculous) monster, route. Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje was terrifying as sociopath convict Simon Adebesi in HBO's Oz and was brutal as the character, Majestic, in Get Rich or Die Tryin' (2005) and would bring the appropriate level of menace to the character.

I'm sure that whatever the Nolan's have planned for the third instalment they will not fail to impress, until that day however, I'll be playing this movie in my head.

By now most of us have read that Fox plan to do a Hulk style do-over to the Fantastic Four, and I for one am looking forward to it. The film is set to take a darker tone, though I feel it would be important that, while setting the film in a more real and therefore harsher world than the previous films, that the characters should not be turned into something they are not.

The Fantastic Four I want to see in a family of adventurers as was seen in Mark Wade's previous run and Mark Millar's current run on the comic book title. Having already seen the FF's origin in the previous film I do not feel it would be necessary to start from the ground up again, but rather give a quick recap of the origin as per The Incredible Hulk (2008).

I'd the film to be set well into the family's lives after the accident, presenting them as the world famous Fantastic Four that we all know and love. That being said I feel that although the family in itself should not be portrayed as dark I think that it is important that any threat they face be terrifying and credible.

So what threat should the FF face? Personally I would prefer to build up the threat of Doom in the first film in order to build up the anticipation of seeing him in a sequel just like the Nolan Batman film did with The Joker. I think Namor may be interesting to see if presented in a way akin to his first appearance in the Ultimate Fantastic Four series. Galactus has been done and so it unlikly that the filmmakers would want the revisit that event, at least at first. As I stated in my Avenger Movie post I would like to see the Skrull or their Ultimate counterparts The Chitari be seen as bing the threat in that movie, however if the Chitari could be presented differently from The Skrull then I thing this might be the way to go. Another idea would be to have the threat come from the Negative Zone. I think this will be the best option as it presents an established villain, Annihilus, and there are lots of faceless drones for cannon fodder.

Right, enough of the chit-chat, let's cast this bitch!

Eric Bana as Reed Richards / Mr. Fantastic










Yes Banna was once the Hulk but now that his version has been rebooted out it means he's free to give other Mavel characters a try. I think Bana would be a great choice for the constantly preoccupied but otherwise nice guy Reed Richards.

Naomi Watts as Susan Richards / The Invisible Woman










Naomi Watts is the only choice for me to fill this role; I just feel that not only does she have the right look but she is also believable as a strong character as can be seen in Funny Games (2007) and The Ring (2002).

Mike Vogel as Johnny Storm / The Human Torch










Vogel's character in Cloverfield (2008) was rash, hot headed, and ultimately heroic. It is that film that first made me thing that he would make a great Johnny Storm.

Liev Schrebier as Ben Grimm / The Thing










See Schrebier's performance as the surly tough Jewish militia man in Defiance (2008) and as soldier John Clark in the Sum of All Fears (2002) to see why I think he would be great in the role of the monstrous everyman Ben Grimm. For the thing, you need a great character actor to really bring out the charicters depth, and this is another reason that I think Schrebier is the right man for the job.

Ralph Fiennes as Victor Van Damm/ Dr. Doom










Fiennes is a fantastic actor and excels in playing the worst humanity has to offer such as in In Bruges (2008) and Schindler's List (1993). He also tops the current bad guy list as the inhuman Harry Potter villain Voldemort. Fiennes would bring the necessary coldness and class to the villain and has the acting chops to make him more than just the panto villain he is sometimes depicted as. And yes I would prefer the Van Damm surname; Von Doom is just too dumb.

John C Reilly as The Mole Man










This would be a personal favorite of mine as I love the actor and the villain. I do not think that Mole Man could carry a whole movie but I would like to see him as even a first act threat. Reilly is a highly versatile actor and could really bring the diminutive villain to life. Of course it would require some Benjamin Button style CGI to fit the 6'1" actor into the Mole Man's tiny frame.

Michael Emerson as Annihilus











Annihilus, I would imagine would either be a CGI generated character or and actor under some hefty Hellboy style make-up, either way, it will mainly be voice work that will be done on the character. I can think of no creepier voice than that of the bug-eyed manipulator Benjamin Linus from Lost.

So that's that, and most likely none of this wish list will come true. We can dream though.