Lighthearted 'Dark Knight'

Okay, I know that picture is from a different Christian Bale movie than I'm talking about today, but for some reason I had it stored on my desktop. Hm.

Attended a special reception last night for select members of the cast and crew of Dark Knight last night. One of my favorite cover stories, Aaron Eckhart, looked handsome as always in a black tie and jacket and it was neat to hear Gary Oldman actually speaking in his native tongue. I properly worshipped at the altar of Christopher Nolan, one of the only directors batting 1000 in my book, having never made a bad film, and his brother and co-writer, Jonathan. I was finally able to ask Jonathan the question that's been confounding me for years--namely: "Why are you two brothers and yet Chris talks with a phony British accent and you sound like you're from the Bronx?" (Answer: They lived with different paretns as teens and Chris attended high school/college in England, Jonathan in Chicago.)

Of course the main attraction was Batman himself, Christian Bale (he's "Batman" to everyone else but I prefer to call him "Newsies"). I've done many Q&As and interviews with Christian and always found him to be a surprisingly funny, sarcastic guy--not at all what people would assume. Warning: Spoiler Alert ahead if you haven't seen The Prestige yet...

A couple years ago, during his tour for The Prestige, I remember an audience member asking how he differentiated between the two twins. With no trace of humor, he responded, "Well, I wanted one to wear a little red hat in his scenes, but Chris Nolan said no." Later, when I told him he was a funny guy who should do more comedy, he seemed befuddled. I then noticed his wife, Sibi Blazic, was chuckling. When I asked her why, she said, "I tell him that all the time! I think he's hilarious, but he doesn't see it!"

Last year, while promoting 3:10 to Yuma I asked him again when he was going to do a comedy. This time he replied dryly, "I already have. American Psycho." Making my annual plea last night, I again asked if there was a comedy on his horizon. "I'd love to," he said. "Just not a romantic comedy."

Bummer. I could totally see him and Elizabeth Banks as our next Tom Hanks/Meg Ryan duo...

--Jenelle Riley