Christopher Nolan

Want to know the biggest word-of-mouth hits in history? Here they are.

Sounds like our good friends across the pond have gotten tired of all the rumors swirling about the future of the James Bond franchise, because the series has just officially announced a new movie is definitely coming, and it already has a release date.

Christopher Nolan delivered a solid trilogy of Batman films (okay, two really good Batman movies and a competent sequel we begrudgingly accept) and inspired a wave of gritty blockbuster imitators. His Dark Knight trilogy gave us the best Batman movies since Tim Burton’s time with the iconic superhero, which made fans feel a little skeptical about Zack Snyder and Ben Affleck’s plans for the character. In an attempt to soothe your fears — however reasonable and totally justified they may be — Snyder has revealed that he received Nolan’s blessing for Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. So that’s something, right?

If you were interested in movies back in the year 2000 and you didn’t have some kind of brain-destroying amnesiac condition, you remember Memento. The second feature by a British filmmaker named Christopher Nolan, Memento became a breakthrough in American cinemas (the indie made an impressive $25 million in U.S. theaters) and Nolan’s calling card in Hollywood, where he went on to become one of the most important and interesting filmmakers of his generation.

Anne Hathaway memorably played Catwoman in The Dark Knight Rises, but she very nearly played another catty superhero. The Oscar-winning actress was set to play Black Cat in Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man 4, which would have also featured John Malkovich as Vulture. That film was canceled shortly before filming and Sony eventually decided to reboot the whole franchise. That’s just one of the facts packed into the latest episode of You Think You Know Movies, which goes completely batty with The Dark Knight Rises!

As ‘Batman’ goes, so goes comic-book movies. When Tim Burton turned the Dark Knight into a retro-gothic hero, Hollywood followed suit with a slew of heavily stylized pulp throwbacks. (See: ‘Dick Tracy,’ ‘The Phantom,’ ‘The Shadow,’ etc.) And when Christopher Nolan turned the Dark Knight into, well, ‘The Dark Knight,’ it sparked a wave of “grim and gritty” movies, with serious superheroes doing and saying serious things in outrageous spandex costumes that had been reimagined as biker gear or body armor. (See: ‘Man of Steel’ [Or maybe don’t.]) There’s been some pushback, but we’re really only now coming out of the trend toward ultra-serious, uber-dark comic-book movies.

I'm a huge comic book nerd (I know it's sad, but it's the truth), and Batman has always been my favorite comic book super hero. Sadly, for a long time the Batman movie franchise sucked balls (Damn you George Clooney!) When Christopher Nolan took over the franchise with "Batman Begins", I was pumped...