Gordon-Levitt 'Batman?'; 'Doctor Who's' Christmas episode gets plot details and 'Star Trek Into Darkness' to reboot Gary Mitchell?

After what seems to be a bit of hemming and hawing from Zack Snyder on how or to what extent his Superman movie, Man of Steel, will play into Warner Bros own Justice League movie is getting a bit more muddled. Also, is there a connection to The Dark Knight Rises as well? 

We all know that Christopher Nolan is executive producing the Man of Steel and the latest confirmation from Snyder today is the Superman you see in next summer’s film will be the same Superman that will be part of Justice League film in 2015. And while I’m sure Nolan had no particular interest in setting up another WB franchise by ending TDKR with cop John Blake (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) inheriting the Batcave –it was, probably to Nolan, just a logical and thematic conclusion to his trilogy- if I’m an executive at Warner Brothers trying to figure out how Marvel succeed with their superhero franchises, then I would look at that sort of open-ended conclusion and figure out a way to not only reboot Batman, but help the long gestating JLA now scheduled for 2015. Of course, in the end, Warner Bros can do what they want with Batman –though in the comics, Bruce Wayne was not always Batman.

Anyways, how will they do that? Well, the obvious answer is that Gordon-Levitt will be the new Batman for that film, so why not –emulating Marvel in many ways (because, why not) - have Batman appear in some sort of post-credit sequence in Man of Steel? The question is will Gordon-Levitt be the new Batman? That, today, seems to be the forgone conclusion as various sites are reporting that indeed, he IS the new Batman (though, obviously, his reps are denying it). So take that thought and marry it with Snyder’s latest hints that his Superman is connected to the JLA movie, and what you get is the WB (finally) setting up continuity between its superhero franchises. 

Meanwhile, the BBC has released more pictures and plot synopses for the Doctor Who Christmas Special The Snowmen:

Christmas Eve 1892 and the falling snow is the stuff of fairy-tales. When the fairy-tale becomes a nightmare and a chilling menace threatens Earth, an unorthodox young governess, Clara, calls on the Doctor for help. But the Doctor is in mourning, reclusive and determined not to engage in the problems of the universe. As old friends return, will the Doctor really abandon humankind or will he fight to save the world — and Christmas — from the icy clutches of this mysterious menace.

 

My hope is that Moffat will take a bit of time to explain why the Doctor chooses to be in 1892, and how and why Vastra and Strax got there as well. I mean, I sort of hate the idea that as an audience we should expect no explanation as to why either of them is there. To me, it’s a conceited cheat by the showrrunner and writer to say that to help the story maintain a flow, those sorts of explanations are dropped. Anyways, BBC America will debut the episode on Christmas Day.

Paramount has officially given us a bit of information on next summers Star Trek Into Darkness:

     

In Summer 2013, pioneering director J.J. Abrams will deliver an explosive action thriller that takes Star Trek Into Darkness.      

        When the crew of the Enterprise is called back home, they find an unstoppable force of terror from within their own organization has detonated the fleet and everything it stands for, leaving our world in a state of crisis.       

        With a personal score to settle, Captain Kirk leads a manhunt to a war-zone world to capture a one man weapon of mass destruction.       

        As our heroes are propelled into an epic chess game of life and death, love will be challenged, friendships will be torn apart, and sacrifices must be made for the only family Kirk has left: his crew.

It's still sort of vague, though. But there is a suggestion -if you take in the comments made by Karl Urban made months ago- that the film is a sort of reboot of the Gary Mitchell character from the original Star Trek‘s second pilot, Where No Man Has Gone Before. In that story Mitchell is a friend of Captain Kirk, and a Starfleet officer on the U.S.S. Enterprise. He ends up with powerful telekinetic powers, and turns against Kirk and his crew.

How much of that story will be seen is unknown, but it's a good bet that Benedict Cumberbatch is Gary Mitchell.

NEW!!!!

As work moves forward on X Men: Days of Future Past under the helm of Bryan Singer, set to begin filming in January, the director himself Tweeted this little surprise: 

“I’d like to officially welcome back James McAvoy, Jennifer Lawrence, Michael Fassbender and Nicholas Hoult to X-Men: Days Of Future Past. Also thrilled to announce Sir Ian Mckellen and Sir Patrick Stewart.”

This idea of McKellen and Stewart returning to the roles they created in the first two films is not farfetched, as this sequel story line does deal with time travel. Whether the script will have the older Magneto and Professor X interacting with their younger selves is yet to be seen, but only Singer could pull this off, as both actors –while pleased with their participation in the franchise- are not so excited that these roles will always define their long careers when they are gone from this mortal world.