Christopher Nolan sat down with the LA Times�to talk about the his future with the Batman Franchise, and if he will direct the sequel to The Dark Knight.�

GB:�Watching “The Dark Knight,” it�s very easy to imagine the Joker returning to Gotham, the way his fate remains unresolved. When you were writing the film, did you anticipate that the Joker would be back in the third film?

NOLAN: No, really and in truth, I only deal with one film at a time. I find myself sort of protesting this issue a lot. We�ve never attempted to save anything for a sequel or set up anything for a sequel. That seems improbable to some people because, particularly with “Batman Begins,” the film ended with a particular hook [with Jim Gordon showing Batman a Joker playing card announcing the arrival of a new villain in town]. But for me that was just about the excitement of people leaving the theater with the sense that now we have the character up and running. I wanted people to walk away with that sense in their head. You know, that he�s become the Batman in the movie. That�s why we had the title come up at the end, because it was “Batman Begins,” and it was all very specific to that.

Then�I got excited about seeing where that character would go. It was planned in advance, but it followed in that way. But we tried our hardest to really do everything in this movie that we would want to see the Joker do and to get that in the fabric of the story as much as possible. We wanted the Joker�s final taunt to Batman to be that they are locked in an ongoing struggle because of Batman�s rules. There�s a paradox there. Batman won�t kill. And the Joker is not interested in completely defeating Batman because he�s fascinated by him and he enjoys sparring with him. It�s trapped both of them. That was really the meaning of it. Of course what happened is Heath created the most extraordinary character that you would love to see 10 movies about. That�s the bittersweet thing. It was incredible characterization. It is a bittersweet thing for all of us.

GB:�After the massive, military-level operation of making “Dark Knight,” is there part of you leaning toward a smaller, more nimble sort of production next?

NOLAN: On one hand, yeah, there is a certain feeling to do that. After “Batman Begins,” I certainly felt like taking on something smaller, but one of the things I got such a thrill from on “The Dark Knight” was shooting on Imax and creating that massive scale and achieving that larger-than-life quality. So that�s a lot of fun. I�m drawn in both directions now. So maybe what I need to do next is a very intimate, small story that happens to be photographed on a ridiculously large scale. Or vice versa [laughs].

GB:�I�m not sure I even know what that means.

NOLAN: Yes, I don�t know what it means either [laughter]. But really what I know is that it�s about story at the end of the day. … But I do feel there is this tug to do big scale and small scale, so I don�t know. …

GB:�Maybe you need to make a small story in a huge place. “My Dinner With Andre”�at the top of Mt. Everest.

NOLAN: Or in outer space. That might work.

GB:�Could you see actually yourself�not�making the third Batman film?

NOLAN:�Well … let me think how to put this. There are two things to be said. One is the emphasis on story. What�s the story? Is there a story that�s going to keep me emotionally invested for the couple of years that it will take to make another one? That�s the overriding question. On a more superficial level, I have to ask the question: How many good third movies in a franchise can people name? [Laughs.] At the same time, in taking on the second one, we had the challenge of trying to make a great second movie, and there haven’t been too many of those either. It�s all about the story really. If the story is there, everything is possible. I hope that was a suitably slippery answer.

I think the studio will offer him enough money, and eventually that great story will emerge. If anyone can make the third movie great, it’ll be him.�

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