Batman Star Facing Family Assault Charges?

Say it isn’t so Batman! Sadly yes, actor Christian Bale is facing allegations that he assaulted his mother and one of older sisters in a posh west London hotel on Sunday just before the European premiere of "The Dark Knight".

Reports say authorities wanted to question the Welsh-born actor on Monday but the questioning was postponed. Apparently authorities did not want to interfere with the premiere of the new "Batman" film franchise installment.

Representatives for Mr. Bale were unreachable but I'm not surprised: what can they say to spin this story? You can't be accused of beating your Momma and Big Sis and look good in the public eye. I don’t care if you had a $155.8MM dollar weekend or not, you just can't do that.

I hope things are cleared up – we just don’t need any more drama like this. Besides we have “Terminator Salvation” coming in summer 2009 – we need John Connor free so he can finish the movie!

Increase the peace Batman!

UPDATE: Bale was arrested and released after turning himself in for questioning. He is due back for further questioning in September.

Why So Serious!?! - Dark Knight Captures $158MM at the box office

It was the can of collective whop ass heard all around the world box offices delivered by the Caped Crusader and his arch nemesis, the Joker. "The Dark Knight," Warner Brothers and Christopher Nolan's sequel to "Batman Begins" took in $158.3 million dollars according to Variety Magazine.

This final total beats original estimates released on Sunday which called for TDK weekend box office numbers to hit just over $153MM. As Variety notes - TDK easily beat the $151.1MM weekend gross of Spiderman 3 back in May 2007.

Having seen the movie twice this weekend, I'm not surprised at all by the outstanding opening. I'll post my official review later today along with my review of Mamma Mia which took home a respectable $27.5MM especially for musical - kudos to Universal Pictures for great counterprogramming there.

TDK is FAR superior movie to Spidey 3 so I’m thinking we will continue to see extraordinary box office steam for Batman. It is just that damn good. I would also bet that IMAX ticket sales will continue to do very well since 20 minutes of the movie were filmed using IMAX cameras. Word is the visuals are amazing.

UPDATE: here is a link to an article that lists all 10 of the records TDK broke this weekend.

I'll let you know what's good once I see the IMAX version this weekend!