So much so, that Christian Bale is itching to make a third Batman movie already. Bale says he's looking forward to seeing whether Christopher Nolan can top the 'artistry' and 'emotional intensity' of this film, and that he'd love to be a part of it.

Yeah yeah yeah – listen, Christian Bale can spout as much nonsense about artistic worth as he likes, because we all know why he wants to make another Batman film. It's because Batman law quite clearly states that the third Batman movie in any series is the point where the Bat-nipple comes into play. You'd have to be a crazy person to turn down the Bat-nipple.

Christian Bale is mad-bent on revisiting all the old franchises that have been left for dead, isn't he? First he decided to become Batman, then he signed on to make a load of new Terminator films. What next?

Personally we're hoping that he takes the lead in a new clutch of dark, emotionally-intense Ernest movies. You know, we really want to know what profound psychological childhood trauma Ernest went through before the events of Ernest Goes To Camp took place, and Christian Bale's the only man for the job in our opinion.

But if that doesn't happen, Christian Bale is happy to just churn out more Batman films until the end of time. The Dark Knight hasn't even been released yet, but it's already whipping up a gigantic storm of hype thanks in part to Heath Ledger's untimely death, and Christian Bale wants to see if everyone can repeat the trick without anyone dying this time. If Magazine reports:

"The possibility of doing another one is completely Chris Nolan's decision and if he's doing it, then absolutely," Bale says. "He's presented himself with a huge challenge of surpassing this one I believe, and very much so with surpassing the Joker as a villain. You know, how do you up that? It's a very tricky thing to do. If anybody can do it, I think Chris can. So that's his choice."

Bale's absolutely right, of course – the third sequel traditionally provides film-makers with a vast amount of artistic choices. For instance, should Batman 3 go the way of Beverly Hills Cop 3 and be set in a funfair? Should it go the way of Jaws 3 and be a 3D movie where the baddie gets blown up at the end after eating a grenade? Or should Batman 3 go the way of Spider-Man 3 and feature an egg-based dance number and a haircut that makes people evil?

All three, hopefully. Just so long as there's no Robin. We can't even ironically entertain the idea of that option happening.