This is still very much a rumour, but it's one that seems to have a little bit of possibility to it. It's also eminated from the Batman On Film website, that doesn't have a habit of throwing tittle tattle around.

And the rumour is this: there's a decent chance that Christopher Nolan will not be on board for the next Batman film. The director is currently hard at work on next summer's Inception - that we reported on earlier in the week - but the site reports that not only did Warner Bros, David Goyer and Jonathan Nolan have a job to get Nolan back for The Dark Knight, but that the task is going to be much harder for a third Batman adventure.

Some rumours, we should point out, have suggested that once he's done with Inception, Nolan will move back to Batman. But he's once again remained tight-lipped on the topic (the most we've ever heard is that he'd been toying with one or two ideas for another film), and several reasons are being discussed as to why he might not be back.

Firstly, there's the small matter that topping The Dark Knight is going to be one heck of a job, and something of a poisoned chalice. Then there's the death of Heath Ledger, which is believed to have affected Nolan greatly. Given that the plan was for The Joker to appear in the film that followed The Dark Knight, that inevitably throws another spanner in the works, especially as Nolan would have no intention of recasting the roll, whether Warner Bros wants to or not. It all adds up, according to the site, to a reluctance to return to the Bat-chair.

Batman On Film reports that we wouldn't see the next film in the franchise until 2012 at the earliest, with 2013 a possibility (Christian Bale is tied to it, whoever the director). It also reports that David Goyer and Jonathan Nolan are developing story ideas for the film, incidentally, and that Warner Bros has long had a contingency if Nolan passed on the next film.

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