Mayor of Batman sues WB, Nolan
Southeastern city in Turkey fights for name
By ALI JAAFAR
Batman has a new adversary: Batman.
The mayor of an oil-producing city in southeastern Turkey, which has the same name as the Caped Crusader, is suing helmer Christopher Nolan and Warner Bros. for royalties from mega-grosser "The Dark Knight."
Huseyin Kalkan, the pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party mayor of Batman, has accused "The Dark Knight" producers of using the city's name without permission.
"There is only one Batman in the world," Kalkan said. "The American producers used the name of our city without informing us."
No one from the town of Batman has explained why it took so many years to take legal action. Batman first appeared as a comicbook character in 1939 and the "Batman" TV series started in 1966. Tim Burton's first bigscreen rendition for Warner Bros. came out in 1989. Undoubtedly the fact that "Dark Knight" is about to pass the $1 billion mark at the B.O. played a part in stirring the ire of the Turkish hamlet.
The mayor is prepping a series of charges against Nolan and Warner Bros., which owns the right to the Batman character, including placing the blame for a number of unsolved murders and a high female suicide rate on the psychological impact that the film's success has had on the city's inhabitants.
Former natives of Batman are also said to have encountered obstacles when attempting to register their businesses abroad.
The mayor is working on gathering evidence he claims will show that the city of Batman predates the 1939 debut of Bob Kane's superhero in DC Comics.
"We are only aware of this claim via press reports and have not seen any actual legal action," a Warner Bros. rep said in a statement.
While the town of Batman has suddenly shown great interest in the property, there's no evidence that the citizenry has ever shown much loyalty to the Caped Crusader -- not even on Halloween.
http://www.variety.com/article/VR111...goryid=13&cs=1
