He's Fought the Penguin, Now He's Got to Take on Turkey

Brian Doherty | November 13, 2008

Riddle me this, caped crusaders: Why is a southeastern Turkish oil burg like a fictional orphaned vigilante with a flying rodent fetish?

In a disturbingly Boratesque move, the mayor of the Turkish city of Batman is, according to this Variety cover story, planning to sue filmmaker Christopher Nolan and Warner Bros. over, well, having a very lucrative film and publishing franchise based on a cowled crimefighter named, as you might recall, Batman. Mayor Huseyin Kalkan, in some indefinable way, thinks this infringes on his city's right to, as near as I can tell, get lots of free money from a very lucrative film and publishing franchise.

One wonders about this story, which seems to have come to Variety's reporter straight from the ranting politico Kalkan himself; Warner spokesperson claims they have not yet seen any actual legal papers on this suit. Foreign policy bonus: Kalkan is pro-Kurd! For some reason, I just see this whole silly mess as another argument for anarchism. But that might just be me.