Here's my theology behind this, CHRIS NOLAN IS A GENIUS, he puts the film/and fans before the characters themselves. This meaning, he won't put in a character unless he knows it can flow with the movie, or the movies' plot, or make sense. Evidence being this, with Batman begins we liked batman because of Batman, not because of his foes. While his foes were intriguing, and done SCARINGLY well, they weren't the reason we came back to see it, the origin of BATMAN was. In DareDevil, and the 90's batman, we saw the movies for these reasons: “Jack Nicholson, and Collin Pharel." Had they not been in it, it probably wouldn't have gone as well.
Chris Nolan didn't just put Two-Face in because of fan rave (AHEM!*Cough*
"Venom" *Cough*!) it was because he was sure that the guy who played him, and the way he was written in would satisfy the fans, as well as movie goers who didn't know the character. He put JOKER in the film not ONLY because of fan hype (Because I'd be kidding myself if I said he didn't do because of it)
but because he was confident that he could bring us a Joker who would literally MAKE The movie, bring us something US as an audience had never seen before. He wasn't going to throw such a long time idolized character as Joker out there just to satisfy fans, even if it was done decently (I hope your taking notes Sam Raimi!) He put him on the big screen because he knew Joker could be introduced FANTASTICLY, he's a major believer in "IF YOUR GONNA DO IT, DO IT RIGHT, AND DO IT REALLY, REALLY, WELL!)
This out of the way, we now are wondering "Who's batman going to go head to head with next?" There's no FOR CERTAIN foe hinted to like there was in Begins when Gordon showed batman the Joker calling card, only a few clues likened to "The armor could stop a cat." Knowing that Nolan only puts people in the movie if they'll WORK, the question is: “HOW can any of these Rogues WORK in this Nolanised batman universe?"
For Catwoman, here is my take. While she is the STAR ATTRACTION in eye candy when it comes to batman's comic saga, her character is minorly FAR fetched.
Meaning that while Batman, though completely fictional, and perhaps even impractical, his character IS logical. Even Joker who is a MAJOR nut, didn't come out with Flower squirters, or blimps of Joker gas, or even Joker gas AT ALL, he used Logical yet WACKY ploys in Nolan’s' LOGICAL universe. His mode of Crazy set enough tone in the movie to make up for ANY manor of Joker gadgets and tricks that may have been in the cartoons or Tim Burrton’s rendition.
In this batman movie Catwoman therefore CANNOT be some nice little clerk/
secretary type who gets pushed out a window, and is somehow revived by thousands of cat tongues. Nor can she be someone who uses her capital and wits JUST to save cats. While she can certainly have a LARGE affinity for cats, her drive shouldn't be to free tigers from zoo's.
Here's her motivation in a NOLANISED world, she is an AMAZINGLY good, amazingly SMART burglar. A female Bruce Wayne who uses HER mind for theft. Not just jewels either, but the REAL hard to get stuff, like the antiques of billionaires on their OWN islands, drives, computer data locked away in laser guarded facilities, sometimes even government secrets. The harder to get to, the better. She the best and only the best can hire her, her name is Selina Kyle. Now she didn't call herself Catwoman from the giddy up, she was simply a MASTER thief until some of the European papers started dubbing her that, (She started off stealing things in Europe). Because of her ego, she made SLIGHT alterations to her costume, *Cat ears* That way she could be KNOWN yet not BROADCASTED. The reason for this is because people like Joker, Scarecrow, and BATMAN are symbols, they HAVE to get their message out in ONE stroke, FEAR, ITIMADATION, LUNACY. Catwoman is an un-catchable thief, so her motivation shouldn't be "I WANT THE WORLD TO KNOW THE NAME OF CATWOMN" It should be "Catch me if you can, and I know you cant." because TO much publicity endangers your career if your going to be a STEALTHY thief, the perfect push and pull, "HERE I AM. HERE I'M NOT."
The best way to describe her will be to combine the cunning and skill of Vincent Cassel from OCEANS 12 with the sexiness and CLASS of Catherine Zeta Jones in ENTRAPMENT
Meaning THIS mixed with this
(Those are random Laser's by the way, not preprogramed so he has to adlib his dodges)
Her costume won't be altered (Save the ears) to complement the image of a CAT, but rather the tools she ALREADY uses are compared to that of a Cat by the public, (The cat claws, for climbing. The night goggles for night vision. And her acrobatic skills which are pretty near un matched, and cat-LIKE reflexes.) She EARNED the title of catwoman, instead of broad casting it the first time she showed herself. Her costume should again, be practical to someone who deals in espionage/burglary, not JUST leather to hug everywhere (Although by all means if it’s possible, DO IT!).
If anything, a cross between THIS and this
Perhaps the same materials used to make some of batman's costume, MINUS the body armor for flexibility...rarrrr.
Not this, this is MTV
This is practical, SEXY criminal
The plot setting, Batman has been fighting crime as much as he can from the other side of the law. The "Keep your eyes open for the bat, to arrest him." as turned into a Witch hunt for him. Headed by Harvey Bullock who never liked him to start with. He's also unsure about moving on, due to Rachel and all, and at one of his SAVE THE SPECIES parties for PR, he meets SELINA KY-AALE. She's supposedly used most of her family fortune to trade in good stock to raise money to help endangered creatures (While she CAN have feelings for these animals, this is more of a FRONT for her REAL passion, the thrill of the caper.)
Another new face blows into Gotham, that face being that of Oswald Coblepot. A (Supposedly) retired weapons dealer/manufacturer. Who has been donating quite a lot of money to fix Gotham up again, contributing to the police force and to the re-construction of buildings Joker has blown up. He's also matched Bruce in buying a restaurant right from under Bruce, calling it the ICEBURGE lounge. Batman OBVIOUSLY doesn't buy his good deeds, so he tries to snoop out information about him. At first look all that can be said about the eccentric billionaire is that he collects rare birds, is involved in organizations regarding rescuing animals off the street, and that his trade mark is n umbrella. (These are the only PENGUIN-ESQUE things about him, no weird laugh, no bird mobile) well that and its RUMORED that he's built a gun into his umbrella, for self defense of course *wink wink*
Batman discovers that Oswald is also involved with a man known as Lionel Daggot who is in the business of various Pharmaceutical companies in Gotham, as well as chemical plants SUPPOSEDLY for making creating vaccines. Discovering that some of the chemicals don't add up, and some are down right Hazardously illegal, batman goes out to "BORROW" a sample, and possibly gain files to the REAL research Penguins' doing.
At the same time, he's finding that someone is always one step ahead of him when trying to find evidence. This mysterious person being the Catwoman, Batman decides that he should find out WHO she is and why she's stealing these objects that may expose Coblepot's plan which I'll get into in another editorial. He determines she is an international thief who specializes in hard to get stuff, and that she probably followed Cobblepot FROM Europe, to pretend to steal from him while all the time, she is working for him to cover his tracks. She's the only one besides Batman who can get through the security systems to get the items, even when the systems are on high alert as to give authenticity to the theft. Of course SHE makes the evidence disappear, while Batman needs it for analysation.
Low and behold, in one of their many confrontations, both HER and Batman are nearly killed buy a hitman, (Deadshot) obviously Cobblepot having no more use for her has decided to TERMINATE their business relationship. (She's used to this sort of thing) Its discovered afterwards that she had in fact taken on another client who wants the SAME info that Cobblepot's been wanting out of the way. Meaning the reason a contract is out on HER now is because she was playing her FIRST client by taking another. She was planning to double cross him while HE was planning to double cross HER.
Because Batman can't/still won't overtake certain boundaries, and CATWOMAN can, eventually they work together to get a certain object or chemical, HE needs it to study it for evidence, and SHE'LL take the spoils at the end to deliver to her client. Her conversion to helping is also encompassed in this reveling evidence.
Oswald Coblepot/The Penguin's plan is that of genocide, PROFITABLE genocide. He's funding up various pharmaceutical plants for the reason of making a toxin salvaged from some of CRANE'S toxin. There was too much potential in the chemicals just "LEFT BEHIND" not to be recycled for something more financially promising.
Likened to the bird flu, he plans to unleash a plague on Gotham that are carried by Raccoons, stray CATS and DOGS, but also BIRDS. The process will be gradual and seem like a bug that’s spreading, as not to row suspicion, and perhaps use the excuse of a MUTATION of the Crane's virus in water over time. When he's safely away and CLEARLY not involved in the creation of the cure, he'll have been buying stock in the vaccine that’s being developed going through the roof, as well as the insurance money from all the establishments he bought. He's confident that his plan will go unfettered because, so far all other evidence pointing towards the cure has been destroyed! Then as it turns out, Batman does something to the virus that makes it irrelevant.
The plot twist is that BATMAN/Bruce Wayne turns out to be Catwoman's other client all along, and had been playing both Penguin and Catwoman. He and Fox were busy making a counter, deactivate the Virus' effect while Batman pretended to be in the dark. There can be a very cool fight involving Batman and Catwoman working together to dodge the bullets of both Deadshot and Penguin. As long as it’s appropriately climatic.
This ends with gotham saved from the plague, and those who were already infected are being treated by a cure provided by WAYNE industries, While Daggot takes the fall and is consequently killed before making it to court, Cobblepot is free to scheme another day, only now he has it IN for Batman. So much so that the movie's end hints with him calling a professional to BREAK the batman.
Batman allows Catwoman to....Get a head start in running from justice in return for helping him, and SHE takes most of the blame for the robberies in upscale Gotham, ones she and HE committed
"After all, I have a reputation to keep. Can’t have YOU ruining that just so that the police can have another reason to chase you around town. For what it’s worth, I hope we can do this again. TAH"
Likened to the cartoon, she also gets away with a half the spoils of her nights work. Which as she looks them over are empty bags replaced with ONE bat a rang.
Now as for who can play Miss Kyle, the choices vary.
MY choice to play this kind off intelligent and sexy CAT WOMAN is Kate Beckinsale
For Penguin, Phillip Sewmore Hoffman, or Paul Giamatti
Daggot to be played by Gregory Itzin
And Deadshot/Floyd Lawson to be played by Jeffry Donovan
He's good at playing a jerk who never breaks a sweat when shooting someone dead, and has the whole cocky DEADSHOT voice