News

Turkish Mayor Sues Warner Bros., Christopher Nolan

The mayor of a city named Batman in Southeast Turkey is reportedly suing director Christopher Nolan and Warner Brothers over royalties from last summer's mega-grossing The Dark Knight.

Huseyin Kalkan, mayor of the pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party of Batman, has accused the film's producers and the studio of using the city's name without permission. Kalkan has said, "The American producers used the name of our city without informing us." Kalkan has levied a series of charges against Nolan and Warner Brothers, blaming the film for unsolved murders and a high female suicide rate because of the psychological impact that the film's success had on citizens of Batman.

Additonally, former Batmanians have claimed that they've encountered obstacles when trying to register their businesses abroad. The mayor is also gathering evidence that will prove that the city of Batman has been in existence since long before the character's 1939 debut in the pages of a DC comic book.

Reps for Warner Brothers have said that they have not seen any documentation of official legal action and have only heard about these claims through the press.

—The ARTISTdirect Staff
11.20.08