Following the critical and box office success of Batman Begins and The Dark Knight, it seems unlikely that director Christopher Nolan won't return for a third Batman movie.

But the man behind the camera is still hesitant to commit, recently telling The Los Angeles Times:

Well ... let me think how to put this. There are two things to be said. One is the emphasis on story. What’s the story? Is there a story that’s going to keep me emotionally invested for the couple of years that it will take to make another one? That’s the overriding question. On a more superficial level, I have to ask the question:

How many good third movies in a franchise can people name? [Laughs.] At the same time, in taking on the second one, we had the challenge of trying to make a great second movie, and there haven't been too many of those either.

It’s all about the story really. If the story is there, everything is possible. I hope that was a suitably slippery answer.

Christian Bale will be back for the follow-up to The Dark Knight. Will Christopher Nolan?