Okay, brace yourselves on this one, because it might be even weirder than that whole “Not Another Not Another Movie” thing I just talked about.

Apparently, there’s a city in Turkey that’s been having a rough time of things since the movie The Dark Knight was released.  The name of the city?

No, not Gotham…the city’s name is Batman.

The Mayor of a Turkish city called Batman is suing director Christopher Nolan and Warner Bros. bosses for a cut of their Caped Crusader film franchise.

Huseyin Kalkan has accused the brains behind The Dark Knight of using the city’s name without permission in the bizarre new legal action.

The Mayor states, There is only one Batman in the world. The American producers used the name of our city without informing us..

And Kalkan goes so far as to blame the latest Nolan film for a spate of murders and suicides in Batman.

He also claims the stigma attached to the city makes it almost impossible for local businesses to be taken seriously abroad.

The WORST part of it is, he’s got a point, sort of.  Turns out that Batman has been a city in Turkey since somewhere in the neighborhood of SEVEN HUNDRED A.D .  I mean, sure…there’s no possible way they could win a copyright infringement suit since it’s absolutely impossible to mistake a comic book character for a CITY, but you’ll never be able to stop thinking “Dude, you named your city Batman?  What, are you like FOUR?” It’s like listening to newer Denis Leary material about his family in their younger days when the kids wanted to name a new dog “Pizza”.

The problem with this is there is no compromise that can be struck.  Batman the character has been Batman for fifty years or more by now.  Batman the city?  Over a thousand years, easy.  Neither can change their name at this stage–why didn’t the city of Batman bring this up back in the eighties after the FIRST Batman movie?–nor should they.

It might be a good move for the city of Batman to do something with the name.  Like the official Batman capitol of the world or something.  Maybe the next Batman film could shoot some scenes there.  Sure would be a help to all that struggling local business.

And yet at the same time I can’t help but feel like this is some desperate jerkwater in the middle of Turkey that smells a fast payday.  Batman’s been Batman for a whole lot of years, but The Dark Knight hits it big and suddenly there’s the City of Batman with its hand out?  Smells fishy to me–more appropriately, smells like BLACKMAIL.  Maybe Nolan should countersue under RICO and claim the City of Batman is engaging in racketeering.  Odds are the City of Batman wouldn’t last long in a legal battle, especially against Warner Brothers money.

I can’t help but think that, with a little negotiation, the two Batmans could come to a peaceable understanding.  This of course almost certainly means there won’t be any.

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