I've only seen bits and pieces of [Nolan's Batman movies]. There's an enormous amount of effort and time and money that goes into the making of them, but it's a different generation. They're a different kind of thing than ours was. They're dark, gothic, sinister, full of explosions. We didn't approach it that way at all.
Well I would like to point out to Mr West that the first Batman story, "The Case of the Chemical Syndicate," had Batman showing little remorse over killing or maiming criminals and he had no problem using a gun, so the character was always The Dark Knight.
Plus in Dark Knight news, wired has a very cool article with Christopher Nolan about TDK dropping digital effects for the real thing.
Also the HAHAHAHA times is out.