Variety has reported that Christopher Nolan, who has signed on to direct the next Batman film, will also direct The Prestige, an adaptation of a novel by Christopher Priest.  According to Variety The Prestige project was shopped around to studios with a completed script and budget (in the $40 million range), 'and it's ready to go.'  Here's the rub for Batman fans -- David Goyer is still at work on the Batman script (see 'David Goyer To Write Batman Film') and any delays in writing or approvals could lead to Christopher Nolan working on The Prestige film before starting on the new Batman project.   Could this be another delay in the prolonged development process that has afflicted the superhero movies based on DC Comics characters?  Possibly, but it is too soon to tell.  Stay tuned for further developments. 

Nolan's brother Jonathan, who wrote the original story for Memento, has written the script for The Prestige, which depicts a bitter rivalry between two stage magicians and is set in the late Nineteenth Century.  Disney and Warner Brothers are working out the distribution issues for The Prestige, with Jude Law reportedly set to play one of the Victorian era magicians.