We brought you a report yesterday about director Christopher Nolan and some minor details of his new Superman film. The director also spoke about the third film for a certain caped crusader and addressed the rumors of a potential presence by The Joker in the follow-up to The Dark Knight.

About the return of the Joker – Nolan told Empire,

“No”, says Nolan emphatically and unhesitatingly. He resists elaborating simply because, quite understandably, he says, “I just don’t feel comfortable talking about it.”

Speaking about any potential film crossover with Batman and Superman – Nolan said,

“Marvel are doing what they do and people will respond to that really well, or they won’t. It’s not something I ever really applied a blanket rule to, but Marvel characters are very different to DC characters, and the key DC characters are very different to the minor DC characters. You’ve got to go back to that element of, ‘What do I see when I close my eyes and think of Batman? What do I see when I close my eyes and think of Superman?’ And for me a big part of that is their individuality. They are extraordinary beings in an ordinary world. And the reason I think the two are fascinating is because Superman is very specifically superpowered and obviously otherworldly; Batman is very human and flawed. They’re two very different characters, but there’s an elemental feeling of power in the iconography of those characters. To me that’s originally because they stood alone. I need to hang on to that in my imagining of them.”

The as of yet, Untitled Batman Project is slated to hit theaters on July 20th, 2012 and Superman: Man of Steel is slated to hit theaters in December, 2012.