Christian Bale Reportedly Offered $50 Million To Return As Batman In Justice League Movie

It looks like there may still be hope that Christian Bale could return as Gotham's finest in the Batman / Superman film.

A new ebook, "Beyond Batman: The Unauthorized True Story of Christian Bale and His Dark Knight Dilemma," suggests the actor is being offered up to $50 million to reprise his role of the Caped Crusader.

The book comes from Vince Russel who simultaneously put out another unauthorized biography of WWE's Phil Brooks earlier this month.

The excerpts that sparked the fervor occur between author Vince Russel and a Legendary Pictures insider who speculates Bale could receive a big pay day to return as the dark knight.

Via The Press Association:

"Why would Christian Bale walk away from what is certainly going to be either the first or second highest grossing movie in the history of cinema?

"He could probably make 50 million dollars for being in the movie 20 minutes. And it would be worth every penny to the studio."

"Sources close to Christian Bale have reportedly begun expressing their suspicions that Bale now views the Batman films in the same light that Robert Downey Jr views the Iron Man films."

The latter isn't a surprise as we've previously said Bale is to Warner Bros. and the Batman franchise as Robert Downey Jr. is to Marvel's "Iron Man" legacy.

Just to be clear, a lot of people are running with the report that Warner Bros. has actually offered Bale $50 million to return in the role. That doesn't seem to be the case.

Rather, it's just someone speculating that Bale could get that much money to appear in the film. Robert Downey Jr. reportedly earned $50 million for his role in last year's "The Avengers."

The price for the actor paid off when the film went on to earn more than $1.5 billion at theaters worldwide.

Downey Jr. has since resigned with Disney and Marvel to appear in two more "Avengers" films.

Previously, Bale told Entertainment Weekly he won't be in any "Justice League" movie unless Christopher Nolan approached him with an idea.

Currently, The Hollywood Reporter says a few middle-aged actors including Joe Manganiello ("True Blood) and Ryan Gosling are up for the role as the Caped Crusader in the Batman/Superman movie due out in 2015. That would still leave room for Bale to return as Batman in the future if one of these other men play a different version of Bats (think Batman Beyond).

We've reached out to Warner Bros. for comment.