Source: Chicago Sun-Times

"In the middle of the night, a regular civilian guy crashed into the Batmobile. He panicked and later told the cops that he saw us and thought aliens were landing or something. That's how shocked he was to see the Batmobile. His foot just hit the accelerator."

Christian Bale is having blast playing the caped crusader, even though he wasn't much of a fan before.

Talking to the Chicago Sun-Times about his Dark Knight experience, Bale had a few tales to tell, and goodies to spoil away.

The 30-year-old wasn't really seeking to do a big-budget superhero thing, when he heard about a new kind of Batman. He even almost passed on when his initial perception was clarified.

"I contacted them. I heard they were doing some low-budget Batman not aimed at kids and I was tantalized," he admits. "I read some of the graphic novels and they were very dark and very interesting. I said, 'It's big-budget, OK, then it won't happen the way I want it to happen. Forget it."

Only after learning about Christopher Nolan's involvement did he set his mind. "We clicked and hopefully we've made something very different."

And to really manage something different, their primary concern was to distance themselves as far away as possible from the Burton/Schumacher versions.
"I've never felt like the Batman character in the films was given as much time as any of the villains. The villains were always the most interesting characters, too. Batman has always been this very bizarre, almost blind character running through the middle of the story," Bale says. "It's a reinvention. We want you to forget there has ever been a Batman before this one."

But mostly, he learned there were some perks in portraying a character so deep in people's hearts and consciousness.

"I did drive (the Batmobile) in more remote locations around the city and I went fast. No ticket!"