Bale The New Batman

An 'American Psycho' has been picked to star as Bruce Wayne in a new Batman movie.

Christian Bale will don the cape and mask in a film that will chronicle the early career of The Dark Knight.

Memento filmmaker Christopher Nolan will direct the movie, which is set to begin filming in early 2004.

Nolan said: "What I see in Christian is the ultimate embodiment of Bruce Wayne. He has exactly the balance of darkness and light that we were looking for."

A spokesman for Warner Bros. said: "Now that we've found the best person to play Batman, we are really looking forward to moving ahead with the rest of our casting and are excited about the exceptional group we are assembling."

Bale, 29, made his breakthrough in Steven Spielberg's Empire of the Sun in 1987, playing a boy trying to survive in a Japanese-run POW camp in China.

His other credits include Swing Kids, Velvet Goldmine and Shaft. Bale's most infamous role was as the yuppie serial-killer in 2000's American Psycho.

Batman became a top box office draw after director Tim Burton and star Michael Keaton made two hit movies Batman and Batman Returns.

The films got a little campier when Joel Schumacher took over for 1995's Batman Forever, with Val Kilmer as the Caped Crusader. The next installment, 1997's Batman & Robin, was a critical disaster starring George Clooney.