Chris Nolan sued by Batman

There are odd legal issues swirling around the business of filmmaking. And then there are silly ones. And then, there’s this: a town in southeastern Turkey called Batman is suing Warners and Chris Nolan.

Warners always seems to be getting into hot legal water these days – between the Get Smart and Dukes Of Hazzard issues and the current Watchmen tussle – but this is something else.

Batman’s mayor, Huseyin Kalkan is suing Nolan and the studio for royalties from The Dark Knight, accusing them of using the city’s name without permission.

Name issue

"There is only one Batman in the world," Kalkan says in a statement picked up by Variety . "The American producers used the name of our city without informing us."

Yes, it sounds like a spoof to us too, but the story is gathering some momentum as the mayor is working on finding evidence that the Turkish Batman predates Bob Kane’s 1939 creation of the character.

And we thought the successful films only had to deal with writers believing someone stole their idea. Stupidest. Lawsuit. Ever.