Warner Brothers Plan More 'Batman' and 'Superman' Films

It could have honestly gone without saying.

Nonetheless, it was nice to hear it from the higher-ups at Time Warner.

Speaking at an Earnings Call yesterday morning, CEO Jeff Bewkes revealed they are planning on more installments of their perspective Batman and Superman franchises:

"We look at Harry Potter. It's fantastic to have franchises that last that long. We want to do that with Batman and Superman and perhaps Sherlock Holmes. The sequals are as good, with new characters added, as were the originals. That wasn't the case in the years ago. Warners has more tentpoles as an on-going strategy taht very much lifts its distribution and peformance. We think that's going to hold up our slate in the 2009 - 2010 period. We've got four more big tentpoles coming this year."

Again, we already knew about the World's Greatest Detective and Krypton's Last Son - their next films are both in the early writing stages.

But you can color me a bit surprised by Sherlock Holmes. We know that Warner Brothers is feeling confident in the Guy Ritchie-helmed/Robert Downey Jr. headlining take on Conan Doyle's legendary detective.

But I always assumed the plan was for it to be a one-shot-at-it solo film.