Caine Amazed By Bale's Weight-Gain

SIR Michael Caine was initially wary when producers cast Christian Bale as Batman in forthcoming film BATMAN BEGINS - because he thought the actor was too slim.

The ZULU legend, 72, had read about Bale's shocking weight loss to play an insomniac in The Machinist and didn't expect the young actor to be large enough to play the caped crusader.

Caine tells British magazine EMPIRE, "I remember him from American Psycho, and he struck me as being a slight-ish young man.

"So when they said he was doing Batman, I was thinking, 'He's a bit slight,' and then in walks Arnold Schwarzenegger."