Caine was aware of this when Nolan came to him to be a part of the planned origin movie about the Dark Knight, Batman Begins.
The respect is returned by Nolan, who has put Caine in each of his films ever since the two got together on the sets of Batman Begins.
Clearly, Michael Caine has a great deal of respect for the world that Nolan crafted for his version of Batman, and most critics and audiences would agree.
The moment he introduced himself, I knew exactly who he was because I was a great fan of his three small films.”