The Dark Knight

[McfLy]

Paul Bettany seems like an interesting choice, the way he can hike up his voice as I recall from A Knight's Tale, an interesting prospect. Would continue the supposed trend of Begins to hire younger up and coming actors for a villan role.

Some title knock-arounds:

Batman Malevolence
Batman Vendetta
Batman...the quest for peace!

[picolas]

based on the trailer and tv spots for Firewall i don't think Bettany would be good. it would be slightly neat if they got Keaton to do it.

[MacGuffin]

Latest Bat-Scuttlebutt
Source: Batman-On-Film

Let me preface by saying this: unless otherwise noted, all BATMAN movie news should be considered rumor and treated as such. So please remember, we do report rumors. However, the buzz we report comes from sources that we've known for a long while and have been dead on accurate in the past. The rumors are simply part of the fun and the build up towards the next Bat-flick, right? When I tell y'all to chisel something in stone, go buy the damn hammer! And please don't think I'm being condescending here, OK? While I KNOW most of you get it, some of my dear readers don't -- and they let me know it in their emails.

Now, on with today's report...

I'm going to simply list several of his blurbs -- some will be quotes, others will consist of me paraphrasing "Jindrak."

"With the inclusion of the Joker & the general public's renewed interest, Warner know & appreciate more than ever the importance of listening to the fans & leaving Chris & David to get on with it!"

Paul Bettany is "in the mix" for the part of The Joker. As he himself recently, it's all about money and negotiating power. It's not lost on anyone that he's one of the fan faves for the role.

"As for Josh Lucas and the role of Harvey Dent, I've been informed that Christian is very much behind Josh, having worked with him on AMERICAN PSYCHO. If the fans are just as passionate about him getting the role of Harvey as Josh is, then its a very good chance he will be the new DA of Gotham City."

As it has been reported here and on other sites, work is "well underway" on The Sequel. In the coming months, "speculation will be rife regarding various roles within the sequel & it's plot, which is to be expected."


Batman 2 Plot Details

Batman on Film has an absurd connection to the Batman film franchise, as tipsters always seem to be queuing up to share insider information with them. Today, they've got a line on early plot information for Batman 2 thanks to an insider they promise us is legitimate. Here are the salient bits of information from our friendly tipster.

- "They" pretty much have got the plot for the film outlined.

- Nolan has been re-going over all of the various Batman comics even more to comb for fine details.

- They (Nolan and co.) want it to be even darker than BEGINS.

- The studio is supportive of creating something as accurate to the Batman comic books as possible and less about it being some kind of summer popcorn "mega-hit."


Chris Nolan and David Goyer were both on hand for the recent Saturn Awards and talked a little BEGINS sequel to IESB.NET. Nolan and Goyer confirmed that they've come up with a good story for the next Bat-film. Besides that, they were very vague -- In fact, Nolan "jokingly" warned Goyer not to say a thing. There has been a bit of speculation that Goyer wouldn't have anything to do with The Sequel since Nolan's brother Jonah is writing the screenplay. However, BOF has said not to read too much into that and Goyer would be involved (The story is based on an outline by both Goyer and Nolan).

[MacGuffin]

Robin Williams, Joker?
The actor's thoughts on portraying the famous Batman villian.

News of what's happening with the sequel to Batman Begins has been scant of late. Director Christopher Nolan has been hard at work on his Batman Begins follow-up, The Prestige, which re-teams the director with Christian Bale.

Most believe that the director's next film after Prestige will be a sequel to Batman Begins, likely with The Joker stepping into the villain slot.

Many actors have been rumored to play the part, but fan favorites include Paul Bettany and Adrien Brody. Another actor who has been mentioned in connection with the series since way back during casting for The Riddler in Batman Forever is Robin Williams. Of course it helps that the actor has a connection with Christopher Nolan, having starred for the director in Insomnia.

IGN FilmForce spoke to Williams about the possibility this weekend. He was enthusiastic about the prospect.

"Oh God, I'd love to do that one."

Williams is famous for his Jack Nicholson impression, but he suspects Nolan would be looking for a new take. "Well, you want to do a different Joker. You know, if they do Arkham Asylum, it would be amazing. Arkham Asylum is one of the greatest, nastiest comic books ever. It's truly, it's like the Marquee de Sade on that level, and wonderfully damaged and quite tragic, in terms of when you realize [what happened to] create these characters..."
   
We asked Williams whether he saw The Joker as more over-the-top or dark.

"You can go both," Williams said. "As in madness, there's a lot of ways to go. I think you can really explore how bright and how nasty-funny he is, just like I guess what Kevin [Spacey] did with Lex Luthor, made him really funny, but yet still damaged... As evil is, accessible and yet still horrific. Jump back and forth all the time. I'm kidding... Kidding!"

On the second kidding, Williams gave me a soft poke in the throat with two fingers. Amusing, but a bit surprising.

"See there it is," says Williams. I saw your eyes go f**k off!"

Williams is an admitted fan of comics and/or graphic novels. "It's interesting now that they're doing, they are kind of realize, with all the adult comic books or graphic novels for those who are trying to upscale themselves... Is that a comic book? No! It's a graphic novel! Is that porn? No! It's adult entertainment!"

"They're making these really interesting pieces and there's a lot of great, great comic books and graphic novels out there that could make wonderful movies. They're looking for them, and it's great... I read this comic book called DMZ [by Brian Wood], which is about New York after kind of a Civil War. Could it happen? Every time the helicopters fly over my house I'm going, 'Welcome to Baghdad!' But it's kind of fascinating, because they treat it like the country's divided. All these cities like Lebanon and Beirut and Baghdad and military zones of control, yet it's still the village and it's still it's own. Fascinating concept. That's what's good about alternative forms of literature or stuff that you read..."

[Gamblour.]

Oh god. Well maybe. Nope, I don't like it.

[polkablues]

Fuck no.

Let me say that again.

Fuck no.

I will buy Chris Nolan a case of beer if he casts Adrien Brody as the Joker.  I will kick him square in the nuts if he casts Robin Williams.

[picolas]

i now think keaton is the perfect choice.

[MacGuffin]

Exclusive Scoop: We Know Who The Joker Is! HA HA
Source: Latino Review

For months, gossip has been circulating who would play The Joker in the next Batman Begins sequel. It's definite that the next sequel will concentrate on The Joker and they're already throwing names around such as Steve Buscemi - Robin Williams - Lachy Hulme -Alexis Denisof – and Mark Hamill.

We were first to tell the world that Brandon Routh was going to be the new Superman. Now here we are at it again as we just got word from A VERY TRUSTED SOURCE that the offer last night was officially made to Heath Ledger to star as The Joker in the Batman Begins Sequel! As Ari Gold on HBO'S Entourage would say: Heath Motherfuckin' Brokeback The Joker Ledger!

[cron]

weird... he's like, what, my age?

[modage]

LET ME JUST PRAY TO GOD ALOUD THAT THIS IS NOT TRUE>  PLEASE GOD, DO NOT PUT HEATH LEDGER IN A BATMAN FILM.  THANK YOU LORD.

[Kal]

thats just weird 

[Pozer]

LET ME JUST PRAY TO GOD ALOUD THAT THIS IS NOT TRUE>  PLEASE GOD, DO NOT PUT HEATH MOTHERFUCKIN' BROKEBACK LEDGER IN A BATMAN FILM.  THANK YOU LORD.

[Ghostboy]

I don't really see the problem. As long as he can smile big. He's the right age for the part, if they're following the Killing Joke origin story.

[grand theft sparrow]

I was really pulling for Vincent Cassel.

[pete]

after the capoeira heist sequence in Ocean's 12, I just don't care about him anymore.