Batman Begins II

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Ledger confirmed and it's called THE DARK KNIGHT!

Author: Jett

Monday, July 31, 2006 - 5:46 AM, 8:24 PM, 10:32 PM CENTRAL TIME: I can now "officially" confirm that Heath Ledger will indeed be The Joker in the next Batman film (which was broke LATINO REVIEW by originally) and it will be titled THE DARK KNIGHT (per Warner Bros.). Take it to the bank boys, it’ll be in the trades tomorrow and we'll have the official annoucement here at BOF. Oh, and another friendly reminder to the "Bat-Powers That Be" to make sure THE DARK KNIGHT has a strong presence at Comic Con next summer...

A note for you BOF'ers: Guess which title choice won a previous "Bat-Poll" with 1,798 votes and 44% of all cast? You got it, THE DARK KNIGHT...

This comes in from one of my best sources who previously gave up the scoop Katie Holmes and Ken Watanabe's casting in BEGINS, as well as confirming an offer had made to Ledger). Here goes:

As you have long suspected, the two main villains in the BATMAN BEGINS sequel will be The Joker and The Penquin.

I can confirm (as I did a few weeks ago) that while an offer has been made to Heath Ledger, Ledger has not signed any deal, and is reluctant to do so (at the moment.) Ledger is not a lock.

It seems Nolan has been listening to you guys when it comes to casting his other villain, however. I can confirm that an offer has been made to Phillip Seymour Hoffman for the role. Yet Hoffman has indicated that he may not get involved in the sequel.

So the scuttlebutt long reported by BOF that The Penguin will be in the sequel looks like it could be true (The rumor is that he'll be a British arms dealer/mob boss with designs on Gotham).

UPDATED: WB has confirmed to BOF that Ledger has indeed been cast as The Joker in the next Bat-film -- THE DARK KNIGHT.

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I like the title so long as it's 'Batman: The Dark Knight' as opposed to just 'The Dark Knight.'

But the casting of Ledger is horrible, just terrible. You've got Bettany out there and you've got Buscemi. And yet this, this is what we get?

The only saving grace is that it's not Depp. Thank the heavens.

I like it. I love it being called "The Dark Knight". I don't need to be told it is Batman (people who don't understand should be able to tell when they see the trailers; if they don't get it then, they probably didn't get the first movie either).

Heath Ledger doesn't bother me. Since I have never really seen him play a villain (to my knowledge, he hasn't played one), I think there is a lot he could do with the role. Chris Nolan hasn't made a bad move with this franchise yet and, just like Raimi, until he does I'm not going to second guess him.

I wish people wouldn't despise Heath Ledger, I mean, sure he played in Brokeback Mountain, but does that make him a bad actor?

Hiring Ledger on is a means of free publicity as everyone will be talking about him

or chris nolan thinks he's right for the part, which is probably very true.

anyone who discriminates against ledger or gyllenhaal as actors for staring in brokeback mountain are ignorant assholes.

As unbelievable as it sounds, Ledger might not be the worst thing about the sequel.

There are some rumors going around that Ryan Phillippe might play Harvey Dent.

Yep, you read it right. It's Reese Witherspoon's arm candy/hubby/bad actor.

What if we discriminate against Ledger for every other turd he's starred in?

This is very true. Especially the movie about the Knight who wears Nike armor and dances to modern music in the 16th Century or something. That was pure shit. Still can't believe Paul Bettany was involved in that shit.

Ledger is a horrible cast. Nothing about him works.

I can't picture him in the role in any capacity.

I can't wait until the script leaks.


I agree.

I have two words for that:

Katie Holmes

Was she terrible? No. Were there better choices out there? Absolutely.
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A couple of the Ledger manips that are making the rounds.

Well I won't say Nolan has made only good choices since I hate Katie Holmes and her mongoose face, but I definitely love the direction the franchise has taken since he got on board. I am not going to say "this actor's performance will be crap" as long as I haven't seen the movie, and I remain optimistic. And frankly, we all know an actor's performance greatly depends on who's directing them. I haven't seen a single Ledger movie, I don't know him, but he may be a very good Joker. For now anyway, he looks more faithful to the DC Joker than Nicholson (age, height, little details like those, but it all counts in the general picture. Though I'd say he should lose a little weight for this part, based on pictures I've seen so far. His face looks a bit too stuffed).

I think a lot of people are making a mistake (not talking about these boards, but in a general way). They all think that "It's going to be impossible to be as good as/better than Nicholson". Well people, it's certainly going to be hard to be a better actor than him, but as far as his portrayal of the Joker is concerned, I don't get it. He was good, but that was all, nothing that can't be beaten. First of all, he was the Burton's Joker, and that changes a lot. I think the guy portraying the Joker has everything on his side to deliver a performance that will completely renew the character : a good director, an atmosphere closer to the comics than ever, other good actors interacting with him

I don't want to see Nicholson Joker II, I want to see something else, something better, and I say it's definitely possible.

Now on an unrelated side note, I don't really like the fact that Penguin may be involved in the movie as well. I think the Joker should completely steal Batman's attention and no lesser enemy should interfere. Or perhaps Scarecrow as a sidekick, since his fate after B.B is undetermined.

I'm not really sure what Nolan has in store for the Batman villains. I mean, Scarecrow could kind of get away with looking weird because he uses a drug to get the desired fright from his enemies. Ra's Al Ghul can be played as just a regular guy with extraordinary fighting abilities. So really Batman Begins villains were based in reality. What will Nolan do with the Joker or the Penguin (if he is in this movie)? Will Nolan put white makeup on Ledger and turn his hair green and wear purple clothes? Or will he give him a normal appearance but with psychotic tendencies? Will the penguin look like Danny DeVito in 'Returns' or will he just be some kind of mob boss who is fat and short? So far, Nolan has based everything (for the most part) in reality. I don't know if he will go so far as to make the villains look like freaks. Just a thought....

Anyway, about Holmes. I'm not sure what Nolan thought about putting her in the movie before Tom Cruise dipshit came along, but I'm sure he regretted it after the fact.

Everything at this point for the film is pure speculation. Don't get me wrong it's cool to speculate, I'm just saying we should wait for the film to come out.

By the way I think Ledger looks pretty cool with the make up for the Joker.

I to have never seen any films with Ledger in it so I can't judge him and I won't be seeing Brokeback Mountain any time soon.

uh oh Philipe as Two Face with talk of The Penguin.

Joker, Two-Face, and now Peguin.

http://imdb.com/news/wenn/2006-08-16

Ryan Phillippe may be set to take over from Tommy Lee Jones after reportedly landing the role of Harvey Dent/Two-Face in the upcoming Batman Begins sequel. Reese Witherspoon's husband will join Heath Ledger, who has signed on to play The Joker, and new Batman Christian Bale in The Dark Knight.

Crash star Phillippe beat Liev Shreiber and Josh Lucas to the role of the scheming district attorney, played by Jones in 1995 movie Batman Forever, according to internet reports.

Academy Award winners Sir Michael Caine and Morgan Freeman have also joined the cast, while fellow Oscar winner Philip Seymour Hoffman is in talks to play The Penguin in the new film.

Ugh!

This is bad mojo.

The last thing this needs is three villains, maybe four if we count Scarecrow. I hope they don't let that whole arc drift away without resolution.

I'd love to see the sequel's opening sequence be Scarecrow running from Batman in the Narrows. The Batman falls behind in the chase only to come upon a dead Scarecrow with a playing card of a Joker on his chest.

And we need to find out why Nolan can't get his boy Guy Pierce to play Dent.

Well, we don't know how significant the role of Harvey Dent will be in this movie. They might just be throwing in a cameo to say "Hey! Look! It's Two-Face! Yeah, he'll be in the next movie!" or something like that. Same with Penguin. Might just show up at the end or something. Warners knows better after Forever and Batman and Robin to be throwing 2 or 3 at a time for no reason.

I don’t have a problem with an abundance of villains. The comic books and animated series’ have both dealt successfully with these types of scenarios. Hell, one of my favorite books is Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth and it featured a number of Bat villains.

Remember, one of the main comics Batman Begins relied on for inspiration was The Long Halloween. It was packed with villains and remains one of the best Batman stories ever told. I wouldn't expect Dent to become Two-Face in this next movie. He was a good friend of Gordon's AND Bruce and his character needs time to bond with the both of them to be correct. They really should have included Dent in Batman Begins as maybe the assistant DA.

Any assistant DA is better than Katie Holmes. Especially after getting knocked up by Xenu Cruise.

Someone needs to do up this one:

Regardless of who is gonna play the Joker, it gonna be hard to do better than Jack's performance back in 89.

Interesting.


Agree 100%, Mr. Bale.

I love you, Chris.

How's this?

nice!

As a kid I might have agreed with you, but since then Jack's performance has grated with me. He fit with the general feeling of Burton's world but it was not the Joker, just as in the end Keaton wasn't really Batman (though he was a great Wayne).

I think that Ledger can do it, and Nolan would be the one to bring it out. He'd have to loose a little of the "Hollywood" muscle he's put on, but he looks good enough for the role to be believable. As does Phillipe. He's got looks that are on par with Bale's which is fitting as they are supposed to be two of the upper echaeleon of Gotham society, and showed he can do a decent manipulative turn in Cruel Intentions all those years ago.

New interview from Nolan.


Here is a link to an article on the Joker, which includes a detailed account of his first appearance in Batman #1. I find this item interesting:


On this board, a user descibes the story of Batman #2 (where the Joker makes his second appearance):

I think it would be cool to see a more serious, badass Joker. Even when I was a kid, he was always my least favorite villain because he seemed so cartoony.

And Bearvomit - that pic is just creepy.

Dingo is right in suggesting that the TV/film versions of The Joker are rather distant from the comic book villian. Jack was an awesome character in the original Batman, and gave every line with a slick delivery.

The I-made-you, you-made-me circular theme in the original Batman worked very well, however I'm glad that they are moving away from that with the return of the Joker. I think Ledger will work well as something totally different, but extremely effective.




Oh, and if anyone is interested, as far as I am aware I won't be on set of this movie, so no sneaky set shots

Wait till they get a load of me!

http://www.latinoreview.com/news.php?id=915

LatinoReview was promising a script review. Still havent seen anything about that materializing.

In any case keep an eye out for the actual TDK script, who knows we could get lucky it leaks out like it did with BB

Quick blurb from Ledger:

Per a Newsarama interview, Jerry Robinson may be a consultant on The Dark Knight. Robinson came up with the concept design for the Joker.

latino review story

Harvey Dent is in. Katie Holmes is out but the character is still in. Oswald Cobblepot / Penguin is out. Matt Damon PASSED on playing Dent, would've been epic. Josh Lucas, Jamie Foxx, and ED NORTON are being considered for Dent.

Katie Holmes is busy doing the Stepford Wives reality tv show, isn't she? When is that coming out (of the closet XD) I wonder.

Personally, I'm glad Damon won't be in this thing. Can't stand him. Norton can do it...and he should take it.

Foxx is a horrible choice.

But the Holmes thing bothers me. I hate recasting. If her part is that small, I say write her out. Don't recast for a part that is smaller than bird shit anyway. That's ridiculous.

I say very first sceen of the film, super impose Katie's face on a body double, and have the Joker blow her up. That takes care of it! Then again, does that make Joker a villain or hero? Who would we root for in this film?!?!?!

Per latinoreview.com, Aaron Eckhart is currently first in line for Harvey Dent. Considering that he has extensive range, I think this would be a great choice. He can play good, bad, and several shades in between. Watch Thank You for Smoking or In the Company of Men and you’ll see what I mean.



The site also states that Maggie Gyllenhaal, Rachel McAdams, and Emily Blunt are all in the running for Rachael Dawes.

Eckhart is a fantastic choice, second only to Norton imo. I agree with the Katie Holmes thing, if her part is that small, write her out of the script. They should have known that there were going to be multiple sequels and signed said characters up for at least 2 or 3. That would have been planning ahead. But it is what it is, write her out, but make it believable.

Ditto. Eckhart is an underrated talent. And he won't "ham it up" either. An excellent choice.

Now let's just hope they rethink the whole Rachel thing.

He bugged the fuck out of me in The Core, though. 99% of his performance was okay, but the scene where he "emotes" about his buddy getting shut out of the airlock makes me cringe. That said, he should make a decent Dent, as long as there isn't any "Hilary Skank makes me cry" scene in this.

Aaron Eckhart is playing Harvey Dent/Two-Face.

http://www.variety.com/article/VR111795 ... id=13&cs=1

i'm pretty happy with Eckhart as Harvey Dent/ Two Face, i know he'll do a good job.

i'm just waiting for them to confirm Maggie Gylenhaal as Holme's replacement and we're good to go.

From IGN: Eckhart talks about being Two Face, but not for the Dark Knight...



http://movies.ign.com/articles/767/767839p1.html

So does this mean that the Joker is the only villain for the next movie??

well it is The Joker, he gotta have all the attention y'know

but there should be an interesting subplot with Harvey Dent, if all goes to plan he will be our villain for Batman 3, and TDK has got to set that up.

Hopefully.

The more I think about it, this is a great way to go. They (the writers and director) can spend more time with character development on both the Joker and Two-Face, and not have to rush things with either character more than they would were both villains present in the movie.