What leaked last week has now become official – Heath Ledger will play the The Joker in the upcoming Batman Begins sequel, titled The Dark Knight. The script will be written by Jonathan Nolan (Memento) and production is set to begin early 2007. The announcements were made yesterday by Jeff Robinov, President of Production, Warner Bros. Pictures. He says:
Chris'[Nolan] unique vision is what made Batman Begins such an outstanding film and we could not imagine anyone else at the helm of The Dark Knight,” said Robinov. “We also can’t wait to see two such formidable actors as Christian and Heath face off with each other as Batman and The Joker.”
It might be because I just woke up, but I actually have no problem with this. I’ve always liked Heath Ledger and “Memento” is my favorite movie of all time, so yeah, this is pretty much good news. I do, however, feel kinda bad for Paul Bettany. After being rumored for months to be the lead (and only serious) contender for the role, he just got treated like he went to Carrie’s prom. He now has to go back to his pitiful life of owning every movie he’s in and falling asleep on top of Jennifer Connelly. Hold on, what? Oh yeah, fuck him.
Here’s Paul with Jennifer on July 4th at the Balenciaga Retrospective in Paris:
In other casting news, director Christopher Nolan has reportedly offered Philip Seymour Hoffman the role of “The Penguin”, Ryan Phillipe is now a contender for the part of young Gotham D.A “Harvey Dent/Two-Face” and Jake Gyllenhaal has been cast as “The Guy Who Likes Penises.”
