Hoffman, Depp and Caine and “The Dark Knight” Role Rumors

We recently wrote about Johnny Depp’s reactions on rumors about his potential The Riddler role in also potential upcoming “The Dark Knight” sequel.

“It seems like it’d be a fun gig for a while, yeah,” he said.

Fake The Riddler Poster

The same thing is with Philip Seymour Hoffman and role of The Penguin. Hoffman spoke about the rumor for the first time at the Toronto International Film Festival. He said that no one from Warner Brothers has given him a call:

“Some friend of mine told me he read that. First I heard of it” and added:

“I grew up a comic book fan, so I love that stuff. I love going to that stuff. I think what they’re doing with that whole Batman story is really true to what that whole Batman thing has always been. It’s one of the darkest origins of a superhero, to get all nerdy and geeky on you. That character sees his parents gunned down as a young child: I remember when I was a kid reading that story, so seeing it now come to life as the dark tale that it really is as an intense, really dark, very visceral, adult tale that they’re doing now, all the great work people are doing on it, of course I wouldn’t say, ‘Well, no, no no.’ But I don’t know the reality of it, so I wouldn’t say ‘yes’ to you.”

But, Michael Cain, who plays Bruce Wayne’s butler in “The Dark Knight” confirmed to MTV News that both Depp and Hoffman are currently in talks with Warner Brother for the exact roles that fans suggested (!?)

“They’ve already got them in mind,” said Caine. “It’s Johnny Depp as The Riddler. And The Penguin is Philip Seymour Hoffman. I read it in the paper.”

“When Christopher Nolan said we were going to do “The Dark Knight” next, I didn’t know what that meant in Batman terms. I said, ‘What’s the story?’ and he said The Joker. I said, ‘Oh, sh*t! How are you going to top Jack Nicholson?’ He said, ‘Well, I’ve cast Heath Ledger. And I went ‘Ha! I couldn’t top Jack, but if anyone could, maybe Heath could.’ And he did.”

Caine continued:

“I was with a Warner Bros executive and I said, ‘Are we going to make another one?’ They said yeah. I said, ‘How the hell are we going to top Heath? And he says ‘I’ll tell you how you top Heath — Johnny Depp as The Riddler and Philip Seymour Hoffman as The Penguin.’
I said, ‘Sh*t, they’ve done it again!’”

And would you like to see Johnny Depp as Joker … maybe?

”The Dark Knight” New Poster!

A brand new “The Dark Knight” poster has been released , featuring a close-up shot of The Joker (Heath Ledger) with “HA” written across his forehead.

“The Dark Knight” will hit theaters on July 18th.

“The Dark Knight” - Two Face Clip

The Warner Bros‘ viral marketing for the upcoming “The Dark Knight” gives us the first look and a small teaser of Harvey Dent as Two Face (Aaron Eckhart).

Dark Knight 9 minutes Featurette and bootleg trailer

Take a look at the exclusive 9 minutes behind the scenes clip about making of The Dark Knight movie which is due in theaters on July 18, 2008.

The second clip is new, bootleg, trailer (from Verizon Vcast) features a few new scenes in the opening with the Joker and then goes into scenes from previous trailers.

watch the clips after the jump

Read the rest of this entry

Christian Bale: Working with Heath Ledger Was ‘Intense’

“Batman” himself Christian Bale graces the cover of Details and sat for a lengthy interview. Inside, he talks about his “The Dark Knight” costar Heath Ledger, who plays the Joker.

Michael Caine has talked about the intensity of Heath Ledger’s portrayal of the Joker in The Dark Knight. How did you find working with him?

He was incredibly intense in his performance but incredibly mellow and laid-back. Certainly there was this great anarchistic streak to it-just getting dirtier than anybody’s envisioned the Joker before. This character has power because he has no limits-absolutely nothing to lose.

How has Ledger’s death changed the way you look at the film?

Naturally it was something I wanted to share with him–and expected to do so. And I can’t do anything else but hope that it will be an absolutely appropriate celebration of his work.

The normally private actor also talked about fame:

I was at the Science Museum in London with my daughter and some of her friends, and they wanted hot dogs. And so I went up to a hot-dog stand and I said, “Can I have three hot dogs?” They said, “I’m sorry, we’re closed.” And so I started walking away. And then one of them said, “Excuse me, are you Batman?” And I said, “Well, I play Batman.” And they said, “Well, here’s three hot dogs–on the house.” That’s pretty remarkable, isn’t it?

‘Batman: The Dark Knight’ - Joker or Batman?

With last month’s issue of Empire being smashed open thanks to an appearance from ‘The Incredible Hulk‘, this month sees a staring contest between two of the biggest names on this year’s superhero calendar, and both look to be meaning business.

Readers will once get the choice to choose from different covers (or if you’re a hardcore collector, just buy both), with one showing everyone’s favourite crusader with a cape, Batman, whilst the other (which will undoubtedly fly off the shelves) shows the psychotic mug of Gotham’s latest threat, The Joker.

New Joker Poster

Batman on Film got an exclusive look at a brand new poster of The Joker.

Joker (Heath Ledger) looks deranged, psychotic and is The Joker!

The Dark Knight reunites director Christopher Nolan with star Christian Bale, who returns to continue Batman’s war on crime. With the help of Lieutenant Jim Gordon (Gary Oldman) and District Attorney Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart), Batman sets out to destroy organized crime in Gotham for good. The triumvirate proves to be effective, but they soon find themselves prey to a rising criminal mastermind known as the Joker (Heath Ledger), who thrusts Gotham into anarchy and forces the Dark Knight ever closer to crossing the fine line between hero and vigilante.

The Dark Knight is scheduled to hit theaters on July 18th.