Corona | Coming Attractions

Latino Review hears that Aaron Eckhart is up for the role of Harvey Dent (and Two-Face, too, we hope).

What’s more, they say that Maggie Gyllenhaal is up for the part of Gotham City assistant DA and Bat girl friend Rachel Dawes, played by Katie Holmes in Batman Begins. Also up for Rachel are Red Eye’s aptly named Rachel McAdams (per Batman On Film) and The Devil Wears Prada’s Emily Blunt (per Cinemablend). Cinemablend’s sources also say that Katie Holmes was dropped by the Bat producers, and did not leave of her own accord.

El Mayimbe over at Latino Review says Harvey Dent is in The Dark Knight. We say, can Two-Face be far behind?  (And no, we don’t know if 2F is actually in the film or not, but we hope so.)

That being said, LR says that producers offered the role to Matt Damon – he passed -- and now are considering Josh Lucas, Jamie Foxx, and Ed Norton.

El Mayimbe also says that Katie Holmes is being replaced by a different actress to play Rachel Dawes, assistant DA and Bat love interest.

Lastly, per El Mayimbe, there is no Penguin in this film. The good news is that pre-production has been under way since January 11 (via the industry fact sheet Production Weekly).

Kara over at Latino Review interviewed Heath Ledger about taking on the role of the Joker, and got a few interesting snippets.

"Somewhere inside I kind of knew instantly what to do with it," Ledger tells LR. "I didn’t feel like I had to search for it, I feel like I have a plan of attack already and that usually dictates whether I want to do something or not, if I have an understanding of it straight away."

Ledger also says that although he read the script (at Christopher Nolan’s house), they wouldn’t let him actually have a copy. Seems like the script is more secure than Wayne Manor – or, after what happened to the Manor in Batman Begins, maybe we should say more secure than the Batcave.

The official press release from Warner Bros. is out today, and it confirms that Heath Ledger will be playing the Joker against Christian Bale’s Dark Knight – in fact, the sequel’s official title is The Dark Knight. Sounds like not just a battle of good and evil, but a battle of great acting talents.

SPOILERS: Minor ones, but still… Batman On Film has a trusted source who gave a few details about what’s up with the plot of the Batman sequel. Follow the link if you want to know.

Is Heath Ledger the Joker? That’s what El Mayimbe writes over at Latino Review. A "very trusted source" tells him that an offer went out to Ledger’s reps last night. It definitely is an interesting choice – Ledger’s last few films range from The Brothers Grimm to Brokeback Mountain to Casanova to one of the many Bob Dylans in I’m Not There. Guess we’ll just have to grin and bear it till Heath officially signs on.

And now Batman 2 has a writer! Warner Bros. has hired Jonathan Nolan, Christopher Nolan’s younger brother who co-wrote The Prestige with him, to write the screenplay for the untitled Batman sequel. Kind of ironic that Christopher’s deal to direct the sequel hasn’t closed, yet his brother’s officially started the script.

More good news: Jonathan is writing the script off a treatment written by his big brother Chris and David Goyer, who co-wrote Batman Begins.

Even though Christopher Nolan said he wouldn’t be working on the Batman sequel until after he finishes his current project, The Prestige, it looks like he’s finding time to do both: lunchtime, that is.

A grip on The Prestige sent a scoop into Superhero Hype saying Nolan, Christian Bale, and Michael Caine (the latter two who also star in The Prestige) have been having "Batman meetings" at a distant table during lunch everyday.

Overheard from the table: Paul Bettany’s name (followed by the word "Joker") and Jake Gyllenhaal (followed by "Dent"). Does that mean we might get a Two-Face in Batman 2?

Is Paul Bettany the Joker? Some internet rumors say the man playing two upcoming villains (in Firewall and The Da Vinci Code) is also going to be in the Batman sequel. So Coming Soon/Superhero Hype’s Sandra Kraisirideja asked him. Sadly, the actor says, "nobody has rung me up officially and asked, 'Would you like to be in it?'" He jokes that maybe his mother started the rumor.

Warner Bros. President of Production Jeff Robinov likes what Christopher Nolan and David Goyer have dreamed up for the Batman sequel, Nolan told Empire Online’s Helen O’Hara during an interview for the DVD release of Batman Begins. "I have marched into his office and I have told him what David Goyer and I think the story is," says our favorite British franchise resurrector, "and they seem to like it a lot." Thank God.

Nolan also said he’d be directing the Batman sequel after he finishes his next project, The Prestige, starring Christian Bale and Hugh Jackman.

He also talks about James Bond’s influence on Bruce Wayne and Batman. And you know all that confusing editing we were all complaining about in some of the fight scenes? That was intentional, and here Nolan explains why he did it that way.

Christopher Nolan tells About.com that he’s excited about doing the Batman sequel, but that no, it won’t be called Batman Continues -- which, sadly, apparently a lot of people ask him. (Note to people: please stop asking dumb questions.)

He also says that he’s been talking to co-writer David Goyer and the studio about directions the film can take, which sounds like this thing is moving in the right direction.

Batman Begins producer Charles Roven has told the Chicago Sun-Times that speculation about the sequel is out of control – Christopher Nolan hasn’t decided on the villain yet, and yet the internet has chosen the Joker and the Riddler and cast them both.

And that Joker card at the end of Begins? Roven says that was a nod to Tim Burton’s Batman, nothing more. Jeez, Chuck, we can still hope, can’t we?

At the press junket for Red Eye, Cillian Murphy chimes in that he’d love to do a Batman sequel, and notes that (thankfully for us fans) the studio has signed him for another film, and has options on all the actors for sequels.

Who would Christian Bale like to see as the villain in the Batman sequel? The Joker, of course (as would we all). "I want to see the Joker, because I think it will be a very different kind of Joker than people have seen before," Bale told MTV News. "I think even the card that you see at the end of the movie shows that it is a darker, more sinister-looking Joker than anything I have seen depicted before."

A scooper for Superhero Hype says that Christopher Nolan says that he’s in for another Batman film, but not for Robin.

"This is a young Batman, so Robin’s a few films... not for a few pictures anyway. Dick Grayson’s still in a crib somewhere," Nolan told The Lacenby News. "I seriously doubt I will even be involved when Robin’s in the franchise." But if he did have to cast the role, the writer-director says he’d cast young, like Frankie Muniz. No, seriously, that’s what he said.