Not trying to start anything....but it's a REALLY BAD casting!
Heathe Ledger is a GOOD actor. But he's not the Joker.
He's a very diverse actor, but Joker is a cynical lunatic that comes with very little direct seriousness. To think about it...he's a hard character. Same with Batman. Bale wasn't a GREAT Batman (he did pretty decent job)...but it was the beginning of Batman so he got away with the sloppiness of his portration of the character (in comparison to the Batman of present comic stands).

But whatever...no one is going to agree with my opinion, and I'm sure everyone will have something to say about. But if I cared what anyone else said....I wouldn't have posted this right?

BUt I just hope it turns out better than SUPERMAN RETURNS.

(that's my story and I'm sticking to it)

Just for my own curiousity's sake, what was sloppy about Bale's portrayal of Batman? =/


And also a good actor has the capability of making the character his own - that's a talent of being an actor, taking on the "role" of a character.

Just a couple opinions on the subject:

1) Not sure about Heath, but I wasn't sure about Bale either (I kept thinking, "that guy from American Psycho?!?"), but Bale was the BEST Batman to date, so maybe Heath will surprise everyone and be an outstanding Joker. (2 side notes: When I saw Equilibrium, I completely understood why Bale was a great choice for Batman. Also, I saw nothing "sloppy" about Bale's Batman...it was great)

2) Although I'll catch a lot of flak for breaking up the Frank Miller love fest, his stuff was NOT the best Batman work done to date. It was great stuff, especially Year One, but his Dark Knight Returns elseworlds was just that, an elseworlds, and I feel didn't really portray Batman so much as a standard Miller bad-### character. IMO Jeph Loeb, and (dare I say it) Judd Winik are some of the best Batman storytellers around.

the only thing i didin't like about bale playing batman is his mouth chin exposed area when he was wearing the suit made him look very i don't know not right but you couldn't see it without the mask

as long as the movie is good, then its all good, don't complain about a movie title, and im sure they are choosing a great joker, its gonna be hard to top Jack Nicholson's performance as Joker waaay back. The Dark Knight name also isn't that bad, that is like Frank Miller Batman right there.

Sorry...I didn't say what I was trying to correctly.
Bale didn't play Batman sloppy...he played the sloppy Batman good.
Batman that's starting off...not the well rounded kick-### tough guy that he is now. He did a really good job portraying a Batman that's well...Beginning.

Maybe Heathe Ledger will suprise me and do a good job...I've been wrong before...but currently...I don't like their casting choice.

I think Bale was definitely the best Batman to date and I think his portrayal of him was very good. He did a good Bruce Wayne and Batman. I think Heath Ledger will be just fine as Joker. He has a seriousness about him and I think he can do the crazy side of Joker as well.

RyanDG: Yeah that's a good example of how the continuity of Batman will flow, I didn't even think of that.

I just hope they don't kill Joker in this one like they did with Ra's Al Ghul. I wonder if they're going to introduce Dick Grayson in this one or wait for #3?

No, we'll be getting a Smurfs vs. Snorks EC instead, a la the Hellboy product.

When I first heard Heath was scheduled to be the Joker ... I was "What?"

But, when I checked out the link to the news source, the picture had him looking the part ... he has sort of the face [it's not as long as Mr. J] ... and the curly hair really looks like it would be Joker's pre-greenification.

He definately looks similar to the 'pre-Joker' version of Joker as seen in the Killing Joke and other pseudo origin stories. It would be interesting to see a Killing Joke-esque origin [i.e. a flashback that's just as likely to be true as false].

As much as people gush over the Nicholson Joker ... it's not really my cup of tea. Going in the SAME direction as Jack would be a bad idea ... as would casting any kind of comedian in the role. If he was a bit younger, it would be AMAZING to have Hamill in the role ... but I can't wait to see it.

As for the Harvey Dent situation ... well, the 'current' District Attorney was on her way out at the end of Begins? Makes perfect sense to bring in a new person eh?

Combine the Long Halloween with Killing Joke, mix well and that could be an interesting film.

Develop the Batman/Gordan/Dent triumvirate ... following the story from the first film you can have the 'freak handoff' scenario of Halloween where they try to deal with both the 'dying threat' of the mob's rule on Gotham and the 'new threat' of freaks like the Joker. Tension gets built between the three 'allies' as to which is the bigger threat and in a climatic scene, the wrong choice is made, causing Harvey to be scarred while Batman is nowhere to be found.

Or some other situation like that. The 'court room attack' likely needs to be there, but Joker? Joker in a court room ... as the defendent ... is probably not a smart idea. Although a lunatic that Batman didn't kill, but brought to court ... who in turn ends up destroying Dent would set up a very strong rational for Two Face ...

The Scarecrow needs to come back. And I would love to see a "handoff of power" like in the Long Halloween. Carmine Falcone could come back, or the rest of his family (Alberto, etc.) could be killed off by by the Joker? Any word on who's playing Harvey? Ooooh, I'm so excited!! But I have to wait!! Why do you torture me, time? Why!?!?!

No matter how right you are, YOU SHUT UP!

Did you know that Judd Winnick gave a teenage girl AIDS? And he even had the ####ing nerve to do it in the same issue with one of the best Ollie fight scenes ever! That bastard!


On a more Batman-related note, portraying the Dent/Bruce/Bats/Gordon relationship like in Long Halloween would be awesome. Especially if Gilda was in it (although I doubt they'd do anything really fun/evil with her).

These are some quotes I thought some of you might find interesting that were supposedly from a Batman "insider" (The full story was on comicbookmovie.com, which quotes batman-on-film.com).

"I can confirm that an offer has been made to Phillip Seymour Hoffman for the role [of the Penguin]. Yet Hoffman has indicated that he may not get involved in the sequel."

and...

"Meanwhile, the insider added that Ryan Phillipe may be inline to play Harvey Dent, Bruce Wayne's district attorney friend who becomes Two-Face after being horribly scarred by an industrial accident. "

So, this may not be 100%, but says here "an industrial accident," which although it could mean a thousand different things, doesn't seem like the court room squirt that some of us would hope for.

Oh, and I once again have to give props to ol' Judd for making Green Arrow of all people one of the best books around. (EVERY fight scene recently is deserving of a "one of the best award....GA vs Grundy, Mirror Master/Killer Frost, Merlyn, Dr. Light, and especially Deathstroke...all very cool).

You mean during the Archer's Quest storyline? That wasn't Winnick.

That does, in fact, take the "best GA fight ever", though. I'll let Brick and Deathstroke fight for who gets second. (Speaking of which, that wouldn't be half bad....)

all I want are hot chicks, not some fat arse like Lois FAT Lane from that new Superman movie.

Got me there.

Back to Bats though, what does everybody think about Ryan Phillipe as Harvey Dent? I don't know the guy from much beyond Cruel Intentions and I know what you did last summer so I would have to strike this casting up as another surprise for me. Still, casting for Begins was excellent, so lets hope everything stays at least as good if not better.