If you haven't heard yet, there is another Batman Begins movie on deck. That's right, the prequel gets a sequel. It's slated to come out in 2008 and it's apparently set sometime between Batman Begins and Burton's original Batman. It's untitled at this time, but it might as well be called The Joker, as that's what it's all about. Batman Begins director Christopher Nolan is directing this one as well, and Christian Bale will again play Batman. Michael Caine and Morgan Freeman are also back, and Gary Oldman is joining the crew.
The news is not the movie though because it was announced a while ago. The news is who they are casting as the Joker. Anyone have any good ideas? Jack Nicholson is too old, and being a prequel, he would never work. How about Robin Williams? Remember me talking about him a few days ago? I think he would be great in this role. No, it's not him. What about Hugo Weaving? He's got an incredible presence as the bad guy, and would be great as this kind of outgoing character. Not him either. What about Paul Bettany? He just looks mean, and with The Da Vinci Code under his belt (he played Silas the albino monk), I'm sure he'll be playing characters on the dark side more. Nope, not him either.
The guy set to play the Joker is Heath Ledger. Mr. Brokeback himself. Apparently, Heath has agreed to do the project, the news coming straight from the floor of Comic-Con. Last night he was offered the role, and many people thought he would take it, although nothing was for sure. Now, before I totally dismiss this as a bad choice, I want to say a few things. First, Heath Ledger has recently been showing us that he has the chops to potentially become one of the greatest actors of our time, and if he cut some of his love story crap he'd get there faster. He's one of 7 actors playing Bob Dylan in I'm Not There, which is slated to come out this year, and is a film that will span the lifetime of the greatest singer/songwriter of all time. (I wish Scorsese was doing it, but he's not).
So now we get to the commentary. Why him? Why this role? I don't buy him in this role. I don't think this is even close to the right choice. I want to know how they plan to spin this character so that audiences will take the Joker seriously with Heath Ledger behind that guiling smile. Give me one movie, one performance, one scene even, that leads anyone to believe that Heath Ledger will make the best Joker. This bad choice is compounded by the fact that he is playing a character that was made famous by none other than Jack Nicholson. What happens if he plays a bad Joker? Will Nicholson's performance be cheapened? Hope not, because Batman, the first one, was the best (Maybe I'm biased because I absolutely love Tim Burton), and the Joker was big in that one. Then it's a toss up between Returns and Begins for which Batman movie comes in 2nd.
What do you think about it? What if Heath Ledger does play the joker?
6 comments:
How about this for the Joker, Jason Lee. He is the only actor I can think of that can pull off that sly, slick evilness that made Jack's performance so legendary. I agree that Ledger is fast becoming one of the generation's top actors, but he just doesn't have that weasely feeling to be the Joker.
I would also put the original Batman as the best, but very close behind is Begins. That movie restored the franchise, and was pretty damn incredible considering that the most recent portrayal by Clooney had George playing Batman as a homosexual. Begins did a hell of a lot to restore credibility to the Batman franchise, who by my say is still the coolest super hero.
Ooh, you're opening up a whole new can of worms with that last comment. Of course, you shield yourself by saying "in my opinion", but still. Now, I'd love to have a huge audience here and post something like "Who's the best superhero?" and get everyone to argue about it, but the fact is I don't...yet hopefully. So hold on to that thought and we'll come back to it when Spider-Man 3 comes out or something when superheros are back on everyone's mind.
See, that's the thing. I get into arguments with my room mate all the time about why Batman is a badass. He hates him because he says that Batman doesn't even have super powers. That is exactly why Batman kicks every other super heroes ass. He doesn't even have super powers and he's a super hero! I like Spiderman as well, since Spiderman is the most sarcastic hero outside of Dead Pool, but he still isn't as cool as Batman. And yes, I think an argument about which super hero is best is the next prudent course of action for your blog.
Haha, alright, well I'll get on creating buzz about it, and then we may have to unleash the debate.
I'm not sure if you know this, but Bryan Singer has been talking about some very interesting things lately. I'm sure you know that Batman & Superman battle in the comics, and you might know that a movie was greenlighted in 2002, but then cancelled. Well, Singer is talking about taking on a Batman vs. Superman movie again, and it looks like it has legs. Christian Bale is also interested, so we may have something going here.
check it out
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Batman_vs._Superman
If more news comes, you'll see it on the blog.
i agree with zach, sort of. batman is badass because he doesn't have any super powers. he'd be hands down the best super hero if he wasn't some damn rich.
i dunno ledger's career is still in limbo, dont get me wrong great actor but he could soon find himself type casted in every check flick for the next 20+ years. in my honest opinion his broke back co-star jake gyllenhaal has more chance to become one of our generations best. i mean his filmography doesn't include casanova or the brother's grim but does include donnie darko, jughead, brokeback, and proof (a predictable but well acted and well casted chick flick)
nice to see zach is on first name basis with "jack."
if it was me, i'd would have have the role of the joker to a unknown, let bale shine as batman and hope from a stellar preformance unknown.
Jack is too cool to have to fuck with last names. Besides, it's like a law or something, people with rhyming names use the rhyming name as often as possible.
And yes, a Batman v. Superman movie would be badass. The Alien would get owned, plain and simple. Batman probably has some sort of Batarang laced with Kryptonite, so Supes would just go down like the bitch he is. Dark Knight all the way baby.
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