Well this sure came out of the blue. Was this guy even rumoured at all? I didn’t hear this guy was in the running or anything.

The folks over at Latino Review, who were the first source to announce Brandon Routh as the new Superman, have announced that Heath Ledger is set to don the red, white and green makeup of The Joker in the Batman Begins sequel.

So it seems the rumours of Paul Bettany, Crispin Glover, Johnny Depp, Lachy Hulme and Robin Williams were all just that, rumour. Personally my pick was Bettany, after his creepy but awesome role in The Da Vinci Code. He would have been perfect.

I hope Christopher Nolan knows what he is doing, and i guess i should give him a bit more credit. I love the guy’s work and us Batman fans will forever be greatful for re-starting the franchise last year after the diabacle that was the movie that shall not be named.

It’s certainly interesting casting, Ledger only being 27, 5 years younger than Christian Bale. Its funny, i never thought of the Joker being younger than Batman. This is certainly going to be different than Jack Nicholson’s portrayl of the Joker (which is a good thing, that Joker wouldnt work in the more realistic Nolanized Gotham).

So production looks to start in Jan 2007, shooting summer 07 and released summer 2008. With Spider-Man 3 on the horizon next year, then this movie the year after, its a great time to be a comic book geek!

Categories: Movie News, The Dark Knight, The Dark Knight (July 08)