Of all the recent superhero movies, Batman Begins was probably the most complete, offering a gritty, realistic background to the Batman story. Forget all that for the sequel, though, because Batman’s going Brokeback.
For the sequel to Batman Begins, entitled The Dark Knight, director Christopher Nolan has ditched any idea that The Joker should be played by an actor so wildly charismatic that he’s able to blow everyone else off the screen, like Jack Nicholson did. Instead, for The Dark Knight, Nolan has chosen to cast Heath Ledger – the mumbling bloke from Brokeback Mountain – as the Joker.
Batman Begins was such an unusually accomplished superhero film that there were only two possible responses to it. One was ‘hurry up and make a Batman sequel’ and the other one was ‘please God don’t let Katie pissing Holmes be in it again.’ And Batman director Christopher Nolan seems to have listened to this feedback and delivered news of a new Batman movie – The Dark Knight.
The Dark Knight starts shooting at the start of next year, and will probably be released in summer 2008, but everyone already sort of knew that. The dilemma was who to cast as The Joker, the villain in The Dark Knight. Everyone from Christopher Ecclestone to Sean Penn has at some point been linked to The Joker, but those names couldn’t have been further from the truth.
Instead, Christopher Nolan wanted to find a Joker who – instead of splashing acid up Jerry Hall‘s face to a funky Prince soundtrack like Jack Nicholson – was more serious. Serious like mumbling incoherently about anal sex and shooting themselves in the chest after an argument with the Dad from Everybody Loves Raymond. And that just leaves one possible candidate – Heath Ledger. And Christopher Nolan sure is excited:
“I’m excited to continue the story we started with Batman Begins. Our challenge in casting the Joker was to find an actor who is not just extraordinarily talented but fearless. Watching Heath Ledger’s interpretation of this iconic character taking on Christian Bale’s Batman is going to be incredible.”
We’re not too sure about any of that – Heath Ledger is going to have to pull an insane performance out of his arse to play the Joker properly, and we haven’t seen a performance like that from him. However, don’t forget that Heath Ledger was in The Patriot with Mel Gibson, so if he wants to play the Joker as pissed-up Jew-slagger, he’ll have learnt from the best, OK sugar tits?
Read more:
Batman Goes For Brokeback – E! Online
[story by Stuart Heritage]
Mel says
Seriously, I didn’t like Batman Begins for the reason that it was a superhero movie that was far too serious. The villans always have to ham it up in one way or another. If they’re not in the slightest bit outrageous it’s not that entertaining. These aren’t Action Dramas!
And now Heath Ledger as The Joker? After he got heart-throb status following 10 Thing I Hate About You and A Knight’s Tale, he seems to have consciously chosen good but deadly serious roles of characters that can barely crack a smile – so what’s he doing as Joker??
Gib Gib says
Mel, you are a cock.
mojocat says
probably the worst casting of all time
good job guys, shoulda cast Crispin Glover as he was, you know, born to play the part
Beedrick says
the way i see it, heath ledger has a little bit of a natural joker smile… not like jack nicholson, but close. but they might as well bring jack’s old ass back. he’d be the
shit. have you ever danced with the devil in the pale moon lite.
e-unit says
fuck his gay brokeback ass
bring jack back he culd lose a few pounds but still hes not a gay f******.
heather says
ok i think that this e-unit fucker that is above me deserves to burn slowly and painfully in the pits of hell. just bc someone plays as a homosexual in a movies doesnt mean shit. how do you feel about calling him that now, since he is dead!!!! heath is an amazing guy and you have no right to be calling him a gay fucker. being a homosexual doesnt change a damn thing about anyone. thats THEIR decision and what they want and you have no right to judge them or have any say in how they live their lives!
Giggles says
hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha
hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha
good article……..
:S
POOOOOTTTT says
Funny, eh? I know a LOT of people who were genuinely perplexed by the casting decision, but now it seems they agree with it. I wonder if any of the above posters (and of course, Stuart Heritage who wrote the article) feel the same way now after we’ve seen some footage.
Abhimanyu Suresh says
I bet you feel like an idiot now.
bob ryan says
it also seems like the person who wrote this article has no sense of judgement considering all the things he said in this article hed probably want to take back after seeing the movie