Riding high the wave of his latest music album, Eminem is again looking to branch out and, hopefully, recreate the success he had with “8 Mile” by gunning for the part of The Riddler in “Batman.”

Chris Nolan said a while back that he wouldn’t recast the role of The Joker out of respect for Aussie star Heath Ledger. Shortly after, speculation started making the rounds that the villain in the next flick would be The Riddler.

According to the National Enquirer (story via here), Eminem thinks he has just what it takes to play a dark, twisted character to be to Nolan’s liking.

Consequently, he’s had his people work hard to land him an audition or a screen test, says the tab.

“After seven weeks of topping the charts with his ‘Recovery’ album, almighty-whitey rapper Eminem [is] itching to dominate movie screens again and repeat the critical kudos he won with biopic ‘8 Mile’,” Enquirer writes.

He reportedly told his people, in more or less words, “When it comes to business, you know I ain’t no fiddler…You tell them Batman biggies, I wanna play ‘The Riddler!”

Said and done: Eminem’s management is working overtime to get him the part, with the movie studio also being “piqued” about the possibility, the same tabloid says.

There may be a hiccup in Em’s triumphant return to the big screen, as Enquirer also notes: namely, the fact that the studio is also looking at Johnny Depp and Joseph Gordon-Levitt as possible contenders for the same part.

As we also reported in July, Joseph Gordon-Levitt is now considered the favorite, having already proved he can pull dark roles and already having worked with Nolan, on this year’s blockbuster “Inception.”

“We’ve gotten word from a reliable inside source with a studio casting grid that The Riddler is listed as a character for Chris Nolan’s highly anticipated to the sequel to The Dark Knight, which is still called Batman 3 at Warner Bros,” First Showing reported, as we also noted back then.

“Even more interesting, the actor currently listed in the same grid to play the assumed villain is none other than Joseph Gordon-Levitt, whose status is just listed as ‘interested.’ Let’s all say it together now: Hell. Yes!” the same report argued.