14 DAY TRIAL // Before he gets started on the third film in the new “Batman” franchise, Christopher Nolan has “Inception” to promote, a mind-twisting thriller that takes place in man’s dreams and that is even getting some pretty major Oscar buzz. However, for all those fans out there speculating on whether Heath Ledger’s The Joker should be recast, Nolan has a very clear message: The Joker is never coming back.
As fans of the franchise with Christian Bale as the caped crusader must know, “The Dark Knight” brought one of the best accomplished villains to life. Late Australian actor Heath Ledger played the villain and even won an Oscar for it – unfortunately, it was too late for him to come and personally accept the award as he’d passed from an accidental overdose. Now, Nolan is saying that chapter is forever closed, as the Herald Sun informs.
Asked about whether there were any plans to recast The Joker while promoting “Inception,” Nolan was very to the point: that would be disrespectful to fans and, first and foremost, to the memory of the great actor that was Heath. “For me, Heath was the definitive Joker. It wouldn’t feel appropriate to readdress that character,” he said, as cited by the aforementioned publication. He would not reveal more details about which villains may appear in the third installment, though buzz remains pretty strong that Two-Face will probably be getting more screen time in it.
Until more details about “Batman” emerge, fans of this visionary director have “Inception” to keep the occupied and properly entertained. As mentioned above and as we also noted on a previous occasion, the film actually stands pretty good chances at impressing the Academy and scoring a few nominations at next year’s Oscars – and, of course, we’re not talking special effects nods, but even a couple for categories like Best Movie and Best Male Performance. Leonardo DiCaprio, the lead in “Inception,” is certainly long due a golden statuette.
“New raves seem to come in every day. And Oscar? The film’s sci-fi bent might hurt its Academy Award chances more than its mid-summer release date. No sci-fi film has ever won Best Picture (though Avatar presumably came close), but as The Hurt Locker, which was released in June of 2009, proved in March, it’s possible to launch a Best Picture frontrunner – and eventual winner – before December. As for DiCaprio, what can I say? Depp and O’Toole aside, no other previously nominated actor is more deserving of Oscar’s company. He already has the momentum of having starred in an early 2010 hit, the Martin Scorcese-directed ‘Shutter Island.’ And if Sandra Bullock can score for a middling effort like ‘The Blind Side,’ winning for a unanimously acclaimed film directed by the guy who got Heath Ledger a posthumous prize should be a cinch,” True/Slant wrote a short while ago, as we also reported.
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