14 DAY TRIAL // A short while ago, while promoting his latest film, the sci-fi thriller “Inception,” director Chris Nolan had to address a question that had been on people’s minds ever since the tragic death of Australian actor Heath Ledger: would The Joker return in the third and last film in the new Batman series? Nolan said the role would not be recast, and that may have had a lot to do with finding another actor to pull off the perfect villain: Joseph Gordon-Levitt, FirstShowing writes.
According to the movie-oriented e-zine, the 29-year-old critically acclaimed actor, who also appears in Nolan’s most recent film, the aforementioned “Inception,” is being considered for the part of the villain, as The Riddler. Also as per the same source, buzz online has it that Joseph has shown an interest in becoming involved in the highly successful franchise. However, things are not yet set in stone and many changes may still occur.
“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. 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!” FirstShowing writes in an obviously very enthusiastic post. Yet, as pointed above, things may still be subject to change.
“We’d like to point out that this news should be considered confirmation that The Riddler is the villain in Batman 3 and less confirmation of the recent suggestions / rumors regarding Gordon-Levitt’s casting as the enigmatic villain. A casting grid is used in the industry to keep production companies, agencies, etc. in the loop on a project’s progress and the roles available for actors to potentially take. These documents are used for business planning in the industry and by no means would use internet speculation to list a character that may not even appear in the film. But when it comes to listing actors, this is info that can change at anytime, and just because an actor or studio is interested in one or the other, does not mean it will actually happen,” the e-zine points out.
Another aspect that may work against seeing Gordon-Levitt as The Riddler is the fact that the character is said to be 35 to 45 years old, whereas he’s only 29. Then again, there have been many cases where producers agreed to change a script to accommodate an actor of their choice, and one has to look no further than Angelina Jolie in “Salt” for proof. Right now, things could go either way, so make sure you keep an eye on this space for more details on the production.
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