Monday
08Sep2008
Michael Caine: Warner Bros. Wants Depp and Hoffman for 'Dark Knight' Sequel
Monday, September 8, 2008 at 12:31PM
Oh boy. In an interview with
MTV, the venerable
Michael Caine
says that
Johnny Depp and
Philip Seymour Hoffman are on the radar for the
sequel to
The Dark Knight. 
"I was with [a Warner Bros.] executive and I said, ‘Are we going to make another one?’ They said yeah. I said, ‘How the hell are we going to top Heath? And he says ‘I’ll tell you how you top Heath - Johnny Depp as The Riddler and Philip Seymour Hoffman as The Penguin.’ I said, ‘Shit, they’ve done it again!’"Of course, this is not in any way a confirmation that either man is in the cast or that either character is in the story. It is a confirmation - and with no offense to the reports that Cher and Angelina Jolie are/were up for Catwoman - that the studio really wants to go this direction. Christopher Nolan may have other ideas. Looking at it from Warner Bros.' point of view, Batman Begins did not have villains the general public could recognize, and it did $200 million. They upped the ante for The Dark Knight, got The Joker, captured lightning in a bottle with Heath Ledger's performance, and due in part to some very unfortunate circumstances, they've made one of the biggest movies of all time. If you're the studio, why would you go back and grab, as we suggest, Guy Pearce to play Black Mask? That might be a great movie - hell, it might be a better movie than the one they'll eventually make - but will it be a box office titan? That's the draw that Johnny Depp can bring you, and having him play arguably the third most visible Batvillain won't hurt. All things being equal, these are probably the right actors for these roles. Probably. And it's clear by the tone of Caine's conversation ("How the hell are we going to top Heath?") that lots of interested parties won't be content with just a great Batman movie. It has to be a great big Batman movie.
Reader Comments (22)
Of course, Nolan has been on the record saying he has little or no interest in the Penguin as a character...
I think David Goyer is on record with that, speaking on behalf of the creative team. I agree with that stance, by the way. But the studios usually win.
Oh boy, here we go again. If Nolan comes back, he should have final say on story, villians, and who should play them without studio interference. (Maybe WB should watch Spider-Man 3 as a reminder on what happens when the studio pulls too many strings)
Exactly, Josie. There's no need for the studio to overcomplicate things.
Penguin and Philip Seymour Hoffman... Come on WB! Forget about penguin! Catwoman will be great with Angie. But give us someone like Joker too. Something hard to understand, something different character. Batman has many enemies please don't do the same things. We saw them already.
Harley Quinn or Hush or Maxie Zeus :) But without Joker there can't be any Harley Quinn so forget about Harley :(
We missed you already, Heath!
Just what we need. Another gay Riddler. Carrey in tights was horrible, and Depp plays everything gay now, so that's that. Not that it's wrong to do, but I want someone surprising, not just someone you'd expect. Ledger was an odd choice to me at first, but it was brilliant in the end. How about a Steve Buscemi Penguin? Why does he have to be fat? Short would do fine. Or he'd be a great Riddler. Here's an odd idea for Riddler: Denis Leary. He's definitely dark, and if you've seen Rescue Me, he does have chops. I'm just spitballing, folks, but let's get a little more creative on casting. It worked for Joker.
PLEASE! Forget about the Penguin, everybody!!!!!
I'd be OK if Ra's/Neeson was taken to a Lazarus Pit and returns
Catwoman would be OK... Jolie would be fine
I'd like to see Bane done well (the grunter who followed Uma Thurman around doesn't count)... Gerard Butler
Riddler? Nah. I think they made a huge mistake in killing off Two Face. Ekhart would have been good as a future villain... although I think they were banking on Ledger for the future, so they didn't feel they had to keep Two Face alive...
Talia Al Ghul - Monica Bellucci
Harley Quinn as a Joker copycat... Kate Winslet... maybe that could work, but they'd have to change the character quite a lot
Or how about this... a story that brings in both David and Cassandra Cain? David would be Jet Li, Cassandra Ziyi Zhang
Hmmmm...what about Robin Williams as one of the villians? Maybe I'm reaching.
Oh and I would love to see Lucy Liu as Catwoman.
Black Mask would have been great. But, so far Nolan-WB have always got their calculations right every single time : whether BB or TDK. Nolan' s Al Ghul was not immortal. Nolan's Scarecrow was not actually a scarecrow. Nolan's Joker never fell in the chemical pit and never looked anything like in the comics but still was scarier. Nolan's Two-Face appeared as if he had really undergone a terrible accident that scarred his face/mind so realistically. And all these Nolan-villains had one thing in common. They were from real world and were believable. So we can definitely count on Nolan's Riddler as something unlike the comics and definitely unlike the gay Riddler in Tights from the crap Batman Forever. So, I really don't care about their appearances (whether penguin is Short / Fat or not) as long as their Personalities are perfectly matching to the basics (atleast) in the comics. Because we can depend on Nolan (whose has it in him to destroy the Superhero-Part-3-Failure-Syndrome) to get those Personalities right which is the top priority and not appearances. Yes,... And as somebody said, I would like to see justice done to Bane who has been wronged so horrifically in the dust-bin movie Batman & Robin.
yea their gonna ruin it, with that kind of thinking
Here's how it should be...
Robin Williams as the Riddler, no Catwomen or Penguin, and keep the characters like they could exist in real life please!
It's been a year or so in Gotham, things have kinda clamed down...Batman has just been taking care of average "street crime" Then some event triggers The Riddler.
two face is not dead by any means. he will be in the next movie gurantee it. look for depp to play the riddler while the penguin takes a back seat for this next film.
Hm. Curious. Aaron Eckhart just called Two-Face "dead as a door nail" last week.
For me, Two-Face was the most likable of all villains not only because he was somebody we could understand and sympathise with but also because he had more-than-one personalities in him that made him more interesting. He was more of a victim and less of a villain. I understand well, why he had to die at the end of TDK. But for some reason I would have liked to see Two-Face enjoy more screentime and undergo more character development which for some reason appeared to be forcefully abrupted for a movie that long. However we love him, Two-Face is gone because in a real world when a victim undergoes an accident which is that bad, still refuses to skin-grafting and runs away, there is only one consequence to face: No Asylum, no Hospital but only a death due to so much Irrepairable Blood Loss within a single day. And his fall from the building at the climax acted as a catalyst and merely hastened the consequence. I hope Nolan does not change his mind and bring Two-face in the Third just like what happened in the handling of the character of Scarecrow . Why was Scarecrow present in TDK to begin with ?
... And If I am not wrong, there would be No Women in Nolan's any further Batman movie because he realises he has made a mistake by not developing the character of Rachael Dawes in TDK. She was just existing for the sake of becoming a reason for Harvey Dent to turn into Two-Face. And I myself hope too, that there are No Females in the Nolan series any further just because I, as a man, believe Men and Women were never and are NOT equal. I simply believe Women are ... Superior. The two most important things more powerful, women possess than men, are The Sixth Sense and A scientifically proven Fractionally-More Intelligence (endowed upon them by nature as they are the Carriers of their species)...but NOT when it involves Albert Einstein, Isaac Newton and...Batman. I presume nobody would like to see, enjoy and gain satisfaction watching an angry, vicious Batman beating the hell out of a hapless Female Villain who will be physically(Females bodies are oh-so-sensually-soft by nature), intellectually and mentally nothing as compared to Batman-in-full-vengeance-mode. Females were never meant to be beaten. So we can comfortably forget Catwoman, Talia-al-ghul / her sister, Harley Quinn.
Amol, I'm intrigued by your last post here. However, particularly with Catwoman, I think the comics do her greatest justice when she is portrayed on equal footing with Batman... I would love to see something that portrays them as partners.
Regarding general superiority of women, from my perspective I would have to agree.
At the end of TDK, the hunt for Batman begins. The trick with the third movie is how to bring Batman back as the hero of the people of Gotham. I think Angelina Jolie and Johnny Depp are too obvious to play anything in the Christopher Nolan universe. Plus, I've never liked Angelina in anything she's done. I think Catwoman is a definite go for the next film, because that character can bring the love interest that was lost with Rachel Dawes, and we all know how studios always want a love interest.
C'mon. You can't just rule Depp out of the 'Reasonable casting ideas for The Riddler' list. He's a cracking actor. You can't judge the film by it's cast. When I first heard about The Dark Knight and Heath Ledger Playing the Joker i didn't think it would pull off. It proved me wrong.
If Nolans just made Box Office history (with a sequel) I'm sure you can pretty much count on him to do a good job sorting out the next installment.
There are a bucketload of actors fit for the Riddler or the Penguin. And as nothing has been set in stone as of yet (to my knowledge) I think theyre first swing at a casting idea doesnt sound too bad.
TDK had 2 villains in it, why can't its successor? :)
When are they going to learn to have only one villain per film?!
Is it just be or is the idea of casting Cher as Catwoman something that might just work, I mean come on imagine it, an old vixen nearing the end of her days, though to be honest I personally reckon eccentric British actress Charlotte Rampling would suit the role better and she looks fabulous for the over 60 age. Though in all honesty I could see French actress Marion Cotillard as her as well, so she's foreign, it'd just make her sexier. As for Harley Quinn I reckon you cast bonkers Italian actress Asia Argento or perhaps Johnny Depp's partner Vanessa Paradis.
It seems a lot has been deliberated and thought of in terms of who is to be the next negative lead. we still have a lot of anticipation about depp playing the Riddler (he of course is one of my most favourite villains for his sheer ability to make the dark knight think). but picture this... there are still some villains that have nit even been thought of. Poison Ivy and Mr. Freeze for instance. Heath Ledger did to the joker what no other actor could do (with all due respect to Jack Nicholson) so all the best to Nolan to make something even more grand than this. but Heath Ledger was an awkward choice. and i guess that is what made it click so much. One can manage to imagine what a tommy lee jones could do with a two face or how Jim Carrey could completely destroy the Riddler. I guess the key lies in unpredictability and if Depp is the choice Nolan makes, then he better not be the Captain Jack Sparrow thing in it (I can already imagine a Riddler like that) i hope the movie is as dark as possible. i guess one should pick actors like Jude law for this. i think he in this psychotic romantic role from "the talented Mr Ripley" can be a good match. The Key my friends is in being unpredictable. and both Depp and Ms Jolie are very... very predictable.