Philip Seymour Hoffman Playing The Penguin? News to Him

"Some friend of mine told me he read that. First I heard of it." That's the reaction of Philip Seymour Hoffman to rumors that Warner Bros. wants the Oscar winner to play The Penguin in the third Christopher Nolan Batman movie. Yesterday, we and every other movie website in the free world reported that Michael Caine said the studio wanted Hoffman in that signature role, joining Johnny Depp as The Riddler. What's weird about the news is its coverage. We disputed the factual nature of it, because at no point did Caine say either actor had been cast; he asked how Warner Bros. could top Heath Ledger as The Joker, and their response was to go after Depp and Hoffman. It's like saying, "You know who the Yankees need next year? C.C. Sabathia." Every team should try to get C.C. Sabathia just as every movie should consider an actor of the caliber of Depp or Hoffman. Obviously, the studio wants to make big money with the next film, and casting movie stars in compelling roles is a good way to do that. So I get why a studio hack might say something like that to Michael Caine, but it doesn't really mean anything. And there's been no indication from Nolan that he even wants those two villains if he comes back to make the third movie. It's pie-in-the-sky stuff. Yet I must've read six or eight stories with headlines like "Depp Cast as Riddler" or some such nonsense. It still hasn't happened. We had not yet heard from Hoffman, although his reaction mirrored Depp's from a couple weeks ago. Basically, neither guy has been contacted, but it's certainly an offer you'd listen to. The Stone Report asked Hoffman about The Penguin at the Toronto FIlm Festival, and initially he said he didn't think he'd play the part, although he sort of changed his tune somewhere in the middle of his answer:

"I grew up a comic book fan, so I love that stuff. I love going to that stuff. I think what they’re doing with that whole Batman story is really true to what that whole Batman thing has always been. It’s one of the darkest origins of a superhero, to get all nerdy and geeky on you. That character sees his parents gunned down as a young child: I remember when I was a kid reading that story, so seeing it now come to life as the dark tale that it really is as an intense, really dark, very visceral, adult tale that they’re doing now, all the great work people are doing on it, of course I wouldn’t say, ‘Well, no, no no.’ "But I don’t know the reality of it, so I wouldn’t say ‘yes’ to you."

All any of this means is that the wish list casting for the sequel to The Dark Knight will keep making headlines even when there's not really a story there. It's great to think of casting movies like this, and if you have to have The Riddler and The Penguin, Depp and Hoffman are good bets. But you don't have to have either one in this series, and I'm still hopeful that they'll go another direction completely.

Comments

[Jeremy]

As much as I think he's a great choice, how'd you like to be the guy everyone thinks would make a great Penguin?

I wish we'd hear if/that Nolan is coming back first, then get a story (with villains), THEN start wish-casting before everyone jumps the gun. I guess there's no such thing as bad press and as long as people are talking and TDK is still in theatres, there is still money to be made.

[Lengthy Johnson]

Didn't Chris Nolan categorically state that he did not want the Penguin in his Batman movies? Or did I imagine it?

[Joe Russo]

Personally, I think Toby Jones would be a better choice then Hoffman.

[Melbourne Magician]

I want the ventriloquist played by Jeffery Tambor.

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