Comic Book Films

There have been multiple rumors of who the villains will be in ‘The Caped Crusader’. With the success of ‘The Dark Knight’, the bar is set quite high for what should be the final installment of Christopher Nolan’s take on ‘Batman’.

Those rumors have been quite interesting to say the least. Cher could play Catwoman, Johnny Depp could be The Riddler, and Philip Seymour Hoffman could be The Penguin. But which of these are actually credible?

Some believe that The Riddler will be included in the third film because of a recently written by Edward Nashton (an alias of The Riddler) in the ‘Gotham Times‘, a virally-marketed website for the Batman franchise.

Others believe that Catwoman could be ‘The Caped Crusader’ because of various rumors. One early rumor was the Cher was a candidate to play as Catwoman, but that was later debunked. Other rumors are that Shirley Manson could potentially be cast as Catwoman in the next film.

Of course, there was also the rumor of ‘The Penguin’, who was to be played by Philip Seymour Hoffman. Hoffman firmly denied this rumor in a recent interview.

It seems that everyone has their own idea of who should play Catwoman in the next Batman film, if Catwoman is included in the film. Some want Angelina Jolie, others speculate it will be Cher according to recent rumors. However, it’s possible that another actress could get the role: Shirley Manson.

“I’d love to play Catwoman,” she told MTV News.

“She’s supposed to be difficult,” Manson said. “I just think Catwoman hasn’t really been fully realized yet. Certainly I haven’t seen it. Halle Berry wasn’t quite right. And while I liked Michelle Pfeiffer, to a certain degree, I didn’t think she was dangerous. She was more cute than fierce. Not enough of the beast in her. If you’re going to embody a cartoon character like that, you have to be a bit more inexplicable, intangible. Make it more of a mystery.”

Source: Splash Page MTV

MTV caught up with Philip Seymour Hoffman while at the Toronto Film Festival to confirm rumors by Michael Caine that Hoffman and Johnny Depp had been cast as the villains in ‘The Caped Crusader’.

“No one has talked to me about it ever — never,” replied Hoffman. “It happened, like, five years ago, too. It was a rumor back then and it’s still a rumor. [laughs] It’s just in the press. It’s funny.”

To further cement this issue, Hoffman added that he’d never met Nolan (”Maybe I did or met him in passing?”), and that his interest in comic book movies is purely on a fan level, and he intended to keep it that way.

“I’m such a fan of those movies,” related Hoffman. “Comic book movies in general I look forward to — I am a real cheerleader for them. I want them to do well because those are terrific stories. As a kid I was a big comic book collector. What [Nolan]’s doing is taking it in a whole other exciting great place. I’m more a fan, so the interest of being in it isn’t that great. It’s more the interest in wanting to see the next one. It’s probably better that way.”

When further pressed for his level of interest in the role if Warner Bros. approached him about the role, Hoffman said, “I don’t know. I think I’m more interested in seeing someone else do it. I don’t know if I’d be a good Penguin to be quite honest. [laughs]”

Source: MTV

Christopher Nolan has been very careful to keep the secret of who the villain(s) will be in the next installment of the Batman franchise, ‘The Caped Crusader’. However, at the Toronto Film festival during an interview with Michael Caine, that secret may have been accidentally revealed. Michael Caine is the actor who plays “Alfred” in the two previous Batman films.

“They’ve already got them in mind,” said Caine, when asked who he’d like to see take up arms against the Caped Crusader. “It’s Johnny Depp as The Riddler. And The Penguin is Philip Seymour Hoffman. I read it in the paper.”

Those rumors had been floating around for a couple of weeks now, but apparently, Michael Caine has confirmed these rumors through the studio.

“When Christopher [Nolan] said we were going to do ‘The Dark Knight’ next, I didn’t what that meant in Batman terms,” related Caine, who plays Bruce Wayne’s loyal butler, Alfred Pennyworth. “I said, ‘What’s the story?’ and he said The Joker. I said, ‘Oh, s–t! How are you going to top Jack [Nicholson]?’ He said, ‘Well, I’ve cast Heath Ledger. And I went ‘Ha! I couldn’t top Jack, but if anyone could, maybe Heath could.’ And he did.

“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, ‘S–t, they’ve done it again!’” [Laughs]

While rumors of Depp and Hoffman have been hot topics around the upcoming film for quite some time, this is the first instance of one of the film’s stars speaking about the news, as well as Caine citing an albeit unnamed WB executive.

Meanwhile, when asked if he’s spoken to Nolan about the news or the next installment’s script, Caine made mention of Nolan’s vacation, and hinted that, “No. He’s gone. He’ll come back with a script sometime.”

Source: MTV

Johnny Depp has recently been linked to rumors that he may be picked to play “The Riddler” in the next Batman film. The film, which has a working title of “The Caped Crusader”, is set to start filming next year, and is riding on the heels of an extremely impressive showing by an all-star cast in “The Dark Knight”. Depp finally addressed the rumor on an interview with a Florida radio show where he was promoting his band “The Kids”.

Host: Hey Johnny, a listener called in earlier said you have to ask about the rumors on the internet of you doing the Riddler.
Depp: Oh yeah I heard about that. Not that I know of.
Host: You’d be a good choice.
Depp: It seems like it’d be a fun gig for a while, yeah.

You can listen to the rest of the interview below.

Source: ComicBookCynic