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Batman to go up against Riddler and Penguin in Dark Knight sequel, says Alfred?

by Parm Mann on 9 September 2008, 12:44

Tags: Warner Bros. (NYSE:TWX)

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You'll have to put this one down as speculation, but very, very, very tasty speculation.

According to Michael Caine, who plays Alfred in Batman Begins and The Dark Knight, Johnny Depp will play The Riddler and Philip Seymour Hoffman will play The Penguin in the next outing of the Batman franchise.

Yeah, we know, we thought nothing would top Ledger's appearance as The Joker, but this revelation fills us with optimism.

The news comes from an MTV interview with Caine at the Toronto Film Festival. Looking back at the hugely-popular Dark Knight, Caine reflects on how he thought nobody could top Jack Nicholson's Joker, other than maybe Heath. More importantly, and looking forward, Caine then adds:

I was with (a Warner Bros.) executive and I said, "Are we going to make (a sequel to The Dark Knight)?" 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!"

Now, we've no reason to doubt our beloved grey-haired Alfred, but it should be noted that Depp recently denied rumours suggesting that he'd already been cast as The Riddler.

Furthermore, director Christopher Nolan is on vacation and hasn't yet confirmed his sure-to-happen third Batman movie. Even if Warner Bros. want Depp and Hoffman involved in the next Batman outing, Nolan may not agree. Nonetheless, we're licking our lips already.

How do you feel about the prospect of Depp as The Riddler and Hoffman as The Pengiun? Are these the villains you'd like to see, or did you have something else in mind? Share your thoughts in the HEXUS.community forums.



HEXUS Forums :: 10 Comments

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Bit early imho, we'll see how it goes and if theres any more rumours that crop up…
Sounds good. Perhaps. Would be interested to see how they make the Riddler more “gritty” and realistic… he's a bit of a lightweight comedy character, as far as I'm concerned. Joker always had a side to him, but I don't find that with Riddler. And, clearly, Carrey massacred the character already.

ANYTHING, dear god, anything at all, to prevent Cher as Catwoman.
Yawn if it's true. IMHO they should be looking at the graphic novels The Dark Knight Returns and Arkham Asylum for inspiration instead of constantly recycling the same old tired has been characters.
It would be nice to see one of the villains that hasn't yet been used in a Batman movie. Hoffman seems a good choice for Penguin, though.
I'm sure he has reliable sources etc.. but there was mention of those two playing those parts bloomin' ages ago.. and it was said to be utter tripe.
Whether they have seen the reactions and thought.. not a bad idea that.. i don't know but what I do recall is Nolan saying that the Penguin will not feature in his batman films believing him to be too unrealistic a character.

That said, again he may have gone back and decided simply not to take him the route that Burton took him and will just make him a powerful “business man” or mobster..