The Dark Knight

Rumors of Heath Ledger's casting as the Joker had been floating around the net for a couple of weeks now, but I was hesitant to comment until something official came up. Now that it has, I figure it a good time for a bat-fanboy to lay it all down.

Ledger will be great. Yes, initially my feelings were disappointment that it wasn't Hugo Weaving or Crispin Glover, and that it was a rather big name for this new Nolan-verse batman, but the more I thought about it, the more I like the idea. Ledger won't be hamming it up and certainly has the chops to pull off what will hopefully be the darkest interpretation of the Joker committed to film.

As for the name? Unfortunately not "Batman Begins Some More," but we can use that for the fourth Manimal after the reboot. The title of the second Nolan/Bale Batman , "The Dark Knight," is both ballsy and iconic in that it will (taking for granted that this title gets past the PR people) be the first Batman movie without Batman in the title. Good show, WB.

Also of note, unless there are any more surprises down the line, it looks like this movie will be the Joker show. Another good move, because not only is this the best rogue in comic book history, but the habit of cramming as many into one story as possible is what lead to the demise of the last Bat-Franchise.

So far it appears that Warner and Nolan are swinging for the fences, and hopefully "The Dark Knight" will add credence to this set of movies being what will later be considered to be the definitive set of bat.

Thanks to Superhero Hype for the article.