And another spate of Batman casting rumors. This time ’round it’s Johnny Depp as the Joker and Rachel Weisz as Talia (Liam Neeson/Ras Al Ghul’s daughter.) With the Penguin (Philip Seymour Hoffman) and Harvey Dent/Two-Face (Liev Schrieber) also purportedly in the mix, it sounds like something’s got to give.
Category: Casting
Shave and a Hairy Monster (or two).
Genre director update: As if their Willy Wonka wasn’t creepy-serial-killer enough, Tim Burton and Johnny Depp will soon reunite for Sweeney Todd, the demon barber of Fleet Street. Meanwhile, the Spike Jonze-Dave Eggers interpretation of Where the Wild Things Are lands at Warner Bros. Says author Maurice Sendak of the project: “I am in love with it. If Spike and Dave do not do this movie now, I would just as soon not see any version of it ever get made.“
March of the Hoffman.
From Truman Capote to Oswald Cobblepot? Word is Philip Seymour Hoffman is in talks to play the Penguin in the next Bale Batman, while Sam Rockwell is angling for the Clown Prince of Crime.
Match to Magic, Germany to Cuba.
Scarlett Johansson joins Chris Nolan’s version of The Prestige as Olivia, the lovely assistant to magicians Christian Bale and Hugh Jackman. And, also in film news, Stephen Soderbergh’s next project after The Good German will be Guerilla, a Che Guevara biopic starring Benjamin Bratt.
Lying in a den in Bombay.
The consistently interesting Peter Weir chooses his next project: Shantaram, with Johnny Depp. “The story follows an Australian heroin addict who escapes a maximum-security prison and reinvents himself in India as a doctor in the slums of Bombay. His attempt to find medicine for his destitute patients leads him into counterfeiting, gunrunning and smuggling.” But will they be trying to tempt him, because he comes from the land of plenty?
He’s Deranged.
Ground Control to Major Tom: So Michael Caine won’t be Nikola Tesla in Chris Nolan’s The Prestige (also with Christian Bale & Hugh Jackman)…That’s part’s gone to the inimitable David Bowie, who’s been basically out of the film scene since Basquiat in 1996. Now that’s fun casting.
X, XY.
In other comic-film news, more X-Trouble on the horizon: In keeping with schlockmeister Brett Ratner’s earlier-professed desire to sex up the X-Men, X3 adds two come-hither mutants: Mercedes Scelba-Shorte of America’s Next Top Model as M/Monet St. Croix (from Generation X, which is after my time..they’re the new New Mutants, I guess) and Ashley Hartman of The OC as Emma Frost, the White Queen (formerly a villain, until reconceived during the Grant Morrison run.) I guess this means we’ll never get a full Hellfire Club X-film, which is particularly depressing after reading a fanboy dream-cast Deadwood‘s Ian McShane as Sebastian Shaw, the Black King, in the AICN talkback. That would’ve been ten kinds of perfect.
The Caine Mutiny.
Sorry, Mr. Wayne…Alfred’s turned on you. Michael Caine joins Chris Nolan’s version of The Prestige, starring Christian Bale and Hugh Jackman. “Caine will play a retired magician who teaches tricks to Jackman’s character, who has developed a bitter rivalry with another magician (Bale)”. Would that be Nicola Tesla?
Vera Draconian.
Imelda Staunton announces she’ll play Dolores Umbridge in Order of the Phoenix, while Ralph Fiennes talks more about Voldemort.
Stacking Gotham’s Deck.
For what it’s worth, Dark Horizons publishes a highly speculative “insider report” on the next Nolan Batman. Among the tidbits offered here, Liev Schreiber is up for Harvey Dent, as are Paul Bettany, Ryan Reynolds, Michael Keaton (!), and Johnny Depp for the Joker. Schreiber would be a great pick-up as Gotham’s two-faced D.A., and any of the others — well, except Reynolds, I guess — would make a solid Crown Prince of Crime, although I’m still rooting for Adrien Brody.