Remember this little story (below) from June, concerning Joseph Gordon-Levitt's possible appointment as cinema's new emerald-attired questionnaire, The Riddler?
Yup? well seems there might be something to these unremitting rumours.
Alex over at First Showing has spoken to an inside source who's allegedly seen a casting grid for Christopher Nolan's "Batman 3" and on it, listed as one of the characters appearing in the film, is 'The Riddler'. Next to the character's name? Joseph Gordon-Levitt's name - along with the word "interested". Wowwwwie! Nice!
As Alex reminds us, casting grids "are used for business planning in the industry and by no means would use internet speculation to list a character that may not even appear in the film. But when it comes to listing actors, this is info that can change at anytime, and just because an actor or studio is interested in one or the other, does not mean it will actually happen." If the tip is legit though, at least this serves somewhat as confirmation that The Riddler (who, along with Catwoman, has long rumoured to be this film's villain) will be in the film. And one wouldn't be at all surprised if the "Ten Things I Hate About You" (a film which also starred one-time Bat-villain Heath Ledger) star is being considered for the role - not only did Nolan just work with him on "Inception", but he has been singing the 29-year-old actor's praises wherever he goes.
I remember I was at Comic-Con when word got out that Heath Ledger had been cast as The Joker in "The Dark Knight" so wouldn't at all be surprised, considering the timing, if someone pours some concrete on this wet rumour this weekend!
"Batman 3", which begins shooting in April 2011, has so far only locked down Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Morgan Freeman and Gary Oldman.
They've just worked on "Inception" together, so the rumour mill seems pretty confident that "Dark Knight" director Christopher Nolan will want to retain the services of the terrific Joseph Gordon-Levitt for his next film, "Batman 3".
You may recall a month or so back hearing that Gordon-Levitt ("Brick", "(500) Days of Summer") was the frontrunner to replace the late Heath Ledger as The Joker for the sequel to 2008's "The Dark Knight". Sounded quite feasible, right? Nolan probably liked working with Gordon-Levitt, most director's do, but more so, the original treatment for "Batman 3" (By David Goyer) actually featured the character of The Joker.
And then Christopher Nolan publicly denounced the rumour that he'll be bringing back The Joker for the next film stating, in a matter of words, that it would be a disservice to the good work of Heath Ledger to have another character play the role.
So that was that. No Joker - and more so, no Joseph Gordon-Levitt Joker.
But Gordon-Levitt's not getting off the wild-rumour-conveyor-belt just yet - today, his name is being linked to another role in the same film, that of the villianous 'The Riddler'!
The Riddler, of course, is the emerald-coloured jokester that tormented the Caped Crusader in Joel Schumacher's "Batman Forever" (1995)."Chris really dug Joseph [as an actor]," a source close to the director tells HollywoodLife.com. "There was a joke at first between them [on the set of Inception] that Joseph wanted to read for Batman 3 and things heated up as filming continued."
Adds the insider, "It's not 100% confirmed that he's getting [the role of The Riddler] but there's certainly talk about it. Joseph is definitely on the short list."
Like The Joker rumour, one could be persuaded to believe this - Gordon-Levitt and Nolan just worked together, The Riddler is widely believed to be the villain Nolan's going to use in the sequel (though that hasn't been confirmed), and, well, quite matter-of-factly, the young actor would fucking rock as the pop-quizzing asshole (as opposed to Eddie Murphy, the last rumoured candidate for the role).
Having said that, even if it is true, and Nolan is picturing Gordon-Levitt in top-to-toe green, we're probably a good year or so away from receiving any kind of confirmation - "Batman 3" isn't due in theaters until 2012. For the meantime, slip this one into the tabbed part of your filofax marked 'rumours'.
