I was thrilled with the revival of Batman with 2005’s Batman Begins starring Christian Bale and directed/co-written by Christopher Nolan. Nolan can do no wrong in my eyes as he’s successfully provided hit after hit (Memento, The Prestige), but I’ll admit that I was rather stirred over the next film’s villain. At the end of Batman Begins the calling card of a new enemy is revealed, a Joker card, clearly marking Batman’s next target. I usually have an issue with people messing too much with classic content and Tim Burton’s Batman film combined with Jack Nicholson’s portrayal of The Joker is about as classic as you can get. But I’m willing to give Nolan the benefit of the doubt as I suspect he’ll be able to pull off an even darker version of The Joker in the next film, The Dark Knight.

In the picture below you’re able to catch a first up close glimpse of Heath Ledger all dolled up as The Joker. He (The Joker) looks to have had some series damage to his face and will have a wide spreading, scar filled grin as the basis for his name. MSN Nine reported that Christian Bale is very satisfied with the casting of Ledger in the role:

“He is a great choice for it. I like it, personally,” said Bale.

“Heath has a really crazy take for playing that role. He’s going to do something really different with it.”

Entertaining side note, while Ledger has been added to the cast Katie Holmes was dropped. Her character, Rachel Dawes, will return apparently as a 130 year old grandmother as Maggie Gyllenhaal has now been cast in that role. Expect this film to be released in the summer of 2008.

Source: MSN

Thanks to Corey over at MyRetirementProject.com for sending over this great find.