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[carrotosaurus]

The new face of the Joker for the new Batman movie. Opinions?

[Ozymandias]

...Heath Ledger is going to haunt my dreams.

[0bsessions]

I saw that a few days ago. There's about eight billion cat macros that can express my opinion, all of which along the lines of "Does Not Want."

I was disappointed enough in the choice of Ledger for the Joker, I can't stand him and find him to be an awful actor.

Add to that his insistence that there's no reason to do any serious research into the role by looking into the comics (Anna fucking Paquin wore gloves for six solid months to prep for playing Rogue, the least you could do is pick up the Killing Joke, dude).

Then factor in it looks more like something out of Saw or Fight Club and my approval of Joker in the Dark Knight is at about rock bottom. I have a lot of faith in Nolan after Begins, but still, I do not care for this look in the slightest.

[Lines]

Ew, no. I didn't see him as a good fit for the Joker and I still don't. And if he's not doing any research on the Joker from the comics, that's just silly. I really hope I'm not disappointed, because the first movie was done so well. (Personally, I think it's going to be hard for anyone to play the Joker as well as Jack Nicholson. Heath Ledger is no Jack Nicholson.)

[Ozymandias]

Mark Hamill's voicing of the Joker was ten trillion times better than Nicholson.

Jack is not the end all be all of Jokers. Not even close.

I mean, come on: they cast Liam Neeson as Ra's Al Ghul. A British guy to play an immortal Arabic dude. Turns out, they went in a different, and still significantly awesome direction.

The only casting that seemed perfect from the outset was Bale as Batman. And that's only because you can cast Bale as Dorothy from Wizard of Oz and he's still perfect casting.

I have faith in Nolan. He knows what he's doing.

[TheBoredOne]

I didn't like the casting done for Scarecrow either, but that movie turned out all right.

[Johnny C]

Add to that his insistence that there's no reason to do any serious research into the role by looking into the comics (Anna fucking Paquin wore gloves for six solid months to prep for playing Rogue, the least you could do is pick up the Killing Joke, dude).

Huh? He was given a copy of The Killing Joke. Wikipedia has it cited that Nolan apparently didn't let him read the script for the film itself before shooting started. Ledger only had a brief glimpse which he was allowed to memorize and then was given The Killing Joke in order to prepare the character.

If you have an interview you can point me to I'll read it. Also I'm not even going to get into Paquin's work as Rogue.

[Lines]

Jack is not the end all be all of Jokers. Not even close.

I didn't say that. I said "personally" meaning he was my favorite, not that he's the bestest Joker that ever lived. I like Ledger as an actor and I have faith in Nolan, it's just really hard for me to see him in that character until I see him doing something.

That and I'm setting the bar pretty high for this, because I liked the first one a lot and most of the super hero movies that have been coming out lately haven't been as good as they could be (especially the ones that are sequels).

[ForteBass]

So you're setting the bar high for a movie that meets both criteria for a not-so-good movie...

[0bsessions]

People comparing the odd casting of Cillian Murphy and Liam Neeson are missing two key aspects of that decision: both are well reputed as good actors, especially Neeson (Also note, when the movie was solicited, Neeson was listed as Ducard, not Ra's), who had the significantly bigger role. Heath Ledger is...not so good. Anyone seen the Order? The Patriot? A Knight's Tale?! I have faith in Chris Nolan, but I have absolutely none in Heath Ledger.

In response to Johnny, remember, you're dealing with Wikipedia here, which tends to be unreliable on occasion. You actually would've saved yourself a question if you'd checked the listed source:

http://forum.newsarama.com/showthread.php?t=90305&highlight=Heath+Ledger

"HL: The Killing Joke was the one that was handed to me. I think it’s going to be the beginning of The Joker. I guess that book explains a little bit of where he’s from but not too much. From what I’ve gathered, there isn’t a lot of information about The Joker and it’s left that way."

As of that interview, he hadn't even read it yet. Considering the comic in question is about a half hour to forty-five minute read at best, that screams a lack of dedication to me.

Also from that same interview is the answer to your question: "DRE: Have you read many Batman comics?

HL: No and I think that’s kind of helping me a little bit. I was never really a fan of comic books or comic book movies. I never despised them but I was never one to read them. I never sought out the films but I would sit down and enjoy them. So because of that I really feel that I’m not carrying much pressure."

I've grown up reading this stuff and he seems to be carrying in almost the exact same attitude Halle Berry carried into X-Men, and she was, by far, the worst person in that cast, almost definitely because she didn't care about the source material.

[Johnny C]

In response to Johnny, remember, you're dealing with Wikipedia here, which tends to be unreliable on occasion. You actually would've saved yourself a question if you'd checked the listed source:

http://forum.newsarama.com/showthread.php?t=90305&highlight=Heath+Ledger

I did click that link but being a web forum it had the courtesy of being down. Having read it now and a bunch of the follow-up statements I can agree with the people who feel he's clearly taken the role because he's an actor first and foremost rather than a comic book fan.

Considering the garbage that has been done to the Joker over the years if Ledger only winds up having read The Killing Joke before filming that'd honestly be fine with me - and as you can read from that interview it was still incredibly early into the production. Keep in mind that the first answer he gives mentions trying to extend his holiday time and I'm a little more forgiving about not having gone through The Killing Joke. Honestly, reading a graphic novel is just a relaxation thing for us but at the moment it's work for him.

(And before I hear any arguments about acting being easy or the money he's getting or anything about that I'll just cut you off at the pass and tell you that as a future teacher I'm going to have approximately zero holiday time during the year as I'm going to wind up constantly reading material about my chosen field and that if I actually manage to take a holiday and someone snarks at me for not reading the latest journal article about kids and English literature I will probably attempt to do a backflip off of your face. Let me enjoy my vacation and let Ledger enjoy his.)

I can think of five or six story arcs which would wind up with our silly clown back in action again as opposed to someone whose limited experience with the character is his at his most random and psychotic. That he's seen Nicholson's Batman is a bit worrying but I have faith that Nolan will be able to direct that part of the interpretation into oblivion. That Ledger is going to have only two preconceived notions of the character and one is clearly what the director - who, by the way, is neither Bryan Singer nor Brett Ratner - is wanting from him is going to make him a lot easier to direct.

Also, feel free to be less selective about Ledger's filmography. He was a pretty important character in a movie a couple of years back that got nominated for a bunch of awards. The name escapes me at the moment, but boy was there a flurry over the scene where him and another dude go for broke and make the beast with two backs. I guess what I'm saying is he's been in a lot of chaff but he's also been involved in some pretty great films over the years, just like a surprising amount of actors, including Liam Neeson. I mean, The Haunting? Next Of Kin? Krull? Absurdly bad pictures, but because Neeson once played a dude who didn't like what was happening in concentration camps people seem willing to forgive his career missteps.

[TheBoredOne]

JohnnyC, are you suggesting that we not judge actors based on the low points in their careers?

[Johnny C]

No, it's perfectly fair to judge, say, Robert De Niro on Meet The Fockers and Analyze That, as long as you remember that he also did Raging Bull.

[Spinless]

I have this philsophy as an artist that I've tried to apply to every other thing in life.
I know that I'm only as good as my last drawing.
My last drawing SUCKED. I've never really tried drawing a chocolate coloured girl before.

So, a band is as good as it's last album, an actor is only as good as his last film, etc.

It's all debatable, but I also think it's fair. People are constantly changing all of the time. Judge them based on the last thing they did. Before you excuse them, they have to convince you it was just a cock up.

[thehoopiestfrood]

Strangely enough I never found the casting of Cillian Murphy and Liam Neeson strange at all. I actually said "Liam Neeson must be Ra's" because he looks EXACTLY like the Ra's of the comics to me in the publicity shots. I thought it was a running joke in the comics/animated series/whatever that while he has an Arabic name he looks European. It just made perfect sense to me, I was much more confused by the cast listing thing saying Ken Watanabe was Ra's. But when I saw photos of the filming, as I said, it seemed to pretty easy to figure out what was going on, just because Liam Neeson looked so right. I was much more annoyed in the filming that they mispronounced "Ra's" the entire film. That really got on my nerves, I don't understand that at all. I thought Cillian Murphy was great as Scarecrow and I never really questioned his casting before the film, I don't know why.

That photo of the Joker also doesn't show that he has reasonably long hair. But it's quite difficult to see exactly how long and what he really looks like because they are shitty paparazzi shots that I've seen but a lot of people were going mental saying "OMG long hair" but I don't think you can really tell how long it is.

[Dissy]

I thought it was a running joke in the comics/animated series/whatever that while he has an Arabic name he looks European.

Actually, believe it or not, Ra's is white!  Yep.  He is of caucassian decent.  Most Arabs are as well.

I mean, come on: they cast Liam Neeson as Ra's Al Ghul. A British guy to play an immortal Arabic dude. Turns out, they went in a different, and still significantly awesome direction.

Liam Neeson is Irish, not British

And As for Dark Knight, BatsBegins was awesome.  I was disappointed that the chose to continue on casting the Joker as the villian.  Even more disappointed that they cast one of the Gay Cowboys to play him.  I was hoping that they would do another "lesser" well-known villian as they did with Begins. 

Now for the picture.  WTF?!?  Looks like everybody's favourite queer had a bad lipstick job trying to cover up the herpes he got from his boyfirend.  Nolan had better pull an awesome script out of his ass, and hopefully Leger can fill in the big shoes left by Hamill and Nicolason and Romero.

[Inlander]

Dissy, if you've come here with the mindset that calling somebody homosexual is an insult, then you've really come to the wrong forum.

[Dissy]

Dissy, if you've come here with the mindset that calling somebody homosexual is an insult, then you've really come to the wrong forum.

I never once used that word in my post. 

I wasn't using it as an insult, I way beating the dead horse about him playing in Brokeback Mountain.

[thehoopiestfrood]

I thought it was a running joke in the comics/animated series/whatever that while he has an Arabic name he looks European.

Actually, believe it or not, Ra's is white!  Yep.  He is of caucassian decent.  Most Arabs are as well.

See, I thought that, but then I looked up wiki and and I wasn't sure so I thought I'd play it on the safe side.

[Ozymandias]

I wasn't using it as an insult, I way beating the dead horse about him playing in Brokeback Mountain.

In a pretty weird, somewhat offensive way.

[CmonMiracle]

I like that picture, it makes him a lot more unbalanced than a Joker who had neat makeup on...Kind of John Wayne Gacy-like. He doesn't seem as "ha ha I'm insane" as Jack was, but he does look more likely to fuck you up.

[beat mouse]

i must be the only person who not only likes heath ledger but thinks he'll be good as the joker. i personally hated all 4 original batman movies and cannot stand the praise jack nicholson gets (honestly, yes, cookoo's nest was great, adaptation was great, otherwise he's a complete one trick pony in every single fucking movie he's been in. ANGRY KIND OF INSANE JACK NICHOLSON RAH. contributes nothing in the same way al pacino's career turned out) and with nolan's image of everything, this movie cannot possibly be bad. replacing katie holems with maggie gyllenhaal was a godsend, and from what i've heard i couldn't be more excited for it. god knows it wont be hard to top x-men 3 and the spiderman series for comic movies. that and i have faith in nolan to not turn out a bad movie. this new series is great, and just because people hate heath ledger for a few bad movies (i honestly liked a lot of his work, though has done some awful shit) i dont think that it'll be bad at his expense whatsoever.


oh yeah. AARON FUCKING ECKHART AS HARVEY DENT. I NEED IT. I WANT IT. GOTTTTA HAVE.

[the-artful-dodger-rodger]

dude in the picture, he looks like a dead drag queen, or a very stoned drag queen.

[fish across face]

Yeah, cool eh?

i must be the only person who not only likes heath ledger but thinks he'll be good as the joker. i personally hated all 4 original batman movies and cannot stand the praise jack nicholson gets (honestly, yes, cookoo's nest was great, adaptation was great, otherwise he's a complete one trick pony in every single fucking movie he's been in. ANGRY KIND OF INSANE JACK NICHOLSON RAH. contributes nothing in the same way al pacino's career turned out)

Um, Adaptation?  Not sure what you're thinking of.  I think Chinatown would be another good example of Jack Nicholson looking like he's working, rather than just being Jack.

That one detail aside, I really agree with the gist of your post.  I was never a fan of any of the Batman movies until Batman Begins, and I think that pic of the Joker suggests we'll get more riffing on fear... which is an awesome thing.  It's a great way to explain away the daftness of dressing up in funny suits.

I hadn't heard / read about the other castings, they sound great too.

Speaking of playing against type and so on, how about Gary Oldman as Gordon? Shit he was awesome in Batman Begins.  Not a trace of nastiness or kookiness and no chewing of scenery at all. 

[öde]

Batman Begins was fucking awesome and I have faith this film will be too.

[fish across face]

I actually almost walked out of Batman Begins because I thought the beginning was so shit - that whole thing of some rich Westerner pissing off to some completely fantastic (as in unrealistic, not great) mash-up of Asia just seemed utterly played out and tedious - but it definitely got super awesome once Bruce got back to Gotham and all the mind-fuck action kicked in.

[Will]

Batman Begins might just be the only comic book movie that I actually REALLY liked. The X-men movies were okay, but nothing that really got me all that excited. I like Chris Nolan, I think he brought a much-needed darkness to the Batman character, and I'm pretty sure I'll like what he does to this movie too.

I like Heath Ledger as the Joker. Again, judging by one picture and my knowledge of Chris Nolan's other films (Memento and Following, in particular) I think this will have a real dark feel to it, and I like that.

[est]

Heath Ledger is pretty hit/miss.  I absolutely love a few movies he's done, but hate a few others.  The thing is though it's pretty easy to see which ones he's done because he liked the script and which he's basically phoned in for the money.  All I really wonder is which this will turn out to be.

[Johnny C]

replacing katie holems with maggie gyllenhaal was a godsend

QFT QFT QFT QFT

[Jimmy the Squid]

I really liked the Burton Batmans and even Batman Forever wasn't completely without merit (probably due to Burton still having some creative input) and Batman Begins was obviously awesome. So far Nolan hasn't put a foot wrong in any film of his I've seen and I don't think he'll do it in this one either. I've seen Ledger suck at his roles and I've seen some amazing characterisation so I guess we can only hope that this one will be as good as we hope it'll be. I like the look of the Joker makeup cos it's got that dark and disturbed feel to it that even Nicholson didn't have.
I was hoping for a different villain really but I'm not really up on Batman lore so I'm ok with the choice of the Joker. Besides, I feel safe in the prediction that this Joker will be different enough from the previous incarnations of the character as to make it a completely different villain.

[Spinless]

Common misconceptions about the old Batman movies:

-Jack Nicholson was a great Joker
-The last two weren't completely without merit.
-Casting in general was pretty good.
-The suits in Batman&Robin were pretty cool.

[0bsessions]

I don't see why you'd say Nicholson wasn't a "great" Joker. Given, it was Nicholson doing what he does: hamming up the role and not playing the character so much as himself, but he really hit the nail on the head as far as the most common characterization of the Joker: a nutcase, eccentric, sociopathic killer with a really dark and disturbing sense of humor. That's why the Joker's always been one of my favorite comic villains. I like either slightly redeemable villains who aren't evil, just of a different viewpoint, or I like guys who are so batshit fucking loco that the idea of them actually existing is frightening. He'll commit these unforgivable attrocities and then turn around and crack a joke that'll just be so horribly ill-timed to anyone else. I still think Mark Hammill did the best Joker ever in the animated series and movies (Especially the Batman Beyond movie, he was just sick in that), but Nicholson was a great Joker. I never cared for the old campy Joker in the sixties, he bored the Hell out of me. Joker's at his best when he's off his nut and still pretty funny. If Heath Ledger can't both scare me and make me laugh in the span of a a few minutes of each other, I'll consider it an outright and colossul failure on his part.

[carrotosaurus]

I really liked Nicholson's joker, personally. But I was much younger the last time I saw that film, so perhaps it's time for a revisit.

Also, I'm not sure I see what everyone's talking about as far as Batman Begins goes. I thought it was ok, but it seems that most people are worshipping the ground Nolan walks on... It was a pretty decent film, but is it really better than the original Tim Burton Batman movies? I'm definately going to have to compare them side by side.

[Johnny C]

Nolan chose to forego making a campy and plot-driven film in favour of making an appropriately dark and character-driven film, and more importantly he pulled it off almost perfectly. That's why a lot of people here, myself included, think Batman Begins is the superior movie.

[beat mouse]

Common misconceptions about the old Batman movies:

-Jack Nicholson was a great Joker
-The last two weren't completely without merit.
-Casting in general was pretty good.
-The suits in Batman&Robin were pretty cool.

Say no to bat-nipples

I'd rather see Adam West as batman again than Clooney. Either way, I dont know if I can give you that last one.

[Blue Kitty]

As surprised as I was that I enjoyed Batman Begins I am actually looking forward to seeing the new Joker.  I thoroughly enjoyed Nicholsen's performance as a child, but I am ready for the darker, more pyschotic version that this one seems to be.


I believe in Harvey Dent too seems to have run its course though you should probably press ctrl-a

[TrueNeutral]

I have no problems with Heath Ledger as the Joker. I do have a problem with this picture. Where is the Joker's trademark grin?

[Xamira]

I think Heath Ledger is going to play an amazing joker, simply because you cant see it.

With Jack Nicholson you know exactly what hes going to be like before he does it and that ruins the character, sure it was fun for a while but predictability got the best of him.

How many of you, just based on that picture alone, would be able to tell that it was Heath Ledger?

[beat mouse]

I have no problems with Heath Ledger as the Joker. I do have a problem with this picture. Where is the Joker's trademark grin?

well the huge scars on the sides of his mouth and cheeks would tell me that perhaps the "trademark grin" will be like every other "trademark" from batman and get a little darker, and better.

[alongwaltz]

So who's Anthony Michael Hall playing?

He's confirmed to be in this but his role is being kept secret because "revealing his role would constitute a plot spoiler".

[Ben yayayayayayayay]

He'll probably be a nyurd

[Dimmukane]

So who's Anthony Michael Hall playing?

He's confirmed to be in this but his role is being kept secret because "revealing his role would constitute a plot spoiler".

The Riddler, maybe?  Or do you think they'd decide not to follow a jokester with a trickster?  I'm trying to think of who he could fit in as....

[Johnny C]

Harley Quinn.
The other half of Two-Face.
Clayface.

[Storm Rider]

Personally, I'm actually looking forward to them setting up future movies with Eckhart as Two-Face. I think he'd be able to pull off that role spectacularly.

[thehoopiestfrood]

I don't think this is really a spoiler, as it seems pretty logical to me, but just in case:

POTENTIAL SPOILER ALERT!!









_{I heard (right after the first film, so it probably has changed) that at the end of the second film (or the very beginning of the third) that the Joker will be in court and Harvey Dent will be prosecuting and the Joker will throw acid in his face making him into Two Face setting up the third film. I think that's quite a nice way to do it.}








END OF SPOILERS

[M4]

I thought that Heath Ledger was scary in "Brokeback Mountain"...

Fuckin' yikes.

[Ben yayayayayayayay]

Eckhart's makeup as Two-Face is gonna look fucking sweet, wonder when those pics'll leak

[ForteBass]

I thought that Heath Ledger was scary in "Brokeback Mountain"...

Fuckin' yikes.

Hahaha! I get it! A Brokeback Mountain joke! I get jokes!

Seriously though... no.

[Ben yayayayayayayay]

http://worldofwonder.net/wimages/heathledger.jpg

I'm scared 

Edit: NSFWNSFW FULL FRONTAL NUDITY WITH DICKS AND SHIT NSFWNSFW

[thehoopiestfrood]

Yeah, someone needs to put an NSSW tag on that and I don't really see what that has to do with anything. Odds are there aren't going to be any full frontal nude shots of the Joker in the film...