As soon as they said “Joker would be in it” it was pretty obvious he wouldn’t be killed off. The Joker has always been a long-standing thorn in Batman’s side. The arch-enemey who never goes away. I had assumed that the closest they’d come would be something ambiguous, with the Joker defeated and presumed dead… and then some giggle suggests otherwise. Or some such thing.
I never ever would have gone to the movie thinking they’d kill the Joker on his first foray in Gotham. He has always been a much more permanent fixture in Batman lore. I didn’t thnk it was a spoiler either.
While I liked Heath Ledger’s work, I was neither a fan, a relative, a friend, an aqauintance, a co-worker or in any way, shape or form had any form of contact with the guy. If the man wanted to combine a high-stress job, wife, children with pills and alcohol, that is his choice.
O.K., until X-Men, killing the villain in comic-book-movies has been such a standard convention that the only exception I can think of off the top of my head would be the first series of Teenaged Mutant Ninja Turtles films. It’s a convention that was even observed in the post-X-Men Spiderman films (except Sandman in the 3rd film).
I don’t think it was a good convention. In fact, as I stated, I think it’s lame.
If Nolan has said this, I don’t know about it because I’m not particularly interested in interviews or inside info on upcoming films- especially films I’m interested in seeing and want to be able to watch fresh.
He and I apparently agree that it’s a lame convention, but I never had any way of knowing that he agrees because I’m more interested in watching his films than I am in hearing him yap about them.
Incidentally, the best you can say about Ra’s Al Ghul’s fate (using only the film its self as a basis) is that it was left open. I was certainly under the impression that he died. As for Scarecrow, however badass he may be in the comic books, in the film he was reduced to a lacky position the moment Ra’s Al Ghul showed up. So, not killing him off was hardly a bold statement against the convention of killing off the villain. It certainly didn’t leave me thinking “Oh! They didn’t kill Scarecrow! It follows logically that there is no way in hell they can possible kill the Joker!!!”
“They” never said “Joker will be in it” in any conversation “they” ever had with me.
Didn’t stop them from killing him in 1989.
Look, I know the Joker’s long-standing status. And I know how lame it would be to kill him off! But that doesn’t mean they wouldn’t follow the lame-ass convention and kill him off anyway. Having a living Joker at the end of the film would have been infinitely more satisfying to me if I didn’t know to expect it!!!
And, let me state again: I’m not blaming the OP! Once Ledger died, there was no way I would not have heard that he was meant to be in Batman 3. I’m just saying I wish I could have watched The Dark Knight without knowing!
Actually, Shredder was “killed” in the first TMNT movie only to be “resurrected” with a lame “He was just horribly disfigured!” explanation. He was killed for good in TMNT 2.
You can actually see a figure jump from the train before it crashes. While we don’t know for sure, I’d bet 100 to 1 it’s Ra’s Al Ghul.
I know you don’t read insider information, but the original plotline of Batman Returns involved the Joker “coming back from the dead” with the explanation that the body they found was a henchman dressed up as the Joker.
Nicholson and the studio couldn’t agree to a contract and so the script was rewritten to include the Penguin and Catwoman.
But Batman doesn’t kill. Assuming the Joker could die is your own hangup, not with everyone else’s.
Yeah, geez, he’s the greatest criminal mind of all time.
I don’t think Michelle Pfeiffer’s Catwoman died, Jim Carrey’s Riddler definitely didn’t and I don’t recall if Mr. Freeze and Poison Ivy (and Bane, for that matter) died, but to confirm I’d have to see Batman and Robin again and I haven’t yet fully recovered from the first time.
To toss in some alternates for Heath Ledger (as per the OP):
Going by the casting of Heath, it would seem like they wanted someone relatively young and muscular–probably to serve as something of an equal to Christian Bale, rather than go from the comic book lanky figure. So I mean, really, that could be anyone from Mark Wahlberg, Matt Damon, Hugh Jackman, etc.
Personally, I think they’d do better to go with, for instance, Joseph Fiennes, Jake Gyllenhaal, Ben Chaplin, or even Adam Sandler (he was actually pretty scary in Punch-Drunk Love.)
Distracting in what way? Just because the two of them were The Gay Cowboys? I suspect that anyone who saw that movie wouldn’t care, and anyone who didn’t see Brokeback, never saw it so don’t have any “negative” image associated with his face. But maybe.
Wow, that’s almost a twin. I haven’t seen him in anything but 3rd Rock, so I can’t admit to having any opinion of his abilities as a real actor, but the similarity of faces is pretty impressive.
It would just seem like stunt casting. Bring in the guy already associated with the other actor. They do this a lot on TV, especially on SF shows, and I find it annoying. “Hey it’s Robert Picardo! He was on that other show and now he’s on this one!” The latest example is putting Summer Glau in the new Terminator Series.
How is Summer Glau in the Terminator series stunt casting? Because she was on a sci-fi show before? Because she played a character who could kick a lot of ass without trying? I don’t get it.
There’s already a Heath Ledger thread for folks who want to talk about his untimely passing. There’s nothing unseemly about a thread devoted to discussion of the effect on a movie series of a star’s passing, and nothing disrespectful to Heath Ledger in doing so.
Paul Bettany had been rumored to be under consideration for the role before Heath Ledger got it. I don’t think there was anything to the rumor, but I do think Bettany would be a good choice for the role.
Assuming that the already finished movie will have the only bits of non-makeup Joker, does it really matter if the actor *looks *like Ledger? He’d be fairly unrecognizable under the prosthetics and greasepaint (which I’m sure isn’t really greasepaint anymore, but airbrushed). While I agree Joseph Gordon Levitt looks freakily like Heath (and I can’t believe I never noticed that before), I don’t think he has the depth of angsty rage *cum *batshit insanity to pull it off. Jake Gyllenhaal might, and we’ve already seen his “Joker smile” in Donnie Darko, so we know he can do the creep factor.
Paul Bettany is a great actor, but he seems too fey to me, physically and emotionally. Plus, of course, he was in A Knight’s Tale, so by Larry Borgia’s Rule of Stuntcasting, he’s ineligible.
I think Adam Sandler’s too old, personally.
I love Joseph Fiennes, but only about 5 people in the U.S. know who he is, sadly.
