Hey Eckhart! Think about the future!

[thehefner]

So. Aaron Eckhart has been cast as Harvey Dent in BATMAN: THE DARK KNIGHT.

I haven't really seen any movie he's in. Should I be happy?

Dear lord, I want to be happy. This is my favorite comic character, here.

Also, Maggie Gyllenhaal is replacing Katie Holmes as Rachel Dawes. On one hand, much better and hotter actress. On the other hand, why the hell are they bringing back that utterly useless, pointless character, made even more utterly useless and pointless by the fact that she knows Batman's secret identity? Why are the producers of every single Batman movie obsessed with the idea that Batman absolutely has to have a girlfriend? Not once, not *once* has it been a good idea. Except we're talking about Catwoman, and even then, it was only good in theory...

But seriously. Aaron Eckhart as Harvey Dent. What little I know about him, it already sounds better than Heath Ledger as the Joker. In that latter's case, I'll believe it when I see it, and in both cases, I hope to be blown away. Hope hope hope. But currently, I'm going to bed feeling anxious and uncertain.

Of course, my other concern is how he'll be written. I really hope they won't make Dent a villain to begin with, like the jerkwad D.A. obsessed with bringing down the Batman. It's so important that he be heroic, that his fall actually be tragic and mean something to Batman. Otherwise, he's just another weirdo with a skin condition.

Thoughts?

Comments

[jellied.livejournal.com]

Re: The Dark Knight. Is that the name of the new Nolan picture? I thought Ledger/Joker was the big bad-- or are they already planning on the third installment.

You know my feelings on Bruce/Selina. I'm still crushed about the second volume of Hush.

On the upside I can't wait to get my hands on the Madman Omnibus, and Marvel Toys is making Madman figures!

[thehefner.livejournal.com]

Harvey will be in this, and he'll be Two-Face either at the end or in the sequel, part 3.

I don't like to talk about Hush. At all. Except for the Harvey Dent moments, and now those have been totally undone thanks to "Face the Face."

Madman=sweet.

[jellied.livejournal.com]

I get that. Sort of the same reason why I don't like to talk about Morrison penning the flagship title at DC. Did you really have to retcon Son of the Demon? Really?

Ugh.

I know! I love Mike Allred. He and Paul Pope are tied as my two favorite mainstreamish illustrators.

[thehefner.livejournal.com]

The really stupid thing? He only retconned it because he hadn't read it in years and misremembered it. "Oh, Batman wasn't drugged when they had sex? My bad." No, seriously.

I'm still anxious to hear the fan and critical reaction to Morrison's Joker issue this week. Whoo boy, what a piece of crap. But lord knows if others will agree.

Big a geek as I am, there are very few characters I care about like this. He's one of the top faves. I imagine you know how it is. I just want Harv done right.

Now that said, are you reading Allred's Golden Plates books?

[jellied.livejournal.com]

I'm actually terrible fangirl, but I haven't yet. Living in Focus on Colorado Springs has turned me off to anything remotely religious. I'm hoping it's more akin to Orgasmo than actual scripture; I've got a feeling it's not.

I've got mixed feelings about Morrison. I want to like him-- but he's so damn hot and cold.

[thehefner.livejournal.com]

Hehe, I was just curious. From what I'm skimmed, I think it's most assuredly not. Kyle Baker's KING DAVID, on the other hand...

Agreed with you on Morrison. Personally, I adore 30% of what he does, maybe even 40%. The rest leaves me cold. I think he's way overrated.

humph

[the-mithril-man.livejournal.com]

Well I only saw him as the Smarmy PR guy in "Thank you for smoking", and the Trainer with a heart of gold in "Any Given Sunday". Not a huge body of work to go off of. But I guess if he could merge those two guys and they keep him out of make up for a film or two I'd be cautiously optimistic. Yeah that was a help.

Re: humph

[thehefner.livejournal.com]

Shit, this is gonna be like Heath Ledger, isn't it? We're just gonna have to hold our breath until the movie comes out. It won't be until we actually see them in action that we'll see what the hell Nolan was thinking.

Re: humph

[the-mithril-man.livejournal.com]

I figure he worked up enough goodwill to give him the benefit of the doubt on his casting. Maybe he sees something we don't. As I was always taught "..you go with the man on the ground, not the guy in the armchair." Just takes me back top the fan explosion about The casting of Ras when it was all a set up. As for Dawes, eh maybe she dies and it makes Dent go from DA wanting to take Batman down to realizing he's a good guy. Then we get the great rooftop meetings.

Oh and BTW I picked up the Morrison Joker book. You were right.

Re: humph

[thehefner.livejournal.com]

Considering Nolan and co. seem to be as big fans of YEAR ONE as they are of THE LONG HALLOWEEN (and don't get me started on ranting about that book if I haven't already... although it did please the Dent fan in me), I think chances are good that we'll have him as a good guy. Just, fingers crossed.

Was I right? Yours is the first reaction I've heard so far. That's bitterly reassuring to hear.

Re: humph

[2sick2pray.livejournal.com]

Well like the above commenter, I'd say he doesn't have a huge body of work to judge by, but I really loved him in Thankyou For Smoking. Don't know if you've seen the movie, but I highly recommend it.

Re: humph

[thehefner.livejournal.com]

Yeah, clearly seeing that is now a must.

Although now I'm put in mind of Daniel Craig. Could any amount of study in his performance in LAYER CAKE have prepared people for CASINO ROYALE? I fear we're really gonna have to just see the final product for ourselves.

But I will absolutely see that now. I've been meaning to anyway.

[kosher-jenny.livejournal.com]

Aaron Eckhart you say? Hmm, that was a little out of left field. Well, the only film I've seen him in was a crappy Ben Affleck movie a while back so I'm not sure what to think yet. From what I do remember, he does have charisma coming out the wazoo though, so I'm going to be cautiously optimistic for now and add "Thank You For Not Smoking" to the netflix list. It's not giving me the bad feeling that the Ledger announcement did, at least.

*quietly mourns her casting choices of Jackman and Christopher Eccleston as Harvey and the Joker, respectively*

I'm torn about the Maggie thing too. On one hand, I have a huuuge crush on her, but I also agree with you about the character's role in the movies. *So pointless*! If there was ever a superhero who could do without a token love interest in his movie, it's Batman, y'know?

[thehefner.livejournal.com]

*quietly mourns with you*

Let's just see what Nolan and Co. have up their sleeves here. But hey, I'm just glad they cast an actual adult (he doesn't have the movie-star good looks that Dent requires, but I could accept people thinking Eckhart as being handsome for a D.A... sort of the way people thought JFK was handsome for a President?) rather than Ryan Philliipe or Jake Gyllenhaal. Man, casting the latter would be doubly ironic now, wouldn't he?

[kosher-jenny.livejournal.com]

I see what you mean about him being "Politician handsome", which is more how I pictured Harvey as looking IRL, rather than "pretty boy handsome" like a Gyllenhaal or a Philliipe (oh man, at least it wasn't *him*). I don't think you really see too many actors with the quality you're talking about these days, and if you do chances are they aren't even American.

On the bright side, I highly doubt that he's going to turn in a performance worse than Tommy Lee Jones did (*gag*).

[thehefner.livejournal.com]

Which is why I had my heart set on Jackman, even though I knew it wasn't going to happen.

The worst thing about Tommy Lee Jones was the fact that you couldn't even tell which side was scarred.

[little-dinosaur.livejournal.com]

I never even thought of Christopher Eccleston. That's inspired.

[thehefner.livejournal.com]

My top four choices were him, Willhem Dafoe, or with prosthetics, Michael Keaton or Mark Hamill.

[kosher-jenny.livejournal.com]

Keaton would have been quite the headtrip. Though my fear would be that he would simply perform as Beetlejuice 2.0.

Did you ever see those fanminips of Eccleston as the Joker? Oh, it would have been amazing to watch him tear loose with the role like that. I guess they either wanted someone closer in age to Bale (which I don't really see as necessary, but whatever) or it's possible that Eccleston didn't want the role anyway and didn't want to be tied to another franchise (the man apparently has a big fear of being typecast).

[suburbfabulous.livejournal.com]

HELL YES.
Eckhart is going to be great. He may very well wash the taste of Tommy Lee Jones from our palates forever. (Next: Steve Carell as The Riddler.)
Maggie Gyllenhaal already IS. Now we will see what an actual, y'know, actress does with a deeply marginal role. They could not have written more for her (in BEGINS), as they must have known who'd been cast.
In the World Series, you do not send a Special Olympian up to bat.
(I apologize if anyone reading thinks I just associated Katie Holmes with a developmentally-disabled person. It is not meant as a slight to these decent, wonderful people.)

[thehefner.livejournal.com]

Ok, your confidence particularly makes me feel a bit more secure here.

Steve Carell as the Riddler? Wow, it took me a second to see, but that really would work. Especially now that I fear Matt Frewer is too old.

[kosher-jenny.livejournal.com]

Steve Carell, the Riddler? Woah, that has the potential to be really interesting. I could totally see that working.

[gore-whore-5.livejournal.com]

I'm excited about Eckhart as Dent. He was absolutely wonderful in Thank You For Smoking.

I was hoping that they'd get rid of the Rachel character since Katie Holmes wouldn't be returning, but since I love Maggie Gyllenhaal so much, I hope that she'll bring some depth to the characer. I don't know how she'd do it, but I believe in her. I'd also be happy with Rachel McAdams, who they were also thinking about.

I am optimistic about them making Dent a hero in the begining, since they did such a good job showing us Batman's origins, and even showed him making his own tools.

[thehefner.livejournal.com]

While I am not a fan of that movie, your icon is indeed very hot.

And aye, as I said above, Nolan and co. are fans of BATMAN YEAR ONE and THE LONG HALLOWEEN, both of which are focused on Dent as the tragic hero.

I just have never gotten over the knowledge that Christopher Walken's character in BATMAN RETURNS was originally meant to be Harvey Dent. Dear lord, that would have been a cockup of royal proportions, more so than the movie itself was.

[gore-whore-5.livejournal.com]

Yes, I know you don't like that movie. That's why I used that icon. Plus it's my beloved Maggie. I think it's fitting, seeing as she's part of the subject. (Captain Obvious to the rescue)

[thehefner.livejournal.com]

*slow clap*

WELL done.

;p

[gore-whore-5.livejournal.com]

Thank you. Thank you. *bows*

[morganashkevron.livejournal.com]

I trust Nolan to do a good job with the casting. He has a vision for these stories and the Batman Begins proved that it was a compelling vision.

Aaron Eckhart and Heath Ledger aren't obvious choices, but neither was Christian Bale and he's the best Batman I've seen. Plus, if you've ever seen Heath Ledger with an evil grin trying to charm someone, you get an idea as to why he was cast as the Joker.

[thehefner.livejournal.com]

It's just that Heath Ledger alone is so bloody out there that I cannot alone trust Nolan's vision. But you're right, his vision for casting in the previous film was spot-on, all the way (the problem with Holmes was just her character, but her acting also wasn't great). So Nolan's earned my "ok, I will wait and see where he's going with this, but I don't see it in a million years."

If I've seen Ledger grin, it never made an impression. But then, as an actor, he's never made any impression on me.

But I disagree with you about Bale! Ever since AMERICAN PSYCHO, fans were clamoring for Bale as Batman. He was, like, the number one fan choice, almost as big as Patrick Stewart as Professor X.

[spacechild.livejournal.com]

he's a good actor.

see "thank you for smoking", it might make you feel better, and its a fun film.