More Casting Campaigns!

As my dedicated fanbase is surely aware, I have a special place in my heart/a burning, borderline-debilitating obsession with Batman. Not unlike my affection for Neil Patrick freakin' Harris. And with Christopher Nolan currently working on a script for the follow-up to the slightly-overappreciated-but-not-really The Dark Knight, any mention of Batman grabs my face like the weird hand-thingies in Alien.

The name facehugger sounds just a little too friendly.

The immediate problem of a film like Dark Knight becomes who should serve the forces of darkness in the sequel? The Riddler is the obvious choice, being better-known and more realistic than villains like the Man-bat. But who to play him? Can the world handle the process of casting two villainous masterminds? I've spent that past 692 days trying to solve this problem. So has pretty much everyone else: we've heard rumors that ranged from the fairly uninspired (Johnny Depp) to the downright blasphemous (Eddie Murphy) to awesome-in-theory-but-probably-not-realistic.

But still awesome in theory.

Casting the Riddler is even more complicated than the Moriarty decision for 2 reasons. First is the more obvious, who-on-earth-can-follow-Ledger's-act question. But, four years ago, the same might have been asked of Jack Nicholson's Joker, which leads to the second issue: Christopher Nolan is all about unexpected casting decisions. Again, to succeed Jack Nicholson, he picked the guy who played a cowboy. To succeed George Clooney, the epitome of the handsomely successful American, he picked the anorexic guy from Wales. So any casting rumor that sounds like it would make sense (is that a paradox?) probably isn't going to happen.

Which is why this is the greatest thing I've read all month: Joseph Gordon-Levitt is rumored to play Riddler.


Yes, this is still over two years before the film's release date. And yes, his reps have already denied it. I don't care. This needs to happen. Immediately. Christopher Nolan, if you're reading this, (first of all, I'm honored. We should talk sometime--I have some ideas) please take care of this immediately. You're obviously tight with JGL after making Inception (which is the sparkling jewel in the otherwise unexciting summer lineup). Just call him up and say, "Hey buddy, you're the Riddler. Shooting starts in December." No need to negotiate. Just do it.