Casting Villains for the New Batman Movies: My Dream Cast
Submitted by ford prefect on Sat, 01/15/2005 - 08:16
Tags:
- The Joker : Willem Dafoe (Runner-up Ray Liotta)
- The Penguin : Ben Kingsley (Runner-up Anthony Hopkins)
- The Riddler : Jude Law (Runner-up Johnny Depp)
- Two-Face : Colin Farrell (Runner-up Joaquin Phoenix)
- Catwoman : Angelina Jolie (Runner-up Mia Kirshner)
Haven't seen you around before, ford prefect, so welcome!
An interesting list. Here's what I would do:
Batman: I dunno, Christian Bale seems fine to me.
Alfred: Anthony Hopkins
The Joker: Mark Hammill
The Riddler: Johnny Depp
that's all I can think of right now.
Thanks for the welcome!
I think Christian Bale will be fine as the Batman, too.
As for Hopkins as Alfred, he was originally in talks to play him, but for whatever reason the role went to Michael Caine.
Mark Hammill does a great voice for the Joker in the cartoon series, but I'm imagining the Joker to be more like Grant Morrison's Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on a Serious Earth graphic novel: insane, effiminate and homacidal. Dafoe would be perfect for that.
Me, I'd like to see Alan Cumming play The Joker. With the right makeup, he'd look like how Brian Bolland draws him. That's what I think, at least.
Ben Kingsley as the Penguin? Now that's interesting!
I love this kind of war-gaming (but I'm dreading the movie.)
But riddle me this: Why does Michael Caine have a three picture deal to be Alfred? They might as well have cast Mr. Peanut.
Can you believe that it has been fifteen years since Arkham Asylum came out? They're even issuing an extra-special edition with bonus features. I would be ecstatic to see an AA-style Joker but there's no way that the movie could be PG-13 (it'd probably even have difficulty remaining an R picture.) So much for the Burger King tie-in ("April Fool! Your wife's dead and the baby's a spastic!!")
Bruce Wayne/The Batman: Sean Bean
Dick Grayson/Robin: David Boreanaz
Alfred Pennyworth: Jude Law
The Joker: Tim Robbins
Commissioner Gordon: Paul Newman
Edward Nygma/The Riddler: Giancarlo Esposito
Selina Kyle/Cat Woman: Charlize Theron
Oswald Cobblepot/The Penguin: Stephen Root
Harvey Dent/Two Face: Denzel Washington
Harley Quinn: Natalie Portman
Vicky Vale: Téa Leoni
Pamela Isley/Poison Ivy: Cameron Diaz
Bane: Vin Diesel
Matt Hagen/Clayface: Patrick Warburton
Jervis Tetch/Mad Hatter: Jerry Stiller
Dr. Jonathan Crane/Scarecrow: John Cusak
Victor Fries/Mr. Freeze: Patrick Stewart
Ra's Al Ghul: Hector Elizondo
Talia: Liv Tyler
The Red Hood: Ben Affleck
...and I can't believe it but Morgan Freeman as Lucius Fox is perfect.
I'm just so thankful that Frank Miller is taking up the cowl again.
Heh, wow, you really know actors. Very good choices, but I'm not sure what I think of Sean Bean as Batman.
Yeah, I really wish they'd let these Batman movies be R - especially if they bring in the Joker.
I've always wanted to see the Knightfall/Knightquest story done in movie form. It's not the best-written Batman story, but it's one of the coolest and most emotionally engaging for me.
Thank you very much. "Who Should Play...?" is one of my favourite games. Not only is Sean Bean dreamy but anyone who can show me a Boromir with depth (sympathetic, even) should make a fine (great, even) Bruce Wayne, I think. Everybody looks the same in the suit, I think. Take away the long bangs, give him dark hair and a shave and I think that Mr. Bean bids us a good Dark Knight.
I wish that, for once (maybe twice), the Joker could be played as if he had a plausible origin. That would turn him tragic.
I would like to see Batman Year One done up properly. The action scenes would be incredible, somehow they're emotional and advance the narrative. ("Don't--I'll kill you--" "Mrs. Gordon. You have to trust me. I won't let your boy die.") Somehow the books have a perfect look that is simultaneously retro and completely modern. Batman: the best of both worlds... a Marvel character in a DC world... possibly the other way round.
The Nolan Batman film is about 1/2 to 1/3 Year One, they say.
I just got through gushing over Sean Bean elsewhere (if two short sentences can count as gushing), so it's a treat to see him get top billing in a dream cast. And any casting of Paul Newman is okay by me, and picturing him as Gordon calls The Hudsucker Proxy to mind (underrated, in my book). I'm not sure why.
They changed to Caine because they didn't want to overshadow Bale's Batman with someone with the stature of Hopkins.
I think Hammill could play effeminate and homacidal - but he does have less experience in it than Dafoe :-)