Deadline is a reputable enough source that we can examine their list of female front-runners for two lead roles in Christopher Nolan’s upcoming Batman franchise finale, The Dark Knight Rises with some measure of legitimacy. Before we get to the names, you should know they are being reported as candidates for the first role as a love interest for Christian Bale’s Bruce Wayne, and the other is a villain. Oh yeah, now the wheels are turning.
Of course, the “love interest” role is one no one’s really interested in, but this villain news means the previously cast Tom Hardy won’t be the only villain in the film. As for which ladies are rumored for the two roles? Well…
So, now the question is who will any of them play should they get the role?
Being someone that’s never read a comic book in his life (aside from about four graphic novels), and never cracked open a Batman comic I have no idea who Hardy or any of the ladies may play. Of course, I have read enough rumors to know the female role may be something along the lines of Harley Quinn, Talia al Ghul, Poison Ivy and Catwoman. Even I have heard of them.
I would like to say Nolan doesn’t seem like someone interested in treading old territory and both Poison Ivy and Catwoman are both out, but the guy did remake Insomnia and used The Joker in The Dark Knight, and while he brought his own spin to both, the idea he’s 100% hell bent on originality is a case I can’t make. From what I understand the Harley Quinn storyline involves The Joker, whom Nolan has already said won’t play a part in the new film and Talia al Ghul seems like a step backward in the story seeing how her father was the heart of the first film, unless the idea is to tie a big bow on this franchise and have it come full circle. In fact, when you look a bit closer, perhaps Talia al Ghul isn’t such a bad guess.
Looking at the character’s bio on Wikipedia, it says she’s the estranged daughter of the supervillain Ra’s al Ghul (Liam Neeson’s character in Batman Begins), a love interest of Batman, and the mother of his son Damian Wayne, the fifth Robin. Whoa, perhaps we have found a winner and perhaps the casting Deadline is referring to isn’t looking for a love interest and a villain, but they’re one and the same. On top of that, Wikipedia says she’s “not quite heroine nor villainess but more of an antiheroine,” which basically means she’s the same kind of character as pretty much all of Nolan’s characters.
Even more interesting are Talia’s ties to the Superman universe as she ran LexCorp for Lex Luthor when Luthor becomes President of the United States only to later sell all of LexCorp’s assets to the Wayne Foundation, leaving Luthor penniless and his crimes exposed to all. Nolan is overseeing Superman: Man of Steel, a film which The Dark Knight Rises scripter David S. Goyer wrote for Zack Snyder to direct. What are the chances the two franchises will become linked and WB’s dreams of a Justice League film come true?
But what the hell do I know? I just clicked a few links and that’s what I had to offer in an effort to keep things interesting, but it makes as much sense as anything else… What do you think?
The Dark Knight Rises is expected to begin shooting early 2011 for a July 20, 2012 release, 17 days after Columbia’s Untitled Spider-Man Reboot hits theaters.
