http://uk.filmforce.ign.com/articles/714/714752p1.html
June 26, 2006 - News of what's happening with the sequel to Batman Begins has been scant of late. Director Christopher Nolan has been hard at work on his Batman Begins follow-up, The Prestige, which re-teams the director with Christian Bale.
Most believe that the director's next film after Prestige will be a sequel to Batman Begins, likely with The Joker stepping into the villain slot.
Many actors have been rumored to play the part, but fan favorites include Paul Bettany and Adrien Brody. Another actor who has been mentioned in connection with the series since way back during casting for The Riddler in Batman Forever is Robin Williams. Of course it helps that the actor has a connection with Christopher Nolan, having starred for the director in Insomnia.
IGN FilmForce spoke to Williams about the possibility this weekend. He was enthusiastic about the prospect.
"Oh God, I'd love to do that one."
Williams is famous for his Jack Nicholson impression, but he suspects Nolan would be looking for a new take. "Well, you want to do a different Joker. You know, if they do Arkham Asylum, it would be amazing. Arkham Asylum is one of the greatest, nastiest comic books ever. It's truly, it's like the Marquee de Sade on that level, and wonderfully damaged and quite tragic, in terms of when you realize [what happened to] create these characters..."
We asked Williams whether he saw The Joker as more over-the-top or dark.
"You can go both," Williams said. "As in madness, there's a lot of ways to go. I think you can really explore how bright and how nasty-funny he is, just like I guess what Kevin [Spacey] did with Lex Luthor, made him really funny, but yet still damaged... As evil is, accessible and yet still horrific. Jump back and forth all the time. I'm kidding... Kidding!"
On the second kidding, Williams gave me a soft poke in the throat with two fingers. Amusing, but a bit surprising.
"See there it is," says Williams. "I saw your eyes go f**k off!"
Williams is an admitted fan of comics and/or graphic novels. "It's interesting now that they're doing, they all kind of realize, with all the adult comic books or graphic novels for those who are trying to upscale themselves... Is that a comic book? No! It's a graphic novel! Is that porn? No! It's adult entertainment!"
"They're making these really interesting pieces and there's a lot of great, great comic books and graphic novels out there that could make wonderful movies. They're looking for them, and it's great... I read this comic book called DMZ [by Brian Wood], which is about New York after kind of a Civil War. Could it happen? Every time the helicopters fly over my house I'm going, 'Welcome to Baghdad!' But it's kind of fascinating, because they treat it like the country's divided. All these cities like Lebanon and Beirut and Baghdad and military zones of control, yet it's still the village and it's still its own. Fascinating concept. That's what's good about alternative forms of literature or stuff that you read..."
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Originally Posted by Reds4Life
