While the involvement of the 500 Days of Summer/Inception star Joseph Gordon-Levitt has been rumoured for quite sometime, it’s now been made official by a piece at Variety; which not only confirmed his involvement with The Dark Knight Rises, but finally announced the character he will be playing (a character no-one expected).
Many people had assumed Gordon-Levitt would be appearing in The Dark Knight Rises (the third, and most-likely final, film in Christopher Nolan’s Batman series) as Bat-villain The Riddler, Dr. Hugo Strange, or possibly even Batman’s sidekick Robin; all of which have now been proved false, with the announcement that he’s due to star as the young Alberto Falcone.
A name that sounds familiar, but doesn’t instantly jump out at you, Alberto Falcone isn’t one of Batman’s most famous adversaries, but did cause a fair bit of trouble in both The Long Halloween and Dark Victory comics; where he was presented as a Harvard and Oxford educated mobster-turned-psychopath, who’s suspecting of being the brutal serial murderer commonly known as The Holiday Killer.
Alberto’s inclusion also confirms that Rises will in many ways tie back into Nolan’s original Batman movie, Batman Begins; as he is the son of Tom Wilkinson’s character Carmine Falcone (the mob boss who was linked to the murder of Bruce Wayne’s parents, and ended up residing in Arkham Asylum); brining a real sense of closure to the trilogy.
As well as series regulars Christian Bale (Bruce Wayne/Batman), Michael Caine (Wayne’s butler and trusted friend Alfred), Morgan Freeman (another of Wayne’s friends and the head of Wayne Enterprises; Lucius Fox), and Gary Oldman (Police Commissioner Gordon), Inception star Tom Hardy will be appearing as Bat-villain Bane, Anne Hathaway (Alice in Wonderland) will star as Selina Kyle/Catwoman, and Juno Temple (Year One) may yet sign on to appear as ‘a street-wise Gotham Girl.’
Once again being directed by Christopher Nolan, from a story by himself and long-time collaborator David S. Goyer, The Dark Knight Rises is due to being filming this coming May (in London, Los Angeles, Pittsburgh, and New York), and will finally be released on July 20th 2012.
Matt Wheeldon.
Source: Variety
