Now that Heath Ledger’s posthumous award has shown once and for all that superhero movies are as worthy as any other films of the best talent out there, it seems like an even better time to discuss casting for Bat-sequels.
MTV Splash Page has an interview with Greg Rucka saying he’d love to see Catwoman in the next Nolan Bat-movie, and I couldn’t agree more. As Rucka said, with the death of Rachel Dawes, the time is ripe to introduce a new love interest, and the traumatized Bruce Wayne we saw at the end of The Dark Knight would be ripe for an unhealthy, dark, messy relationship with a Nolanized Selina Kyle.
Nothing campy about Catwoman in Nolan’s Gotham City. She’d have to be sexy, of course, but also capable of being conflicted, complicated–as much so as Bruce/Batman himself. I love the idea floated of Rachel Weisz (also, the picture!). She did the genre in Constantine (eminently watchable if you allow yourself to forget that Keanu Reeves is supposed to be playing, well, John Constantine), and she’s pretty but not in a conventional way (not unlike Maggie Gyllenhaal, who fit so well into the Dark Knight cast).
At a party at NYCC, I got into a discussion with the lovely Molly Crabapple about what we’d like to see in another Batman film, and we both agreed that it was time to up the female presence. To make the film pass the Bechdel test, what if Nolan added Harley Quinn? The Joker’s gone–they’re obviously not going to replace Heath Ledger this soon. So what about a psychotic Harley out for revenge? Instead of the girlfriend in the background, she’s in the foreground, out for blood.
I love the Joker archetype and I would love to see a woman playing that type of character. Molly and I quickly tossed out a few rules for Harley: we want her to not be uber-pretty, and even better if she’s a bit older. We want her dangerous, like the Joker but both more seductive and more unhinged, Angelina Jolie in Girl, Interrupted ramped up to 11. But who could play the role? Angelina, sure, but she’d have the pretty-pretty thing going.
We didn’t reach any conclusions that night, but it hit me the next day:
Courtney Love.
Discuss.