Said Caine:

I was with [a Warner Bros.] executive and I said, ‘Are we going to make another one?’ They said yeah. I said, ‘How the hell are we going to top Heath? And he says ‘I’ll tell you how you top Heath — Johnny Depp as The Riddler and Philip Seymour Hoffman as The Penguin.’ I said, ‘S–t, they’ve done it again!’” [Laughs]

So either Michael Caine has been reading the movie tabloids and is jerking our collective chains (which let's face it if you were him you'd do it too) or he knows something we're all dying to find out. My guess is The Riddler and the Penguin are the new villains but the casting is just talk.

[MTV]

Miller still wants to see a movie version of his groundbreaking graphic novel The Dark Knight Returns, and he thinks Sylvester Stallone should star. He told the LA Times:

"Just that mouth of his, the scowl and the way it would look in a mask. I loved 'Rocky Balboa.' This wounded warrior, that's what Batman is in 'Dark Knight Returns.'"

Now I saw the new Rambo, and after watching him blow up half of the world and then mutter one-liners about how killing people is bad, I don't know if Stallone has the "subtle" touch of an older Batman. Wasn't Clint Eastwood getting tossed around as a rumor for this part at one time? Now that's a more believable man for the aged Batman's patience and wit.

As for those Nolan rumors, the UK's News Of The World is reporting that there will be no more Nolan Bat-pictures. The World claims that Nolan is moving on according to Aaron Eckhart who allegedly said, "Chris hasn’t said he’s going to make a third film. I think he wants to make other movies." Apparently this is because Nolan can't imagine making another Bat-movie without Heath Ledger. Right, and Nolan is going to walk away after that whole truck load of money they made this year? Not going to happen.

[LA Times and The News Of The World]

In a press conference Eckard was doing for Towelhead, the press tried to squeeze out a denial from the actor about whether his Dark Knight character is toast in the next film. Is it possible that Two-Face survived his apparent demise in the end? Eckhart told Coming Soon that he was sorry to say Harvey Dent is DOA:

Q: Is Harvey Dent alive?
Aaron Eckhart: No. He is dead as a door nail.

Q: So he's not coming back?
Eckhart: He ain't coming back baby!

Q: I was hoping he would.
Eckhart: No. I asked Chris [Nolan] that question and he goes, "You're dead" before I could even get the question out of my mouth. "Hey Chris, am I?" "You're dead!" Alright, cool.

Q: That's not a problem in comic book movies. You could still come back.
Eckhart: I think in contract negotiations it's a problem.

Q: So you were never signed on for another film?
Eckhart: No, I'm not coming back. I think unfortunately, Heath [Ledger] was supposed to go on and that didn't work out. I'm nobody. I'm a cog. I have no say over this sort of stuff. I'm sure that there's so many other characters that they could whip together. I heard Angelina Jolie was going to be Catwoman or something like that. I thought that was a great idea. I'd like to be in that one.

Nooooo Eckhart! We were so close to stopping all these crazy Dark Knight rumors and there you go again giving credence to the Jolie Catwoman yarn. Sigh, I don't think the Dark Knight 3 rumors will ever end until Nolan breaks his silence and tells the world what he's planning on doing. Until then we need to be giving more thought to my Liza Minnelli as The Penguin casting proposition.

[via Coming Soon]