New shots of Batman & The Joker! More new photos of Heath Ledger as the Joker and one new pic of Christian Bale as Batman. I think Heath’s Joker is going to be wonderfully creepy. I cannot wait to see this movie.

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Stunningly creepy is the only way to describe this new image of Heath Ledger as The Joker. I seriously cannot wait to see this movie. The latest issue of Empire magazine has the scoop. UK residents should be able to pick it up shortly and it’ll land on US shores soon thereafter.

Empire: Magazine
As our world exclusive cover image attests, The Dark Knight’s incarnation of The Joker promises to be one of the greatest, most ruthless, evil and downright terrifying movie criminals of all time.

Or, in the words of the man playing him, Heath Ledger, “a psychopath, a sociopath, a cold-blooded, mass-murdering clown”. There are many characters who will make 2008 a year of cinema to remember, but from the look of it as well as the sound of it, in our on-set interview with The Dark Knight’s key players none will make a more indelible impact. July 25, 2008 can’t come soon enough!

Be sure to check out this image as well.

But wait… there’s more! Because Wizard Magazine also has a Joker “exclusive”.

Yummy!

This interview is from a few weeks ago, but I didn’t catch it then. Short interview with Heath while still in London working on Batman – from the New York Times.

An open bag with clothes spilling out lay on the floor of the master bedroom. “I’m kind of addicted to moving,” Mr. Ledger said, perhaps on account of having had to shuttle back and forth after his parents’ divorce, when he was 11. He carries his interests around with him, and his kitchen table was awash in objects: a chess set, assorted books, various empty glasses, items of clothing. Here too was his Joker diary, which he began compiling four months before filming began. It is filled with images and thoughts helpful to the Joker back story, like a list of things the Joker would find funny. (AIDS is one of them.) Mr. Ledger seemed almost embarrassed that the book had been spotted, as if he had been caught trying to get extra credit in school.

Mr Ledger. It’s amazing how stuffy and old-fashioned the New York Times comes across.  Pfft! Anyway, some nice insights.  Read the rest.

Here’s another juicy morsel from Heath Ledger about portraying both Bob Dylan and The Joker. I think this must be another bit from the press junket interviews, but I haven’t seen this bit shared yet, so it is new to me.

In a New York hotel room, he says that it’s never going to be easy to take on a role that comes with certain expectations from the audience. “When you are playing these kinds of parts, you can underprepare or you can overprepare, but it is all just to feed our superstitious needs and to comfort ourselves. I was a fan of Dylan, but he was someone who I had scheduled somewhere down the line to be obsessed with because I do get obsessed with musicians and artists. So I think [director] Todd Haynes prematurely invited me into this film.

The Joker was different in that I was definitely a fan of what Jack Nicholson had done and the world Tim [Burton] created. I think that if he [Burton] was directing The Dark Knight and asked me to play the Joker, I would say, ‘No, I couldn’t.’ The reason why I confidently stepped into his [the Joker's] shoes is that I had seen [ Dark Knight director Chris Nolan's] Batman Begins and I knew the world that he had created and I knew there was a different angle to be taken with the Joker.”

You can read the rest here

There’s also a negative review of the movie, I’m Not There, that’s worth a read. Both Heath and Cate Blanchett get some positive mention.

Though Cate Blanchett (Notes On A Scandal) and Heath Ledger (Candy) turn in able approximations as the Don’t Look Back and mid-’70s era Dylan sketches, respectively, the rest of the cast feels lost in Haynes’s feigned dream logic

Read Dylan Done All Wrong

There’s a new trailer for the Bob Dylan movie, I’m Not There, featuring Heath Ledger.

I’m Not There – Heath Ledger Is Bob Dylan

Posted Nov 16, 2007

Bob explains why women can’t be poets.

I wasn’t overly interested in seeing this movie, but having watched both the Cate Blanchett and Heath Ledger trailers, my interest is piqued so I expect I will be lining up to check it out!

Rolling Stone magazine has posted  a great interview with Heath Ledger about the Bob Dylan biopic, I’m Not There.

MTV: “I’m Not There” is quite a surreal film for the audience member to experience. How did it read on the page?Ledger: It was a fantastic read. Obviously it was dense, as you can imagine. You immediately understand that here’s this man, [director] Todd [Haynes], who’s clearly crazy [laughs], super intelligent and out to really create a respectful attempt to portray Dylan. He wasn’t trying to categorize him in any way. He wasn’t assuming to know everything about him. And that was really refreshing. Biopics kind of annoy me sometimes. It’s really hard not to defame someone when you’re doing a biopic. I got the sense that Todd was really trying to preserve Dylan’s mystique.
Naturally, they also discussed Heath playing The Joker in the new Batman movie, The Dark Knight. We’ve got a clip from that right here.