ROTTEN TOMATOES: Roberts Plays Both Sides in "The Dark Knight"

Roberts Plays Both Sides in "The Dark Knight"

by Fred Topel | May 05, 2007

We know The Joker is the main villain of "The Dark Knight." "Batman Begins" already suggested that. But the casting of Eric Roberts as a Gotham City Mafioso suggests more to the story. Roberts confirmed that he would have scenes with both Christian Bale as Batman/Bruce Wayne and Heath Ledger as The Joker, and his moral alignment is no question.

"I have interactions with both those guys and I am a bad guy," Roberts said. "I love Christian Bale. What an actor."

Beyond that, even Roberts doesn't know the extent of his villainy. "All I can tell you is I'm a Mafioso in Batman and I have not even seen the script. I've only seen the pages, they gave me two to audition with. It's all very hush hush."

Roberts also just joined the cast of "Heroes" as HRG's boss, Thompson. Now he's a comic book aficionado. "It was thanks to Heroes I think that I started to get this newfound appreciation because Heroes is basically a comic book."

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(1-20 of 36 posts) | Reply

khovious914 writes:
on May 05 2007 06:55 AM

maybe this will end up like one of the graphic novels (can't remember the name) when the mafioso beg batman for protection against the new bad guys and he says "this is your hell, now live in it" or something to that extent

(Reply to this)

arpeggio191 writes:
on May 05 2007 08:07 AM

two things...

1) The Dark Knight is going to friggin rule.
2) Heroes is friggin awesome.

friggin.

(Reply to this)

dylan21484nj writes:
on May 05 2007 09:51 AM

a lot believe Roberts will play Boss Maroni, the mobster who throws acid in Harvey Dent's face, which turns Dent into Two-Face. but whomever Roberts plays, this movie is going to kick so much ass.

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unbreakable_samurai writes:
on May 05 2007 10:38 AM

In reply to this comment (#863974)
Hell yeah.

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mojodaddy writes:
on May 05 2007 11:09 AM

In reply to this comment (#863974)
Hell yeah again.

This guy seems like he'd be a good mob boss.

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Ron_Burgundy writes:
on May 05 2007 11:41 AM

Heroes is not friggin awesome. It is a bland version of the X-Men. And, have you seen the latest news? It's ratings are in the toilet. Good riddance.

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FireflyFan4evr writes:
on May 05 2007 12:14 PM

In reply to this comment (#863978)
Heroes is sure as hell better than most of the network crap out there right now. And yes, it is better than LOST and 24. Both of which I hope get cancelled after this season.

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Daffy Duck writes:
on May 05 2007 01:38 PM

Heroes better than lost and 24? Your insane!

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Mattmovies writes:
on May 05 2007 02:34 PM

[b]A little nervous[/b]
I'm becoming increasingly nervous about this Batman film. I just saw Spiderman 3 and I was very disappointed. This ties in because Sam Raimi's brother wrote Spiderman 3 and Christopher Nolan's brother is writing the Dark Knight. When family members are involved in such an important piece of production, I'm sure the director is more polite, more aware of their family member's feelings. So on Spiderman 3 I'm sure no one looked at Ivan Raimi and said, "man this sucks. Try again." It was probably a lot more gentle. What about the Dark Knight? Will it be the same? I certainly hope it is the Empire Strikes Back of Batman films, but I'm getting a little weary.

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Daffy Duck writes:
on May 05 2007 03:27 PM

Nolan has made some brilliant films with his brother.

Theres no way his brother can be worse than david goyer.

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EmmG389 writes:
on May 05 2007 03:34 PM

[b]Response to Nervousness.[/b]
About brothers working together. Hey I tell my brother his band sucks all of the time and we compete all of the time. Competition should work in favor of the movie processing. When you know someone really well its actually easier to tell them whats wrong, that's how I live my life.

But then again nobody really listens. I don't think Dark Knight is going to be as disappointing as Spiderman 3. Bale, Caine, Oldman, or Nolan would not let that happen. They are not all signed on for the next movie, so if they know this one or the next one are going to be stinkers, they'll just leave and I don't think Warner Brothers wants that. Geeze look what they did to Aquaman(see Entourage).

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Mattmovies writes:
on May 05 2007 05:08 PM

After pondering the last few hours about the bad movie I saw today, despite what I felt was truly a bad script in the first place, I feel Spiderman 3 was incomplete. The computer assisted bad guys took too long to create and thus what was sent to theaters was not the intended final cut. I felt that perhaps there were more scenes of venom that were cut. The whole film felt as thought the edit wasn't tightened down. I don't think it was ready to be shown. At least the Joker isn't computer assisted. No worries about that side of the production.
In film school, students are cautioned about working with your friends as actors. That relationship can negatively effect a film. I did like the Prestige, and I hope that Nolan and his brother work well together and challenge one another enough to make this film great.

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Mr. Kong writes:
on May 05 2007 06:47 PM

In reply to this comment (#863979)
I've always wanted to watch Heroes, but I'll wait till the DVD. And Lost is awesome. And so is 24. And so is House.

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Mr. Kong writes:
on May 05 2007 06:48 PM

In reply to this comment (#863982)
Yeah, The Prestige was great, but what else did Chris make with his brother?

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neil.L.butler writes:
on May 05 2007 07:56 PM

In reply to this comment (#863987)
One word: Memento. Those two movies are some assurance (to ME) that this won't suck.

(Reply to this)

alfindeol writes:
on May 05 2007 07:59 PM

In reply to this comment (#863987)
Memento was actually an idea that they worked out together. I don't remember if the brother got a credit in the film, but he wrote a very good short story based on the idea. They are good together.

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bigbrother writes:
on May 06 2007 04:34 AM

In reply to this comment (#863978)
OK, I can't believe someone hasn't called you on this until now, but here is goes...How is Heroes a version of X-men again. Last time I checked none of them are living in a school, none has a wheelchair bound telepathic mentor and none of their enemies fashions himself Master of Magnetism. Is it because they are a group of people with superpowers who sometimes work together to try to save the world? Oh no, somebody better call the JLA, the Avengers and whoever those Canadien schmucks up in Ottawa are and tell them you can't get multiple heroes to work together without being called a bland version of the X-men. Seriously what are you basing that off of?!? As for the ratings being in the toilet I can't comment being in the UK however it has really started to catch on over here and last time I checked the 2 new episodes that have come out since they came back from break were #1 and #6 on Itunes and that's competing against every show on television.

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Matanuki writes:
on May 06 2007 05:43 AM

In reply to this comment (#863990)
I agree. The show isn't bland at all, but it does get its inspiration from X Men. To prove it, Stan Lee had one of his little cameos appearances in one of the recent episodes. No joke. And the story is about evolution jumping forward, slowing blossoming a new species among humans that humans fear will one day rise up against them to claim the planet. Sounds a lot like X Men to me.
But I consider Heroes fine storytelling, and a good example of the innovative process. Because there's that important difference between stealing and innovating. The creators used X Men as their story template for Heroes, but it was just a starting point. By now it's clear that Heroes has grown into its own glory.
As for this guy that called it a cheap imitation of X Men, he needs to look no further than that old tv show Mutant X. Now THAT was a rip off of X Men. So much so that Marvel tried to sue them for it. Somehow Marvel lost that case, but that's just further proof that the courts are obsolete.

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Matanuki writes:
on May 06 2007 05:54 AM

In reply to this comment (#863980)
It's a question of taste, not a litmus on sanity. Consider, you're on a comic book movie forum; it's not all that unusual that the people here will prefer Heroes to 24 and LOST. I tried LOST for a while, until I missed a few episodes and, well, got lost. I've never given a rat's ass for 24. But in respect, I never really gave the show much of a chance either. Three friends of mine have tried to get me into it, but I've pretty much had my fill of law enforcement procedurals. I mean, there's gotta be like a half million of 'em on the air by now.

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Captain Shimmy writes:
on May 06 2007 06:44 AM

Those schmucks up in Ottowa are called Alpha Flight, I believe. And you have no idea how sad I feel actually knowing that. Alpha Flight sucks.

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