BREAKING NEWS on Batman 3 villains!

Hey everybody; I just read this and had to post it.

Michael Caine, aka the legendary actor who plays Bruce Wayne's butler Alfred, has stated that he has talked to the studio and they've told him the new villains that will appear in the next Batman film and the actors who will be playing them.

According to Caine, Johnny Depp has signed on as The Riddler, and Philip Seymour Hoffman will be stepping into the role of The Penguin.  While Johnny Depp has been rumored to be interested in playing The Riddler for a while now, the addition of The Penguin to the cast is pretty surprising; as I've reported before, director and co-writer Chris Nolan has said that he doesn't like The Penguin as a villain and would never use him in a film.  Maybe he's had a change of heart or something; I imagine seeing Hoffman take on the role could change anybody's mind.

Of course, this could all turn out to be either a joke by Caine (who is fond practical jokes) or misinformation.  But from what I've seen it appears to be legit, and whatever the truth turns out to be it'll definitely give Bat-fans something to discuss heatedly for quite a while...

What do guys think about these choices?  I'm all up for casting the Hoff, and while I was holding onto the rather small hope of seeing "Doctor Who" star David Tennant take on The Riddler, I'm pretty sure Depp would provide quite an interesting spin on the character.

Could Batman's next battle be against...Doctor Who???

Hey guys. I've got another interesting piece of news for ya tonight.

So now that the unbelievably massive success of "The Dark Knight" has been absorbed and reflected on, the new questions on everyone's mind are all about the next film in the franchise. Will Christopher Nolan return to direct? Will there even be any chance of it coming close to the success of "Dark Knight?" And, of course, who are the next villians that are going to arrive in Gotham City, and who will be playing them?

While I don't think there's any villian or actor that will be able to match Heath Ledger's Joker, one possible new addition to the series has got me intrigued. I recently came across an interview with David Tennant, the star of the british sci-fi series "Doctor Who," where he expressed a real interest in playing the Riddler in another installment. The Riddler was most notably played by Jim Carrey in "Batman Forever," but now that all the pre-"Begins" films seem to no longer count, I think Tennant would be a very interesting addition to the series. He's got the perfect balance between crazy and serious that defines the Riddler, and he's proven he can play evil (indeed, most American audiences would best recognize him as Voldemort's servant Barty Crouch Jr. in the film adaptation of "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire"). He would almost certainly bring some humor back into the series, but would it be too campy? There's also the fact that he's wholly British...but then again, so is about half the cast of these Batman films anyway (Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Gary Oldman, Heath Ledger [well, he's Australian, but close enough]).

Right now it's just an interest on Tennant's part...but I hope Chris Nolan and company take an interest as well.