UPDATE: Juno Temple and (officially) Joseph Gordon-Levitt join The Dark Knight Rises

March 21st 2011, 1:11pm

UPDATE – Oh the drama! Just two days after Variety’s report below that claimed Joseph Gordon-Levitt would be starring as Alberto Falcone in THE DARK KNIGHT RISES, Entertainment Weekly files a report claiming that while JGL is in the film, he isn’t playing Falcone or The Holiday Killer. So now what?…

March 19, 2011: Extra, Extra! An update on THE DARK KNIGHT RISES! While the main casting announcements have already occurred, we’ll still be delivering all kinds of minor updates on Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy-topper from now until it rises in July of 2012.

First up, young cutie Juno Temple (ST. TRINIAN’S, KABOOM) is now expected to play a “street-smart Gotham girl”. Any hardcore Batman comic readers out there can try to figure out if that’s meant to be an existing character (Spoiler?) or a creation of the movie’s writers. Juno is the daughter of British filmmaker Julian Temple (ABSOLUTE BEGINNERS).

Second, the foregone conclusion of Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s involvement has been verified after “weeks of quiet negotiations”. Alas, we still don’t have verification of his role, but it’s been often speculated he would either play the vengeful son of mobster Carmine Falcone (Tom Wilkinson in BATMAN BEGINS) or a member of the nefarious League of Shadows (perhaps one and the same).

But then, there has also been conjecture that Gordon-Levitt would be a Bat colleague like Dick Grayson (Robin/Nightwing) or Jean-Paul Valley (Azrael/post-backbreak Batman), or another villain like Riddler, Black Mask, Deadshot or even (blasphemy!) a cameo as the Joker.

UPDATE: Variety‘s “insiders” tell them Gordon-Levitt will indeed be playing Alberto Falcone, a.k.a., Holiday or the Holiday Killer (from the acclaimed Batman comic storyline “The Long Halloween”). Assuming that holds true, it will be interesting to see if Nolan keeps the holiday-themed murder mystery aspect, or just keeps Falcone as a gangster’s offspring looking for payback. Which might be simpler, considering Bats will already deal with Bane, Catwoman and whoever Marion Cotillard might be playing.

The only thing we know for sure is that Nolan and the studio aren’t giving up details… yet. But we’ll probably have a better idea either at Comic Con or when the first spy photos from the set start showing up online.

The sequel already has Gary Oldman, Michael Caine, Tom Hardy, Anne Hathaway and Marion Cotillard joining Christian Bale in Gotham City.