Oh glorious day! The paraphrase the immortal Vince Lombardi, the best way to strengthen a chain is just to focus your attention on and strengthen the weakest link in it. Do that one simple thing… and the whole chain is instantly stronger. Well… Batman: The Dark Knight has done that! Katie Holmes is out (as was widely reported a long time ago… but a lot of people still thought she might be back anyway) and Maggie Gyllenhaal is in!
Our good friends over at Film Junk give us this joyous news:
Maggie Gyllenhaal will reportedly play Rachel Dawes, district attorney, love interest and childhood friend of Bruce Wayne. You may recall that Katie Holmes had played this role in Batman Begins, but turned down an offer to return for the sequel due to “scheduling conflicts”. And fanboys across the world rejoiced since they had all picked on her as being the only weak part of the first film! Well, I can say with some confidence that Gyllenhaal will act circles around Holmes’ performance.
“Scheduling conflicts” my ass. I’ll go on record right now and say they fired her ass and let her save face by issuing that statement. But I digress.
This is terrific news. Holmes was horrible in the first film (not that she’s a horrible actress… not at all… but that role just wasn’t for her) and they NEEDED to get rid of her one way or the other. As for Gyllenhaal… I’ve always liked her… but the REAL issue is that they have to write her character better in this film too. Less Batman being smitten… More Batman kicking ass.
