There are many ways to anticipate The Dark Knight. You can assemble a fake plot out of the numerous clips circulating the web, you can stitch together adorable bat-toys, or just rewatch Christopher Nolan's first entry in the Batman franchise. However, there's a lot more to this sprawling, nearly three hour rush of furious confrontations and haunting corruption. The greatest Batman stories emphasize the character's shadowy nature, and Nolan pulls from many of them to create the intensely moody aura of the latest film. You don't need to know anything about the character to enjoy the movie, but it certainly expands the experience to do some research -- and allows for a greater appreciation of the filmmaker's efforts to honor the nature of the character.

Here's a look at some antecedents to the current interpretation from the last two decades.

I think that everyone who loves Michael Cera's comedy – and that should be practically everyone – is a little worried about Michael Cera. Because even as Arrested Development becomes legend, Superbad wins over every twentysomething in sight, and Juno charms the pants off the entire nation, the hushed, often unspoken question is: how long can he milk this? Cera's shtick is killer, but it's also ultra-specific – he's the shy, unprepossessing, painfully awkward adolescent, a nice guy who's self-aware enough to get embarrassed but not confident enough to avoid it.

Cera is so good at playing this part in a way that's both touching and hysterical that it's propelled him to stardom. For me to say that I haven't enjoyed any of the incarnations of George Michael Bluth that he's given us over the past couple years would be a bald-faced lie. Indeed, I think the character he's crafted is one of the most impressive comic achievements of my adult lifetime. But even as I relish it, I start to fidget, because I can sense exasperation and annoyance threatening from just around the bend. Oh, maybe not mine – I could watch Cera do this forever, I tell myself – but certainly other people will soon lose patience and turn on the guy. One-trick pony, they'll yell. Do something else.

This wouldn't be the first time that a sequel recycled material from the first movie, but since Night at the Museum 2: Escape From the Smithsonian has apparently gone so far as to change the museum setting from New York's Museum of Natural History to D.C.'s Smithsonian Institute, I'd think it would want to avoid repeating material from the original. I guess not. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the Night at the Museum sequel will feature an "all-powerful Egyptian pharaoh" played by Hank Azaria, who is best known for the 1,000 voices he does for The Simpsons. If you remember, the plot of the first Night at the Museum involved a gold tablet stolen from the tomb of the fictional mummified pharaoh Akmenrah. In this sequel, which again stars Ben Stiller and again is directed by Shawn Levy and is again written by Thomas Lennon and Ben Garant, the pharaoh's name is Kah Mun Rah. It isn't stated whether or not the character will be a villain or not, but if Azaria does play an evil pharaoh, it wouldn't be the first time he played a nuisance to Stiller. In 2004's Along Came Polly, he was a scuba instructor who steals Stiller's character's new bride (played by Debra Messing) on the couple's honeymoon.

The trade also notes that Azaria has been cast in another ancient-history kind of role. He will play Abraham in The Year One, the Biblical-era-set comedy from producer Judd Apatow and director Harold Ramis, which Monika first told us about back in June, 2007. That movie stars an all-star lineup that includes Jack Black, Michael Cera, David Cross, Christopher "McLovin" Mintz-Plasse, Eden Riegel, Oliver Platt, Olivia Wilde and Vinnie Jones. Be prepared to hear Azaria do some crazy accents for each of these films, even though he typically avoids the cartoony voices in his live-action work (such as next month's hilarious comedy Run, Fatboy, Run).

They say Hollywood is for the hunks, but I don't believe it. For every hunk out there, you can find a gaggle of guys who get the hot girls no matter how unsexy they look. It's just the way of the biz -- a totally one-way improvement over high school misfortune. The creepy dudes get the girls, as do the cute geeks, the brow-raising nerds, and just about everyone else in between. We still have to wait for the cute guys to even go for a normal-looking girl, let alone one that could be deemed less attractive with any regularity, but in the meantime, we will get to watch Jack Black get not one, but two cuties in the upcoming biblical comedy, Year One.

In December I posted about lady #1 -- June Raphael. As Maya, she's set to get action from two men in her village, one of them being Black. Now Variety reports that Olivia Wilde gets to go a step further and be the female lead opposite Jack. She'll play Princess Inanna, who is also Black's love interest. Biblical Black gets around! You've probably seen Wilde* before. She's popped up on House M.D. and The Black Donnellys, and she's also been in flicks like Turistas, Conversations with Other Women, and The Girl Next Door. Production is currently underway in New Mexico and Louisiana, so hopefully we'll actually get some solid info about the plot soon, other than who everyone is playing.

In the meantime, what's your favorite cinematic pairing between a beautiful woman and a non-hunk?

*Thanks, again, to Maria.

For someone relatively new to the business, actress June Raphael is already making a decent name for herself. She's popped up in the Dixie Chicks' flick,* Shut Up and Sing, played Mark Ruffalo's wife in Zodiac, and has a few more films on the way. However, she's also found time to pen the upcoming flick Bride Wars (the one that pits Kate Hudson against Anne Hathaway), and now The Hollywood Reporter posts that she's in final negotiations to co-star with Jack Black in Harold Ramis' biblical comedy -- Year One. If her negotiations wrap up nicely, she'll play Maya, a woman who gets into a little romance with two men in her village, one of them being Zed (Black). Oh, lucky her!

It seems that the group who signed on earlier this month with the McLovin' Christopher Mintz-Plasse are still in final negotiations -- Oliver Platt, David Cross, Vinnie Jones, and Juno Temple. So with all these casting announcements, we know that Black will get his love on with his laugh on, while presumably battling another man for the sexy girl's affections (maybe Cross?), that Platt will be a high priest, and Jones will be a head palace guard. How all of these people fit together is anyone's guess since the Ramis/Apatow gang are still being beyond secretive with the story. Still, do we need to know that much to go see it? It's looking to be another great geek fest. Black's work has been iffy lately, but rejoining Michael Cera and McLovin' with him, and all under Harold and Judd... I'm game!

*Kudos to Peter for noticing that this isn't the Dixie flick, but another that once had the same name.

What happens when you mix a hot, comedic behind-the-scenes guy, a member of Kathleen Turner Overdrive and the ghost-fighting Dr. Egon Spengler? You get Columbia Pictures' Year One, the latest comedy added to Judd Apatow's production heap. The movie will star Tenacious rocker Jack Black and be helmed by the one and only Harold Ramis. Unfortunately, and annoyingly, there doesn't seem to be any word on what this movie is about. It's a collaboration between Ramis and two writers of The Office -- Gene Stupnitsky and Lee Eisenberg. Is it the first year of life? Of work? Of a family? Of a space mission?

I'd bet that whatever ultimately comes after the "of" will be good. This production is a Who's Who of Hollywood names. Besides the people mentioned above, there is Arrested Development's Michael Cera (also in Apatow's upcoming Superbad), signed on to co-star with Black, and Owen Wilson, who will executive produce. That means we've got Black coming off some potentially great work like Be Kind, Rewind, the new comedic wonderkid Cera, Ramis who is responsible for everything from episodes of The Office to Groundhog Day and Ghostbusters and Apatow, who is making up for his old, canceled shows everywhere he turns. And of course, since these guys stick with the actors they like, I wouldn't be surprised if the film includes any of Apatow's comedic harem -- Seth Rogen, Paul Rudd, Jonah Hill and all the rest of 'em. Methinks Columbia knows where the funny money is -- they're also behind Walk Hard, Pineapple Express and You Don't Mess with the Zohan.