The pop-culture appetite for Batman seems inexhaustible; thousands of comic books, several movies, endless animated iterations, some of which are quite good and some of which are rather bad. Is there any real need to return to the character beyond the profit motive, though? After the financial and critical success of Batman Begins, the powers-that-be behind The Dark Knight could have made a safe bet of a sequel; a little more action, a few more actors, more of the same and a few extra explosions.

What's telling about The Dark Knight, though, is how risky it is -- how it's bold and brave and truly exciting, full of rich and strong performances and some real ideas along the way. Why return to Batman? It turns out that for Christopher Nolan, the reason to come back is that there's something to say about, and with, the character even after decades of stories and multiple reinventions. I was hoping The Dark Knight would be good; I had no idea that director and co-writer Christopher Nolan was going to make a film that not only addressed the philosophical and political conflict between the rule of force and the rule of law but also takes on the timeless clash between order and chaos ... and, along the way, evokes everything from Michael Mann's Heat to John Ford's The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance. ...

Above: Aaron Eckhart as the villain Two Face in a very brief appearance during the latest trailer for The Dark Knight.

Fresh on the heels of the new trailer comes a Los Angeles Times interview with Aaron Eckhart. Possible spoilers abound -- in fact, I think there is a fairly huge one in there that I cannot believe slipped by. And people rag on us for being spoil sports! So, in order to preserve your innocence (I'm upset that mine is now gone), I shall copy the best quotes here.

Eckhart addressed the fact that the world has not been given a glimpse of his scarred district attorney, and promised that whatever fans have cooked up in their brains is nothing like what we're going to see. "That's right, people don't really know yet. I can tell you that, basically, when you look at Two-Face, you should get sick to your stomach. Being the guy under all that, well, that was a lot of fun for me. It's like you would feel if you met someone whose face had pretty much been ripped off or burned off with acid. I can't talk about it beyond that because I don't want to give away too much of the plans by Chris. There are fans on the Internet who have done artist's versions of what they think it will look like, and I can tell you this: They're thinking small; Chris is going way farther than people think."

Dang it! You sit online all week digging up stories for your Cinematical readers and the Sunday you duck offline to take your pug to the dog park, Harvey Dent holds a press conference.

It seems Gotham's D.A. hopeful was supposed to hold a press conference on Sunday at 3pm. Those who were able to get on Dent's website discovered that the press conference had been pre-empted by a hostage crisis. Lawyer Joseph Candoloro Frank Nataro (who was apparently sending e-mails and voice mails giving hints as to what he was up to) took a girl hostage at a coffee shop. Dent ended up breaking into the coffee shop, negotiating with Nataro, and rescuing the girl. What a guy.

Edward sent us a run down of the whole thing that was posted on EyeCraveDVD's forums. Thanks, Edward! And if you'd like to hear the audio of the entire event, it's up via Dent's official site.

Wow, two stories in one day on that coin-flipping madman. That's rather appropriate!

We already knew that Christopher Nolan's version of Two-Face was going to be miles away from Tommy Lee Jones' frightening (in all the wrong ways) portrayal of the villain. Even if we haven't seen any footage of Aaron Eckhart yet, the recent Wizard interview showed he recognized that the character wasn't a scarred caricature.

But it looks like Eckhart is going to be just as surprised by what appears on film as we are. CHUD's Jeremy Smith has the story on the unique approach Nolan is taking with the character. For every Two-Face scene, Nolan shot Eckhart twice -- once in make-up and once without. Yes, that's been done with Gollum and Spider-Man's Green Goblin, but the difference is that you'll be getting two wildly divergent performances in the same shot. Both will be present, but one side will dominate at any given moment. The entire performance can be altered, at will, in the editing room. Smith wonders if all this technical trickery is the reason Two-Face's appearance has been delayed so long.

Gotham City is starting to rumble again -- and it is all centered around a certain D.A.

While Harvey Dent hasn't yet updated his site, Aaron Eckhart has been busy. He gave an exclusive interview to Wizard Magazine full of character goodness. Those looking to remain pure before the film might want to avoid it, as he gives some vital character bits away.

He does confirm what the Internet knew all along -- Harvey will become Two-Face during the course of The Dark Knight. But my feeling from this interview is that Two-Face might be the villain left standing by film's end. Nothing here confirms those early rumors that, despite all we've seen of the Joker thus far, Two-Face is actually the main villain of this film.

This follows rumors that the new trailer (which is supposed to premiere with 10,000 B.C. last I heard) will be entirely Harvey Dent oriented. Will we see Two-Face in that, or just revealed through viral marketing? I hope they follow the pattern they set with the Joker, and reveal Two-Face via Harvey Dent's site.

Now that we know Aaron Eckhart has signed on to play Gotham DA Harvey Dent in Christopher Nolan's Batman Begins follow-up The Dark Knight, those of us at home are wondering whether or not Dent will make his Two-Face transformation in this film, or the next. Sci-Fi Wire recently asked Dark Knight writer David Goyer that question, and his answer shouldn't be all-too surprising. He says, "I think Harvey Dent has been mentioned. I don't know that Two-Face has been mentioned." What do you mean, you don't know? Dude wrote the damn story. Granted, Nolan's brother Jonathan took, what Goyer calls, his "scriptment," and churned out the finished screenplay, but c'mon -- he has to know if Two-Face is going to show up.

Seeing as you'd have to tie the man up, starve him for days and then dangle a raw steak in front of his eyes in order to get the tiniest bit of plot detail, Goyer didn't exactly offer up any tasty tidbits. Regarding the whole one versus two villains gimmick, he notes: "All I can say is some people raised their eyebrows when they heard there were going to be two villains in the first film, but I think that one worked out just fine." Hmm, so what exactly is he saying? Will The Joker be the only villain (meaning that, for the entire film, we somehow have to get past the fact that Heath Ledger looks more like an early 80s teen idol than one of the greatest comic villains of all time), or will Two Face make an appearance towards the end, cause some trouble and help set up a third film? Does it matter either way? Oh, and what the hell does Sarah Michelle Gellar have to do with all of this? That's what I want to know.

The closer we get to production on The Dark Knight (Christopher Nolan's Batman sequel), the firmer the cast list becomes. After non-stop rumors bombarded the net soon after the first film hit theaters, we're finally drawing in on the official decisions. One major (or at least important, if not major) player is still outstanding, however, as the rumor field remains wide open for the role of Harvey Dent (aka Two-Face). IGN Filmforce did some digging on the most popular candidates, and turned up the following:

Jake Gyllenhaal is a big flat no from everyone. His people, the movie people and even bums on the street seem to suggest there won't be a Brokeback reunion on the Dark Knight set. This is probably for the best, as it will save us a bunch of terrible jokes from morning television programs. CAA said no Guy Pearce. They were very confident about this, apparently. Unfortunalely, no one from Liev Schreiber's (Dent's leading candidate) camp could be contacted. Ryan Phillippe's management, lawyer, and agency all said "no comment," while his publicist shoveled out an "official denial."

Batman on Film says the role has been cast and an announcement will come soon. Denying a role until it is announced is a popular sport among actors, but if everyone here was telling the truth, the role will go to an unexpected actor. Guesses?

A BatmanOnFilm scooper is reporting that Warner Bros. could be shooting the next two Batman Begins sequels back to back. This isn't as far fetched as it sounds because we've always known the planned storylines were connected. This also may explain why Two-Face casting rumors are starting up.

Preliminary plans were for Batman to take on The Joker in the sequel. In the end he would capture The Joker, and not kill him. The third film is expected to open with the Joker's trial where the dark clown would spray Harvey Dent, turning him into Two-Face.