OK, that's not really real. It's a Photoshop, I'm pretty sure. But the frightening idea behind it is completely undoctored: Heath "13 Things I Hate About You ... and Now Our Son, Too!!!" Ledger was originally planned to play Joker in The Dark Knight. Apparently at some point Chris Nolan thought the movie would work better as a romantic comedy. That, or he got confused for a moment and thought he was making a sequel to A Knight's Tale.
Even leaving aside the fact that this was an objectively terrible casting decision, there's one awkward thing about it that you've probably realized by now. Ledger's best-known role is in
Brokeback Mountain, where he plays a cowboy called Ennis who has an affair with another cowboy called Jack, who is played by ...
Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images Entertainment/Getty Images, Warner Brothers
It's like he becomes a different person when he puts on the suit. With a different mouth even.
... Bruce Wayne himself, Jake Gyllenhaal. Now, actors playing lovers in one movie and enemies in another is nothing new (there's also Clint Eastwood and Meryl Streep in Bridges of Madison County and Face/Off), but when it's characters as iconic as Batman and Joker, it could be a little problematic ... especially because DC Comics has been trying to convince people that there's nothing gay about Batman since as far back as the Lyle Waggoner show.
20th Century Fox Television
"Sacred denial, Batman! I mean, holy. I messed that up. It's not an alternate-reality thing."
What was Nolan thinking? Nothing, probably, because let's remember that this is the same man who also considered recasting Katie Holmes' character, Batman's love interest, with Maggie Gyllenhaal. Who played Jake's sister in Donnie Darko. And real life. He wanted Batman to make out with his sister. The guy is a dumbass, is what I'm saying. Fortunately, when he heard Adrien Brody was interested in playing Joker, Nolan went: "Adrien Brody?! I love King Kong!" and immediately fired Ledger.
Maxwell Yezpitelok has a Twitter and a free online comic and is very scared. Soldiers wearing Horseface masks are marching out of the hole in reality in his room. They're coming this way. Are they twerking? I think they're twerking now. I'm not sure. I'm only seeing them from the corner of my eye because I'm typing this right now. OK, I just looked and they're actually Zebraface masks. Never mind.
For more from Maxwell, check out The 5 Stupidest Songs That Seemingly Predicted 9-11 and 8 Classic Movies with Shitty Posters.
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