Cher as Catwoman? The maddest Dark Knight Rises rumours

Few films have got the creative juices of movie journalists and bloggers going quite like ‘The Dark Knight Rises’. As soon as the credits ran for 2008’s ‘The Dark Knight’ the rumour mill was working double time to bring us casting news that was at times intriguing but mostly just plain weird.

Right off the bat (get it?) internet was rife with reports that The Riddler would be British director Chris Nolan’s villain of choice for what was then referred to as ‘Batman 3’. Thus began a cavalcade of increasingly ridiculous rumours about actors who were potentially up for the role.

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Johnny Depp led the so-called race and our own David Tennant was also tied to the role. The former Doctor jokingly told The Guardian: “I probably should be [playing The Riddler], but you'd think my agent would have mentioned something if it was true!"

Hot off the back of ‘Inception’, three of its stars - Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Tom Hardy and Leonardo DiCaprio - were all strongly rumoured to be playing The Riddler. The first two did eventually find their way into the film, but as John Blake and Bane respectively.

Then there’s the most insane rumour of the bunch. Only a few months after the last film was released The Sun tied comedian Eddie Murphy to the, labelling the story a world exclusive before ‘revealing’ pretty much the entire cast as well as slating it for a 2010 release. 

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“Eddie’s a fantastic addition,” said the alleged insider. “Everyone’s excited to see what he does as The Riddler.”

The article also stated that ‘Transformers’ star Shia LaBeouf would play Robin (despite Nolan and star Christian Bale saying numerous times they would never include the character), that the working title was ‘Gotham’ and that Rachel Weisz  would play Catwoman.

At least Catwoman was actually in the film.

However, before Anne Hathaway got the role a number of names were attached. The feline anti-hero is such a huge part of the Batman universe it’s no wonder fans were hungry for any news regarding her possible inclusion in the much-loved series.

Former Catwoman Julie Newmar told the New York Daily News that she thought Angelina Jolie would “own” the part. “I can understand how it would pique her interest,” said the 60s icon.

Sienna Miller was also reportedly interested in the role, telling OK! Magazine: "Catwoman. I actually love Catwoman. I just think the idea of being half-cat and half-woman is a great kind of villain-esque persona. It's the age-old thing of a femme fatale." Someone better tell her Catwoman isn’t actually half-cat!

Then most spectacularly of all was the rumour that Cher (the proper one, not Cher Lloyd) would be donning the cat ears and tight black cat-suit... a truly terrifying image. Of all the British newspapers it was actually The Daily Telegraph that reported this one.

The blogosphere wasn’t just alight with buzz about those two characters however. Miley Cyrus was tied to the role of Bat Girl by Popcrunch, who cited “spywitnesses” (we don’t know either) as saying that she got the role after turning up at Warner Bros studio dressed in a full batsuit.

Not all the claims were outlandish though. Philip Seymour Hoffman was cited by many as a candidate for a possible role as The Penguin, which would have been great but it never happened. A short while after his casting Tom Hardy was rumoured to be playing lesser-known Bat adversary Doctor Hugo Strange before he was eventually announced as Bane.

Heath Ledger’s tragic death had a profound effect on the film’s legacy and on those who worked on the 2008 super-sequel. The film left his character’s fate quite literally dangling however and if things had panned out differently the Clown Prince of crime may well have figured in Nolan’s follow-up.

The director has stated many times that he would not be bringing the character back out of respect for Ledger but that didn’t stop stories coming out to the contrary. Quickly debunked by Nolan, there were rumours in late 2010 that unused footage of Ledger would be used for a cameo in the sequel, with CGI completing the footage.

Daniel Day-Lewis as The Joker was something else that refused to go away as well. The Oscar-winning thesp definitely would have nailed the part but it was never to be - and rightfully so in our opinion.

Expect the rumour mill all to start up again before too long as the inevitable reboot rears its head. Who will direct? Who will be the next Batman? Who will be the villain? Will Robin be in the film? Who cares? We don’t. At least not yet anyway - for now let’s just enjoy ‘The Dark Knight Rises’.

'The Dark Knight Rises' is released 20 July (in case you didn't know already).