Hoffman as Penguin is news to Hoffman
The problem with smash hit films is that everyone immediately begins speculating about the sequel. After all, Hollywood is driven by success and “tent pole” films are necessary for business. Its one reason, studios stake out release dates years in advance, sometimes before there’s even a script (see Spider-Man 4).
Since the box office records shattered with The Dark Knight, everyone has been running around guessing who might be in the running for the third film from Christopher Nolan. Actors have let it be known they’re interested whether appropriate or not to the part. The merest hint news sends news around the Internet in a nanosecond.
As a result, retractions, clarifications or denunciations follow just a tad slower.
No sooner did the dust settle from the Cher-as-Catwoman nonsense, MTV began reporting that Michael Caine received Warner Bros. confirmation that the next movie in the series will offer up Johnny Depp as The Riddler and Philip Seymour Hoffman as the Penguin.
Of course, Nolan insists he hasn’t thought once about the next film, preferring to concentrate on a non-Bat feature as a palette cleanser before returning to Gotham City.
Hoffman, who would be terrific in just about any part short of Catwoman, told The Stone Report that ”Some friend of mine told me he read that [rumor]", Hoffman reported from the Toronto Film Festival. "First I heard of it. I don’t think so.
"I grew up a comic book fan, so I love that stuff. I love going to that stuff. I think what they’re doing with that whole Batman story is really true to what that whole Batman thing has always been. It’s one of the darkest origins of a super-hero, to get all nerdy and geeky on you. That character sees his parents gunned down as a young child. I remember when I was a kid reading that story, so seeing it now come to life as the dark tale that it really is as an intense, really dark, very visceral, adult tale that they’re doing now, all the great work people are doing on it, of course I wouldn’t say, ‘Well, no, no no.’ But I don’t know the reality of it, so I wouldn’t say ‘yes’ to you."
Marvel isn’t immune from this nonsense either as they had to quickly stomp out the word that Will Smith was being cast as Steve Rogers in the Captain America movie. Previously, rumor had it Cap would be played by Matthew McConnaughy.
With Iron Man coming out on DVD (in a variety of formats and editions) on September 30, Paramount Home Video has begun letting websites sneak peek some of the extras to be found on the discs.
Last night, Marvel hosted a presentation during Diamond Comics Distributors’ retailer summit in Las Vegas, Nevada, where their next big crossover was announced. Writer Brian Michael Bendis took the stage and said Dark Reign will shine a spotlight on the Marvel Universe in the wake of Secret Invasion, which concludes in November.
Marvel Comics is continuing its support of Stand Up To Cancer by offering an Iron Man 2 Vip Package over at 
Director Kevin Smith told 
The Muppets will be first returning to television before the Big Screen. NBC has announced the production of Letters to Santa — A Muppets Christmas for this holiday season. This will be the third holiday themed special following a 1970s hour with John Denver and a 1980s effort. They also adapted Charles Dickens’ immortal tale in A Muppet Christmas Carol in 1992.
England’s 
Andrew D. Cooke, director of the full-length feature film documentary Will Eisner: Portrait of a Sequential Artist, and his brother Jon B. Cooke, writer/co-producer of that movie and editor of the award-winning Comic Book Artist magazine, will be guests of New York City’s acclaimed improv comedy group the Comic Book Club this coming Tuesday, Sept. 9, at 8:00 p.m., at the Peoples Improv Theatre on 154 West 29th St., in Manhattan! Tickets are five bucks each.
Torso, the film adaptation of Brian Michael Bendis’ graphic novel, is looking to start shooting in early 2009. The movie, set to star Matt Damon as the famed Elliot Ness, is looking to film in Cleveland but is seeking tax breaks to make extended shooting financially reasonable.
