Liam Neeson to do battle against Batman

Posted Friday, February 13, 2004 at 2:47 PM Central

by Tim Briscoe

Liam Neeson is going to be a Gotham baddie. That's right. Qui-Gon Jinn from Star Wars Episode I - The Phantom Menace and Oskar Schindler from Schindler's List has signed on to play a villain in the upcoming Batman movie.

Neeson, in a character not yet disclosed, will battle the Dark Knight's Christian Bale in the highly anticipated film directed by Memento's Christopher Nolan. He joins a cast that also includes Katie Holmes as Batman's love interest, Michael Caine as Alfred the butler, and 28 Days Later's Cillian Murphy as another Bat enemy.

In a casting that would surely bring in Lord of the Rings fans, rumors have placed Viggo Mortensen as the final bad guy in an evil triumvirate. Word also has Morgan Freeman as a businessman who heads Batman alter ego Bruce Wayne's Wayne Enterprises.

The film, believed to be titled Batman: Intimidation, focuses more on the dark aspect of the Batman film series established by director Tim Burton in the 1989 original and derived from Frank Miller's Batman graphic novels. It's also a prequel of sorts as it involves a younger Bruce Wayne in his early transition to the pointy-eared superhero.

Warner Bros. expects the film to be ready for a 2005 release.