New pic of Heath Ledger as The Joker emerges

Posted Tuesday, November 27, 2007 at 12:46 PM Central

by Tim Briscoe

British film magazine Empire has a shot of Heath Ledger in his complete Joker costume on the cover of their January issue. CominSoon.net has the first look of the mag. (See the photo below.)

Interestingly, Empire's official site is still slowly revealing this same photo on its web site under the heading "All Will Be Revealed..." This pieced photo is due to be fully unveiled tomorrow sometime.

While this is the first media photo of The Joker for next year's The Dark Knight Batman movie, it's not our first glimpse of Ledger in the get-up. The first pic debuted in May and a subsequent one appeared at the end of July.

In related news, Jack Nicholson -- the last man to star as The Joker on the big screen -- is apparently ticked that Ledger got the role over him. The veteran actor told MTV News:

"It's like, in any area, you can't believe the reasons things do or don't happen. Not asking me how to do the sequel is that kind of thing. Maybe it's not a mistake. Maybe it was the right thing, but to be candid, I'm furious."

Settle down, big Jack. This is the early years of the Batman story. If director Christopher Nolan was going to do "Batman: The Nursing Home Years," then you'd be the first to get the call.

The Dark Knight will be in theaters on July 18. Oh yeah, Christian Bale will once again play the guy with the big pointy ears.