Guy walks into a bar...

Pardon me for getting all fanboy on you, but...so Nicholson is pissed. So what? As his contemporary Michael Caine said, they're not trying to outdo what Jack did - that was (and continues to be) tremendous commercially and critically. Yet next summer will showcase a different interpretation of an iconic and malleable pop culture character. In the vast Batman universe, part of American 20th century mythology (as some have called it), you can visit, among other places, the campy 60's, the gothic 80's, and the realistic, twisted 21st century. And that's not including its changing comic book genesis.

I remember thinking in 2005 when I left Batman Begins that you know who should combine the menace of Ziggy Stardust and the desperate mania of Roy Batty. Christopher Nolan screened Blade Runner to his team before revitalizing the Caped Crusader on the big screen a couple of years back. He told his crew, "I want our movie to look like this." Deckard and Batty battling through the abandoned building at the end - that's Bats and Mr. J somewhere in Gotham City.

Nicholson may have misunderstood that The Dark Knight is the second part of a "franchise relaunch" and not a continuation from the Tim Burton movies. Or he might be kidding around. It's one thing to completely remake a movie for a naked grab at cash. It's another to reimagine it, as the saying goes, with a new look for a new generation, etc.

Heath Ledger is a real wild card here. Based on an eclectic array of films I've seen him in, I have complete confidence Ledger will absolutely nail his critical role in this nuanced popcorn flick. I wish Jack wouldn't have bitched at all, frankly, because it looks petty and ungracious. Even if he's an SOB in person, and I guess you have to be a little or a lot to survive and thrive in Hollywood as long as he has, he should've just smiled.

Serious.

Serious as a heart attack.

As it turns out, the two principal actors (Christian Bale and Heath Ledger) in TDK are also in I'm Not There. Isn't it amazing how you can relate Dylan to anything?