Five New Things We Think We Know About Dark Knight Rises

Is Joseph Gordon-Levitt really in? Is Aaron Eckhart really out? And what is Lt. Gordon saying about the Joker?

When last we talked, Joseph Gordon-Levitt was unconfirmed to be joining Christopher Nolan's new Batman opus.

And now? Well, he's still unconfirmed—but he's unconfirmed with fancy new details! Here's the latest roundup of scoops and conflicting reports on Dark Knight Rises: 

1. Gordon-Levitt Is Going on a Holiday—Maybe! No less than the Hollywood trade paper Variety says the Inception architect "is set" to play Alberto Falcone, aka the mob-targeting Holiday Killer, aka the son of Batman Begins baddie Carmine Falcone.

Got that? Good. Now forget everything we just said because…

2. No, Gordon-Levitt Is Not Going on a Holiday—Maybe! Warner Bros. tells us it has not confirmed Variety's report. (The studio hasn't denied it, either.)

On a related note, Entertainment Weekly says that, yes, Gordon-Levitt will be in the movie, but, no, he will not play Alberto Falcone.

For those keeping score at home, Gordon-Levitt has now been "cast" twice as a bat villain. The first time around, a fake press release said the actor had donned the Black Mask.

3. Aaron Eckhart Will Be Back—Unless He's Not! Pity the press-biesieged bat-actor. While promoting the film Towelhead in 2008, Echkart told E! News his Two-Face "is dead as a doornail. He ain't comin' back, baby. No." In December, while doing the rounds for Rabbit Hole, Eckhart told MTV News again swore the character wouldn't be back for Dark Knight Rises. Then, a couple of weeks ago, while doing the rounds for Battle: Los Angeles, Eckhart told CBS News he "could not possibly say" if his D.A.-gone-bad would ever return. To give up any info at this point, Eckhart was quoted as saying, "would be career suicide."  

4. Juno Will No Longer Just Be the Name of a Movie to You: This one's a lock because British starlet Juno Temple will be on 3-D screens everywhere this fall in the upcoming Three Musketeers redo. And the statement will be even more true if Temple pans out as a "street-smart Gotham girl" in Dark Knight Rises. According to Variety, that's the role Temple is "being eyed for." 

5. The Joker Is Out: We don't know if anyone was really, truly expecting Nolan to recast the late Heath Ledger, but Gotham P.D.'s Gary Oldman confirmed as much when he told our Marc Malkin the Caped Crusader's next main foe was going to be "one of the old, old [ones] from way back from the old comics. It is a Batman villian…It's not going to be the Joker."

Don't worry about Oldman having committed career suicide by saying this (while doing the rounds for his new movie, natch, Red Riding Hood). He stopped short of naming names, telling Malkin, "If I told you who the villain was, they'd kill me."

Is anyone else noticing a pattern here?