Comedian Dane Cook expresses his desire to be in "Dark Knight" sequel, fan-boy panic ensues

                  Wrong card there, Dane.  (photo: LatinoReview.com)

We aren't particularly against Dane Cook here at the Comedy Examiner's Office, but we've certainly got our issues with his, shall we say, liberal sampling of other comedians' routines on his albums (see also: Carlos "Ned Hollis" Mencia).  That said, we're really, really against the idea of the comedian appearing in a "Dark Knight" sequel.  Read on for the details, my gentle Examiner readers...

If this is Dane Cook playing a joke on us all, we assure you: we're not laughing.  The comedian was recently speaking with MTV News and the idea of him being a part of a "Dark Knight" sequel was brought up.  Here's his response:

"I love the new Dark Knight series and 'Batman Begins,'" Cook told MTV News when asked if there were any comic book movie characters he has his eye on. "If they brought back The Riddler—a new Riddler the way they did with The Joker—that would be bad-ass. I would do that."

No.  No, no, no.  No, Dane Cook.  Let's not even think that.  Cook also offered some opinionation on the new "Batman" films thus far and how he'd play The Riddler (the ones that have been made with the brilliant Chris Nolan behind the camera, not those codpiece-fests that Joel Schumacher "directed" a while back):

When they were making the new one and they were doing The Joker, I always thought it [should be] kind of like 'The Crow'—having that dark element but still comedic," said Cook of the type of Riddler he'd like to bring to the franchise. "It would probably have to be something in that vein, even though I think what Heath Ledger did with the Joker was the greatest comic book villain ever.

Just in case reading these things wasn't enough for you, here's some video of this exchange, straight from the poor, unfortunate souls at MTV News that had to keep a straight face through the interview:

 The word on the street is, a formal announcement about the next "Batman" film will be headed our way some time in January.  Then again, that bit of rumormongering could just be Warner Brothers screwing with the bajillion fanboys that are waiting on the edge of their seats for any new crumb of information about the next "Dark Knight" flick to arrive.  Here's what LatinoReview has to say:

There’s some scuttlebutt that in early 2010, Warner Bros. and Chris Nolan will finalize the plan for BATMAN 3, according to a solid and longtime BOF source. Whether there will be an announcement or not remains to be seen. Our guy told BOF that in his opinion, the longer we don’t here a Nolan/B3 announcement in 2010, the less likely it is that the director will return.

We're wondering, though: would Dane Cook as "The Riddler" be worse than that other rumor from a while back about Eddie Murphy strapping on the question-marked tights?  Discuss in the comments section below, folks.

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