Joseph Gordon-Levitt “Confirmed” to Play Alberto Falcone in ‘The Dark Knight Rises’ – Juno Temple Being “Eyed for Role”

It’s been a long drought of Dark Knight Rises news over the last month or so, but we now have “unofficial confirmation” (whatever that means) from Variety’s Jeff Sneider that Joseph Gordon-Levitt will indeed appear in the film as Alberto Falcone, son of Carmine Falcone, the main mob boss from Batman Begins portrayed by Tom Wilkinson. While Variety is one of the most reputable entertainment sources in the biz, and this is probably a done deal, Mr. Sneider was adamant in pointing out on Twitter that no “official confirmation” from Warner Bros. or Nolan’s camp was made. He stated:

Let me stress that NO ONE with the authority to do so has CONFIRMED this info. Not WB, not reps and certainly not Nolan or other producers.

Regardless, I trust my sources & stand by my story 100%. Do note that Comic Book Movie’s original ALBERTO FALCONE rumor was removed. Hmmm…

So, again, no “official” confirmation from WB or Nolan, but he seems pretty confident in his sources, so I think we can just take his word on this one. Especially since it fits with other reports of Nolan’s tight-locked script creating a full-circle story arc that ties elements from Batman Begins. Last week Gary Oldman echoed this sentiment (via SuperHeroHype):

It’s a great, great story. You look at ‘The Dark Knight’ and you think, ‘How’s he going to top it?’ But I think he has. The scope and also the way he brings it back to ‘Batman Begins,’ and really what Bruce Wayne discovers about himself. What he learns about himself at the end of this one.

So there you go. And after taking a deeper look at the relationship of Alberto Falcone and currently known characters in TDKR and it makes even more sense. In Batman: Dark Victory, it’s revealed at the end that Selina Kyle (Catwoman) is Carmine Falcone’s daughter – aka Alberto’s brother. So since we know that Selina will be portrayed by Anne Hathaway in TDKR, it seems logical that complicated family dynamic will come into play accompanied by some sort of revenge element of avenging their father’s downfall. On an additional note of Alberto’s role in the Batman mythos, in the comics, Alberto is also a notorious serial killer known as the Holiday Killer, who kills his father’s mob enemies on certain holidays, leaving trinkets behind at the crime scene related to each respective holiday. Whether or not Nolan decides to tap into that element of Alberto’s storyline remains to be seen.

Lastly, in the Variety report, Mr. Sneider said that producers were “eying” Year One actress Juno Temple to play a “street wise Gothamite” role. There was no word on whether she had screen tested or even spoke to Nolan about joining the cast, so we’ll wait for another confirmation or corroborating report before we label her involvement as fact.

The Dark Knight Rises hits theaters July 20th, 2012.

What do you think about JGL as Alberto Falcone? Were you hoping for him to play another villain or some other character?