After a brief detour into The Dark Knight hoaxville with forged Heath Ledger as The Joker pictures, we are back on solid ground with some new (if uninspired and uninspiring) casting info. Eric Roberts has joined the cast as a “Mafia kingpin.” The news was included in an interview that Roberts did with gossip columnists Marilyn Beck and Stacey Jenel Smith and reprinted everywhere, including The Los Angeles Daily News. Since Roberts doesn’t join the shoot until June, the interview focuses mainly on his recurring roles in two television series and an upcoming Hallmark Channel movie.

Roberts has always seemed to be a guy who started off with a lot of promise (Star 80, Runaway Train) but made a lot of lousy choices after that and never capitalized on his early acclaim. He explains that by saying "Once they gave my Oscar to the wrong person (he was nominated for Runaway Train but lost to Don Ameche,) I called my agent and said, 'From now on if there's one good thing about a project, I'll do it.' If the character is good, I'll do it. If the director is good, I'll do it. If the location is good, I'll do it." In other words, he’s only in it for the money. Once you start saying “I’ll do it for the location,” you’ve agreed to take pretty much anything as long as the check clears.

I’m not too excited about him joining The Dark Knight cast (this is easily my most anticipated movie for the next two years.) I’m sure he’ll be fine, but the last “Mafia kingpin” was played by Tom Wilkinson, who was great. I’m guessing he’ll be one of the guys (or maybe the guy) that The Joker bumps off to take over as top dog criminal/psycho in Gotham. Still, it seems like a more promising assignment for Roberts than 4-Bidden or Blizhniy Boy: The Ultimate Fighter, two of us other upcoming movies.