One of the most persistant rumors surrounding the second and now potentially third Batman movie has been that Philip Seymour Hoffman would play an arms-dealing interpretation of The Penguin. Now I'm sure this can all be traced to some wish-fulfilment blogger's speculation years ago, but the rumor never really went away. As far as dream casting goes, it seems like a good idea, though Nolan made it very clear after Batman Begins that he found the character of Penguin to be uninteresting next to the other gallery of asssorted bat-villians he had to draw from and therefore the character would not appear in his movies.

The rumor resurfaced this week when Michael Caine claimed that execs at Warner Bros were already bandying around casting ideas which would top Heath Ledger's performance as Joker. Bear in mind here that Nolan hasn't even signed on yet let alone started writing a script and it was the lack of this kind of studio interference that made The Dark Knight the roaring success it was.

To try and find out the truth MTV went direct to Hoffman at the Toronto Film Festival and asked him straight out. His answer, as anyone with an ear for nonsense rumor might have predicted, was: “No one has talked to me about it ever — never. It was a rumor back then and it’s still a rumor.”

To put the final nail in the coffin, Hoffman said that he is too much of a fan of Nolan's movies to feel like he wants to star in one, adding: “What [Nolan]’s doing is taking it in a whole other exciting great place. I’m more a fan, so the interest of being in it isn’t that great. It’s more the interest in wanting to see the next one. It’s probably better that way.”

So there you have it. Nolan hasn't even signed on to direct yet, there's no script, and Hoffman is more interested in paying for his ticket to go see it than to spend 18 months having the viewing experience tainted by being in it. Of course this doesn't mean what Caine said isn't true. I'm sure in some penthouse at the WB execs are indeed plotting to try and get the likes of Depp and Hoffman interested in doing the third movie. However, that doesn't mean Nolan wants to hear their ideas or that the actors mentioned actually want to sign on. Nolan will have seen Spider-Man 3 just like the rest of us and will know only too well what happens when you sign on to a sequel where studio execs think they know best.