Just a day after breaking the news that Joseph Gordon-Levitt had closed his deal to star in The Dark Knight Rises, Variety is reporting a somewhat less confirmed story about which character he'll play. According to their sources, and without any confirmation from either Warner Bros. or anyone inside the Christopher Nolan production team, Gordon-Levitt will be playing Alberto Falcone, a.k.a. The Holiday Killer, scion of a Gotham Mafia family.

If the name sounds familiar, you may remember an identical rumor cropping up in early February, in a post at Comic Book Movie that has since been removed. The fact that the original story has vanished, plus more confirmation in Variety, makes this a rumor with a very, very strong likelihood of being true. Here's what I wrote at the time about The Holiday KIller and how he'd fit into the story:

He's the son of the mob boss we saw played by Tom Wilkinson in Batman Begins, and would return to Gotham to take over the underworld that the Joker left in shambles and, presumably, cause a whole lot of trouble.

With The Dark Knight Rises set for release July 20, 2012 and filming starting soon, we will likely get confirmation about all of this soon-- Nolan can only keep everything under his hat for so long. Let us know what you thnk about Gordon-Levitt as the Holiday Killer in the comments.