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NewsJack Nicholson warned Heath Ledger on 'Joker' role

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Jack Nicholson warned Heath Ledger on 'Joker' role
==================================================

BY JOE NEUMAIER DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

Thursday, January 24th 2008, 3:18 AM

Jack Nicholson, who played the Joker in the 1989 'Batman' movie, says he warned Heath Ledger, below, about the part.Jack
Nicholson, who played the Joker in the 1989 'Batman' movie, says he
warned Heath Ledger, below, about the part.

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Heath Ledger thought landing the demanding role of the Joker was a
dream come true - but now some think it was a nightmare that led to
his tragic death.

Jack Nicholson, who played the Joker in 1989 - and who was furious he
wasn't consulted about the creepy role - offered a cryptic comment
when told Ledger was dead.

"Well," Nicholson told reporters in London early Wednesday, "I warned
him."

Though the remark was ambiguous, there's no question the role in the
movie earmarked as this summer's blockbuster took a frightening toll.

Ledger recently told reporters he "slept an average of two hours a
night" while playing "a psychopathic, mass-murdering, schizophrenic
clown with zero empathy ...

"I couldn't stop thinking. My body was exhausted, and my mind was
still going."

Prescription drugs didn't help, he said.

Ledger's ghastly image as the Clown Prince of Crime in "Dark Knight"
has been an Internet sensation since trailers were released in
December, featuring Ledger in full death's-head mode.

His face chalk-white, his hair green and his mouth a sliced red
grimace, the handsome 28-year-old Australian actor looked
frighteningly true to the character in the Alan Moore graphic novel,
"Batman: The Killing Joke."

The movie wrapped filming in the fall - right after Ledger's breakup
with actress Michelle Williams - and post-production work finished not
long after.

While "Dark Knight" is the film that will stand as Ledger's cinematic
gravestone, insiders say the flick, set for a July 18 release with
Christian Bale as Batman, won't suffer from his death.

"Ledger's portrayal of the Joker is already one of the most
anticipated screen characters of the whole year," says Gitesh Pandya,
editor of the movie tracking site boxofficeguru.com

"I think most of the audience will still be there. If anything, I
would think the marketing of his character might be scaled down a bit.

"The Joker is a character where you could go over-the-top with
marketing. The studio might scale that back a bit in the next few
months, just to be respectful."

Tony Timpone, editor of the fantasy magazine Fangoria, said the movie
should do well, despite the "cloud over it" from Ledger's death.

"It's going to be tough, because the Joker is such an indelible
character, and Heath was such an indelible actor. It could be tough to
disassociate ourselves from reality. Because the movie looks like it's
going to be so dark, and his life had such a dark end."

Critic and film historian Leonard Maltin said Ledger's death will
heighten curiosity about the movie - and certainly won't hurt the box
office.

"This is sad and so different from any previous examples, because the
film has such an enormous built-in audience; people will go anyway,
but there's no question it could cast something of a pall over the
film," Maltin said.

"It says something about the curious nature of film, that someone can
be so alive onscreen when we're all too aware that they've passed. It
underscores how we're mortal, and films are immortal."

jneumaier@nydailynews.com

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Heath Ledger

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Box Office Guru LLC

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