Justin Timberlake, the famous pop singer, has appeared in a few movies and got good word-of-mouth in his role in ‘The Social Network.’ Last summer, he filmed ‘Runner, Runner’ along with Ben Affleck, who, of course, was just announced as the new cinema Batman. So when asked about the announcement, Timberlake defended his co-star by saying “Ben Affleck as Batman, I like it. I worked with Ben last summer and I’ve seen his process. I think he’s a brilliant filmmaker. I think he’s an extreme talent so he could surprise a lot of people.”
But as far as re-teaming with Affleck and donning green scaly trunks to portray sidekick Robin, Timberlake was emphatic. “Not a chance in hell. I ain’t playing Robin.”
He did seem more game to tackle a darker role, however.
“I have no aspiration to ever be a superhero in a movie. Now, a villain! I’ll tell you the villain I want to play more than anything because I grew up loving Batman, funnily enough, is The Riddler. The Riddler is my favorite villain. The Riddler was like a sociopath. He was proper crazy. So if I’m gonna play crazy, I’m wanna play proper crazy.”
Now this is all just loose talk at the moment. There’s been no indication that The Riddler will even be in the sequel to ‘Man of Steel’ which is where Affleck will make his caped debut. The only rumors flying around point to Lex Luthor being the main villain of the film. But as some of you may recall, Timberlake’s name was thrown out to be in the running for Superman at one point, and then for Jimmy Olsen. So this isn’t his first rumored comic book role.
The last time The Riddler graced the big screen was in ‘Batman Forever’ and he was depicted quite manically by Jim Carrey. And of course, before that, he was one of the most popular villains on the 60s ‘Batman’ TV show, as portrayed by Frank Gorshin. The character has also appeared consistently through the years on various DC animated series.
Granted, Timberlake does have quite a few acting roles under his belt, but is he ready for a big budget action movie like this? Would you like to see him as The Riddler?
Sources DigitalSpy, Blastr