The Bulletin: The Bat Dance

Aaron Eckhart ("Thank You For Smoking") is in final negotiations to star as Gotham City District Attorney Harvey Dent and Maggie Gyllenhaal is a potential replacement for Katie Holmes as Assistant District Attorney Rachel Dawes in "The Dark Knight" (July 18, 2008), the sequel to "Batman Begins" (2005), for director Christopher Nolan and Warner Bros. Pictures, reports Variety and Latino Review. As in the DC comic, Harvey Dent eventually emerges as the schizophrenic kingpin Two Face. Eckhart joins Christian Bale (left), Michael Caine, Gary Oldman and Morgan Freeman in reappearances, and Heath Ledger as The Joker. Nolan and Warner Bros. chose not to cast Holmes in the sequel for reasons, as of yet, unknown. Production on "The Dark Knight" begins in the summer in Chicago.

Kidman and Watts Fill a "Need"
Nicole Kidman and Naomi Watts will star in "Need," a sexy thriller in which an unstable patient has an affair with her psychiatrist's husband, for director Ryan Murphy (TV's "Nip/Tuck"), reports Variety. Todd Black and Jason Blumenthal will produce. The independent production's shoot will begin in the late fall.

Mark Your Calendar
Forest Whitaker reigns in the political thriller "The Last King of Scotland" (B+), available for rental April 17, as psychotic Ugandan President Idi Amin (From April 3); "Notes on a Scandal" (C) with Judi Dench and Cate Blanchett, April 17; Todd Field's "Little Children" with Kate Winslet, Patrick Wilson and Jackie Earle Haley, May 1 (From April 24); "Epic Movie," May 8; Steven Shainberg's "Fur: An Imaginary Portrait of Diane Arbus" with Nicole Kidman and Robert Downey Jr., May 8; and "The History Boys," April 17.