Heath Ledger Makes for One Creepy Joker

Man, I’m just loving what Nolan is doing with the Joker in “The Dark Knight”. Seriously, that is one creepy looking Joker right there, folks, sitting on the cover of Empire magazine’s upcoming edition (thumbnail to your left, bigger version below). Could Nolan and the boys actually do the impossible — trump Jack Nicholson’s iconic version of the Joker? I don’t know if they can pull it off, but — crap, that’s one disturbing looking dude.

Batman (Christian Bale) raises the stakes in his war on crime in Christopher Nolan’s “The Dark Knight.” With the help of Lieutenant Jim Gordon (Gary Oldman) and District Attorney Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart), Batman sets out to dismantle the remaining criminal organizations that plague the city streets. The partnership proves to be effective, but they soon find themselves prey to a reign of chaos unleashed by a rising criminal mastermind known to the terrified citizens of Gotham as The Joker (Heath Ledger).