New Batman News: Ra Al Ghul Cast, No Viggo, and Bale discusses his new role

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Ken Watanabe, who is nominated for Best Supporting Actor for The Last Samurai, has been will be squaring off against Christian Bale in the upcoming new Batman movie, directed by Christopher Nolan. The Warner Bros. project is scheduled to start production next month in London.

Watanabe will play the villainous Ra's Al Ghul, an immortal strategic mastermind who wants to bring his own brand of order to the world.

He joins Bale, cast as Bruce Wayne/Batman; Michael Caine as Wayne's trusted butler Alfred; Katie Holmes as a childhood friend of Wayne's; Liam Neeson as Wayne's mentor Henri Ducard; and Morgan Freeman as Lucius Fox, a former board member and sidelined employee of Wayne Enterprises.

Watanabe made his English-language debut with Warner Bros.' "Samurai," though he has been acting since the early 1980s in Japan, where he is a household name, known for playing heroic samurai roles.

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And we're all smiling here! Meanwhile, Zap2it talked to "The Lord of the Rings" star Viggo Mortensen who denied having any involvement with the project...

Mortensen's involvement came from an interview with Cain last December when the actor told SciFi Wire that Nolan was eyeing "The Lord of the Rings" star to play a villain in the film. Yet Mortensen himself says that he is not involved in the project.

"I'm not signed up to do anything at this point, but I guess there was interest from them and other people. But at the moment I'm not available because I'm involved [in doing press for 'Hidalgo']," he tells Zap2it.com.

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Speaking to the German magazine Bunte, Bale said, "I think Batman is probably more aggresive than most everybody I've ever played, you know. I wanted to take it, because, firstly, when I heard that there was a consideration of doing more of the movies, I just felt like I hadn't been quite satisfied with what I'd seen in the other movies. Certainly in the last two."

He goes on to say that "it seemed as though there was actually a real character here, that it wasn't just a bland kind of superhero, one-dimensional. With him there really was an interesting character to be played. I loved the kind of fantastical notion of the superhero, but at the same time being able to bring a psychologically interesting element to that."

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