We don't have confirmation from Variety or The Hollywood Reporter on this one. It's even better. It's straight from the horses mouth.
Eric Roberts said the following to
IF Magazine found through
Batman on Film....
"Im a Mafioso in THE DARK KNIGHT and I havent seen the script; all Ive seen is the pages they sent me to audition. Its all very hush hush. Were going to be shooting in Chicago and London. I love Christian Bale what an actor. I have interactions with both Heath Ledger and Christian Bale and I am a bad guy. It was thanks to HEROES that I started to get this new found appreciation for the comic book genre."
Pretty cool news then. It's obvious he is going to play the character of
Sal Maroni who will have a certain interaction with one of our new characters in the next year's film. (Click on his title to see his wiki page where all will be revealed!). For those keeping track...
Christian Bale,
Gary Oldman,
Michael Caine and
Morgan Freeman (at least I think he has) have all been confirmed as returning.
Heath Ledger (as The Joker),
Aaron Eckhart (as Harvey Dent),
Maggie Gyllenhaal (replacing
Katie Holmes as Rachel Dawes), Eric Roberts (a villain, very likely gangster Sal Maroni) and
William Fitchner (a small cameo as a bank manager) are the new additions so far.
Rutger Hauer,
Cillian Murphy,
Tom Wilkinson and
Linus Roache are currently only maybes. I would strongly expect the latter 2 for a reprisal, but not the first two although I would expect Murphy to return at some point in the future. We know they are on the look out for a Latin female to play the role of
Detective Renee Montoya but apart from her I can't think of any other role from the comic book lore that I would expect to be in this movie. The first set of filming has wrapped in Chicago. The next location is said to be London in a few weeks time, where Christian Bale will shoot his first scenes.