Aaron Eckhart: Not just another pretty face in 'The Dark Knight'

THE trailers for "The Dark Knight" have shown quite a bit of Heath Ledger's scabbier, surlier reinvention of the Joker (think of Malcolm McDowell's thug from "A Clockwork Orange" but with kelp-colored hair, scars and a hyena laugh), but the producers have been keeping the film's other Batman bad guy, Two-Face, under wraps. ¶ "That's right, people don't really know yet," actor Aaron Eckhart said with grin. "I can tell you that, basically, when you look at Two-Face, you should get sick to your stomach. Being the guy under all that, well, that was a lot of fun for me. It's like you would feel if you met someone whose face had pretty much been ripped off or burned off with acid. I can't talk about it beyond that because I don't want to give away too much of the plans by Chris." ¶ Chris is Christopher Nolan, the director of "Batman Begins," the acclaimed 2005 franchise reboot, and of "The Dark Knight," the sequel that hits theaters July 18 with a tale that looks far darker and more psychological than the other, sunnier superhero fare this summer. The darkness goes beyond the screen as well; 28-year-old Ledger died in January in New York after an accidental overdose of sleeping pills.

By Geoff Boucher

May 4, 2008