You may not have seen his face but Josh Pence was on screen for a lot of David Fincher’s The Social Network as The Other Winklevoss, the man whose own face was digitally replaced by Arnie Hammer.
It was a fairly astute move to accept the role, despite stated misgivings and disappointment at not appearing recognisably in Fincher’s movie, and we’ve learned tonight from THR that Pence has been cast in a crucial role in Christopher Nolan’s next Batman film, The Dark Knight Rises.
His part is that of the young Ra’s Al Ghul, the character played by Liam Neeson in Batman Begins and the word is that his scenes in the film will take place thirty years in the past, setting light to the touchpaper of a myriad of speculative inferences. We know that Inception alum Marion Cottilard, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Tom Hardy have roles in the film, but only Hardy’s character has been confirmed.
How a young Ra’s Al Ghul fits in to the overall storyline is yet to be determined, as is how extensive the flashbacks will be and what purpose they will serve in the larger story arc at play – has a bigger picture been forming the whole time, or which we’ve seen only a few details?
With Anne Hathaway confirmed as Catwoman and Christian Bale, Michale Caine, Morgan Freeman and Gary Oldman confirmed to return Pence is in some very good company and if Nolan can pull it off this film will round off a critically acclaimed superhero trilogy in style.
