Katie Holmes played Bruce Wayne’s childhood friend (and voice of reason), Rachel Dawes, in Batman Begins. But Katie dropped out of its now-filming sequel, The Dark Knight, for reasons unknown.

Director Christopher Nolan moved quickly to find a new Rachel and hit the recasting jackpot by signing on Maggie Gyllenhaal.

Given my previous confession that it’s hard to find a hotter case of the hots than the hots I’ve got for Maggie Gyllenhaal, this made me very happy. (In fact, I’d long been hoping that Maggie might someday play Selina “Catwoman” Kyle in one of Nolan’s Batman movies, so there was a little bit of bittersweetness for me in the announcement. But I’m getting Maggie Gyllenhaal in a Batman movie, so I guess I’ll live.)

Maggie recently spoke to The Guardian and mentioned how much fun she’s having making The Dark Knight:

“Doing Batman has shocked me at every turn. When I started, I thought, ‘Well, it’s a huge movie, I’ll just do my best to put what I can into it.’ But, in fact, they’ve been really hungry for my ideas, for my views. It’s great! They’ve been asking for more!”

Coincidentally, I ask for more Maggie Gyllenhaal every day. So I’m glad I’ll be seeing her when The Dark Knight cleans up the crime behind the popcorn counter of the theater near you on July 18, 2008!