Christian Bale spoke to Newsday and was asked what we can expect from the now-filming Batman Begins continuation, The Dark Knight.

“It’s now the question of the burden and toll of what he’s doing,” Bale told writer Lewis Beale. “Can this be a finite endeavor? Is this something that has an end? Can he quit and have an ordinary life? The kind of manic intensity someone has to have to maintain the passion and the anger that they felt as a child takes an effort after a while, to keep doing that. At some point, you have to exorcise your demons. That’s what I love about Batman. There’s so much that is about character.”

I’m so glad he truly likes playing Batman, and it’s awesome that he’s able to keep doing lots of other movies in the meantime. When you’ve got somebody of Bale’s talent and versatility, there’s really no way to typecast the guy. Nicely done, sir.

There are some other new odds and ends floating around. Ultimate Batman reporter Bill “Jett” Ramey provides this list of Dark Knight marketing tie-ins, including a video game, comics and an anime-style direct-to-video series that fills in the gaps between Batman Begins and The Dark Knight.

Sweet.

Aaron Eckhart, who plays ill-fated Gotham City District Attorney Harvey Dent in the film, was asked about The Dark Knight by Superhero Hype while doing press for his new comedy, No Reservations. He didn’t say much, adding that he’d probably get shot by poison darts if he revealed anything about his role as Harvey. He did, however, say this: “I don’t feel like I have to do what Tommy Lee Jones did. I don’t even consider that. It’s not even something that bothers me.”

He’s speaking, of course, about how Tommy Lee Jones played Harvey in 1995’s Batman Forever. (As some of you may know, Harvey gets acid thrown in his face and the assault is so traumatic that it unlocks a sinister second personality with its own twisted sense of morality. The result is Two Face, one of Batman’s most classic and tragic villains.)

I’m glad Eckhart doesn’t consider Jones’s performance. No one should consider that performance. Not even Tommy Lee Jones. I don’t hate Batman Forever entirely; some of the Batman/Robin interaction was written well, and the moment when Batman (Val Kilmer) is fighting Two Face on the helicopter and he tells him, “You need help, Harvey,” is awesome. Because Kilmer delivers that line so well that it tells you everything you needed to know about how they were friends before Harvey got half his face burned off and went nuts. The movie goes downhill from there, unfortunately.

Anyway, The Dark Knight will properly portray the triumvirate of Batman, Lt. Jim Gordon (Gary Oldman) and Dent as they juggle battling both the mobsters and freaks — primarily The Joker (Heath Ledger) — who are tearing their beloved city apart.

And the lovely Maggie Gyllenhaal replaces Katie Holmes as Bruce’s childhood friend, Rachel Dawes.

I’ve got lots more Batman movie news, including some excellent pictures of Bale as Batman and Ledger as The Joker, right here.

The Dark Knight takes flight into the theater near you on July 18, 2008!

Photo: Christian-Bale.org