Film News: Israeli Actor Alon Aboutboul Cast in ‘The Dark Knight Rises’ as Mad Scientist

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CHICAGO – News surfaced yesterday in Hebrew that Israeli actor Alon Aboutboul has been cast in “The Dark Knight Rises” as a mad scientist, but embarrassingly, this reporter only went to “American Hebrew school” and can’t actually understand Hebrew.

Alon Aboutboul Photo credit: Xnet

While it might not be a well-known fact, “American Hebrew school” really just teaches kids aged nine through 13 how to read Hebrew without the ability to understand. And it’s all just a charade for the purposes of a big payday known as the bar mitzvah. But we digress.

While some other news outlets recently picked up the news in broken bits and pieces using a Google translator, we’ve waited for clearly comprehensible confirmation in English since our mastery for that language is allegedly better than a fifth grader.

So, in English, we can confirm that Alon Aboutboul has been cast in “The Dark Knight Rises” thanks to “confirmation” from Aboutboul’s wife, Shir Bilya, on Twitter, which apparently is now used for confirming such things. Aboutboul joins such heavy hitters who we already know have been cast including Christian Bale, Gary Oldman, Gary Oldman, Gary Oldman, Tom Hardy, Anne Hathaway, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Marion Cotillard.

While you probably don’t know Aboutboul’s name, you might have seen his face in TV’s “Castle,” “Fringe” or “The Mentalist” or in small roles in 1988’s “Rambo: First Blood Part III,” 2005’s “Munich” and 2008’s “Body of Lies”. But probably not. I’m a professional film critic and I’ve never heard of or seen the bloke.

But good for him for getting cast in such a major film. Now the question is: How minor is his part, and more specifically, which DC Comics character is this mad scientist? Of course, current speculation from hardcore fanboys (one we recently e-met literally just gave himself a legit lifetime tat of The Joker on his forearm) is that Aboutboul will be Dr. Hugo Strange.

This is currently unconfirmed. If the 836,590 posts about it across the Web are of any indication, though, fanboys are rabidly bloodlusting for this character’s inclusion in director Christopher Nolan’s final Batman film. The rumor mill about Dr. Hugo Strange hit overdrive a few months ago with speculation that Robin Williams or Joseph Gordon-Levitt might embody the evil doctor.

Will Aboutboul indeed be a “main villian”? Will he be Strange, someone else or an entirely new character incarnation by the Nolan brothers? We must always remember about Nolan that he’s a cunning creature and a master of mystery. And apparently he loves Jews, too, which anyone knows is required for a successful film or Broadway play.

“The Dark Knight Rises” will again star Christian Bale as Bruce Wayne, Gary Oldman as Jim Gordon, Morgan Freeman as Lucius Fox and Michael Caine as Alfred. The film also stars Tom Hardy, Anne Hathaway, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Marion Cotillard, Juno Temple, Josh Pence, Diego Klattenhoff and Alon Aboutboul. Nestor Carbonell and Daniel Sunjata are currently rumored to be involved.

The film, which is again directed by Christopher Nolan, is scheduled for release on July 20, 2012. “The Dark Knight Rises” is written by David S. Goyer (story), Bob Kane (characters), Christopher Nolan (screenplay), Christopher Nolan (story) and Jonathan Nolan (screenplay) with original music from Hans Zimmer and cinematography by Wally Pfister.

By ADAM FENDELMAN Publisher HollywoodChicago.com [email protected]