Knight's Eckhart Of Two Minds

Aaron Eckhart, who plays Gotham City district attorney Harvey Dent in The Dark Knight, confirmed to SCI FI Wire the poorly held secret that his character will indeed morph into a well-known villain in the Batman Begins sequel.

(Possible spoilers ahead!)

"Harvey Dent turns into Harvey Two-Face in this movie!" Eckhart said during a mid-morning visit to the Chicago set of the sequel in June 2007. Eckhart is eager to take on the role of the villain, a virtuous man who is hideously scarred by acid and becomes one of Batman's (Christian Bale) most potent adversaries. The character was previously played by Tommy Lee Jones in Batman Forever.

"I saw [the Tommy Lee Jones performance] years ago," Eckhart said. "I've seen all the [previous] Batmans. [Director Chris Nolan] comes at this with such a different take on Batman, I didn't feel that I had to be true to any other actor playing this role. Of course, I read the comic books. And I think Harvey is portrayed very well in those comic books: his relationships with Lt. Gordon [Gary Oldman], with Batman, with Gotham City, those really helped me the most."

Eckhart praised the script, which Nolan wrote with his brother, Jonathan, and David S. Goyer. It gives all the characters "a lot of range," he said. "I feel like my character is fresh. I think he's new. I think he's important to Gotham City. Gotham City is going through a dark time." Eckhart was shooting last June in an old Chicago post office, amid the churn of generators, behind the building that stood in for the Gotham Central Bank and the Gotham Police Department.

The Dark Knight opens July 25. --Michael Marano