Joseph Gordon-Levitt to Play Holiday Killer in "Dark Knight Rises"

The third and possibly final Christopher Nolan Batman film confirms another character to the roster in addition to Selina Kyle and supervillain Bane: Joseph Gordon Levitt as Alberto Falcone.

To surmise for the comic impaired, Alberto Falcone was the son of mafia boss Carmine Falcone. In "Batman: The Long Halloween," Alberto was allegedly the Holiday Killer-or at least one of them-whose murders corresponded with holidays.

While cast as Alberto, it is not confirmed whether Nolan's third film will follow the holiday killings of "The Long Halloween" since the plot is still kept as a secret. Though it is known from the previous films that Nolan does take inspiration and story lines from the comics.

But even if the film does not follow "The Long Halloween," throwing Alberto into the film does help tie "The Dark Knight Rises" to the first film "Batman Begins." Carmine Falcone was the secondary antagonist during the first film as Gotham City's crime boss who eventually went insane thanks to Scarecrow. It could simply be a case of the son taking over the family business.

The main glaring speculation that "The Dark Knight Rises" will not be a retelling of "The Long Halloween" is the current cast. Selina Kyle (Catwoman) is featured in the comic but Bane is not. And as a psychotic freak with a lot of muscle power, he may be a bit too superpowered to fit into Nolan's ground in reality vision of the Batman setting-a realistic setting that features a billionaire playboy who gallavants as a masked vigilante with a comedic raspy voice. I just really hope that Nolan has not fallen for the typical problem that most film franchises have in their third volume: Too many characters, not enough time or story to make it all make sense. Nolan was already toeing the line when he had both Joker and Two-Face making appearances in the second film "The Dark Knight." While the Joker had a brilliant performance of mayhem and jocularity, Two-Face arrived a little too late and snuffed out too soon despite what a wonderful character he was-spoiler warning. At least during the triple threat of Carmine Falcone, Scarecrow, and Ra's al Ghul in "Batman Begins" was easier to deal with since two of the villains were minor pawns who needed little exposition before giving them the heave-ho. So maybe Nolan has something up his sleeve to juggle another three interesting characters of the Batman mythos.

"The Dark Knight Rises" is scheduled for release on July 20, 2012.