What Is The Real Nature Of Matthew Modine's Role In 'The Dark Knight Rises'?

When Matthew Modine was announced as part of the cast of Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight Rises, all we knew was that he would play a character called Nixon. The director has a way of peopling his Batman films with some good, recognizable actors in small roles, so we didn't think too much of Matthew Modine's casting. But it turns out there is another report out there suggesting that he might have a more significant role than we'd first guessed.

Roger Friedman passed along info from a source who said that the Matthew Modine scenes would shoot in a studio in London, and that "He's a politician and a key villain."

This could mean quite a few things — it could be misrepresentation of the character, deliberate misinformation, or simply wrong. Roger Friedman's record is far from perfect with respect to scoops, though he has had his moments with some projects. (This particular report actually went under the radar for a week or so until it started to make the rounds over the holiday weekend.)

So could he be a 'key villain'? The cast of the film is already full of known characters, but perhaps only one (Tom Hardy as Bane) is one we can call a full-on villain. Quite a few others will certainly have their evil moments. It's safe to assume that Anne Hathaway's Catwoman will cause problems for Batman, fox example, and there is already plenty of speculation out there about which other characters might end up revealed as villains. So the film seems well-stocked with possible baddies at this point, but we just don't know how it's going to shake out.

IGN has a rundown of existing Batman comics characters that Modine could be playing — all the sort of politicians that we figured 'Nixon' would be –  but it's all speculation at this point when it comes to real details about Nixon.