chris nolan came in and met with me and walked me through the entire story. moment kind of reality. >> what? >> chris nolan knew what he was doing in casting christian bale and knew what he was doing by making it a realistic portrayal of batman, to where you could believe that this was how a billionaire kid became the dark knight. >> good evening, ladies and gentlemen. we are tonight's entertainment. >> in "the dark knight," heath ledger chose to play the joker as a genuine psychopath. >> ha, ha. >> in a way that raised the stakes for the entire property. >> we knew it was open for a fresh interpretation and i also instantly kind of had something up my sleeve which happened to be exactly what chris was kind of looking for. >> the joker has always been a somewhat ambiguous character. but what heath ledger did was make him truly malevolent. >> you're as crazy as you look. >> i told you i'm a man of my word. >> there's a scene in the movie where the joker has stolen millions of dollars and he just burns it all. that's meaningless to him. he wants to create chaos

>> chris nolan knew what he was doing casting christian bale. are tonight's entertainment. >> heath ledger close to play the joker as a genuine psychopath. >> that raised the stakes for the entire property. >> i had something up my sleeves. >> the joker has always been a somewhat ambiguous character. heath ledger made him truly me lev malevolent. >> and you see when the joker burns money to him. he just wants to create chaos. >> all you care about is money. i'm going to give it to him. it's a heartbreaking performance because it reminds you of what the next 50 years would have been like as an actor on screen. studios is like, this is the backbone of our box office strategy. >> beyond consideration, the jerk. >> it wasn't an origin character. >> i will be throwing one of these in for everybody with a story of $500 million or more. >> the thing that made it all work, was the casting of robert downey jr. >> let's face it. this isn't the worst thing you had caught me doing. >> it was a no-brainer. jon favreau and everything lined up. they got it rig