Nothing has been finalized yet, but Aaron Eckhart, who plays Harvey Dent/Two Face in The Dark Knight, is pretty excited that Angelina Jolie is on the short list to play Catwoman in the next installment of the Batman movies. Eckhart says Angelina would be a fantastic in the role and he’s sure that the movie would be an even bigger blockbuster if she was cast.

Angelina Jolie would make a “fantastic” Catwoman, says Aaron Eckhart.

Aaron said: “I thought that was a fantastic idea. When I read that, I felt like all of our records that we made would be broken if she did Catwoman.”

[From Female First]

Julie Newmar, probably the hottest and most iconic Catwoman in Batman history, also thinks Angelina would make the perfect feline villainess. Newmar believes Jolie would “own” the part.

When I first heard the idea of Jolie playing Catwoman, I thought it was inspired. She’s got the look, the eyes, for sure, she’s got the slinky walk and catlike moves, and she can certainly purr a line of dialogue. But I just can’t see her in the role anymore, all I see when I think of Angelina Jolie now is earth mother. I see her in long, white cotton nightgowns, sitting on the grass with skads of children all around her, smiling at them and looking up lovingly at Brad as he sits in a lawn chair with his hat, mustache, and for some reason, smoking a pipe. Yeah, I don’t know, either.

But my point is, after all this talk about love and babies, some of the sexy has worn off, and to play Catwoman, you need all of the sexy. Since Angelina started with an overabundance of the sexy, she doesn’t have as far to go to get to Catwoman level, but stopping the recent deluge of mommy and lovestruck partner conversation would definitely help get the process started.

Eckhart has a movie awaiting release co-starring Jennifer Aniston. Surprisingly, Traveling is not billed as a romantic comedy, but a romantic drama, so Aniston is bucking the grain a bit. It kind of seems like Eckhart just wants to see what all the fuss is about in this little triangle no one can stop talking about.

Aaron Eckhart is shown at the GQ Men of the Year Awards on 11/18/08. Credit: PRPhotos

Aaron Eckhart and Maggie Gyllenhaal were on Good Morning America The Today Show this morning to promote their upcoming film The Dark Knight, which opens Friday and has morning shows starting at 12am selling out around the country. It’s getting widespread critical acclaim, particularly for late Heath Ledger’s harrowing performance as the joker.

Matt Lauer brought up the subject of Heath’s performance and said it’s too bad that he’s not here to accept all the kudos and accolades for one of the best performances of his career.

Maggie Gyllenhaal was understated and kind in her response. She said “He’s so incredible in the movie and it’s so terribly sad that he’s not here that it’s difficult to really feel how sad that is in the midst of all these TV shows and cameras. It’s like you have to protect yourself a little bit because it’s such a shame.”

Aaron Eckhart said that he met Heath’s mom at the after party and that “she was very upbeat, very proud.” Eckhart told her a story about how Heath Ledger’s friends now have his old iPod and are passing it around and sharing his music.

He said “Whenever we went into the trailer we would say ‘Whose iPod is this?’ because it would be some whacked out music that nobody had ever heard of before, and it was Heath’s and that iPod has since become a symbol of Heath and his friends pass it around to each other, download the music and then pass it on.”

Director Chris Nolan said that Heath did get to see some of his performance before he died. He said “He saw the IMAX prologue. We [screened] that for him in London.”

I wonder what kind of music Heath was into and if we’ll get any details about what he kept on his iPod. It’s kind of a nice memory to have someone’s music and that’s touching that his friends are sharing his iPod.

Header: An ad for The Dark Knight starring Heath is shown in New York City above a Keith Haring mural. It’s two blocks from the apartment where he died. Aaron Eckhart and Maggie Gyllenhaal are shown at The Dark Knight premiere on Monday. Credit: PNP/WENN