The excitement, the drama, the laughter. Speaking with Sir Michael Caine is a thrilling, amusement park ride-like experience. I recently met up with him and Kenneth Branagh to discuss their tense new cat-and-mouse like caper Sleuth. After chatting about the film in length, I breached the subject of The Dark Knight with Mr. Caine, who seemed incredibly anxious to talk about the upcoming Batman sequel. "Is there anything new you can tell me about The Dark Knight?"

The classically trained actor smiled, a bit of menace laced throughout his gleeful grin, "Yes. I can give it away. I can tell you the biggest secret. The most shocking thing for both you and I..." He took a beat, playing to the camera that was capturing our interview, "It's Heath Ledger as the Joker. He is going to surprise a lot of people. He is absolutely terrifying. I'd say that he is the scariest thing I've ever seen on screen."

Well, okay, we already knew that. He told another publication the same thing less than a week ago. So I pressed the matter with him a bit, "Does Alfred and the Joker get into an altercation?"

He shook his head with a certain type of salesman like delight, "Yes. They do. They get into quite the altercation."

"Does Alfred make it out alive?"

This is when Caine put his finger to his lips and shushed me, "Now, that would be giving too much away."

"Well, are you signed on to do a third sequel?"

Michael laughed heartedly, and then shrugged with indifference, "You tell me!"

I guess we'll have to wait until July 18th, 2008, when The Dark Knight opens to find out if Batman's butler makes it out alive. In the mean time, you can check out Michael Caine's award worthy performance in Sleuth starting October 12th, 2007.

Sleuth was released October 12th, 2007 and stars Michael Caine, Jude Law, Harold Pinter, Carmel O'Sullivan, Kenneth Branagh. The film is directed by Kenneth Branagh.

The Dark Knight was released July 18th, 2008 and stars Christian Bale, Heath Ledger, Aaron Eckhart, Michael Caine, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Gary Oldman, Morgan Freeman, Monique Gabriela Curnen. The film is directed by Christopher Nolan.