Today's wacky comic buzz starts from the mouth of Batactor Michael Caine, who thinks Johnny Depp's recent denial about his rumored involvement with "Batman 3" is a smokescreen.  According to MTV, Caine was chatting about how he'd "read it in the paper" that Depp was being considered for the role of the Riddler, while Phillip Seymour Hoffman was slated to play the Penguin.  But then he let slip some extra info that sounds like a confirmation:

"I was with [a Warner Bros] executive and I said, 'Are we going to make another one?' They said yeah. I said, 'How the hell are we going to top Heath? And he says 'I'll tell you how you top Heath — Johnny Depp as The Riddler and Philip Seymour Hoffman as The Penguin.’ I said, 'Shit, they've done it again!'"

Elsewhere in rumorland, the Captain America film is picking up buzz with a tidbit from Derek Luke that "I heard they offered Will Smith 'Captain America.'"  Whether this is a solid rumor or optimistic hearsay is already being debated, but with a sequel for "Hancock" already in early planning stages, Smith's plate may be full with regard to superheroes.

Luke, meanwhile, has his own dream picks for cape-and-tights roles: "I would love to jump into Green Lantern," he said. "There are a lot of stories I’m into, [like] Black Panther."