Armie Hammer Is Mounting His Hollywood Comeback — With One Of The Worst Directors Ever

As anyone with a social media account is aware of, there are numerous celebrities, artists, and public figures who've fallen from grace these days, their reputations and careers falling under the banner of that oh-so-ominous term of "cancelled." While the term is frequently used erroneously, the people who actually have been shunned from the spotlight they once enjoyed are often extremely well-deserving of their fate, so much so that any attempt to make a comeback would have to be an extremely delicate and well-considered one.

Time and again, The Cancelled keep making bizarre, creepy, unwelcome mistakes as they embarrassingly struggle to regain the reputation that they've since lost (see: Spacey, Kevin, and his annual weirdo Frank Underwood videos). Today, we can add Armie Hammer to that unfavorable list of actors looking to mount a Hollywood comeback by jumping onboard a project that wouldn't be favorable in any capacity, let alone to a disgraced celebrity. According to Variety, Hammer has signed on to star in the conspicuously titled "The Dark Knight" (gee, wonder what wool the producers are trying to pull over audiences' eyes there), which is about, surprise, surprise, a vigilante who fights crime. Even more embarrassing than the project's reminiscence to a certain Christopher Nolan classic is the fact that the film is to be written and directed by Uwe Boll, the notorious German filmmaker whose movies are generally enjoyed by no one.

Of course, this pairing makes a sort of sick sense when you think about it, as Boll has continued his movie career unabated almost out of spite for how much his work is despised, and Hammer's recent comments seem to have a tone of antagonism to them, too. Really, the two teaming up isn't much of a surprise; the real question is whether two wrongs could ever make a right.

Here's the thing: Throughout cinema history, there've always been blowhards, hucksters, and exploitative filmmakers, the types of people who want to get butts in seats by any unscrupulous means possible. The difference between the type of trash they tend to make and Boll's output is that the former actually wish to entertain people, whereas Boll seems to have contempt for his work and the audience. Even a movie that should've been a lay-up of '00s genre cheese, 2005's "BloodRayne," was hobbled by Boll verbally abusing screenwriter Guinevere Turner, putting her first draft script into production, and then letting actors and others change the script during shooting at will, according to this interview with Turner. Add to this dubious work ethic Boll's now-infamous practice of antagonizing (if not outright fighting) his critics, and you can see that it's not the art that Boll is concerned with.

Apparently, Hammer is now interested in Boll's method of antagonization, making a movie out of spite more than anything else. Signing on to "The Dark Knight" feels like Hammer getting some weird sort of retribution for the rumors that he may have actually played Batman back when George Miller was to helm a "Justice League" movie. In all seriousness, there was a time when Hammer could've been a legitimate contender for Batman, having made films like "The Social Network" and "The Man from UNCLE" before allegations of sexual misconduct against him broke in 2021. Now, he's happy to join Boll in a movie that, according to Variety, involves a man named Sanders "who takes justice into his own hands as he sets out to hunt down criminals," with the vigilante becoming a social media hero despite the authorities seeking to stop his actions.

If that sounds extremely close to the plot of Nolan's "The Dark Knight," producer Michael Roesch claims that "our movie is very different from Chris Nolan's movie, so there is no danger of confusion." That's a lot of tosh, of course; sewing confusion is exactly what these fellows hope to do. At least, given Boll's reputation and Hammer's rapid descent into mediocrity (if not obscurity), we likely don't need to worry about anyone becoming confused when it comes to the quality of this cinematic grift they're calling a film when it eventually releases. If it's their intention to try and stir up controversy and antagonism, then the sweetest revenge isn't throwing invectives back, but simply ignoring their noise. Don't call it a comeback; they haven't really been here for years.