A week or so back the trades reported that “Full Metal Jacket” and “Married to the Mob” star Matthew Modine is headed to Gotham City for a round of backgammon with bats.

Modine, who played – funnily enough – ‘Joker’ in “Full Metal Jacket” (1987) will, according to Showbiz 411, be playing a corrupt politican in “The Dark Knight Rises”.

Reports Roger Friedman :

The great news from the London set of “The Dark Knight Rises” is that Matthew Modine is about to start filming key scenes in the new Batman movie. I’m told that Modine –whose character’s name has been reported as Nixon– is playing an appropriate character for his name. “He’s a politician and a key villain,” says a source. This does sound like director Chris Nolan is creating an homage to another Nixon we knew long ago. At least Modine is getting to shoot his scenes in a safe studio in London. When I ran into producer Charles Roven in Cannes a couple of weeks ago he was regaling pals about the “Dark Knight Rises” shoot in Jodhpur, India. The film is using the ancient Mehrangarh Fort as a key setting for what will likely be one of the biggest movies of all time…

Christopher Nolan directs “Dark Knight Rises” starring Michael Caine, Gary Oldman, Anne Hathaway, Morgan Freeman, Tom Hardy, Marion Cotillard, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and, oh, Christian Bale.