Armie Hammer Lands Lead Role in Vigilante Movie The Dark Knight (‘Very Different’ from the Batman Movie, Though)

Armie Hammer is circling a new role in a movie with a familiar title.

On Tuesday, Jan. 7, Variety reported that Hammer, 38, is set to play the lead character in a movie titled The Dark Knight, by German director Uwe Boll. The movie is Hammer’s second known project after he returned to Los Angeles in August and began working in films again following a series of allegations of physical and sexual abuse made against him in 2021 that stalled his film career.

In The Dark Knight, which is based on filmmaker Boll’s original script, Hammer portrays a character names Sanders who becomes a vigilante. “While his crusade transforms him into a social media sensation and a hero in the eyes of the public, the local police chief sees him as a menace to society and aims to take him down,” an official synopsis for the movie reads, per Variety.

While The Dark Knight‘s title — and premise — may immediately remind audiences of Christopher Nolan‘s beloved 2008 Batman movie, the film’s executive producer Michael Roesch told the outlet, “Our movie is very different from Chris Nolan’s movie, so there is no danger of confusion.”

“The story of The Dark Knight couldn’t be a more current topic, and I’m excited to bring it to life with this excellent cast,” Boll added to Variety.

Hammer previously announced on Instagram in October that he would return to acting in an upcoming Western titled Frontier Crucible; that title and The Dark Knight will make for his first film appearances since 2022’s Death on the Nile. In November, he opened up about his experience returning to a movie set and spending time away from his children — daughter Harper, 10, and son Ford, who turns 8 this month, whom he shares with ex-wife Elizabeth Chambers — while working again on his podcast Armie HammerTime.

“I’m not used to being away from them, I don’t think they’re used to me being away,” he said. “So it feels really nice to be going home to see my kids after an amazing week and I’m incredibly grateful.”

Following the 2021 allegations made against the actor, the Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office declined to prosecute Hammer for at least one alleged sexual assault in May 2023, citing “insufficient evidence to charge Mr. Hammer with a crime” at that time.

“I just shot a movie. And I have two more movies coming up and a potential TV show that a head of a studio signed off on,” Hammer said during a Jan. 1 interview on comedian Tom Segura’s Your Mom’s House podcast. “I’m turning jobs down. My dance card’s getting pretty full,” he added later in the conversation. “That first job I turned down after four years of this s— — I mean, it was the best feeling I’ve ever had.”

The Dark Knight does not yet have a U.S. release date.