Almost everyone in Batman gets an origin story of some sort -- so what about Alfie? Michael Caine, who says he's never read the comics about the faithful valet or the Caped Crusader he worked for, came up with one of his own, just so that he could understand the character better.
"I made him a sergeant in the Special Air Services, the SAS, in the British army," Caine said. "He got wounded, but he didn't want to leave the army, so he went to work in the officer's mess, in the canteen, which is where he learned how to do cocktails and mixed drinks and cook. Thomas Wayne went back and there and saw him, which is how he got hired."
It's "a work release program for great British actors" Roger Ebert said of the "Harry Potter" franchise. So how can it possibly be that two of the greatest British actors haven't yet appeared as part of Dumbledore's Army? 
Ever since I barely had to ask Aaron Eckhart a question to get him to cough up that he was indeed going to appear as 
Not so long ago, he played a magician's helper in "The Prestige," so why not take a turn as a magic man himself? That's just what Michael Caine is going to do in his next film, the previously unannounced "Is There Anybody There?"
** FOLLOW MTV MOVIES BLOG ON TWITTER! **