Duran Duran are one of my favorite rock bands and I spotted something on one of their albums that I thought would be of mild interest.
Check out the sleeve of the album "Medazzaland". http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/ru/3/3e/Duran_Duran_Medazzaland.jpeg I think it's synth nut Nick Rhodes there in the bottom right corner sporting what seems to be a very very close representation of Ledger's Joker makeup. And this is a 1997 album folks! 1997 being for some fans, I do not include myself personally, as the year Batman died on the big screen. So I put it to you did these legendary "wild boys" give us a glimpse at the unforeseen future here? Either Duran Duran sported some kind of crystal ball or somebody at the department of Nolan decided to borrow(steal) imagery from somewhere other than "Beetlejuice".
In fact go and watch some of their videos from about the late 80's into early 90's. Particularly the one for a song entitled "All she wants is". Don't you think as a young guy Nick Rhodes was a bit of a dead ringer for The Joker? Especially in all those flamboyant suits and makeup he loves so much lol Like Prince he has a touch of the Brian Bolland Joker about him with wild rock hair and sly grinning.
Interestingly the album sports the song "Out of my mind" which was the soundtrack theme to the movie remake of "The Saint". Famous for being the film Val Kilmer bailed out on another Batman for. Or perhaps more appropriately that Warner Bros refused to wait on before doing another Batman. The movie of which was co-written by Wesley Strick, former writer of Batman Returns. Phew. And all this from a single Duran Duran image. The world of Batman certainly is a strange, intricate, interconnected web indeed...
The look in that album cover does resemble a lot like TDK's Joker.
I reckon that another possible influence for the Joker's appearance in this movie is a 2001 Elseworlds story called Gotham Noir, where the character is depicted as a snitch who got scarred and left for dead by the mob after Gordon ratted him out.
(https://www.batman-online.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi.imgur.com%2FY9e0dYv.jpg&hash=c6ab7ff4fc2735a936aa252e5d53541cd89e2f36)
Am I the only one who thinks the picture on the right resembles a lot like Ledger?