Heath Ledger's Joker to appear in new Batman?

I take this rumour with a grain of salt, but word has it that Christopher Nolan could use unseen footage from The Dark Knight to insert Ledger's Oscar-winning performance into the next film, The Dark Knight Rises.

A report over at Showbiz Spy says fragments of cut scenes and CGI will be used to work The Joker into the new movie, which Nolan is writing as we type this. That way the writer/director can create continuity between the two movies and pay tribute to Ledger's Joker one last time. The sequence would be brief and only done with the consent of the late actor's family.

If done right, and kept very brief, this could be great. I like how the Scarecrow appeared at the beginning of Dark Knight, and this would continue that tradition. The only thing is it all feels a bit . . . creepy. If it were any director other than Nolan I'd balk at the idea completely.

The Dark Knight Rises is scheduled for release in July 2012.