 Also in 2008 , Eckhart portrayed the comic book character , Harvey Dent , in Christopher Nolan 's The Dark Knight , the sequel to the 2005 film Batman Begins . Nolan 's decision to cast Eckhart was based on his portrayal of corrupt characters in the films In the Company of Men , The Black Dahlia , and Thank You For Smoking . He noted in his depiction of the character that " [ he ] is still true to himself . He 's a crime fighter , he 's not killing good people . He 's not a bad guy , not purely " , while admitting " I 'm interested in good guys gone wrong . " The Dark Knight was a big financial and critical success , setting a new opening weekend box office record for North America . With revenue of $ 1 billion worldwide , it became the fourth highest grossing film of all time , and the highest grossing film of Eckhart 's career . Roger Ebert opined that Eckhart did an " especially good job " as his character in the feature , while Premiere magazine also enjoyed his performance , noting that he " makes you believe in his ill @-@ fated ambition ... of morphing into the conniving Two @-@ Face . " 
