I'll reveal just what the building to get blown up is, but be warned: that info is what many would consider a spoiler...
It seems that special effects just aren't special enough for The Dark Knight. Fox news have video footage of a Chicago building coming down. In the plot, the building is playing Gotham Hospital. Naughty Joker.
If you're at Wizard World today, Saturday 11th August, then you're in for a Dark Knight treat. Maybe not where and when you expect it, however...
Adam Fendelman has the first info now.
I have one gem of a Dark Knight piece and hopefully, I'll be able to publish it very soon. It's a corker. It's something people really want to see...
In the meantime, I missed the Latino Review piece and have been asking around, looking for some idea of what they had originally posted. This is the best I can do at the minute, but please, please, if you have any more info, please let me know. Obviously, this is a post jam packed full of spoilers, and if you're at all worried about that, don't read on. At all.
The police get rather distracted by the 'fake Batman' I told you about before.
Harvey Dent is 'Two Faced' by The Joker. It happens rather late in the story, but there's still time for him to seek revenge.
Batman prevents Two Face from killing The Joker, and this is when Dent finally goes utterly nuts.
The Joker manages to get Batman's identity out of Rachel Dawes, but Bruce uses the fake Batman to his advantage to confuse The Joker and get away with it.
Dawes dies.
[EDIT:And now, thanks to Tourettes Haiku I have even more. Here's the spoiler material - possibly verbatim - from the Latino Review piece:
THE BATMAN WANNABE: There’s a fake Batman roaming the streets of Gotham City. He's 'for' the cops, they believe that he's the real Batman. And it's a connection to the Batman Begins scene with Bruce, Henri Ducard, Ra's Al Ghul and many ninjas, the 'invisibility' scene.
THE BAT-POD: The “motorcycle” is not a part of the Thumbler (the ‘Batmobile’ vehicle Batman drove in Batman Begins), it's another Lucius Fox's gadget. The Bat-Pod has one big action sequence in the film.
TWO-FACE: Many have clamored for information since it was revealed that Harvey Dent (played by Aaron Eckhart) will become Two-Face in The Dark Knight. However Two-Face has only one scene, which comes at the end of the film.
RACHAEL DAWES: Remember the Joker’s dialogue in the trailer? TONIGHT PEOPLE WILL DIE, I’M A MAN OF MY WORD” It’s from a big party scene where the Joker (Heath Ledger) kidnaps Rachel Dawes (now played by Maggie Gyllenhaal) and she tells the Joker that Bruce Wayne is The Batman. However Batman has a scene in the film with the Joker and through some trickery has The Batman and Bruce Wayne in the same room. This causes Joker to think that Bruce Wayne is NOT Batman and that Rachel lied to him. Rachel is also having an affair/having a romance with one of the main characters of the film and, no, it is not Bruce Wayne.
THE BIG FINALE: Someone dies - a main character dies. We aren’t going to tell you who dies but what we can say is that promotional materials already reveal who dies, you just have to look for it. You can slice through Latino Review’s Dark Knight photos and find the huge clue? IT COULD! However this is a big fight at the end in which Harvey wants his revenge, wants to kill The Joker, but Batman stops him and Harvey is going crazy. And now he is against The Batman.
The Joker now knows that Bruce is Batman, but Harvey does not.
Most of this is stuff we've heard before - indeed, some of it is in that spoiler video I posted a long time ago - but some of it is new. What's more, there's plenty of stuff not revealed. For example: how Harvey Dent is involved in the trickery that makes Batman and Bruce Wayne appear in the same room; how many doubles and pairs there are throughout the film - Batman/fake Batman, Batman/Joker, Two Face, the two boats of hostages and so on...]
[EDIT: And BrokenUnion are now disputing these spoilers outright]
The old links for the Dark Knight trailer and Why So Serious website now redirect to Rent-A-Clown. Thankfully, you can still nab a copy of the trailer from Sendspace if you need to.
There's been a lot of Dark Knight action in the last 24 hours or so. Flash mobs, teaser trailers, stills and chat. The still is below and you can either stream or download the trailer from an official site, but the flash mobs, well, if you want one now, you'll have to organise your own.
[EDIT: Spoiler warning! Sorry this wasn't in here in the first place]
Thanks to the little line of you who e-mailed me the news that Two Face will be seen with his coin in The Dark Knight. Some of us had been wondering.
Kudos to Drew McWeeny, once again, for one hell of a scoop over at AintItCool. Apparently, Samuel L. Jackson will be taking on the role of Nick Fury for Marvel Movies, and today, he's on set shooting a scene as that character for the Iron Man movie.
A kind of cross-movie synergy between superhero movies has been a long time coming, but I can see it taking off in a big way within just the next two or three years. And I don't mean simply Avengers and Justice League style films, I mean special appearances from one character in another character's movie. Marvel have been manoeuvring on a business level in ways that have made this much easier, but there's always been the possibility of Superman in Batman, or vice versa, and I suppose there still is, even though Singer's film and Nolan's seem wildly incompatible.
I always got a kick out of Michael Keaton's Ray Nicolet appearing in both Jackie Brown and Out of Sight - not least because I love Michael Keaton. But I love Sam too, so even though I doubt very much that Iron Man will be anything like Out of Sight, much less Jackie Brown, this idea still appeals to me greatly.
I'm sorry, but I'm getting sick of all of these Dark Knight e-mails from people I don't know. I just don't know if I should be grateful to receive them or angry at people for wasting my time - and, as you may see it, your time too. I guess the answer is that I don't know - yet. If/when any of them turn out to be true, then I'll definitely be grateful. Retroactive gratitude is the best I can offer, I guess.
Here's two completely different, utterly conflicting pieces of information I have received in the last couple of days. As far as I know, they could both be a complete and utter crock, but let's take a look.
Oh... and if anybody can send me a copy of the script and put me out of my misery, I'd love them forever.
Piece one comes from the original source of the Riddler story from a few days back:
MSN have a clip of the Bat-Pod on this morning's Today show. Get a good look at the vehicle and - if memory serves, I have her name correct - Meredith Viera atop it like Bale's double will have to be.
[EDIT: And thanks to Verbal, you can now directly download this video for the ages. He went awry at first, then sorted it out. Brilliant stuff]
The LA Times have a little piece about the Bat-pod, Batman's motorbike thing from The Dark Knight. It seems to leave him a little exposed and...
...well, I won't get too far into knocking it until I find out how it works in the film. There's another image at the LA Times.
Last night, AintItCool ran the following image of the Batbike. They've since deleted the entire post. Their version of events is that this is a real Batbike, as it were, just from a Batman ride, not from The Dark Knight.
I don't know how true this story is. I'm interested in why they'd remove the entire post relating to this image whereas several other fakes have been left up for all time and just marked as fake.
There's something they're not telling us.
Sometimes, I truly hate Blogger. Hate it.
I just wrote a very long Movie Minesweeper post, complete with links, then posted it, and...
Nothing.
I looked back at the apparently oft-saved post in drafts and all that remained was:
"- Tavis Smiley's show on PBS has turned into a week-long preview for"
Here's a reprise of everything, in a nutshell. I can't find all of the links again - for technical reasons too tricky/embarrassing to go into. But here's the content I remember, and you can Google anything you are desperate to know more about.
Tavis Smiley is showcasing Jonathan Demme's New Orleans' documentary all week. The lead girl from the new Kevin Williamson show is to be in a film called Get Some. Evan Almighty is being marketed to Christians in particular, at least on one front. Empire claim they have an exclusive - Aronofsky is making a Noah film. But we've known that for weeks - some exclusive. I probably moaned a bit about the whole Batman/IMAX silliness (or maybe not, but here I go now anyway). On The Lot has quite poor ratings. Aaron Eckhart is going to be in a new film or something. Some films are coming out. Some films are being made. Oh - and some producers have optioned the Lew Griffin books, but I've never heard of them. There was loads more, but I don't remember it. If it crosses my path again, I'll mention it later.
And that's why I hate Blogger. Sometimes.
I'd like to present the really frustrating bits and pieces from the new IMAX/Dark Knight press release, confirming just how screwed The Dark Knight is going to be.
Here's the confirmation of a disruptive ratio change:
The marriage of footage filmed with IMAX and 35mm cameras in the final feature will have a major impact on the audience's viewing experience, whether seeing The Dark Knight in an IMAX or traditional theatre. When the scenes shot on IMAX cameras are shown in IMAX theatres, the aspect ratio will morph to 1.43 to 1, expanding the image to fill the entire screen and magnifying the overall effect, both literally and figuratively.
And here's Nolan not understanding why a decent sized cinemascope screen beats IMAX hands down (at least for this kind of film):
Director Christopher Nolan added, "In continuing the story of such a great icon I'm thrilled to be able to expand the scope of the film, not just in terms of its story, but in giving Batman and The Joker the largest possible canvas on which to face off. No existing technology compares with the IMAX format in terms of its ability to throw the audience into the action, and we're very proud and excited to use this technology in a way that no one has before."
[EDIT: Read right to the bottom, please]
Below is an e-mail I received this evening, pretty much verbatim - but be warned, it contains what may be seen as serious Dark Knight spoiler material.
Hello Brendon, I have been a fan of your blog for a pretty long time. Right now I'm working as part of the crew of the Dark Knight film. Right now I don't do much, mostly just helping around the sets, but I like it.
There's a small restaurant around that some of the set people eat at called "Little Katie's". It's known by most of us that Chris Nolan regularly eats there as well. People have of course tried to listen for plot points of the story, but during lunch he doesnt usually talk about it. Anyway, the crew was given a free day a while ago, and I decided to grab something to eat at Little katies. To my surprise, Chris Nolan and Charles Rovan were having lunch aswell. I grabbed the booth behind theirs and listened to their conversation.
They stayed about two hours and didn't talk much about the film, until about 10 minutes before they left. Chris Nolan referenced Anthony Michael Halls DEATH in the film. I listened much closer, and I heard a little more. From what I heard, it sounds like Anthony Michael Hall is indeed a wannabe batman, or a "Imitation Hero" as Chris nolan put it. I also heard Nolan reference the scene in which Batman beats the "Imitation hero" to DEATH. I'm not sure why Batman would do that, because thats about the time they left, but I was stunned.
I went to Batman-on-Film with this tidbit, but was ignored, so I sent it again and again, with no response. I figured if Jett over at BOF doesnt want this, then it's yours to do with whatever you want. I hope I helped, Brendon.
(I love it when a source just lets me cut and paste their e-mail rather than, oh, I dunno... pretend I don't know which actress is up for the exciting comics-to-film role.)
Well, I have heard from a source I know to be linked to the film who also thought Anthony Michael Hall had a role like this (they'd worked it out by process of elimination) so this strikes me as a potentially very interesting piece of the Dark Knight puzzle. Does anybody else know any more information? And does anybody know why I can't find Little Katie's referenced online anyplace? Is this all just a hoax? Or is Little Katie's just too little?
Let's give the e-mailer the benefit of the doubt for now...
[EDIT: Or maybe not. Here's a rebuttal from Batman On Film:
I never received an email from this source as he indicated.
USA Today have broken the news that The Dark Knight will be released to IMAX cinemas. Sounds like a good move, eh? It's not that simple however... we'll get into that in a moment... but first... the pictures.
Yep, they also included two pictures - one of masked bank robbers, one of whom may be The Joker (my money's on the one in the back) and another in which, indeed, The Joker appears without his mask. Let's take a look at them, before we go on...
Quite a cleverly chosen pair of pics, I feel. I've been quite impressed by the marketing of this film so far.
So, back to the problems. What's up with this decision to shoot on the IMAX format? Well, there's two things.
The first isn't specifically an issue this time round but in the case of every feature film shot on IMAX. Simply put, composing images and editing them together for a screen of that size is a trickier thing than working for, say, a decent sized cinemascope frame.
Imagine a simple conversation comprised of two set-ups, each of them over the shoulder shots. Now imagine the sequence cutting back and forth between the two of these pieces of footage. The eye has to travel, on each cut, from side to side of the screen, and this takes time, particularly as the eye has to read a large area ofd information to find a new focal point. And this time is instrumental in the precision of an edit. The difference in scale between a small cinema screen (think about those in the dark recesses of a smaller multiplex, where films wind up after five weeks on release or so) and an IMAX screen is enough to require different edits. Really - to make your cuts absolutely smooth in even a simple conversation scene can require a frame or two, maybe even three or four, of alteration between these two scales. That's assuming, of course, the perfect edit is something we're seeking.
Okay, this isn't a deal-breaker when we're only talking about conversations, about the ping-pong back and forth between two over the shoulder shots. When you start dealing with fast action, multiple angles and complicated shifts in screen geography, however, you might start finding your film unravelling a little. The kinetics of a sophisticated action sequence can be disturbed quite seriously by not taking the scale of the finished product into account.
So, the question now becomes, does Nolan leave a buffer in his edits to allow for the massive scale of the IMAX screen, of the immense, detailed images that the eye has to navigate - even though this might make the film seem a tiny bit sluggish in a normal auditorium or on TV? If he can't work the format pefectly, he'll be left with a trade off between clarity and pace when, really, both are equally important.
That's always an issue, and not specific to this case. And there are solutions, there are ways to stage and cut your sequences to sidestep the problem. But these solutions are tricky to keep in sight, aren't something directors and editors are widely skilled or experienced in, and not everybody is going to be able to pull it off.
And of course, to make matters worse, Nolan is using the IMAX format for only the action scenes of his film - where the above problem will be at it's most noticeable. But this fact also leads us on, however, to the other problem, the one specific to this project.
According to USA Today, the IMAX format is only being used for four action sequences. Nolan explains that these four scenes will 'fill the IMAX screens' - the implication being that the others won't.
Just a few days ago I was listing films that are in more than one aspect ratio during their running time - suddenly, here's another for the list. In the other cases, however, the change was always made horizontally: the film widened, or narrowed. That isn't the case here - this time, the film is to become taller, to expand vertically. And while a horizontal shift isn't exactly invisible, it's much less distracting than a vertical change - at least at this scale.
So, four times throughout his film, Nolan is to suddenly shift the window on his film's world. Four times throughout his film, he's to take his audiences by the scruff of their necks and pull them back into their cinema seats, remind them just how artificial an experience they are having. This is just the same problem the IMAX version of Superman Returns had (without the sideshow bonus of 3D). It's simply not a good idea - and four times, throughout the film? And just as momentum is supposed to be building?
Terrible move. Terrible.
My early recommendation is to avoid the IMAX release of The Dark Knight altogether. Hopefully the compositions in the action scenes will work fine on a normal cinema screen too, and the film will therefore at least have one 'optimum' version.
We're only just starting to see the damage that DVD and home cinema have really done to cinema. They've squashed audience sizes just enough that studios, directors, exhibitors and distributors are turning to William Castle novelty and chicanery, no matter the cost to the film. I hope they stop these silly sideshow gimmicks right now and simply get on with the matter of making all of their films in 3D. That's not only the best solution they have, it represents a genuine step forward in cinema.
- Want to preview the soundtrack to Ocean's 13, see some stills and read an interview with David Holmes? Sure you do.
- There's a rumour that Batman might be down at the London Eye today. On a bank holiday? Don't think so. Bet you a quid this was dreamt up by Red Ken's tourism elves.
- Yet another computer-generated Star Wars trailer... this time for an upcoming combo-edition of the Lego Star Wars games (fun but really very slight - no depth to them at all, really).
- Pirate copies of Hostel 2 have turned up, with the name S. Mooridian watermarked into the print. At least we know who is going to be fired/blacklisted/executed for their part in this. There's little point me telling you not to go near pirate DVDs and so on, but I will anyway. Don't.
- Cannes has closed up for a year, awards were given, reputations made.
- The murder of cricket coach Bob Woolmer looks set to inspire a new film from Mahesh Bhatt. Bizarrely, he plans to dramatise the real murder investigation in the context of a fictional love story.
- You can directly download the trailer for Larry Fessenden's The Last Winter. It looks truly great and apparently it is.
Miranda Fox, apparently, set a chain of actions in motion that lead to me receiving these pages from The Dark Knight. Let's all thank her, because I think we're all enjoying this.
Today, we'll be looking at a count of extreme polic brutality.
The Gotham City cops have a thug handcuffed to a chair in a basement. Seems that this Thug is one of The Joker's crew, possibly apprehended after or during the bank job. They cop pulls out every intimidating technique they can think of:
COP
The Mob used to dump bodies here. They wouldn't be found for months. Maybe years. So tell me, where can I find your boss?
This just makes the Thug laugh - "an inside joke" - which might mean this is the very room in which The Joker had previously been left for dead. Or maybe not, because they go on...
THUG
There's no need to find him because... he's gonna find you.
The Cop rips off the Thug's blindfold.
COP
You want to play games!
The Cop pulls his gun and fires a shot over the Thug's head. He then shoves a gun up against the Thug's head with real malice.
THUG (rattled)
You wouldn't...
But would he? Well, what do you reckon? Of course he would.
COP
I have. Starting with the knee caps.
The Cop shoots the Thug in the knee.
There's no direction for the Thug to scream or wail or anything - just to sob. That's one tough Thug.
THUG (sobbing)
I don't know anything.
COP
You giggle, you poke fun...
THUG
I'm sorry - I'm sorry...
Okay, maybe he's not so tough...
The Cop shoots the other knee cap. The Thug SCREAMS.
Took both kneecaps, though.
So, the cops are looking for The Joker, they have one of his boys, and his boy isn't telling. The moral background to this scene - the cop doing what he has to do, as he sees it - will be more interesting in light of the page we'll be looking at next...
Watch this space.
The Joker picture was a fake (see one source part of the image at the bottom of this post) and the creator has explained his means; somebody called Miranda Fox apparently previously touched or saw the Dark Knight script sides I was sent, so there's been a cry for me to credit her - for what, exactly, I don't know, because she certainly wasn't my source and she hasn't been in touch to fill me in, but, okay - well done Miranda, for whatever you did that isn't clear exactly, but please leave a comment below that tells the world just what it was; William Fichtner confirmed to Batman on Film that his role was in the opening scene - which means the film opens with the bank job, and removes any hope for a 'Bat Day Afternoon' format.
SPOILER: Fichtner must only get a couple of lines before he goes down with a bullet in him. Nifty casting, really - he doesn't look like a red shirt.
I've had a handful of e-mails alerting me to the fact that Michael Keaton - as of yet, the best screen Batman, with Adam West in second - had been spotted on the set of The Dark Knight. Could this be true?
Well, it could be. But there is a much more likely explanation. Michael is currently in Chicago, sure, but he's there to direct The Merry Gentleman. There's every chance he was as curious as the rest of us and wandered over to snoop on the Bat-shoot, but it is every bit as likely he was spotted on the set of his own film and confusion ensued.
There's a chance, I suppose, that Nolan will sneak in a Keaton cameo... maybe. Perhaps just in a crowd scene? I'm not expecting it myself, however.
After yesterday's first look at some scenes from the Dark Knight script, here's... well, today's second look at some scenes from the Dark Knight script.
SPOILER ALERT
Remember the scene towards the top of Tim Burton's Batman, in which the criminals discuss their fear of The Bat? There's something similar here - downplaying the supernatural element discussed in Burton's film, therefore toning down any idea that superstition plays a part in fear, but not removing it completely:
A DEALER and a BUYER are in the middle of a transaction.
DEALER
I want eighty for the bag.
BUYER
Eighty? It was sixty last week.
DEALER
Inflation. Ain't it a bitch.
The Buyer digs in his pocket. The Signal appears in the air. The Dealer spots it and steps back.
DEALER (CONT'D)
No, man. I don't like it tonight.
BUYER
What're you, superstitious? You got more chance of winning the powerball than running into him...
Inflation? Come on. Couldn't this simply pass without the padding? Or couldn't they at least have something less predictable and insipid to say. Clearly not an important scene, but as clearly not an interesting one either. We'll see when the movie hits if either the buyer or the dealer do run into Batman, but if they don't... well... I'm at a loss as to what other point this may have. Maybe Batman is about to intervene here and then spots the signal? Who knows.
Batman does turn up in another scene. A 'babbling junkie', complete with the stereotyped' "bugs crawling all over me" hallucination, is being violently interrogated by a mobster's bodyguard:
BODYGUARD
Who sold you the stash?
JUNKIE
They're going to eat my insides! PLEASE!
The Bodyguard whips out a gun.
BODYGUARD
Come closer. I'm gonna unscrew your brain.
DOGS START BARKING. The Bodyguard looks around, scared.
BODYGUARD (CONT'D)
(nervous)
He's here.
This being a Batman film, we also take a trip to Arkham Assylum. Cheer now. There we meet a prisoner that, I believe, is The Joker:
THE PRISONER sits, smiling, content. Stephens guards the door.
THE PRISONER
I want my phone call.
STEPHENS
That's nice.
The Prisoner looks at his hands, which have been cuffed again.
THE PRISONER
How many of your friends have I killed?
STEPHENS
I'm a twenty year man. I can tell the difference between punks who need a little lesson in manners... (crack his knuckles) And the freaks like you who would just enjoy it.
Stephens folds his arms. Turns away.
STEPHENS (CONT'D)
(quiet)
And you killed six of my friends.
...if that prisoner isn't The Joker, I'll be very surprised. The Joker is definitely the subject of a conversation between Commissioner Gordon and a 'terrorized cop'. In that scene, some cops have been stripped and bound, and The Joker and his crew made off with their uniforms and guns. Does this tie into the bank siege? Does The Joker pull a switch, putting the hostages into the clown masks with him and his cohorts disguising themselves as cops? Possibly. Pure speculation.
Part of The Joker's plan does seem to involve drugging folk. Witness the fate of a Thug in a holding cell:
One of the men, walks over, clutching at his belly.
FAT THUG
I don't feel good.
DETECTIVE
You're a cop killer. You're lucky to be feeling anything below the neck.
FAT THUG
(agony)
Please. My insides hurt.
DETECTIVE
Step away from the bars.
FAT THUG
The boss said he would make the voices go away. he said he would go inside and replace them with bright lights. Like Christmas.
DETECTIVE
That's great. Please step-
The Fat Thug COLLAPSES. The Detective grabs his radio.
DETECTIVE (CONT'D)
I need a medic in holding.
Bright lights? Like Christmas? Either a) this Thug is a weird simpleton; b) his dialogue is drug induced; or c) there's some dodgy writing afoot. A little bit of a) and b), perhaps?
This film is quite the cop film, in many ways. Prisoners, cells, uniforms abound. Compare this to Batman Returns, say, in which the police play no real part. The more I read, the more The Dark Knight is coming across like a redo of 70s police/detective dramas, this time with a great hulking, rubber suited lunatic at the heart of it. And a man with green hair.
Not a bad approach at all, and a clear continuation of Batman Begins which was, truth be told, rooted both in Burton's first Batman and a whole heap of comics.
So, is The Dark Knight going to compare favourably to The Taking of Pelham 123, Night Moves, Dog Day Afternoon, Klute, Assault on Precinct 13 or Dirty Harry?
Not the best of them, I'm sure.
More later. Watch this space. And check out the first installment in the meantime, if you haven't already done so.
[EDIT: There are/is a newer installment(s) of this script report now online. Come in the front page to see everything, or dabble with the labels below]
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