Six promotional images surfaced on Sunday featuring Christian Bale as Batman and Heath Ledger as the Joker in “The Dark Knight”. These are from the Italian Web site Uruloki.
3:23 p.m. update on 12/3/07: These images have been pulled from Uruloki and AICN at the request of Warner Bros. Though I haven’t yet been contacted by Warner Bros., I’ve pulled them as well.
Latino Review’s Kellvin Chavez posted a brief report on Nov. 6 revealing new plot details about the introduction of Heath Ledger as the Joker in “The Dark Knight”. If you don't want to know, don’t read below.
Heath Ledger (left) as the Joker in “The Dark Knight”. Photo credit: Warner Bros.
The Latino Review post, which is labeled as an exclusive, is citing an anonymous “executive high up on the Warner Bros. food chain” following a dinner in New York city. Spoiler information is below.
“The Dark Knight” begins with the Joker robbing a huge bank (we’ve seen photos of this everywhere). The bank is where the mob and all the gangs in Gotham keep all their money.
The Joker takes this money and holds it “ransom”. The Joker then says to the mob and the gangs of Gotham: “If you help me take down Batman, you’ll get your money back. If not, I’m going to burn it all.”
This is how the Joker assembles his army to take down Batman.
“Sam PH” went out to the Brach’s Candy factory on Tuesday before its implosion for “The Dark Knight” to bring us a new report.
Warning: This is spoiler information.
I went by there today [Tuesday] and took a few photos from the perimeter fence. I talked to a couple of the local residents. It looks like it will happen about noon from what they have been told.
They won’t be dropping the whole building, I’m guessing. Rather, they’ll just blow out the new glass facade they have installed on the north side of the standalone building.
Sticks of dynamite are wired along the bottoms of the new windows. Aside from the new facade, they added a big red cross on the factory side with a few new windows and a “pharmacy” vertical sign.
The north face of the pedestrian crossover has been nicely recovered and the word “emergency” has been painted on it.
The neighborhood on the north side of the plant (to Chicago Avenue) will be closed off on Wednesday from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. to anyone except residents with ID or residents who have been previously authorized to enter, according to a memo given to residents [Tuesday] afternoon.
Cicero will be closed from Lake Street to Chicago Avenue, but not all day.
I managed to snap a few photos [Tuesday night] before the sun disappeared. As the northeastern parking lot is full of cast and crew trailers, they likely won’t be demolishing the eastern building.
That makes sense since it probably won’t be in the shot. There are tons of Gotham vehicles on the Cicero parking lot. There are corrections vehicles, SWAT, taxis, limos and news trucks.
The place looks like a Gotham car dealership! There is lots of traffic in there. They opened the south road through the alley probably to allow unimpeded construction traffic and movie vehicles.
12:07 p.m. update: At 12:05 p.m. today, I received this note from a reader:
I just got a call from a friend who is playing a doctor as an extra on set today (Aug. 29). [The person] told me that Heath Ledger, Anthony Michael Hall and Chris Nolan were all there.
The person also said they intend to blow up the building today. This place has cops and crew on almost every corner. There will be three independent explosions.
1:47 p.m. update: At 1:34 p.m. today, I received this note from a reader:
At about 1 p.m., I spotted GCN news crew at the corner of Wells and Randolph. There were two gentlemen standing near a GCN-labeled news camera (it looked like a Betacam), which stood on a tripod.
One of the guys turned around and headed into a nearby Dunkin’ Donuts. I then spotted an ID card on him with the letters “RFK” (“Rory’s First Kiss”).
2:18 p.m. update: At 2:18 p.m., the administration building blew up. We first saw sparks and fire on one side of the building and then the whole structure crumbled. Visuals can be found here.
Following up on my memorial coverage from “The Dark Knight” over the weekend, here is yet another report. This source goes by the name “El Hombre Murcielago”.
Warning: This can be considered spoiler information.
As a sharp-eyed observer at the memorial service filming, I can tell you that I saw Gary Oldman – confirming what your other reader gave you – Aaron Eckhart and Maggie Gyllenhaal up on the podium with the mayor.
The mayor was giving a speech in memory of commissioner Loeb. Heath Ledger and Anthony Michael Hall were also on set for the weekend.
Word was that it was the biggest shot (in terms of people and logistical issues) in the movie. The number of extras will be augmented from about 900 to 1,000 (including cops and civilians) with tech gimmickry.
An Aug. 18 report from Confidential on Australian site News.com.au describes an on-set accident with Maggie Gyllenhaal while filming “The Dark Knight”. The report says Heath Ledger came to her rescue.
He may be playing a villain in the latest Batman flick, but Heath Ledger was a hero on set recently.
Confidential hears the Aussiewood hunk came to the rescue of co-star Maggie Gyllenhaal when her skirt caught fire while shooting “The Dark Knight” in the U.S.
Ledger, who plays the Joker in the “Batman Begins” sequel, dashed to [her] aid when a special effects generator fell over and sent flames onto her skirt – saving [her] from harm.
Wizard Universe, which gingerly controlled information flow surrounding “The Dark Knight” at Saturday’s panel, on Saturday at 9:45 p.m. released a transcript of its star-studded Q&A.
The release of the transcript came just 65 minutes after Wizard’s report describing the Wizard World Chicago panel in detail.
Moderated by DC publisher Paul Levitz, the Q&A included director Chris Nolan; actors Christian Bale, Aaron Eckhart and Gary Oldman; story writer David Goyer; and co-screenwriter Jonathan Nolan.
While you’re welcome to read the transcript in full here, I’ve picked out some of the interesting parts below:
Chris Nolan: This time, we wanted to expand the scope of the shooting ... to include real buildings, real streets and more location shooting.
You wouldn’t believe how many people in Chicago come up to me and thank me for bringing this film to life.
Chris Nolan: The great thing about working with [Bale] is his ability to do a lot of the physical work and the stunts.
Bale: It was like riding a bike. The second you put on the suit, there’s only one way to play it.
Eckhart: I cannot add to what [Oldman] just said (about preparing for a role). It would be blasphemy and I’d be kicked out of the union.
Moderator: I’d like to know what you guys thought of all the viral marketing done for the movie and if you know if we can expect anything else, say, around December. [Audience laughs]
Jonathan Nolan: I don’t know anything. [Audience laughs]
Chris Nolan: There’s nothing we can say about it.
Moderator: Were you guys behind it?
Jonathan Nolan: No. [Audience laughs]
Moderator: Aaron, does something happen to your face in this film?
Eckhart: I don’t speak English. [Audience laughs]
Moderator: What are the most important aspects of the Joker you needed to incorporate in this film?
Chris Nolan: We looked at it the other way around. We found a way of looking at the character and saw what role he would play in the film.
The Joker card at the end of the first film created the right kind of feeling. That hook got us thinking about the next one.
We were looking through comics and Joker stories and started writing the treatment before we even wrote “The Prestige”.
Moderator: What can you say about Heath Ledger’s performance thus far?
Oldman: He is going to knock everyone out of the park.
FOX Chicago has sent me new behind-the-scenes footage of “The Dark Knight”. In this clip, we see Heath Ledger as the Joker preparing for a scene. Next, we see video of the scene being produced.
Heath Ledger as the Joker while filming “The Dark Knight” in Chicago Photo courtesy of FOX Chicago
Warner Bros. on Friday released the following “The Dark Knight” photo of the Joker (Heath Ledger) threatening Rachel Dawes (Maggie Gyllenhaal). The film is scheduled to open on July 18, 2008.
Photo courtesy of Warner Bros.
The following Joker photo has also turned up. As a reminder, his makeup is supposed to look slopped on in an amateur way.
At 11:53 p.m. on Thursday, a reader submitted to me an excellent “The Dark Knight” video clip that clearly shows the Joker’s semi truck flip, which was scooped on HollywoodChicago.com on July 24.
It’s said this is the first time this has ever been done on film. I’m being informed that the stunt is one of the largest in “The Dark Knight”. This post is an exclusive.
Here’s the scooper’s story and details about this first-time stunt.
I work for an investment bank in downtown Chicago. I had a great view of the filming action [on July 26], which was the Joker’s semi being flipped end over end.
Heath Ledger was on hand in full makeup – but not full wardrobe – and there were a ton of people working on the set. My view was much better than even Chris Nolan’s and I was able to get this video and pictures.
If you look beneath the truck in the pictures, you will see a black piston and then “teeth” on the front grill. The piston is what created the force to send the truck over and the teeth were used to dig into the asphalt to help flip it over.
The picture of the white helicopter shell is a prop. Apparently they blew up a helicopter [on the night of July 25] and did it again [on the night of July 26].
The helicopter was the starting point for the Joker’s semi. It was on fire when I left work after they flipped the truck.
As I was walking to the bus, I saw just the cab of the Joker’s truck with a bullet hole-filled windshield. It was attached to a tow truck rigged with lights and possible cameras.
1:14 a.m. update: These are the photos submitted to me from the same reader.
11:46 a.m. update: After I first posted video of this truck flip at 12:22 a.m. on July 27, FOX Chicago posted a video of the sequence from a different vantage point.
Consistent with how I’ve been describing the stunt on HollywoodChicago.com, they included this text:
[On the night of July 26,] crews did their biggest and most elaborate stunt yet as part of [“The Dark Knight”] being filmed now in Chicago. Keep watching after to see more behind-the-scenes footage.
A colleague tipped me off that “The Dark Knight,” which is the latest film in the Batman franchise, will start filming in Chicago on Saturday, June 9.
The project is expected to impel $45 million into the Windy City economy and hire 390 locals, 250 actors hired daily and some 6,000 extras.
In April 2007, Chicago-native director Chris Nolan shot an early action sequence for the film in Chicago. Beginning Saturday, Nolan returns with stars Christian Bale, Morgan Freeman, Heath Ledger and Maggie Gyllenhaal.
In 2004, “Batman Begins” shot for three weeks in Chicago. “The Dark Knight” is currently scheduled to open on July 18, 2008.
Derived by Chicago film critic and publisher Adam Fendelman, HollywoodChicago.com delves deeper and humanizes the stars in local and national film, theater, TV and DVDs.
Adam Fendelman currently serves as editor-in-chief and publisher of MidwestBusiness.com. In addition, he has been enraptured by film his whole life. These film reviews and interviews reflect a lifelong passion.
Six promotional images surfaced on Sunday featuring Christian Bale as Batman and Heath Ledger as the Joker in “The Dark Knight”. These are from the Italian Web site Uruloki.
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