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September 23, 2007

From the Melbourne Sunday Herald-Sun. Old Joker Caine in Awe of Heath.

The worry going in was The Joker.

Says Caine: "Jack Nicholson was the greatest Joker so, you know, how do you top that? Well, Heath Ledger's done it and he's extraordinary.

"He's gone in a completely different direction to Jack. Jack was like a clown figure, benign but wicked, maybe a killer old uncle. He could be funny and make you laugh.

"Heath is like a really scary psychopath. I did one scene with him and he was ready to go and had to come up in a lift and raid our place.

"I didn't see him for rehearsal and when he came out of the lift he was so incredible I forgot my lines. He frightened the life out of me.

I'd never met him before. He's a lovely guy and his Joker is going to be a hell of a revelation in this picture."

September 21, 2007

From The Standard. Holy chaos, batman!

Workers and residents in Central and Western should be prepared for chaos when Batman arrives in Hong Kong in November, a district councillor warned yesterday.

Kam Nai-wai, of the Central and Western District Council, also warned residents to prepare ear-plugs as the producers intend to use a helicopter in the late hours of the day.

Kam's warning followed a district council meeting yesterday at which the distributors for The Dark Knight, a sequel to the hit movie Batman Begins, outlined how the caped crusader intends to move from Gotham City to fight his enemies who are gathering in Hong Kong.

Various sources are saying that Heath will be doing some filming in Hong Kong and we're just waiting to get a confirmation.

September 17, 2007

From la minute. La minute du vendredi 14 septembre

Click the link to access an interview where Heath talks about how much he loves his role as the Joker.

This links to an interview in French, but it has subtitles. Keep watching, Heath's bit is at the end.

September 16, 2007

From get reading. Batman actor ready to fight crime here

From Reading Town to Gotham City - via the Black Pearl - Winston Ellis's career is going from strength to strength.

Now the Hollywood actor, from Shinfield, who is set to appear in 2008's upcoming blockbuster Batman: The Dark Knight, wants to give something back to his home town.

Mr Ellis, who was born in Battle Hospital and attended Alfred Sutton Boys' School, got involved in acting after appearing in Casualty, Holby City and Doctors.

He now has an agent in LA and films a lot on location. He will be filming in Chicago for the new Batman movie, in which he plays baddie 'Gator' .

Mr Ellis, who has a son Ellis Mason, 23, and daughter Aisha Maunders, 11, played another henchman in the Pirates of the Caribbean films and he has also be cast as an "evil general" in a forthcoming flick called The White Flower.

"I might be getting typecast," he joked.

In Batman, Christian Bale plays the title role and Hollywood heartthrob Heath Ledger is rumoured to be playing the wide-grinned Joker.

"Heath's a fantastic man. He is a great actor and a great human being," Mr Ellis revealed.

"My career is really starting to take off now."

Mr Straker, 36, from Hertfordshire, added: "We would like to carry on Pukka in Reading - maybe in the Madejski Academy.

"In Stevenage, having the police back our project and setting up on quite a rough estate was phenomenal. It's a different approach to education."

Click here for the full article.

September 8, 2007

From Boxoffice Prophets. The Dark Knight Movie Preview

A franchise in shambles. Such was the state of Batman at the end of the Joel Schumacher era. The point of no return was putting the caped crusader in a suit complete with nipples. No one needed to see that. In point of fact, no one wanted to see that and the box office numbers reflected it. In inflation adjusted numbers, Batman earned $412.4 million, Batman Returns earned $257.0 million, Batman Forever earned $277.0 and Batman & Robin earned $153.1 million. That's right. Shumacher's final atrocity earned $100 million less (40%) less than any of the previous three installments. So complete a disaster was the fourth Batman movie that it killed two careers - Alicia Silverstone and Chris O'Donnell's - and temporarily halted the forward momentum George Clooney had been building. Warner Bros. surveyed the carnage of their franchise and made the only appropriate evaluation. They nuked it from orbit. It was the only way to be sure.

Enter Christopher Nolan. Having stolen headlines with his brilliant, pleasantly obfuscating work in Memento, Nolan had grown to be the It Director in Hollywood circles. All he needed was the right project to leverage his indie-honed sense of purpose into mainstream movie blockbuster success. He was faced with a decision upon three very different choices. He could continue the Batman story from where it left off, an option no one preferred. He could fast forward to a dystopian near-future and implement the recently created world of Batman Beyond, an intriguing premise that will occur some day in a movie theater. Or he could do what no movie or television show based upon Batman had ever done. He could show the evolution of a man named Bruce Wayne into a deeply tormented, righteous crusader who created a makeshift costume in the shape of a bat. This latter scenario allowed for Nolan to put his stamp on the character in a way that had never been done before, so he was readily drawn to it.

The results went beyond best case scenario. In a day and age where all movies, particularly action titles, open well then disappear from theaters, Batman Begins managed a respectable $48.7 million opening weekend, but the true demonstration of its popularity was in its lasting appeal as well as the critical and viewer consensus that it was a cinematic triumph. Batman Begins earned $205.3 million domestically, $371.9 million worldwide, and merited a Rotten Tomatoes score of 84%. Immediately hailed as one of the best comic book adaptations ever, Nolan's work completely undid the carnage accidentally left in the wake of Batman & Robin. Greatness was achieved, a franchise re-secured. Best of all, a sequel idea was hatched at the end of Batman Begins.

Fast forward to now, and audiences are clamoring with anticipation to see what Nolan does for an encore. We know that his next film, The Dark Knight, re-introduces the ultimate villain in the land of comics, The Joker. The trick here is that unlike the Batman re-boot, Nolan faces a difficulty in that the iconic character was already performed brilliantly by Jack Nicholson in 1989. Almost two decades later, will audiences readily accept someone else in such an iconic role?

Nolan believes that they will, but the key lies in the way he will implement The Joker. The laughter will be dialed down. Mankind's innate fear of clowns will be dialed up. Way up. The Joker looks like a victim of Nip/Tuck's Carver. His mouth has been brutalized, an example proving the rule. A picture tells a thousand words. After decades of cartoonish Blam!, Ka-Pow! and Bort! action sequences, the director went an entirely different way. He embraced the Frank Miller ideal for the character of Batman - that he was a fucked up vigilante loner driven by demons even he doesn't understand, while he fights in a world where 9/11 would be the type of catastrophe people like The Joker attempt every day. This more adult Batman is not family friendly, perhaps limiting the box office appeal from attaining Spider-Man heights. He is, however, engaging and novel in the current realm of cinema. A clash between Batman and The Joker, matter and anti-matter, should make for not only financial success for the project but also one of the most memorable movie duels since John McClane matched wits with Hans Gruber.

September 6, 2007

From Cinema Blend. Catwoman And Joker For Batman 3

It may seem a little early to be worrying about a third Batman movie while the second one is still filming, but if Batman Begins has taught us anything about Christopher Nolan it's that he plans ahead. Batman Begins set the stage for The Dark Knight, with references to the appearance of the Joker in the next film. It's likely that Nolan will do the same thing with The Dark Knight in setting up a third Batman sequel, and we have a surprising bit of information on who may show up in it.

One of our most reliable, long time scoopers just sent us the following tidbit: "Word is that Heath Ledger could be coming back in the next sequel which will have Two Face as the main villain." In Batman Begins, the movie's main bad guy was dead by the time the film was over. Ledger plays the Joker in The Dark Knight and if this is true then it means that he may end up surviving to torment Batman again. Assuming Heath is any good as Mr. J, I like the idea of Joker sticking around in the background of future film, making life miserable for Bats. He is after all, his chief nemesis. It makes sense for him to keep haranguing Bats.

Even more exciting than the idea that we may get the Joker in more than one movie is the identity of another villain who may be in Batman 3. According to our source, "it could also include a certain female feline as well." Bear in mind that the script for Batman 3 hasn't been written yet, so it's all just talk at this stage. But if this really is something Nolan is kicking around for a future Batman project, then don't be surprised to see a few hints at the future arrival of Catwoman in The Dark Knight.

THIS NEWS UPDATE CONTAINS SPOILERS.

September 1, 2007

From My Fox Chicago. Building Blown up for Batman Movie

Film crews working in Chicago blew up a building today as part of a scene for the movie "The Dark Knight" - the latest in series of Batman movies. It's set to be released in the middle of next year. Production has been going on in Chicago for the last few months, with several large stunts taking place, but this one is by far the biggest. That's saying quite a bit - since one of the stunts involved flipping over a semi-trailer!

The building demolition/implosion/explosion happened at the old Brach's Candy Factory on the west side of Chicago. The factory, empty for several years - was dressed to look like "Gotham General Hospital" - complete with a large red cross and pharmacy sign. Demolition experts packed a four-story building with explosives and cleared the area..

Chicago-based Film Critic Adam Fendelman from HollywoodChicago.com has been following this planned explosion for several weeks and let myfoxChicago.com know this was going to happen on August 29 - precisely at 2:00pm.

If you watch carefully, you can see a black helicopter flying through the smoke and flames - that is the a camera helicopter filming the action. Several flashes can be seen as the explosion starts - then one side of the building collapses, and the rest of the building explodes in an amazing burst of flames.

And after the initial surge of smoke and flames, a large column of smoke filled the sky on the west side of Chicago. In the video clips below, the destrucion is evident, there is almost nothing left where the building used to stand.

Click here for the full article, still photos and three videos of the demolition.

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