The newest trailer:

Goosebumps....

You can also watch and download it in hi-res here.


I agree, totally.

They're in good company on the side of evil
HEATH LEDGER and Aaron Eckhart, welcome to Hollywood's elite and gaudy Arkham club.
In the highly anticipated new Batman film "The Dark Knight," which opens July 18, Ledger is stepping into the purple suit of the Joker, while Eckhart will portray Gotham City Dist. Atty. Harvey Dent, who starts the movie as a handsome lawman but ends up as Two-Face, the villain driven insane by disfiguring wounds.
"Harvey Dent is a tragic figure, and his story is the backbone of this film," says Christopher Nolan, the director of the acclaimed franchise-rejuvenating 2005 film "Batman Begins," who returns with Christian Bale again playing the caped crusader. "The Joker, he sort of cuts through the film -- he's got no story arc, he's just a force of nature tearing through. Heath has given an amazing performance in the role, it's really extraordinary."
Los Angeles Times, January 13

Harvey Dent is the focus of The Dark Knight?
If that's really how the movie is setup, then what the hell is with that trailer that was released a couple months ago? Dent appears absolutely nowhere in that. . . .
If this is really the way the movie is going to net out then I think Warner Bros. needs to be careful about the potential reputation damage they've set themselves up for. They created a fully interactive campaign that was all about the mayhem created by the Joker, leading implicitly if not explicitly to the expectation that The Joker would be doing likewise in the movie. . . .
Chris, Movie Marketing Madness, January 16

To re-post what I wrote in the 'Heath Ledger, 1979-2008' thread:

- - -

I hate to be thinking about some comic-book movie right now, but I cannot help but wonder how this will affect the publicity efforts around The Dark Knight. So much of the publicity to date has revolved around Ledger's character, but the director recently said that the "backbone" of the movie is actually ANOTHER character. So will they shift the publicity over to Harvey Dent? And what about the seemingly, unusually raw nature of Ledger's performance as the Joker? Will any of the filmmakers feel that they might have helped to "unhinge" Ledger in any way, by immersing him in that performance? Those are questions I'd hate to be asking myself.

The Heath Ledger thread can be found here. Sorry for the confusion.

To say nothing of future sequels...

Darryl A. Armstrong wrote:
: To say nothing of future sequels...

Yes. I was thinking about this just before I logged in. We know that Chris Nolan is more interested than Burton-Schumacher ever were in bringing back villains from earlier films; reportedly, Cillian Murphy's Scarecrow makes a second appearance in this one. So it is at least POSSIBLE that they do not kill the Joker but, instead, keep him alive for some furher mischief down the road. What's more, I would not be too surprised if they hinted at a specific line of continuation for the Joker's story (even though Nolan has said that the Joker has no real "arc" in this movie but just cuts through it every now and then like a force of nature).

So, it is possible that the loss of Ledger might put the future films in jeapordy. People have already become so impressed with Ledger's take on the character -- based on the trailer and the IMAX preview -- that it could be very difficult to cast another actor in the role, after Ledger has become so perfectly identified with it. This isn't like replacing Katie Holmes with Maggie Gyllenhaal, where many many people seemed to agree that Holmes had been miscast in the first place.

But it is also possible that this film WON'T drop any specific hints about the Joker's future. So, who knows. We'll see.

Did Playing the Joker Kill Heath Ledger?
In a disturbing New York Times interview a few weeks ago, the late Heath Ledger said that the stress of playing the Joker -- a psychopath with zero empathy -- was interfering with his sleep. As he completed filming on "The Dark Knight" in London, he spoke of popping a couple of Ambien and still being able to sleep only an hour, suggesting that he might have felt the need to keep upping the dosage to dangerous levels.
Kyle Smith, January 23

Fate of Ledger's last films uncertain
Warners has a different predicament with "The Dark Knight." Production on Christopher Nolan's "Batman Begins" sequel is believed to largely completed -- principal photography concluded in the fall -- but the initial marketing campaign focuses on the ghoulish Joker character.
To complicate matters further, the studio has just restructured its marketing operation. International marketing topper Sue Kroll now oversees all marketing for the studio in the wake of the exit of former domestic marketing president Dawn Taubin, who developed the "Dark Knight" campaign.
Kroll will likely have to move quickly to rejigger the studio's current phase of the marketing campaign for "Dark Knight," focusing on Ledger's Joker character. This phase of the campaign had been set to run until March.
Variety, January 23

- - -

Hmmm, does that mean they were planning on shifting the campaign's attention to Harvey Dent, then? They just might have to do that a little sooner, I guess.

I would actually be more encouraged to see The Dark Knight if Joker were less of the story. We've seen the Batman vs. Joker story already, and some of the scenes in this trailer remind me of Burton's version (the showdown in the street, for instance). I'm sure Nolan's take on it will be different, but I was hoping they would hold off on Joker's appearance for another film - maybe just hinting at it, like they did in Batman Begins.

One of the (many) things I liked about Begins was how different characters were used - Scarecrow, etc. - so it was not just a repeat of the Burton/Schumacher series. (As a comparison, Superman has had to face down Lex Luther - or a Luther wanna-be - in every movie so far. Give the rich bald guy a rest, would ya?)

So, perhaps a story focus on Two-face will be better for the series - and a better story overall. Though again, that's a repeat character from the earlier series, so time will tell. (I'm hoping the take on Two-face this time is better - the earlier attempt felt like Tommy Lee Jones was trying to out-crazy Nicholson's Joker. I've never had the impression that Two-face is a cackler...)

Warner Brothers updates its websites to mourn the passing of Ledger.

Click on the logo at TheDarkKnight.com and you get this:



Meanwhile, if you go to WhySoSerious.com, you can see this:



Chris at Movie Marketing Madness (a Christian, BTW) writes:

Once again let me state that the passing of Heath Ledger is something that is tragic and I can’t help but think about his daughter and how my sons would react if I were to die suddenly like this. It’s something that should give us all pause.

I don’t want that to get overshadowed by the numerous stories that have appeared, with more to come, on how Ledger’s death will impact The Dark Knight’s marketing campaign, something I did indeed appear on Fox Business Network this morning to opine on. (No video yet but I’m working on it.)

There are serious business issues that can and should be discussed but all that should happen in the context of someone who was loved by his family and friends who’s been taken from this world.

There was talk about re-vamping the promotional campaign for this film. Is this the first poster of the post-Ledger campaign?

No, I saw this poster some time ago on AICN. It's the International teaser poster. Perhaps they're going to start using it in N. America, but it isn't really new.

Overstreet wrote:
: There was talk about re-vamping the promotional campaign for this film. Is this the first poster of the post-Ledger campaign?

Nope, it's been out since January 14.

BTW, has everyone here seen those blurry photos of the Harvey Dent action figure? They're kind of spoiler-ish, or I'd consider posting them here...

Spec: Will Deathstroke Appear in The Dark Knight?
Is this another scoop, and possibly large spoiler, for The Dark Knight originating from New York’s Toy Fair? It’s hard to say. A figurine for Deathstroke, a villainous mercenary, member of the Teen Titans (alongside Batgirl) and fan favorite, was recently spotted in a Mattel toy showcase for the Batman Begins sequel. Deathstroke’s figure wasn’t accidentally placed there, that’s for sure, and over at SHH, they’re told the character won’t appear in the film…but that the figurine still received “Christopher Nolan’s approval.” Hmm.
As IESB notes, a Robin figurine was included way back when with the Batman Returns line and sparked similar controversy about a cinematic appearance. Of course, in that instance, the character did not appear. . . .
SlashFilm, February 21

The New York Times has the trailer in French ... and I think some of the footage in the second half might be different?

"Harvey Dent believes in two things..." Nice.

Concerning the promotional posters and Ledger's death. I stumbled upon a "movie posters" blog that had posted these back in December 2007: one, two, three.

And of course, we've all seen this one lately.

Note: Please *DO NOT* rate a topic before the film even comes out! Unless someone here has seen the film already?

And yet another poster. This one is very 9/11ish...

Way too 9/11-ish, if you ask me.

Huh, that hadn't even occurred to me. I assumed the walls had been blown out from the inside, not smashed in from the outside.

It's just an image, but it begs the question - why is the destruction in the shape of a bat? Did Batman cause it? It's disturbing.

And that, of course, is exactly the reaction the Joker was going for, and why he engineered the destruction that way.

This doesn't look 100% legit to me, but I like it, so ...

Now this is interesting.

Batman and The Dark Knight Trailers: Why so similar?

It's been awhile since I saw the first of the old series, but I remember liking it (a lot more than I liked Batman Begins), so perhaps this is reason for hope.

No likey Burton Batman.

Likey Batman Begins.

Ditto, SDG.

David Smedberg wrote:
: Now this is interesting.
: Batman and The Dark Knight Trailers: Why so similar?

It amazes me how many people have written about this as though it were the real deal -- even if many of them seem to change their mind by the end of their write-ups. As I wrote last night:

It doesn't happen often, but there are times when I wish I had that boxed set of the original Batman films, just so I could fact-check stuff like this. Is the trailer below for Tim Burton's Batman (1989) the real deal, in which case Chris Nolan and the marketing team on The Dark Knight are mimicking the earlier film's ad campaign and are thus twisted geniuses far beyond anything I ever realized? Or did someone edit the trailer for Burton's film together to mimic the trailer for Nolan's film? Christopher Campbell, who starts out by writing as though the old movie's trailer is genuine, leans towards the latter option in the end, and so do I. (For one thing, I doubt that a trailer back then would have followed the Warner logo with a wordy title card giving credit to DC Comics; my hunch is, that bit was pinched from the earlier film's opening credits, to create a parallel to the extra logos that appear at the beginning of the new trailer.) But I kind of wish Nolan and his team were the sort of twisted geniuses who might have done something like this.

Heh, I was already aware. But thanks for reminding me. When I think of movies on which we disagree, SDG, BB is always first on the list. (It's a short list.) My thoughts on a second viewing are here.

Peter, sorry that I hadn't yet seen your blog post when I posted, I'm sure you're right. I was starting to suspect myself when I went onto IMDb and none of the trailers there for Burton's version looked anything like that one.

Heh. My best friend hated BB too (but then he hasn't seen it a second time yet).

Interesting criticisms. I'm not sure I agree that Ra's al Ghul is either unsympathetic or ineffective, but he's certainly not the strongest villain, which is fine with me because Batman isn't yet the strongest hero. It will be interesting to see if The Dark Knight's Batman has grown as a character and a hero and whether he's keeping pace with the villains.

David Smedberg wrote:
: Peter, sorry that I hadn't yet seen your blog post when I posted, I'm sure you're right.

Oh, no apology needed. I just find it kind of funny that so many people seemed to believe it initially ... even though the video first appeared at a COMEDY website ... and even though there was at least that one definite tell-tale sign. (To be fair, I initially "believed" it too for a few minutes, because the websites that introduced it to me spoke of it in credulous terms, too ... and also because I thought it would be hilarious if Chris Nolan and/or his marketing team had done something like that. But skepticism won in the end.)

Incidentally, I have now embedded a leaked video of the new Dark Knight trailer at the end of that blog post. Looks cool.

Burton. Heh. That MTV article on Iron Man said something to the effect that it was the best, most creative superhero film since Burton's Batman, and my heart sank.

Do not lose heart.

If it helps, think Spider-Man. (The first one.)

OH YEAH.

I wrote:
: Incidentally, I have now embedded a leaked video of the new Dark Knight trailer at the end of that blog post. Looks cool.

And now here's another version of that leaked trailer -- and this time, it's embeddable:

Tyler Durden strikes again. But I think he's overdoing it this time. That gimmick wore out about fifteen seconds into the trailer.

I just received this:

: The trailer that will be online Sunday and may be seen in theaters this weekend will almost certainly *NOT* be Jokerized.

Yes, I posted the non-Jokerized version at my blog the day before I posted the Jokerized version.

Ladies and gentlemen... Two-Face.

Works for me.

I like it.

I mean, it grosses me out.

But I like it.

Looks like something from Evil Dead.

I like it a lot, but based on this, I'm a little skeptical. Maybe it's just the image quality, but it does look a little Photoshopped to me. That being said, I hope that it's at least indicative of the look that Nolan is going for.

opus wrote:
: I like it a lot, but based on this, I'm a little skeptical.

It looks plausible to me, even given the other photo, but I have questions about the teeth. Are they going to CGI that?

Incidentally, this Los Angeles Times piece that I've been avoiding for the last few days indicates that the photo Overstreet linked to is, if not legit, at least pointing in the right direction. Aaron Eckhart says: "I can tell you that, basically, when you look at Two-Face, you should get sick to your stomach. Being the guy under all that, well, that was a lot of fun for me. It's like you would feel if you met someone whose face had pretty much been ripped off or burned off with acid. . . . There are fans on the Internet who have done artist's versions of what they think it will look like, and I can tell you this: They're thinking small; Chris is going way farther than people think." The article also says "the wounds are structurally deeper than in the comics".

Incidentally, the reason I've been avoiding this story is because everyone who has linked to it has said that it contains at least one major spoiler. And, uh, yeah, it does. And the spoiler in question is actually hinted at in the new trailer, so I am wondering if this spoiler comes up fairly early in the film, and is thus considered something that doesn't have to be kept all that secret. Or maybe the spoiler got through because no one's name was used (though it doesn't take a whole lot of smarts to figure out who a certain noun refers to). At any rate, BE WARNED before you click on that link.

Tell me about it. If the rumors are true and Eckhart is saying what it appears that he is saying then that trailer served up a major spoiler for all to see.

FWIW, that image of Two-Face has been taken down from Ain't It Cool News and the site they got it from, Comic Book Resource, which seems to me like an indication that the image is genuine (or genuine enough). In the meantime, however, Jeffrey Wells has posted it, too -- and FWIW, one of the commenters there says the image may be "concept art" rather than on-set make-up.