Batman : The Dark Knight Blog

Archive for August, 2008

Film buffs campaigning for Transformers actress to play Catwoman in next Batman project

Batman fans are petitioning for Megan Fox to play the villain in the next instalment of the movie franchise.

An online poll found Catwoman is the baddie most filmgoers would like to see take on the Caped Crusader – and the 22-year-old Transformers star is the actress they want to play her.

But producers are said to favour Cher for the role previously played by Michelle Pfeiffer and Halle Berry.

‘Cher is [director] Christopher Nolan’s first choice to play Catwoman,’ an insider tells the Daily Mirror. ‘He wants her to portray her like a vamp in her twilight years.’

For the follow-up to The Dark Knight Johnny Depp is rumoured to be joining the cast as The Riddler and Philip Seymour Hoffman has been linked to the part of The Penguin.

By DAVID GERMAIN – 3 hours ago

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Batman’s rich alter-ego Bruce Wayne has added half a billion dollars to his riches. “The Dark Knight” on Sunday became the second movie in Hollywood history to top $500 million at the domestic box office, raising its total to $502.4 million, according to estimates from distributor Warner Bros.

The film hit that mark in just over six weeks, half the time it took “Titanic,” which reached $500 million in a little more than three months. “Titanic,” the biggest modern blockbuster, remains No. 1 on the domestic charts with $600.8 million.

Despite its brisk pace, “The Dark Knight” is not expected to approach the total for “Titanic,” which put up smaller numbers week after week but lingered at the top of the box office for months.

Dan Fellman, head of distribution at Warner Bros., said he expects “The Dark Knight” to finish at about $530 million, though it could reach $550 million if business persists as strongly as it has.

“I keep raising the number because it just keeps holding better than expected,” Fellman said.

“The Dark Knight” will climb to about $505 million by Labor Day, the conclusion of Hollywood’s busy summer season. That amounts to nearly one-eighth of Hollywood’s overall summer revenue of $4.2 billion, which edges the previous summer record of $4.18 billion set last year, according to box-office tracker Media By Numbers.

Factoring in today’s higher admission prices, “The Dark Knight” would need to take in about $900 million to match the number of tickets sold by “Titanic.”

Labor Day weekend was generally sleepy at theaters, with a rush of new movies failing to find much favor with audiences. Through Sunday, Paramount’s comedy “Tropic Thunder” remained No. 1 for the third straight weekend with $11.5 million.

The 20th Century Fox sci-fi thriller “Babylon A.D.” with Vin Diesel debuted in second place with $9.7 million, while Overture Films’ espionage drama “Traitor,” starring Don Cheadle, opened at No. 5 with $7.9 million.

Premiering at No. 7 was Lionsgate’s spoof flick “Disaster Movie” with $6.2 million. MGM’s campus comedy “College” opened well outside the top 10 with $2.1 million.

The top 12 movies took in $75.2 million, down 23 percent from the same weekend last year, when “Halloween” opened with $26.4 million.

“This is kind of an inauspicious end to a really incredible summer,” said Paul Dergarabedian, president of Media By Numbers. “We limped past the finish line.”

From what I’ve heard/read, Johnny Depp is rumored to be playing the Riddler

Director Christopher Nolan calls me his “muse.” It all began quite accidentally one day when I was his script girl on the set of “Memento.”

I came to work that day a little hung over. I had spent the evening with Joe Pantoliano and Guy Pearce rehashing old debates about famous actors. Joe insisted that of the two actors, Corey Haim and Corey Feldman, that Haim was the better of the two. Guy insisted that Feldman held that distinction.

Anyway, this went on for quite a while. During that time the booze was flowing freely. The discussion finally reached its explosive conclusion when Guy took a swing at Joe. Realizing that it was my responsibility to make sure that these guys didn’t mark up each other’s faces thus causing a production delay (and admittedly, without thinking things through fully), I jumped into the middle of the melee.

I managed to break it up but not before I was blind-sided with a haymaker. I think I was out for a few minutes. When I came to, I was lying in a puddle of rum and everyone was gone.

I dragged myself to work, not even bothering to freshen up or change my clothes. Today was the first table reading of the script and I needed to make sure that everyone had a copy.

I was still in a fog and my head felt like one of those descriptive similes you’d find in a hard-boiled detective novel. I staggered to the Xerox machine, dropping the script along the way. The pages scattered everywhere. I managed to scrape them all up and shove them into the feeder tray of the copier. Thankfully, the machine had not spent the previous evening tying one on and it expertly printed out 30 stapled copies of the script.

I passed them out and immediately the actors began murmuring. To the background of page turning, the murmuring became tittering and then giggling, totally degenerating into outright guffaws.

Chris Nolan walked into to the room just as the laughter had reached its peak.

“What’s going on here?” he demanded.

“Your script girl really blew it, C.N., she copied the script backwards.”

“What?” Chris said as he grabbed a copy from the pile.

At first, I thought he was going to hit the ceiling, but as he continued flipping pages, a small grin crossed his face, gradually widening to a full smile.

“That’s it!” he said. “This is the twist I’ve been looking for!”

He excitedly embraced me in a big bear hug. “You’re a genius, Jan!”

Ever since then, Chris has called me his “muse.”

I guess I wasn’t too surprised when my phone rang early one morning last summer. It was Chris on the other end.

“Jan, I need your help with one of my actors.”

I knew that Chris was in the beginning stages of principal photography on his new Batman sequel.

“Sure, Chris, how can I help?”

“Just get down to the set as quickly as you can,” he said, “You’ll see.”

As I walked on to the set I immediately picked up on the stress level. Chris saw me enter and he made a beeline towards me.

“Jan, thanks for getting here so quickly,” he said, “We have a problem with Heath.”

The news of the signing of Heath Ledger to play The Joker had filled the industry newspapers and created quite a stir on the celebrity gossip shows.

“What’s wrong, Chris, you’ve dealt with temperamental stars before,” I said.

“It’s not that, Jan; Heath is a real gentleman but he apparently has his own…how can I put this gracefully?… “ideas” about the makeup and wardrobe for The Joker.”

He led me to the makeup trailer. When Chris and I entered you could cut the tension with one of the Joker’s phoney knives. Chris was the first to speak.

“Heath, do you remember Jan? I introduced you to her at the last Academy Awards presentations.

“Ah, yes,” Heath said, “The Movielady.”

“She used to work for me and I highly value her opinion,” Chris said. “Would you mind sharing your wardrobe and makeup ideas with her?”

Heath picked up a photo from the table and, without a word, he handed it to me.

At first I didn’t understand.

“Heath, I don’t get it,” I said, “This is a photo of Ronald McDonald.”

“Exactly!” he said, “Ronald McDonald, the scariest clown next to John Wayne Gacy. Don’t you remember those horrifying commercials during the 1980s? McDonaldland was a carnival sideshow and Ronald was the King of the Freaks. Those damn commercials still give me nightmares. Who better to portray The Joker than the demon that haunted our childhood dreams?”

I quietly turned to the others in the room and asked them to leave. I wanted to talk to Heath alone. I sat down next to him.

“Heath, Heath, Heath, I understand what you are trying to say, but I think you aren’t giving yourself enough credit here. You have just come off a film where you were praised for your nuanced portrayal of a stereotypical character. It earned you an Oscar nomination. Now, you want to resort to this, this betrayal of your considerable talents. I’ll admit the yellow pants and red fright wig are eye-catching, but you don’t need those sad props to project menace and insanity. You have that creative ability within you. Dig it out, Heath. It’s there just waiting for you.”

He closed his eyes and put his hands over his face. He stayed that way a long time and I could sense the inner dialog he was having.

“Jan,” he said looking straight into my eyes, “thank you.”

I quietly left the room and found my way off the set.

And the rest, as they say, is history.

Despite a healthy $12 million opening Wednesday, Pineapple Express went down in smoke over the weekend with a $22 million gross that failed to nudge The Dark Knight out of the top slot.

The first movie since 2003’s Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King to win the box office four weekends in a row, Warner Bros.’ Batman-Joker epic took in another $26 million last weekend.

That pushes the film’s domestic total to $441 million. Surpassing Shrek 2, The Dark Knight is expected to topple current No. 2 all-time grosser Star Wars ($461 million) by next weekend.

Paul Dergarabedian of Media by Numbers tells Wired.com: “For a movie to make this much money, this fast, is unprecedented.” Dergarabedian credits Dark Knight’s sustained momentum to the fact that “it actually lives up to the hype.”

Titanic’s $601 million record should remain “safe,” Dergarabedian says, noting that Ben Stiller’s war movie spoof Tropic Thunder will likely end Dark Knight’s winning streak next weekend.

“The previous Batman movies opened on average at $47 million, whereas Dark Knight made a record $67 million on opening day alone,” Dergarabedian said. “What’s the difference here? I lay the credit for this movie’s success at the doorstep of Heath Ledger’s (pictured) performance.”

By Hugh Hart

Actor reportedly suffered several broken ribs, injured knee.

By Jocelyn Vena

Oscar-winning actor Morgan Freeman, 71, was seriously injured in a car accident late Sunday night in Mississippi, a spokesperson for the Mississippi Highway Patrol told CNN.

Freeman was driving on Highway 32 with an unidentified female passenger, near Ruleville, Mississippi, when his car swerved from the road and flipped several times at 11:30 on Sunday night, according to the report; he was then airlifted to Regional Medical Center in Memphis. A hospital spokesperson said that the actor has been listed in critical condition, but police told The Associated Press that he was talking before being taken to the hospital. TMZ reported that Freeman broke several ribs and injured his knee; the condition of his passenger had not been announced at press time.

“They had to use the jaws of life to extract him from the vehicle,” Clay McFerrin of Charleston, Mississippi’s Sun Sentinel told AP. “He was lucid, conscious. He was talking, joking with some of the rescue workers at one point.”

McFerrin arrived to the scene of the accident not long after it occurred and said bystanders were trying to get a look at the actor. When one fan tried to take a photo of the actor, he said Freeman quipped, “No freebies, no freebies!”

Freeman lives on a ranch in Mississippi with his wife, Myrna.

The actor, who won an Oscar for his role in 2004’s “Million Dollar Baby,” plays Lucius Fox in the summer blockbuster “Dark Knight.” The film is currently in its third week at #1, racking in $394.9 million domestically.

He is set to play Nelson Mandela in “The Human Factor,” which is currently in pre-production and slated to be released next year, although how Sunday’s accident will affect that role remained to be seen at press time.

By Steve Gorman

LOS ANGELES, Aug 5 (Reuters) – Batman sequel “The Dark Knight” smashed yet another Hollywood record as it cleared the $400 million domestic box office mark in 18 days, less than half the time it took “Shrek 2″ to reach that milestone, Warner Bros. Pictures said on Tuesday.

After a third straight weekend at No. 1 in U.S. and Canadian theaters — grossing $42.7 million Friday through Sunday — “Dark Knight” amassed $6.3 million on Monday to bring its domestic tally to $400.03 million, the Time Warner Inc.-owned (TWX.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) movie distributor reported.

The previous record holder, the computer-animated storybook spoof “Shrek 2,” crossed the $400 million mark in 43 days back in 2004, according to box office watcher Media By Numbers.

Warner Bros. has said it expects “Dark Knight” to add at least another $100 million to its North American ticket sales, surpassing the $461 million haul of 1977’s “Star Wars” and its two reissues. “Star Wars” ranks as the No. 2 movie of all time in the United States and Canada.

While “Dark Knight” appears destined to become only the second movie to gross $500 million domestically, the $601 million record held by 1997’s “Titanic” seems unlikely to sink, said Media By Numbers president Paul Dergarabedian.

“That $600 million is kind of one for the ages. It’s held for 10 years,” Dergarabedian told Reuters. “It’s very, very difficult to get from $500 million to $600 million. But the fact we’re even talking about it tells you something about the strength of ‘The Dark Knight’ and what a phenomenon it is.”

Adjusted for inflation, though, “Titanic” ranks at No. 6 in the record books, far behind “Gone with the Wind” at $1.4 billion, according to tracking firm Box Office Mojo.

“The Dark Knight,” the second of the newly revived Warner Bros. film franchise based on the adventures of D.C. Comics’ Batman character, is a follow-up to 2005’s “Batman Begins.”

Both films were directed by Christopher Nolan and star Welsh actor Christian Bale as the Caped Crusader. Interest in the sequel has been stoked by Heath Ledger’s edgy turn as the villainous Joker, in what turned out to be the Australian actor’s last completed role before he died of an accidental overdose of prescription pills in January.

The movie already has broken several domestic box-office records, including the biggest single-day of all time for its first day in theaters ($67.2 million); biggest opening weekend ($158.4 million) and fastest to $200 million (five days).

Through Monday, “Dark Knight” had grossed an additional $210.2 million internationally, but has yet to launch in six of the top 10 overseas markets, including Japan, France and Spain, Warner Bros. said. (Editing by Bob Tourtellotte and Eric Walsh)