Batman : The Dark Knight Blog

here are two picture i’ve find while surfing the net, are they the new Two-Face ?

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LAS VEGAS, Nevada (AP) — This time out, there’s no vat of chemicals to explain how Batman’s greatest enemy came to be the twisted sociopath known as the Joker.

Director Christopher Nolan said there will be no changes to the film or marketing of “The Dark Knight.”

Heath Ledger’s Joker springs full-blown in this summer’s “The Dark Knight,” the sequel to 2005’s “Batman Begins” that was previewed for theater owners Thursday with a clip showing the new movie’s opening sequence.

Unlike 1989’s “Batman,” in which the deranged, disfigured clown appearance of Jack Nicholson’s Joker resulted from a dip in chemical goo, “The Dark Knight” starts right in with the bad guy in all his psychopathic glory.

“I believe whatever doesn’t kill you simply makes you stranger,” Ledger’s depraved Joker cryptically tells an accomplice in the opening scenes, in which he pulls off a daring bank robbery.

In an interview at ShoWest, a theater-owners convention where distributor Warner Bros. showed off footage of “The Dark Knight” and the rest of its summer lineup, director Christopher Nolan said it was almost inevitable that the sequel would pit Christian Bale’s Batman against the Joker.

“The psychopathic clown, that’s an icon to stand with the guy with the ears and cape,” Nolan said. “It’s just a wonderful visual relationship, and it’s a terrifying image.”

Long before Ledger’s death of an accidental prescription drug overdose in January, the marketing of the movie had focused on the villain’s rise to power and his creepy appearance.

There had been speculation among critics and fans that the studio and filmmakers might take a different approach to selling the film in light of Ledger’s death, but the marketing has gone on as originally planned.

“I think he’d be very pleased to see we’re just moving ahead as is,” Nolan said. “If you try to honor somebody, you honor them by respecting their work and putting it out there for as many people to see. He was immensely proud of the work he did on the film. I feel a great burden to present that in an undistorted form.”

“The Dark Knight” is due in theaters July 18.

The last time producer Charles Roven saw Ledger was when he showed the actor the very footage that was screened at ShoWest.

Fans have been buzzing over the anarchic style Ledger brings to the role in the movie’s trailer, but the actor himself was utterly taken by what he saw of himself on screen, Roven said.

“He was just blown away by his own performance,” Roven said. “He said, `Can I see it again?’ So he was really, really thrilled.”

Bale — reprising his role as the wealthy Bruce Wayne, who moonlights as the emotionally tormented crimefighter — said he watched the footage Thursday with a heaviness of heart over Ledger. But Bale said he hopes the movie will serve as a testament.

“I hope that this can be seen as a celebration of his work,” Bale said. “He did a phenomenal job. It was a real joy working with the man. It was a joy knowing him, as well. I liked him a great deal, and I liked also how seriously he took his work.”

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A campaign ad made to the main points in a phone call received from Harvey Dent regarding his run for Gotham City D.A.

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The poor Dark Knight marketing team has been pretty much at a standstill for the last month, since Heath Ledger died suddenly and the entire Joker-centric marketing campaign came to a halt. We don’t really know what’s going to be next for them, though with the June release date looming, presumably there will be some trailer and posters coming up really soon.

For now, though, the fans have pretty much taken over for the professionals. The new Dark Knight poster over at CanMag.com is, as they call it, almost 99% definitely fake, but they also agree it’s pretty cool. For the first time in a while we see an emphasis on Batman, with all the detailing of the Batsuit in clear view. There are, of course, lots of bats flying around in the background, very reminiscent of the Batman Begins posters and therefore almost certainly fake. Poster designers know their shit, and they don’t tend to repeat motifs for sequels.

Even though you probably won’t see this poster in a theater near you, it’s nice to just get people thinking about Batman again. It remains one of the most-anticipated movies of the summer for millions of people, and eventually we’ll all be at the point where we’re far enough from Ledger’s death to look forward to what will be one of his last performances. So bring on the fan art! Even if it’s fake, it stokes the fires of excitement, and that’s fun for everyone.

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January 22, 2008, 4:42 pm
Actor Heath Ledger Is Found Dead

By Sewell Chan

The actor Heath Ledger was found dead this afternoon in an apartment building at 421 Broome Street in SoHo, according to the New York City police. Mr. Ledger was 28.

At 3:31 p.m., a masseuse arrived at Apartment 5A in the building for an appointment with Mr. Ledger, the police said. The masseuse was let in to the home by a housekeeper, who then knocked on the door of Mr. Ledger’s bedroom. When no one answered, the housekeeper and the masseuse opened the bedroom and found Mr. Ledger unconscious. They shook him, but he did not respond. They immediately called the authorities.

The police said they did not suspect foul play. Officials said pills were found near the body.

Mr. Ledger, a native of Perth, Australia, won acclaim for his role as a co-star in “Brokeback Mountain”, a 2005 film. The film, based on a short story by Annie Proulx about two cowboys who fall in love, won critical acclaim. Reviewing the film in The New York Times, the critic Stephen Holden wrote, “Mr. Ledger magically and mysteriously disappears beneath the skin of his lean, sinewy character. It is a great screen performance, as good as the best of Marlon Brando and Sean Penn.”

Mr. Ledger met the actress Michelle Williams while filming ‘’Brokeback Mountain.” The two actors fell into a very public romance. They had a daughter, Matilda Rose, who was born on Oct. 28, 2005. They moved to Brooklyn, but then separated last year.

In an interview in London for an article published in November, Mr. Ledger said told The New York Times, ‘’I feel like I’m wasting time if I repeat myself.” He said in the interview that he was not proud of his latest role, in Todd Haynes’s “I’m Not There,” in which Mr. Ledger was one of a half-dozen actors depicting the musician Bob Dylan. ‘’I feel the same way about everything I do. The day I say, ‘It’s good’ is the day I should start doing something else,” said in the interview.

Calls by The Times to Mara Buxbaum, a publicist for Mr. Ledger, and Steve Alexander, the actor’s agent, were not immediately returned this afternoon.

Thomas J. Lueck contributed reporting.

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There has been a rather interesting development in terms of my most anticipated movie of 2008, The Dark Knight.

Speaking to The Los Angeles Times, director Christopher Nolan has revealed that The Joker won’t in fact be the key element of the story.

“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”, said Nolan.

Revealing the true villain, Nolan adds “Harvey Dent is a tragic figure, and his story is the backbone of this film”.

Harvey Dent, played by Aaron Eckhart, is Gotham’s District Attorney who is said to start the movie as himself, and end the movie as Two-Face.

The Joker and Two-Face however aren’t the only two villains who’ll be terrorising Gotham in The Dark Knight as Cillian Murphy will also return to continue his role as Scarecrow. “It’s a dark and complex story,” said Nolan, “and the villains are dark and complex as well.”
I’m already a tiny bit too excited about The Dark Knight and this news certainly isn’t helping my case. Will The Joker be the cause of Harvey Dent’s transformation into Two-Face? Possibly.

Either way, our favourite Dark Knight will have no shortage of villains to go up against. I can only hope the movie doesn’t suffer the same fate as Spiderman 3, where too many villains proved to be a very bad idea.

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Batman (originally referred to as the Bat-Man and still referred to at times as the Batman) is a fictional comic book superhero co-created by artist Bob Kane and writer Bill Finger (although only Kane receives official credit)[1] and published by DC Comics. The character made his first appearance in Detective Comics #27 (May 1939). Batman’s secret identity is Bruce Wayne, a wealthy industrialist, playboy, and philanthropist. Witnessing the murder of his parents as a child leads him to train himself to physical and intellectual perfection and don a bat-themed costume in order to fight crime. Batman operates in Gotham City, assisted by various supporting characters including his sidekick Robin and his butler Alfred Pennyworth, and fights an assortment of villains influenced by the characters’ roots in film and pulp magazines. Unlike most superheroes, he does not possess any superpowers; he makes use of intellect, detective skills, science and technology, wealth, physical prowess, and intimidation in his war on crime.

Batman became a popular character soon after his introduction, and eventually gained his own title, Batman. As the decades wore on, differing takes on the character emerged. The late 1960s Batman television series utilized a camp aesthetic associated with the character for years after the show ended. Various creators worked to return the character to his dark roots, culminating in the 1986 miniseries Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, by writer-artist Frank Miller. That and the success of director Tim Burton’s 1989 Batman motion picture helped reignite popular interest in the character. A cultural icon, Batman has been licensed and adapted into a variety of media, from radio to television and film, and appears on a variety of merchandise sold all over the world.

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