I've never said that David Yates is the best director PERIOD or that Part 2 is the best movie ever made PERIOD or that if you disagree you just "don't get it." Those would be absolutely ridiculous things to say because they're total conjecture.
LMAO, I always say Period just to livin up the excitement man!
As far as Nolan being the bestest ever!! well, IMO the "bestest ever" wouldn't be capable of such a shit scene like this one. Almost every line of dialogue is atrocious, Zimmer's cringe-worthy music that plays when REAL Batman appears is just terrible, Scarecrow manages to have a cringe-worthy line "NOW THAT'S MORE LIKE IT...." and the combat shots are amateur.
In fact, a lot of TDK has scenes like this, with terrible dialogue all over the place and corny "wasn't that just badass" shots like when Batman spins the Batpod around and the camera quickly pans up to him like YEAH WASN'T THAT JUST SO COOL FAP FAP FAP kind of like Scarlet Johansson in Iron Man 2 when she's "kicking ass" and everytime she does something "cool" she whips her head up and flings her hair back.
It's destructively awful and Nolan is guilty of it time and time again.
Ry likes to click buttons and post pictures/gifs to converse. No wonder he likes the new additions to the forum.
Actually with this being the millionth Nolan debate on the forum why on earth would I care to join in this nonsense...its actually been beat to death like a dead horse. Its always the same people, the same points, the same etc etc.
It just doesn't intrest me. Id rather click a button that get caught up in a pile of dog vomit that gets me nowhere and stinks up the place tbh.
Yep, when someone disagrees it's always "YOU JUST DON'T GET IT STUPID"
Please, DL. I know you can make better arguments than that.
In today's world people have varying opinions on everything, for reasons that we can try to understand but we may never understand. Some women may, at the end of the year, think The Vow was the best film of 2012. To some that's laughable. To the film buff crowd it's hysterical. To the regular General Audience, I.E. non film buffs it's completely understandable. Those women loved The Vow... so what. Who cares that films like "Les Miserables" or "The Great Gatsby" are chiming in with important takes on classic stories, with tons of clout behind them that the GA just doesn't give two shits about. So fucking what that Les Miserables is probably the best longstanding play in the world and is a defining epic by Victor Hugo that hardly anyone could ever hope to replicate.
So what. That woman liked The Vow better.
Are you watching closely?
Nolan comes along and unites the two. The film buffs and the GA can finally agree on his gangbuster, The Dark Knight. Film buffs will remember him for Memento, the GA is talking about this guy and his awesome take on the Batman. Yes, the GA thought TDK was awesome. That's why it rang to the tune of $533 million domestically and $1 billion worldwide. It transcended the genre. But it also made people think beyond your usual bad guy/good guy routine. The Joker introduced chaos, in ways that Nolan has.
Nolan didn't go to film school. He hasn't done anything by the books other than just making films he thinks audiences will love, but they will also have great admiration of because they are shrouded in mystery. He has this figured out. Any aspiring filmmaker would kill to be in his position.
People who don't have all day to study books and films like we do can finally love a work like Inception and use their brains a little instead of just watching the old fashioned "love story gone bad then fixed in a typical way" movie. Or a brainless action fantasy like we get so often.
I even threw in a quote from "The Prestige" in the middle of this essay just because I like for other people to think, I want someone like RyGuy to have read that and thought "Hey I know where that's from LOL."
Frankly people need more than dead serious works or flatly brainless works. They need films like Nolan's that can't feasibly happen but also feel like they could. Films that don't have to explain everything, yet they keep the audience drawn in the whole time. I don't care about the technicalities of films, I really don't. So Nolan is my hero. He alienates people from both sides that I mentioned but he's extremely popular around the core. In the core you find Nolanfans.com
"If you make yourself more than just a man... If you devote yourself to an ideal... You become something else entirely- A Legend."
I agree with all of that. Nothing you said there goes against anything I've said. All I've said is that I think Nolan is an overrated director. Good, absolutely, but I don't consider him to be some cinematic messiah. However, I won't dispute anything you've said there.
No, we're having a conversation. That's what people are supposed to be doing on message boards anyway.
PFFFFFFT I could copy and paste one of the other two dozen Nolan convos on here. Its all the same. Richard, Brett or Stafford defend him...You, NumberEight or Pumpkin Juice critique him.
This is a board about The Dark Knight Rises. Not Christopher Nolan's film work, or movie direction. I'm sure theres an old thread to bump for that, if not we have a lovely new discussion button ;)
It's about TDKR, which Nolan directed. It's fair game. You don't like that? Sorry. Not everyone has seen the film yet, and conversations tend to branch out and spiral out of control often anyway.
However, I don't see what it matters, as long as we're having fun right? I mean, that's what the philosophy seemed to be in the thread I made about the new forum additions-- people are having fun and posting more, so what does it matter?
It's about TDKR, which Nolan directed. It's fair game. You don't like that? Sorry. Not everyone has seen the film yet, and conversations tend to branch out and spiral out of control often anyway.
However, I don't see what it matters, as long as we're having fun right? I mean, that's what the philosophy seemed to be in the thread I made about the new forum additions-- people are having fun and posting more, so what does it matter?
I really just have one question: is there any memorable scene in Rises like the lighten up scene in BB and the interrogation in TDK? I really hope there is.
I really just have one question: is there any memorable scene in Rises like the lighten up scene in BB and the interrogation in TDK? I really hope there is.
I really just have one question: is there any memorable scene in Rises like the lighten up scene in BB and the interrogation in TDK? I really hope there is.
It's about TDKR, which Nolan directed. It's fair game. You don't like that? Sorry. Not everyone has seen the film yet, and conversations tend to branch out and spiral out of control often anyway.
However, I don't see what it matters, as long as we're having fun right? I mean, that's what the philosophy seemed to be in the thread I made about the new forum additions-- people are having fun and posting more, so what does it matter?
Connections. I'm "in" with people at a few nearby theaters and of course they like to have little pretentious "WE GET TO SEE IT FIRST LOLOLOSL" screenings sometimes. This is the first one I was ever invited to though.
No, we're having a conversation. That's what people are supposed to be doing on message boards anyway.
PFFFFFFT I could copy and paste one of the other two dozen Nolan convos on here. Its all the same. Richard, Brett or Stafford defend him...You, NumberEight or Pumpkin Juice critique him.
This is a board about The Dark Knight Rises. Not Christopher Nolan's film work, or movie direction. I'm sure theres an old thread to bump for that, if not we have a lovely new discussion button ;)
Forgive me master... But film discussion is waning, tonight I'll have to move to the spoiler forum and it'll all be over :(
"If you make yourself more than just a man... If you devote yourself to an ideal... You become something else entirely- A Legend."
I agree with all of that. Nothing you said there goes against anything I've said. All I've said is that I think Nolan is an overrated director. Good, absolutely, but I don't consider him to be some cinematic messiah. However, I won't dispute anything you've said there.
A major aspect of why I like these films hasn't been discussed yet.
In Christianity we have black area which are the sins that are the same for everyone, we have the white area for Love, love of God and everyone else or "doing good" as most would call it..
Then we have the gray area. This is where sin depends upon the individual. Good depends upon the individual. It's all relative as Einstein would say. Only God knows your heart... So if I drink a little wine at a smart party it may not be wrong for me but it might be for someone else in my same belief system.
Nolan makes films that touch on these gray areas. I can discuss the themes in a Christian manner yet at the same time it evokes feelings of a secular manner. For instance Batman takes a stand grounded in Christian morality in the gray area against crime. After seeing the film however, a part of you wants to feel with the Joker. How much Chaos can I impart in my life to keep it interesting without actually sinning? It's an interesting question. Inception has similar attributes, but mainly The Prestige gives the kill stroke in the gray area.
Christian Bale's character represents being so totally sold out to his work that he didn't even pause when his marriage hang in the balance. The Great Dantone tried every means but dedication to achieve this. He couldn't understand because he was driven by feelings... Anger from losing his wife, jealousy of what he couldn't figure out. Obsession.
Nolan dabbles in that gray area that causes a Christian such as myself to really think during his films while enjoying the awesome scenes within each film. I don't want overly bad yet I don't want overly good. I like good bad.... Noir almost without all the sex and stuff.
"If you make yourself more than just a man... If you devote yourself to an ideal... You become something else entirely- A Legend."
With The Dark Knight Rises just around the corner and anticipation building just as quickly as it's predecessor, we felt here at SuperHeroHype that we should go back and look at the series as a whole. Since this is the final chapter of the series and they happen to be some of the most epic films being made, why don't we take a walk down memory lane and peek at the flicks, but not in the way you'd expect. Yeah we could sit here and do a retrospective about them dissecting all of the intricate plot details and all the references to other Batman lore, but we'll save that for another day if there is any interest. Today we'll be looking back at the movies, their popularity, and myths about them and hopefully be presenting you with a list of things related to the series that you probably didn't know.
I think we can all agree that the casting behind Nolan's entire Dark Knight trilogy are some of the most brilliantly devised casting decisions in the past thirty years. This was all intentional as Nolan wanted to make a film with an A-list ensemble cast like the old epic films of the 50s. But there was a time when the cast wasn't as well devised and constructed as it is now. For example, one of Batman's first partners almost had a totally different look - Kurt Russell was considered for the role of Jim Gordon. Yup, Snake Plissken himself almost donned the mustache and police badge. What we've got in the current series through Gary Oldman's portrayal is a sympathetic, hard working, and very human Jim Gordon and I fear if Kurt had the part he would have been rivaling Batman in terms of his sheer badassery.
One casting choice that almost was that makes total sense was Anthony Hopkins as Alfred, unfortunately he turned the role down.
A casting change story wouldn't be complete if it didn't touch on the main character of the films, Bruce Wayne. Two men that originally auditioned for the role whose names you should recognize are Billy Crudup and Henry Cavill. The eventual Dr. Manhattan and Superman actors tried out to be the Caped Crusader. Obviously they didn't get it, but in the long run they got their wish of being superheroes.
Some of these are easier to spot than others but they're all equally as fun for the fans. One of the more obvious and well known is that of Victor Zsasz, the demented serial killer from Batman lore who tallies his victims on his body. He can be seen in both the courtroom sequence as well as in the Arkham escape later on in the film. There's also the matter of the ending sequence that teases the Joker's arrival in the sequel The Dark Knight. If you look closely at the evidence bag containing the Joker card, the officer's 'name' on the bag reads as 'J. Kerr,' one of Joker's many favorite aliases.
One from The Dark Knight that you wouldn't notice the first time you watch it (or even the second or third). In the chase sequence through Gotham's streets with the SWAT van and the Circus trailer, a funny little cameo pops up for viewers really paying attention. After the Joker moves his dead driver out of the driver's seat and takes over, the bullet holes in the glass make a smiley face. Didn't see that did you? Now you'll never be able to not see it.
Another Dark Knight Easter egg concerns a one off character that isn't in the film very much, Coleman Reese. If you recall he is referred to more than once as “Mr. Reece” which doesn't seem like much at first, but if you hear it with the right ears it sounds like “Mysteries” which could be a nod to the Riddler (though he obviously didn't show up in one of Nolan's films).
One more that you've no doubt seen thus far in the trailer, and if you haven't you'll dig it, is from The Dark Knight Rises during the sequence in the football stadium. There is a row of fans holding up letters that spell out Rogues (for the Gotham City football team) and the R looks mighty familiar. It was a clever one not even created by the production, but by a fan instead!
In order to prep the cast and crew for the making of the films, Christopher Nolan screened several movies for them when leading up to shooting. On Batman Begins he showed them the classic Ridley Scott film Blade Runner. It's reported that he showed them the film and then said, “This is how we're going to make Batman.” He certainly achieved what he told his cast and crew they were going to do, but he had more ambitious plans for pre-Dark Knight screenings.
For the first four scheduled days of shooting, Nolan again showed some films to the cast and crew. The first day they watched Heat and Cat People, the second day Citizen Kane and King Kong, the third day Batman Begins and Black Sunday, and the fourth day they watched A Clockwork Orange and Stalag 17. There's no word on if or what Nolan screened prior to production of The Dark Knight Rises, but we expect to be hearing about that relatively soon.
You remember the viral marketing for The Dark Knight, right? Of course you do, it was one of the most unique and interesting marketing approaches that we've seen in the modern era and it all totally worked. Well, one bit of the marketing was a little less successful than others and it involved a cake and a news station (I know, it sounds like the hilarious start of a pitch for an Adam Sandler movie). This piece of marketing also had no official affiliation with WB.
There was a real sect of The Dark Knight marketing that had different bakeries across America handing out a free cake to the first person to walk in claiming to be “Robbin Banks” (Get it? Robbing Banks.). On the cake would be the words “Call me now” along with a phone number. When called, a phone inside the cake would start to ring which then lead down a whole other rabbit hole of “getting in touch” with the Joker.
A few months later a small chain of theaters in Texas saw this and decided to emulate it, too bad they didn't let anyone know that they were just promoting a silly movie. KENS 5 TV in San Antonio got a package one day a few weeks before the opening of The Dark Knight. Inside this package was a cake and that cake was modeled after those other previously mentioned cakes, but with a less conspicuous design for the “hidden bomb." As a result, the building was evacuated and the bomb squad was called. An assignment manager for the news station said, “I noticed it was in an unmarked box. It was really dirty. The outside of the box had icing all over it. And the cake wasn’t a professional looking cake.” At least the people responsible were accurate in their cake making skills.
Another thing that you won't notice or even really think about when you first watch The Dark Knight, but Two Face's coin is a fortune teller. In the sequence at the end of the film with Dent, Batman, and Gordon all having the coin flipped for them to determine their fate, the coin predicts the fate of all three characters. The 'good' side lands up for Gordon and Dent, and the 'bad' side for Batman. We all now know after having seen the film that Dent and Gordon are perceived as 'good' by the public while Batman is now known as the 'bad' guy. The first few trailers for The Dark Knight Rises only confirmed this for us.
So was it all clever writing on part of the Nolans or a coincidence? I'm guessing the former, considering the ending of The Dark Knight, though they didn't know how they would proceed in a sequel so some of it might have been coincidence.
Tom Hardy seemed like a strange choice to some of us when we heard he was to play the masked villain Bane. Sure, he had just completed work on Inception with Christopher Nolan so the two had become good friends based on that, but what else could it be? Prior to The Dark Knight Rises and Inception, Hardy wasn't known very well outside of film fanatic circles. The one thing that he was really known for was a little film called Bronson.
In Bronson, Hardy played notorious British criminal Michael Gordon Peterson (nicknamed Charles Bronson by his promoter) who was well known as being “Britain's Most Violent Inmate.” During the course of pre-production for the film, Hardy put on 42 pounds of muscle for the role, and it shows when you see the cover. Aren't those the most terrifying arm muscles you've ever seen? Seriously, he looks like Donkey Kong. Within the film, we see just how bonkers and savage Hardy can be as the character, he's a total nutter.
When Hardy was cast as Bane he only assumed that it was because of his muscled up performance in Bronson. He thought that Nolan had seen the film and was so impressed with both his acting skills and physical demeanor that he had to have him as Bane in the new Batman film. When he asked Chris this, he was shocked to find out that Nolan had never seen Bronson and originally cast him as Bane because of his work in Guy Richie's film RocknRolla.
There have been quite a few behind the scenes photos for The Dark Knight Rises, but they filmed the movie outside and in public quite a bit, so it's to be expected. On the turn of that there weren't a lot of photos for The Dark Knight during it's production and even know almost four years after it's release, there still aren't a lot in comparison. There is one however that has made many a round among the internet and gets spread probably every day with a smile from everyone that sees it.
Yeah, this photo. This is probably the most well known photo from the behind the scenes of The Dark Knight and the worst part about it? It's a fake, not real. While it is based on another photo, shown below, but someone augmented it to add the skateboard. We do all know that Ledger was a well known fan of skateboarding, so we all really wish this was a real picture, but alas it is not.
Rachel Dawes was one of the few characters for the series created from the filmmakers' imagination for the film. Why do this though? There are plenty of other characters within the pantheon of Batman lore that have served as both love interests for Bruce and been integral to the plot of the story, so why create an entirely new one? Was it to leave a mark on the character and the universe? As a fan that does sound like something one of us would do given the chance to write Batman.
Nope, the real reason is a lot more simple and yet complex. Originally, Rachel was created to serve in the place of Harvey Dent. In the forward for the Absolute Edition of The Long Halloween (which would later serve as a heavy influence for The Dark Knight), Christopher Nolan and David Goyer admit that Dawes was created on their part because they didn't think they could do Harvey Dent justice on film.
This is pretty ironic when you think about it now in hindsight. Within their collective forward on the graphic novel, they're pretty heavy into pre-production on The Dark Knight and they already knew they would have Harvey Dent in it. Now that we're about eight years later from the production of Batman Begins, it's hard to imagine that there was a time that Harvey Dent as a character was considered “unobtainable” by Nolan and company.
I'm not a musically-inclined person, so the creation of music is a science that I have no idea how it works nor do I pretend to understand it. I'm sure we can all agree that a lot of time goes into prepping and actually scoring a film, but it seems Hans Zimmer likes to take that length of time to the next level.
In preparation for his task of scoring The Dark Knight, Zimmer did a lot of experimenting and planning with the music to get everything just right, but the most work went into creating a musical score that would be fitting for Heath Ledger's performance as The Joker. For this, Zimmer experimented with different musical ...er... techniques using razors, piano wire, pencils on tables and the floor, etc. All of this weirdness combined, he created over nine thousand sample tracks of music for the film for Chris Nolan to listen and pick through. The best part? He listened to all nine thousand tracks and picked the ones that you now know as the Joker's music.
Got any more facts about The Dark Knight film series that we might have missed? Let us know below in the comments.
Opening in theaters and IMAX on July 20, the final chapter in Christopher Nolan's trilogy stars Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Anne Hathaway, Tom Hardy, Oldman, Marion Cotillard, Gordon-Levitt and Morgan Freeman.
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-1 • 1Off Topic Insightful Disagree Agree Awesome LOLBut from what IVE seen personally, thefilms Ive seen from other directors etc, Nolan hasnt made a single bad one wheras others have.
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0 • Off Topic Insightful Disagree Agree Awesome LOLLord Stafford.
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1 • Off Topic Insightful Disagree Agree 1Awesome LOL- Spam
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0 • Off Topic Insightful Disagree Agree Awesome LOLAs far as Nolan being the bestest ever!! well, IMO the "bestest ever" wouldn't be capable of such a shit scene like this one. Almost every line of dialogue is atrocious, Zimmer's cringe-worthy music that plays when REAL Batman appears is just terrible, Scarecrow manages to have a cringe-worthy line "NOW THAT'S MORE LIKE IT...." and the combat shots are amateur.
In fact, a lot of TDK has scenes like this, with terrible dialogue all over the place and corny "wasn't that just badass" shots like when Batman spins the Batpod around and the camera quickly pans up to him like YEAH WASN'T THAT JUST SO COOL FAP FAP FAP kind of like Scarlet Johansson in Iron Man 2 when she's "kicking ass" and everytime she does something "cool" she whips her head up and flings her hair back.
It's destructively awful and Nolan is guilty of it time and time again.
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-3 • 1Off Topic Insightful Disagree Agree Awesome LOL- Spam
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1 • Off Topic Insightful Disagree Agree Awesome 1LOLLord Stafford.
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-2 • 2Off Topic Insightful Disagree Agree Awesome LOLLord Stafford.
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2 • Off Topic Insightful Disagree Agree Awesome 2LOLIt just doesn't intrest me. Id rather click a button that get caught up in a pile of dog vomit that gets me nowhere and stinks up the place tbh.
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2 • Off Topic Insightful Disagree Agree 1Awesome 1LOL- Spam
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-2 • 1Off Topic Insightful Disagree Agree Awesome LOLSo what. That woman liked The Vow better.
Are you watching closely?
Nolan comes along and unites the two. The film buffs and the GA can finally agree on his gangbuster, The Dark Knight. Film buffs will remember him for Memento, the GA is talking about this guy and his awesome take on the Batman. Yes, the GA thought TDK was awesome. That's why it rang to the tune of $533 million domestically and $1 billion worldwide. It transcended the genre. But it also made people think beyond your usual bad guy/good guy routine. The Joker introduced chaos, in ways that Nolan has.
Nolan didn't go to film school. He hasn't done anything by the books other than just making films he thinks audiences will love, but they will also have great admiration of because they are shrouded in mystery. He has this figured out. Any aspiring filmmaker would kill to be in his position.
People who don't have all day to study books and films like we do can finally love a work like Inception and use their brains a little instead of just watching the old fashioned "love story gone bad then fixed in a typical way" movie. Or a brainless action fantasy like we get so often.
I even threw in a quote from "The Prestige" in the middle of this essay just because I like for other people to think, I want someone like RyGuy to have read that and thought "Hey I know where that's from LOL."
Frankly people need more than dead serious works or flatly brainless works. They need films like Nolan's that can't feasibly happen but also feel like they could. Films that don't have to explain everything, yet they keep the audience drawn in the whole time. I don't care about the technicalities of films, I really don't. So Nolan is my hero. He alienates people from both sides that I mentioned but he's extremely popular around the core. In the core you find Nolanfans.com
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1 • Off Topic Insightful Disagree Agree 1Awesome LOL- Spam
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0 • Off Topic Insightful Disagree Agree Awesome LOLThis is a board about The Dark Knight Rises. Not Christopher Nolan's film work, or movie direction. I'm sure theres an old thread to bump for that, if not we have a lovely new discussion button ;)
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0 • Off Topic Insightful Disagree Agree Awesome LOLHowever, I don't see what it matters, as long as we're having fun right? I mean, that's what the philosophy seemed to be in the thread I made about the new forum additions-- people are having fun and posting more, so what does it matter?
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0 • Off Topic Insightful Disagree Agree Awesome LOLLord Stafford.
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1 • Off Topic Insightful Disagree Agree Awesome 1LOLOh. Hell. Yes.
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0 • Off Topic Insightful Disagree Agree Awesome LOLLord Stafford.
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0 • Off Topic Insightful Disagree Agree Awesome LOLIn Christianity we have black area which are the sins that are the same for everyone, we have the white area for Love, love of God and everyone else or "doing good" as most would call it..
Then we have the gray area. This is where sin depends upon the individual. Good depends upon the individual. It's all relative as Einstein would say. Only God knows your heart... So if I drink a little wine at a smart party it may not be wrong for me but it might be for someone else in my same belief system.
Nolan makes films that touch on these gray areas. I can discuss the themes in a Christian manner yet at the same time it evokes feelings of a secular manner. For instance Batman takes a stand grounded in Christian morality in the gray area against crime. After seeing the film however, a part of you wants to feel with the Joker. How much Chaos can I impart in my life to keep it interesting without actually sinning? It's an interesting question. Inception has similar attributes, but mainly The Prestige gives the kill stroke in the gray area.
Christian Bale's character represents being so totally sold out to his work that he didn't even pause when his marriage hang in the balance. The Great Dantone tried every means but dedication to achieve this. He couldn't understand because he was driven by feelings... Anger from losing his wife, jealousy of what he couldn't figure out. Obsession.
Nolan dabbles in that gray area that causes a Christian such as myself to really think during his films while enjoying the awesome scenes within each film. I don't want overly bad yet I don't want overly good. I like good bad.... Noir almost without all the sex and stuff.
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2 • Off Topic Insightful Disagree Agree 2Awesome LOL#1 CASTING CHANGES
I think we can all agree that the casting behind Nolan's entire Dark Knight trilogy are some of the most brilliantly devised casting decisions in the past thirty years. This was all intentional as Nolan wanted to make a film with an A-list ensemble cast like the old epic films of the 50s. But there was a time when the cast wasn't as well devised and constructed as it is now. For example, one of Batman's first partners almost had a totally different look - Kurt Russell was considered for the role of Jim Gordon. Yup, Snake Plissken himself almost donned the mustache and police badge. What we've got in the current series through Gary Oldman's portrayal is a sympathetic, hard working, and very human Jim Gordon and I fear if Kurt had the part he would have been rivaling Batman in terms of his sheer badassery.
One casting choice that almost was that makes total sense was Anthony Hopkins as Alfred, unfortunately he turned the role down.
A casting change story wouldn't be complete if it didn't touch on the main character of the films, Bruce Wayne. Two men that originally auditioned for the role whose names you should recognize are Billy Crudup and Henry Cavill. The eventual Dr. Manhattan and Superman actors tried out to be the Caped Crusader. Obviously they didn't get it, but in the long run they got their wish of being superheroes.
#2 EASTER EGGS
Some of these are easier to spot than others but they're all equally as fun for the fans. One of the more obvious and well known is that of Victor Zsasz, the demented serial killer from Batman lore who tallies his victims on his body. He can be seen in both the courtroom sequence as well as in the Arkham escape later on in the film. There's also the matter of the ending sequence that teases the Joker's arrival in the sequel The Dark Knight. If you look closely at the evidence bag containing the Joker card, the officer's 'name' on the bag reads as 'J. Kerr,' one of Joker's many favorite aliases.
One from The Dark Knight that you wouldn't notice the first time you watch it (or even the second or third). In the chase sequence through Gotham's streets with the SWAT van and the Circus trailer, a funny little cameo pops up for viewers really paying attention. After the Joker moves his dead driver out of the driver's seat and takes over, the bullet holes in the glass make a smiley face. Didn't see that did you? Now you'll never be able to not see it.
Another Dark Knight Easter egg concerns a one off character that isn't in the film very much, Coleman Reese. If you recall he is referred to more than once as “Mr. Reece” which doesn't seem like much at first, but if you hear it with the right ears it sounds like “Mysteries” which could be a nod to the Riddler (though he obviously didn't show up in one of Nolan's films).
One more that you've no doubt seen thus far in the trailer, and if you haven't you'll dig it, is from The Dark Knight Rises during the sequence in the football stadium. There is a row of fans holding up letters that spell out Rogues (for the Gotham City football team) and the R looks mighty familiar. It was a clever one not even created by the production, but by a fan instead!
#3 THE SCREENING ROOM
In order to prep the cast and crew for the making of the films, Christopher Nolan screened several movies for them when leading up to shooting. On Batman Begins he showed them the classic Ridley Scott film Blade Runner. It's reported that he showed them the film and then said, “This is how we're going to make Batman.” He certainly achieved what he told his cast and crew they were going to do, but he had more ambitious plans for pre-Dark Knight screenings.
For the first four scheduled days of shooting, Nolan again showed some films to the cast and crew. The first day they watched Heat and Cat People, the second day Citizen Kane and King Kong, the third day Batman Begins and Black Sunday, and the fourth day they watched A Clockwork Orange and Stalag 17. There's no word on if or what Nolan screened prior to production of The Dark Knight Rises, but we expect to be hearing about that relatively soon.
#4 THE BOMB SCARE
You remember the viral marketing for The Dark Knight, right? Of course you do, it was one of the most unique and interesting marketing approaches that we've seen in the modern era and it all totally worked. Well, one bit of the marketing was a little less successful than others and it involved a cake and a news station (I know, it sounds like the hilarious start of a pitch for an Adam Sandler movie). This piece of marketing also had no official affiliation with WB.
There was a real sect of The Dark Knight marketing that had different bakeries across America handing out a free cake to the first person to walk in claiming to be “Robbin Banks” (Get it? Robbing Banks.). On the cake would be the words “Call me now” along with a phone number. When called, a phone inside the cake would start to ring which then lead down a whole other rabbit hole of “getting in touch” with the Joker.
A few months later a small chain of theaters in Texas saw this and decided to emulate it, too bad they didn't let anyone know that they were just promoting a silly movie. KENS 5 TV in San Antonio got a package one day a few weeks before the opening of The Dark Knight. Inside this package was a cake and that cake was modeled after those other previously mentioned cakes, but with a less conspicuous design for the “hidden bomb." As a result, the building was evacuated and the bomb squad was called. An assignment manager for the news station said, “I noticed it was in an unmarked box. It was really dirty. The outside of the box had icing all over it. And the cake wasn’t a professional looking cake.” At least the people responsible were accurate in their cake making skills.
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2 • Off Topic Insightful Disagree Agree Awesome 2LOLAnother thing that you won't notice or even really think about when you first watch The Dark Knight, but Two Face's coin is a fortune teller. In the sequence at the end of the film with Dent, Batman, and Gordon all having the coin flipped for them to determine their fate, the coin predicts the fate of all three characters. The 'good' side lands up for Gordon and Dent, and the 'bad' side for Batman. We all now know after having seen the film that Dent and Gordon are perceived as 'good' by the public while Batman is now known as the 'bad' guy. The first few trailers for The Dark Knight Rises only confirmed this for us.
So was it all clever writing on part of the Nolans or a coincidence? I'm guessing the former, considering the ending of The Dark Knight, though they didn't know how they would proceed in a sequel so some of it might have been coincidence.
#6 WHY WAS TOM HARDY CAST
Tom Hardy seemed like a strange choice to some of us when we heard he was to play the masked villain Bane. Sure, he had just completed work on Inception with Christopher Nolan so the two had become good friends based on that, but what else could it be? Prior to The Dark Knight Rises and Inception, Hardy wasn't known very well outside of film fanatic circles. The one thing that he was really known for was a little film called Bronson.
In Bronson, Hardy played notorious British criminal Michael Gordon Peterson (nicknamed Charles Bronson by his promoter) who was well known as being “Britain's Most Violent Inmate.” During the course of pre-production for the film, Hardy put on 42 pounds of muscle for the role, and it shows when you see the cover. Aren't those the most terrifying arm muscles you've ever seen? Seriously, he looks like Donkey Kong. Within the film, we see just how bonkers and savage Hardy can be as the character, he's a total nutter.
When Hardy was cast as Bane he only assumed that it was because of his muscled up performance in Bronson. He thought that Nolan had seen the film and was so impressed with both his acting skills and physical demeanor that he had to have him as Bane in the new Batman film. When he asked Chris this, he was shocked to find out that Nolan had never seen Bronson and originally cast him as Bane because of his work in Guy Richie's film RocknRolla.
#7 BEHIND THE SCENES SHAM
There have been quite a few behind the scenes photos for The Dark Knight Rises, but they filmed the movie outside and in public quite a bit, so it's to be expected. On the turn of that there weren't a lot of photos for The Dark Knight during it's production and even know almost four years after it's release, there still aren't a lot in comparison. There is one however that has made many a round among the internet and gets spread probably every day with a smile from everyone that sees it.
Yeah, this photo. This is probably the most well known photo from the behind the scenes of The Dark Knight and the worst part about it? It's a fake, not real. While it is based on another photo, shown below, but someone augmented it to add the skateboard. We do all know that Ledger was a well known fan of skateboarding, so we all really wish this was a real picture, but alas it is not.
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0 • Off Topic Insightful Disagree Agree Awesome LOLRachel Dawes was one of the few characters for the series created from the filmmakers' imagination for the film. Why do this though? There are plenty of other characters within the pantheon of Batman lore that have served as both love interests for Bruce and been integral to the plot of the story, so why create an entirely new one? Was it to leave a mark on the character and the universe? As a fan that does sound like something one of us would do given the chance to write Batman.
Nope, the real reason is a lot more simple and yet complex. Originally, Rachel was created to serve in the place of Harvey Dent. In the forward for the Absolute Edition of The Long Halloween (which would later serve as a heavy influence for The Dark Knight), Christopher Nolan and David Goyer admit that Dawes was created on their part because they didn't think they could do Harvey Dent justice on film.
This is pretty ironic when you think about it now in hindsight. Within their collective forward on the graphic novel, they're pretty heavy into pre-production on The Dark Knight and they already knew they would have Harvey Dent in it. Now that we're about eight years later from the production of Batman Begins, it's hard to imagine that there was a time that Harvey Dent as a character was considered “unobtainable” by Nolan and company.
#9 STOP! ZIMMER-TIME!
I'm not a musically-inclined person, so the creation of music is a science that I have no idea how it works nor do I pretend to understand it. I'm sure we can all agree that a lot of time goes into prepping and actually scoring a film, but it seems Hans Zimmer likes to take that length of time to the next level.
In preparation for his task of scoring The Dark Knight, Zimmer did a lot of experimenting and planning with the music to get everything just right, but the most work went into creating a musical score that would be fitting for Heath Ledger's performance as The Joker. For this, Zimmer experimented with different musical ...er... techniques using razors, piano wire, pencils on tables and the floor, etc. All of this weirdness combined, he created over nine thousand sample tracks of music for the film for Chris Nolan to listen and pick through. The best part? He listened to all nine thousand tracks and picked the ones that you now know as the Joker's music.
Got any more facts about The Dark Knight film series that we might have missed? Let us know below in the comments.
Opening in theaters and IMAX on July 20, the final chapter in Christopher Nolan's trilogy stars Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Anne Hathaway, Tom Hardy, Oldman, Marion Cotillard, Gordon-Levitt and Morgan Freeman.
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