The Dark Knight

[Midnite]

Behind the scene Joker footage

Still shot from the footage:

[Midnite]

[spoiler]Wizard Universe article (http://www.wizarduniverse.com/movies.../005607875.cfm)

Minutes ago, the capacity crowd at Wizard World Chicago was treated to the first look at "The Dark Knight" – the much anticipated sequel to fan favorite "Batman Begins." With actors Christian Bale, Gary Oldman and Aaron Eckhart on hand along with Nolan and screenwriters Jonah Nolan and David Goyer, DC Publisher Paul Levitz led the crowd through a spirited and secretive Q&A before getting to a sneak peek at the Dark Knight's most recent on-screen battle with his arch nemesis, The Joker.

Fans were only allowed to see it once, and while it might be some time before the footage will be released to theaters across America, Wizard Universe was on hand to witness the action and give a full report.

The footage started with a silhouette of a dark figure in front of one of Batman's armored vehicles before quickly cutting to Bruce Wayne and Alfred delivering the brief lines heard in the "Dark Knight" teaser trailer.

"Some people just want to watch the world burn," advises Alfred before the camera jumps to Batman in action on the Batpod, the new iteration of his motorcycle.

The action built up as the Joker was seen in full for the first time with a mess of white face, smeared red lipstick and sweaty, straggly green hair. Apparently, the clown prince of crime gets arrested at one point in the film, as the montage presented Jim Gordon (complete in SWAT gear) at the Joker's booking, saying, "no prints, no ID, custom clothes, no tags." The clown smiles with what appears to be blood over his face from the inside of an interrogation room.

Checking back in with Bruce Wayne, the billionaire playboy has a brief scene with Eckhart's Harvey Dent where he says "Rachel's told me everything about you."

"I truly hope not," responds Wayne.

The footage sped up at that point into an intense montage of action, featuring the following clips:

- The new batsuit rising up from a trap door in the ground and held in a chain metal case.

- Rachel Dawes (played by Maggie Gyllenhaal) close to an unidentified man either kissing him or being threatened by him as the camera rotates around them.

- The Joker and Batman battling in close quarters (possibly a hospital room). Batman throws Joker over a table and crashing into the ground while the clown smiles at him. It should be noted that the Joker was done up in his signature purple suit.

- Plenty of big, bold Batmobile action including a shot where the tank-like car drives through a wall of flame. In fact, flames were pretty much everywhere in the footage as it appears Joker does actually make the world burn.

- There is also a shot of a somewhat grim-faced Joker walking across a city street mercilessly firing a machine gun as well as a television close-up of the Joker laughing hysterically.

- Two major additions to the speculation that Two Face will appear in the film came in the form of a single shot of a spinning 50 cent piece and the final image: after the action montage has slowed down, the camera cuts to a bartender looking at Harvey Dent, whose only onscreen presence is his left shoulder and a bit of a reddish-purple scarred neck. "Dent! I thought you were dead!" the man gasps, to which Harvey replies, "Half."

[/spoiler]

[Figure Fan]

Ok...so that sounds....amazing.  :o

[Midnite]

http://ca.share.geocities.com/cfadw_100140412/tdk.jpg

[BentonGrey]

If only they'd give him good makeup...........everything else looks fantastic, even the Joker's costume...

[JeyNyce]

Leaked Photos:

http://www.flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=1142239954&size=o

[Jakew]

More photos ... a lot of Joker.

http://www.cinemablend.com/new/7-Minutes-Of-Dark-Knight-6656.html

[Midnite]

7-Minute Dark Knight Prologue in December?
Source: Superhero Hype!
October 15, 2007


Omelette is reporting that Warner Bros. Pictures is planning to show a 7-minute The Dark Knight prologue featuring Heath Ledger as The Joker in front of screenings of Will Smith-starrer I Am Legend in IMAX theaters on December 14.

Stay tuned for possibly more on this...

[bredon7777]

I agree with Benton Grey- Joker's makeup is NOT supposed to stop at his neck. :(

Still dying to see this, though.

[Cardmaster]

Regarding the Joker's makeup:

from what I've heard, he starts the movie in this makeup then befalls his chemical accident, which actually disfigures him and bleaches his skin.

at the very least, this is what I hope happens.. cuz that whole Joker costume is PERFECT except for the whole 'makeup-ending-at-the-neck' thing..

-CM

[the_ultimate_evil]

Regarding the Joker's makeup:

from what I've heard, he starts the movie in this makeup then befalls his chemical accident, which actually disfigures him and bleaches his skin.

at the very least, this is what I hope happens.. cuz that whole Joker costume is PERFECT except for the whole 'makeup-ending-at-the-neck' thing..

-CM

hate to say it CM, cause i'm in agreement with you, but the whole white face is going to remain make-up its the scar smile which makes him go nuts


all in the name of realism :rolleyes:

[BentonGrey]

As I said before, that's a HORRIBLE idea.

[Viking]

Ditto on the horrible Joker makeup job.  Part of the Joker is looking larger-than-life, which includes the well-combed green hair, bright red neat lipstick, and bleached white skin.  This just makes him look like a strung-out drug addict.

Oddly enough, the portrayal of the Scarecrow in Batman Begins didn't bother me nearly as much as the apparent style of the Joker's makeup.  I mean, you pretty much only saw the Scarecrow in his mask, with no other themed costuming, but it still worked.

[TheMarvell]

am I the only one who thinks the makeup thing isn't a big deal?

[the_ultimate_evil]

am I the only one who thinks the makeup thing isn't a big deal?

no there are a lot of fans who don't mind, though the majority of them basically agree with anything nolan puts forward.

[Tomato]

If I might make a suggestion here, despitenot really keeping up with everything  :huh:

As I recall, Two-Face is supposed to be in this one too, right? If so, the "makeup only" thing makes more sense, at least from the standpoint of bringing the story together. Having both main villains with faces altered by chemicals makes them seem unoriginal, and would horribly distract viewers from the actual story. It comes down to a simple truth: Joker's accident is part of the character's history, yes, but the core of the character is that he's a psychopathic clown. However, the core of Dent's character is his tragedy, the fact that everything was taken from him the moment chemicals splashed in his face. We might not like it, but of the two characters Joker is the one better suited to lose the chemical bath.

In the end, if they do him right it won't matter if he's in makeup or acid-burnt. He'll be the psycho we all love, and that's all that really matters, right?

[TheMarvell]

^my thoughts exactly. Besides, at least he's not wearing a rejected Power Rangers villain suit or a paintball outfit with a snowboard.  :banghead: Why Raimi? why?

[MJB]

The last time I checked the Joker was an insane, homicidal, maniac... why would he care what he looks like?

-MJB

[Cardmaster]

The last time I checked the Joker was an insane, homicidal, maniac... why would he care what he looks like?

-MJB

*raises hand quietly*

...that was kinda my mentality.. I mean, I just like to see different peoples' interpretations of characters.. :)

-CM :cardmaster

[the_ultimate_evil]

guess we're getting something new soon

www.whysoserious.com

[crimsonquill]

I think the make-up issue was a huge problem with Burton's version because retakes made it hard to fix issues with the makeup being smudged or rubbing off on other things. This was addressed in a interview in the Special Edition 2-Disc set of Batman when the editors were forced to use a scene with Jack Nicholson doing a line with an obvious makeup error. Due to the white makeup rubbing off on the jacket he was wearing they had to do several retakes and used purple shoe polish to fix the white spots on the neck of that jacket. Now the best take used in the film shows Jack stepping out of the shadows to say his intro line and if you slow frame the scene there is a giant purple mark on his neck from the boot polish. That error has been a thorn in the makeup artists side for years now because any full-body makeup just keeps getting on everything that the actor wears or accidently rubbed against their face or neck.

I think they stuck to the face-only makeup to avoid this issue and if they do have him transform into his white-skin look later in the film it should be during the finale and probably shot in a single scene to avoid the makeup smearing issues.

- CrimsonQuill

[BentonGrey]

CQ, they're filmakers, they're supposed to find ways around things like that.  I still say this just looks terrible.  The more often I see it the more I dislike it.

[Tomato]

Er... I agree with Benton on this. If they can find a way to make Mystique in full blue body makeup, they can design a white face makeup that doesn't smudge or do something to avoid the smudging.

Again, I don't think it's a bad thing that he isn't full body, as long as they give good reason for his craziness and they do his character properly. But if it's just "It wuz tu hard!" rather then anything to do with the story, then it's complete BS.

[bredon7777]

am I the only one who thinks the makeup thing isn't a big deal?

A big deal in that it will stop me from seeing the movie? No.

But I dont see what the big deal wouldve been in getting it right, either.

[zuludelta]

I think they stuck to the face-only makeup to avoid this issue and if they do have him transform into his white-skin look later in the film it should be during the finale and probably shot in a single scene to avoid the makeup smearing issues.

To me, at least, the primary motivation to keep Joker's look grounded in reality is to get away from the horribly cheesy visuals of the Schumacher Batman films (and the less cheesy but still "acquired-taste" stylings of the first 2 films helmed by Tim Burton). I just recently saw "Batman Forever" again on cable (I know, I'm a glutton for punishment) and I can't believe they actually released that turd. For all the millions it cost to make the movie, in terms of visuals, it looked no better than a Power Rangers episode. I know Schumacher wanted to recreate the campy feel of the Adam West Batman show, but if that was the whole idea, they could have just made the film using the equivalent effects-and-costumes budget of three episodes of Black Scorpion.

Nolan wants a totally clean break from the previous series of Batman films, so I'm not surprised with the decision to render Joker in the manner we're seeing in the leaked photos and the teasers. Despite the recent commercial and critical success of films like Batman Begins, Spider-Man 1 & 2, X-Men 1 & 2, Hellboy, and Blade 2, there are still a lot of people who immediately dismiss any media related to superheroes as being fodder for children and "Comic Book Guy"-type hobbysists. I'm not saying Heath Ledger in mime make-up is going to change their minds, but at the very least, it'll add to the growing list of comic book-to-film adaptations that have finally started to realize that comics and film are two distinct media, and that sometimes, material has to be adapted accordingly for them to achieve as much wide appeal as possible.

Note that I'm not saying that they had to re-do Joker's appearance to make him palatable to current audiences (personally, I think "comic book Joker" doesn't look any less "silly" than the version of Batman's costume on Batman Begins), but I can understand the logic if the primary reason for the departure from his comic book look was to garner more non-comic book reading viewers.

[crimsonquill]

CQ, they're filmakers, they're supposed to find ways around things like that.  I still say this just looks terrible.  The more often I see it the more I dislike it.

Er... I agree with Benton on this. If they can find a way to make Mystique in full blue body makeup, they can design a white face makeup that doesn't smudge or do something to avoid the smudging.

Mystique's makeup was 60% rubber latex for the body and 40% body paint which was maticuliously layered for hours so that it looked as seemless as possible. And note that she never wore any clothes at all with the blue paint on and when Mystie was in her human mode (X-Men 2 & 3) she just had to wear her contacts to give the audience the impression that she was a mutant. Under hot lights and sweaty conditions there are very few makeups that don't smear or rub off after numberous takes. The way to avoid that problem is try to limit the use of that appearence or do single take scenes that only need "touch-up" work if some reshoots need to be done.

If they had gone with a more extreme use of makeup for Joker like having an extended chin and a wig for his hair then they could have a neck/shoulder mask peice made which could be albino white complete with blood vessels showing under the surface. This would avoid the issue of makeup rubbing off on clothes and allow the costume designers the freedom to not have to hide his neckline.

The more I think about it... Joker's makeup in the Batman: Deadend fan film still is the definite look as far as I'm concerned because it was realistic and required no makeup peices to pull off his nose or chin.

- CrimsonQuill

[Jakew]

I think Joker's look is fine ... its grounded in the semi-realism that these Batman films are obviously aiming for. Heath Ledger's acting is what I'm a little worried about.....

[BentonGrey]

ZD, I don't think his goofy, half-a'ed appearance is going to help win any converts. 

Amen Breden.  Some things are just right the way they are.  Superman's costume, the Flash's suit, the Joker's appearance.  They don't need to be screwed with.  While I can appreciate the idea of removing these films from the horror that is Schumacher, the Joker looking like the Joker has nothing to do with that.

[the_ultimate_evil]

personally I'm 60/40 in the realism argument, i do agree it helps add to certain characters, but i feel that if nolan sticks to his guns that everything has to be grounded in reality then we can kiss good bye to a lot of classic villains or see them horribly butchered and changed.

i think ledger will be a fantastic joker and will play the part fantastically but i just cant help but feeling the artists stopped about a stage too soon.

also i might be late to the dance here but i'm starting that in a the majority of fan citcles to notice that if you enjoyed burtons films your basically not a fan and treated like an outcast. note i'm in no way saying that's happening here but some of the bat boards are like war zones

[Midnite]

The site: http://whysoserious.com/  has been updated. Looks like the candle is actually melting. So something could happen in days or on Halloween. Interesting...


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