1. Why So Serious? Hans Zimmer & James Newton Howard
2. I'm Not A Hero Hans Zimmer & James Newton Howard
3. Harvey Two-Face Hans Zimmer & James Newton Howard
4. Aggressive Expansion Hans Zimmer & James Newton Howard
5. Always A Catch Hans Zimmer & James Newton Howard
6. Blood On My Hands Hans Zimmer & James Newton Howard
7. A Little Push Hans Zimmer & James Newton Howard
8. Like A Dog Chasing Cars Hans Zimmer & James Newton Howard
9. I Am The Batman Hans Zimmer & James Newton Howard
10. And I Thought My Jokes Were Bad Hans Zimmer & James Newton Howard
11. Agent Of Chaos Hans Zimmer & James Newton Howard
12. Introduce A Little Anarchy Hans Zimmer & James Newton Howard
13. Watch The World Burn Hans Zimmer & James Newton Howard
14. A Dark Knight
Sunday, 01 February 2009
Sunday, 05 October 2008
Heath Ledger's role in The Dark Knight will be iconic
Stefanie Balogh
July 10, 2008 12:00am
EVEN before work had begun on a script for The Dark Knight, Heath Ledger pitched his terrifying punk-inspired take on Batman's arch-nemesis The Joker to director Christopher Nolan.
The pair had met several times and bounced around ideas for other projects, but nothing had come off.
‘‘He had told me early on one of the things he was concerned about was not being thrust into the spotlight as a movie star before he had shown what he could do as a serious actor,'' Nolan recalls.
‘‘I've heard that from a lot of young actors, but from all the people I've heard it from he's the only one I ever paid $10 to go see an incredible performance from.''
In casting the role of the psychotic Joker, Nolan looked to Ledger's turn as a gay cowboy in Brokeback Mountain.
‘‘It's a performance of consummate skill and I think everybody recognises the great acting in it,'' he says.
‘‘What is easy to miss is the boldness of what he does in that film because he plays an introverted character. He plays a lonely character, who gives nothing to anybody, and he plays it with no thought of vanity.
‘‘He gives nothing to the audience effectively and he risks doing that. He's really flying without a net.
‘‘In taking on the icon of The Joker as we had to in this film, I knew very much I needed somebody with that bold quality, with that fearlessness, who wasn't afraid to be compared to Jack Nicholson. Who was prepared to make the part his own.''
Nolan wanted The Joker to be ‘‘somebody who would be genuinely unsettling, frightening to audiences''.
‘‘Somebody who would stand for pure anarchy, and a force purely devoted to chaos. Somebody who wants to rip down the world around him for his own amusement.''
In Ledger, Nolan found his actor.
The Dark Knight is the sequel to the hugely successful Batman Begins, in which Nolan and his leading man, Christian Bale, put a grittier twist on the comic-book hero.
A sweeping morality tale of the fine line between hero and vigilante, The Dark Knight is destined to be remembered as Ledger's final completed film.
The Perth-born actor was filming Terry Gilliam's The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus days before he died from an accidental drug overdose in his Manhattan apartment in January.
Ledger's Joker is intense. Co-star Bale applauds his ‘‘fantastic iconic performance'' and describes the late Aussie as a kindred spirit.
‘‘His total commitment, his immersion, is a wonderful thing to watch in any actor,'' Bale says. ‘‘He portrayed The Joker in a way that will be remembered through the ages. It's a phenomenal job.
‘‘It always makes it more interesting and an easier job for any other actor when you get that amount of commitment. I enjoyed recognising that he seemed to get the same pleasure and satisfaction out of acting that I do.
‘‘You know that it's a ridiculous job that we have, but the more seriously you take it, the more you enjoy it. He did superbly with it, then he removed the make-up and he was really wonderful company.''
Gary Oldman, who returns in The Dark Knight as Police Lieutenant Jim Gordon, is sad to be singing Ledger's praises while he is not around to talk about his own work. It's a tragedy, he says, that audiences will never know how much more Ledger would have been capable of.
‘‘He's probably looking down going, ‘You know I'm going to win an Oscar','' Oldman says.
It's a view shared by industry insiders, who believe Ledger is certain to be posthumously nominated for an Academy Award.
However, Oldman scoffs at suggestions Ledger's intensity in the role took a toll. Rumours that Ledger was emotionally affected by the darkness of The Joker are ‘‘just people looking for a darker story that doesn't exist'', he says.
‘‘If people talk about the intensity of Christian Bale and say he's a method actor and he's very serious and he gets into it, or Dan Day Lewis . . . well, he's still alive.''
With Ledger, Oldman adds, ‘‘you knew that you were in the presence of something incredible when you were working with him''.
‘‘I mean, that was obvious from the first morning I worked with him. You just went, ‘Wow'. It's almost like he found a sort of radio station and tuned into something we couldn't hear, a frequency.''
Oldman reckons Jack Nicholson was similarly tuned in on One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, as was Al Pacino in Dog Day Afternoon.
‘‘They find something and they get it. It's like they fly sub-sonic and then they go through the sound barrier. Dan (Day-Lewis) has done it. His work in There Will Be Blood is just f---ing extraordinary.
‘‘They are actors who find something and they work on a totally different level, and I think that's what Heath did.
‘‘However, between takes he would laugh and joke and sit on the kerb with me and smoke a cigarette and talk about his daughter, Matilda.
‘‘To be so contaminated by The Joker, you would have to be neurologically . . . have a disorder, wouldn't you?'' Oldman says bluntly.
Aaron Eckhart -- a newcomer to the Batman world as Gotham City's crusading District Attorney Harvey Dent -- says the genius of Ledger's performance was his ability to give The Joker some heart.
‘‘He was always telling us how he got his scars,'' Eckhart recalls.
‘‘The Joker really is the engine room of the film. He's asking all these questions of the characters and pushing everybody's buttons. And nobody wants to answer these questions: ‘Should I live, should I die?' Who wants to answer that question?''
Co-writer David Goyer sums up the feelings surrounding Ledger's performance.
‘‘He takes your breath away from the first moment he's on screen and it's hard to imagine . . . it's impossible to imagine anyone else now because he's so damn good.''
July 10, 2008 12:00am
EVEN before work had begun on a script for The Dark Knight, Heath Ledger pitched his terrifying punk-inspired take on Batman's arch-nemesis The Joker to director Christopher Nolan.
The pair had met several times and bounced around ideas for other projects, but nothing had come off.
‘‘He had told me early on one of the things he was concerned about was not being thrust into the spotlight as a movie star before he had shown what he could do as a serious actor,'' Nolan recalls.
‘‘I've heard that from a lot of young actors, but from all the people I've heard it from he's the only one I ever paid $10 to go see an incredible performance from.''
In casting the role of the psychotic Joker, Nolan looked to Ledger's turn as a gay cowboy in Brokeback Mountain.
‘‘It's a performance of consummate skill and I think everybody recognises the great acting in it,'' he says.
‘‘What is easy to miss is the boldness of what he does in that film because he plays an introverted character. He plays a lonely character, who gives nothing to anybody, and he plays it with no thought of vanity.
‘‘He gives nothing to the audience effectively and he risks doing that. He's really flying without a net.
‘‘In taking on the icon of The Joker as we had to in this film, I knew very much I needed somebody with that bold quality, with that fearlessness, who wasn't afraid to be compared to Jack Nicholson. Who was prepared to make the part his own.''
Nolan wanted The Joker to be ‘‘somebody who would be genuinely unsettling, frightening to audiences''.
‘‘Somebody who would stand for pure anarchy, and a force purely devoted to chaos. Somebody who wants to rip down the world around him for his own amusement.''
In Ledger, Nolan found his actor.
The Dark Knight is the sequel to the hugely successful Batman Begins, in which Nolan and his leading man, Christian Bale, put a grittier twist on the comic-book hero.
A sweeping morality tale of the fine line between hero and vigilante, The Dark Knight is destined to be remembered as Ledger's final completed film.
The Perth-born actor was filming Terry Gilliam's The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus days before he died from an accidental drug overdose in his Manhattan apartment in January.
Ledger's Joker is intense. Co-star Bale applauds his ‘‘fantastic iconic performance'' and describes the late Aussie as a kindred spirit.
‘‘His total commitment, his immersion, is a wonderful thing to watch in any actor,'' Bale says. ‘‘He portrayed The Joker in a way that will be remembered through the ages. It's a phenomenal job.
‘‘It always makes it more interesting and an easier job for any other actor when you get that amount of commitment. I enjoyed recognising that he seemed to get the same pleasure and satisfaction out of acting that I do.
‘‘You know that it's a ridiculous job that we have, but the more seriously you take it, the more you enjoy it. He did superbly with it, then he removed the make-up and he was really wonderful company.''
Gary Oldman, who returns in The Dark Knight as Police Lieutenant Jim Gordon, is sad to be singing Ledger's praises while he is not around to talk about his own work. It's a tragedy, he says, that audiences will never know how much more Ledger would have been capable of.
‘‘He's probably looking down going, ‘You know I'm going to win an Oscar','' Oldman says.
It's a view shared by industry insiders, who believe Ledger is certain to be posthumously nominated for an Academy Award.
However, Oldman scoffs at suggestions Ledger's intensity in the role took a toll. Rumours that Ledger was emotionally affected by the darkness of The Joker are ‘‘just people looking for a darker story that doesn't exist'', he says.
‘‘If people talk about the intensity of Christian Bale and say he's a method actor and he's very serious and he gets into it, or Dan Day Lewis . . . well, he's still alive.''
With Ledger, Oldman adds, ‘‘you knew that you were in the presence of something incredible when you were working with him''.
‘‘I mean, that was obvious from the first morning I worked with him. You just went, ‘Wow'. It's almost like he found a sort of radio station and tuned into something we couldn't hear, a frequency.''
Oldman reckons Jack Nicholson was similarly tuned in on One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, as was Al Pacino in Dog Day Afternoon.
‘‘They find something and they get it. It's like they fly sub-sonic and then they go through the sound barrier. Dan (Day-Lewis) has done it. His work in There Will Be Blood is just f---ing extraordinary.
‘‘They are actors who find something and they work on a totally different level, and I think that's what Heath did.
‘‘However, between takes he would laugh and joke and sit on the kerb with me and smoke a cigarette and talk about his daughter, Matilda.
‘‘To be so contaminated by The Joker, you would have to be neurologically . . . have a disorder, wouldn't you?'' Oldman says bluntly.
Aaron Eckhart -- a newcomer to the Batman world as Gotham City's crusading District Attorney Harvey Dent -- says the genius of Ledger's performance was his ability to give The Joker some heart.
‘‘He was always telling us how he got his scars,'' Eckhart recalls.
‘‘The Joker really is the engine room of the film. He's asking all these questions of the characters and pushing everybody's buttons. And nobody wants to answer these questions: ‘Should I live, should I die?' Who wants to answer that question?''
Co-writer David Goyer sums up the feelings surrounding Ledger's performance.
‘‘He takes your breath away from the first moment he's on screen and it's hard to imagine . . . it's impossible to imagine anyone else now because he's so damn good.''
Heath Ledger: Black carpet replaces red for Dark Knight's world premiere
* Gwladys Fouché and agencies
* guardian.co.uk,
* Tuesday July 15 2008 17:49 BST
The absence of Heath Ledger dominated The Dark Knight's world premiere in New York last night, amid increased speculation that his performance as the Joker could be up for an Oscar next February.
The traditional red carpet was black in the late actor's honour, while his co-stars, including Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Gary Oldman, Aaron Eckhart, Morgan Freeman and Maggie Gyllenhaal, wore dark-coloured outfits.
While the cast was posing for photographers outside the IMAX cinema, Ledger's relatives quietly slipped into the venue. All the time crowds of fans thronged the theatre on Manhattan's 68th street, to the point where they overflowed on Broadway and shut down traffic over one block during rush hour.
Inside the cinema, an orchestra performed extracts from the film's score, complete with a light show featuring a Batman signal. The performance replaced the traditional introduction by the cast and crew - perhaps, wondered Variety, to spare "some poor soul the task of a curtain speech" given Ledger's death. Upon leaving the screening, Ledger's father Kim responded to questions about how he felt about attending by simply giving a thumbs-up.
For The Hollywood Reporter, the premiere was the occasion for "a quiet, backdoor test of the movie's awards potential, especially for Heath Ledger," noting that studio executives may have got what they hoped for as "there were several midscreening ovations for the late actor".
Meanwhile, early reviews are broadly enthusiastic. Entertainment Weekly reckons The Dark Knight is a "labyrinthine and exciting sequel to Batman Begins" [the last Batman film, also helmed by British director Christopher Nolan]. "The movie exudes a predatory glamour that makes the comic-book films that have come before it look all the more like kid stuff," writes Owen Gleiberman, noting that Ledger offers a "mesmerizing, scary-funny performance" and Bale "once again captivates as the haunted caped crusader".
Associated Press' Christy Lemire writes that The Dark Knight is "an epic that will leave you staggering from the theater (sic), stunned by its scope and complexity". "Ambitious, explosive set pieces share screen time with meaty debates about good vs evil and the nature of - and need for - a hero," says Lemire, adding that "there's nothing cartoony about [Ledger's] Joker. Ledger wrested the role from previous performers Cesar Romero and Jack Nicholson and reinvented it completely."
Finally, Peter Travers in Rolling Stone reaches for the superlatives, rating the movie 3.5 stars out of four. The Dark Knight is an "absolute stunner", Ledger is "mad-crazy-blazing brilliant as the Joker", Bale evokes "Al Pacino in The Godfather II in his delusion and desolation". In conclusion, he gushes that "the haunting and visionary Dark Knight soars on the wings of untamed imagination".
* guardian.co.uk,
* Tuesday July 15 2008 17:49 BST
The absence of Heath Ledger dominated The Dark Knight's world premiere in New York last night, amid increased speculation that his performance as the Joker could be up for an Oscar next February.
The traditional red carpet was black in the late actor's honour, while his co-stars, including Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Gary Oldman, Aaron Eckhart, Morgan Freeman and Maggie Gyllenhaal, wore dark-coloured outfits.
While the cast was posing for photographers outside the IMAX cinema, Ledger's relatives quietly slipped into the venue. All the time crowds of fans thronged the theatre on Manhattan's 68th street, to the point where they overflowed on Broadway and shut down traffic over one block during rush hour.
Inside the cinema, an orchestra performed extracts from the film's score, complete with a light show featuring a Batman signal. The performance replaced the traditional introduction by the cast and crew - perhaps, wondered Variety, to spare "some poor soul the task of a curtain speech" given Ledger's death. Upon leaving the screening, Ledger's father Kim responded to questions about how he felt about attending by simply giving a thumbs-up.
For The Hollywood Reporter, the premiere was the occasion for "a quiet, backdoor test of the movie's awards potential, especially for Heath Ledger," noting that studio executives may have got what they hoped for as "there were several midscreening ovations for the late actor".
Meanwhile, early reviews are broadly enthusiastic. Entertainment Weekly reckons The Dark Knight is a "labyrinthine and exciting sequel to Batman Begins" [the last Batman film, also helmed by British director Christopher Nolan]. "The movie exudes a predatory glamour that makes the comic-book films that have come before it look all the more like kid stuff," writes Owen Gleiberman, noting that Ledger offers a "mesmerizing, scary-funny performance" and Bale "once again captivates as the haunted caped crusader".
Associated Press' Christy Lemire writes that The Dark Knight is "an epic that will leave you staggering from the theater (sic), stunned by its scope and complexity". "Ambitious, explosive set pieces share screen time with meaty debates about good vs evil and the nature of - and need for - a hero," says Lemire, adding that "there's nothing cartoony about [Ledger's] Joker. Ledger wrested the role from previous performers Cesar Romero and Jack Nicholson and reinvented it completely."
Finally, Peter Travers in Rolling Stone reaches for the superlatives, rating the movie 3.5 stars out of four. The Dark Knight is an "absolute stunner", Ledger is "mad-crazy-blazing brilliant as the Joker", Bale evokes "Al Pacino in The Godfather II in his delusion and desolation". In conclusion, he gushes that "the haunting and visionary Dark Knight soars on the wings of untamed imagination".
Thursday, 12 April 2007
Dark Knight - new Batman movie
Fellow film follower "Stax" over at IGN has compiled all the hard facts and rumor we know about Batman 6, otherwise known as The Dark Knight movie. The Cast and Crew:Director Christopher Nolan keeps the chair, and will helm the screenplay with bro Jonah. Word is that Nolan fleshed out the basic story for the sequel with his Batman Begins screenwriter David Goyer, but that Goyer will be credited on this project.
The officially confirmed cast members include Christian Bale as Bruce Wayne/Batman; Heath Ledger as The Joker; Michael Caine as Alfred Pennyworth, Bruce's faithful manservant; and Gary Oldman as honest Gotham City cop and Batman ally Jim Gordon.
Katie Holmes, who played Bruce's childhood friend-turned-love interest Rachel Dawes in Batman Begins, has officially dropped out of the film -- or was never asked back, depending on which account you read. The role of Rachel, an Assistant District Attorney who served as Bruce Wayne's moral compass in Begins, will be recast.There has been no word yet on whether or not Morgan Freeman will reprise his role as Bruce Wayne's employee and gadget master Lucius Fox.]
Calls to Freeman's reps at the William Morris Agency went unanswered at time of publish.The key supporting role that Christopher Nolan himself confirmed to IGN would be in The Dark Knight is that of Harvey Dent, the new Gotham City District Attorney who one day becomes Batman's nemesis, Two-Face. This role remains officially uncast.
The Dark Knight will be produced by Charles Roven, Emma Thomas and Christopher Nolan. Benjamin Melniker and Michael Uslan serve as executive producers. Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard are expected to return as composers, along with Oscar nominee Wally Pfister as cinematographer and Lindy Hemming as costume designer. Gary Page will work with Hemming in conjunction with costuming.The Dark Knight is slated for release on July 18, 2008 and will most certainly carry a PG-13 rating.Jim Littler2/6/2007
The officially confirmed cast members include Christian Bale as Bruce Wayne/Batman; Heath Ledger as The Joker; Michael Caine as Alfred Pennyworth, Bruce's faithful manservant; and Gary Oldman as honest Gotham City cop and Batman ally Jim Gordon.
Katie Holmes, who played Bruce's childhood friend-turned-love interest Rachel Dawes in Batman Begins, has officially dropped out of the film -- or was never asked back, depending on which account you read. The role of Rachel, an Assistant District Attorney who served as Bruce Wayne's moral compass in Begins, will be recast.There has been no word yet on whether or not Morgan Freeman will reprise his role as Bruce Wayne's employee and gadget master Lucius Fox.]
Calls to Freeman's reps at the William Morris Agency went unanswered at time of publish.The key supporting role that Christopher Nolan himself confirmed to IGN would be in The Dark Knight is that of Harvey Dent, the new Gotham City District Attorney who one day becomes Batman's nemesis, Two-Face. This role remains officially uncast.
The Dark Knight will be produced by Charles Roven, Emma Thomas and Christopher Nolan. Benjamin Melniker and Michael Uslan serve as executive producers. Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard are expected to return as composers, along with Oscar nominee Wally Pfister as cinematographer and Lindy Hemming as costume designer. Gary Page will work with Hemming in conjunction with costuming.The Dark Knight is slated for release on July 18, 2008 and will most certainly carry a PG-13 rating.Jim Littler2/6/2007
Advice to all speeding motorists
Robin: "We better hurry, Batman." Batman: "Not too fast, Robin. In good bat-climbing as in good driving one must never sacrifice safety for speed." Robin: "Right again, Batman."
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