I’m really glad Jeffrey Wells joins my sentiments in calling Terry Gilliam out on his idiotic comments from last week regarding Warner Bros’ position on Heath Ledger in the marketing of “The Dark Knight.” Calls him a “bonehead.” Perfect.
Tag: comics-to-film
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White hat, black hat, white knight, dark knight
The Huffington Post’s Alex Remington is now the second person to compare “The Dark Knight” to the western genre (Anne Thompson was the first). I like this idea and suddenly want to mull it over. Next viewing I’ll keep it in mind.
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TDK, FYI
Much as I admire his spunk, I think Awards Daily contributor Ryan Adams might be getting ahead of himself with his Oscar hopes for “The Dark Knight.”In a recent post, he labels the categories of Best Makeup, Best Sound Mixing, Best Sound Editing, Best Supporting Actor and Best Visual Effects as “virtual certainties.” The other categories mentioned he feels are Oscar-worthy enough and have a good shot as well.
Best Visual Effects isn’t going to happen. This branch abandoned practical effects considerations long ago. The makeup, meanwhile, could find some trouble from aging and transformative efforts later in the season, so I wouldn’t call it a sure thing either.
We can all, I think, assume that Heath Ledger is on his way to a nod, and, indeed, the sound work in the film is top notch and worthy of serious consideration. The rest…nah. In fact, I think the most hastily over-predicted category for this film so far has been Best Art Direction, where Nathan Crowely scored at the BAFTAs in 2005 for “Batman Begins.”
There aren’t a lot of manufactured sets here. All the stuff that looks like a creation was even, for the most part, a practical set. London’s Battersea Power Station really shows up well when used in the film, for instance, and looks like a manifestation. But it’s not.
Lee Smith’s film editing is certainly a possibility, as he took things up a notch (to say the least) in this effort, but James Newton Howard and Hans Zimmer will not be eligible for their brillaint score because of that pesky rule Rule 16b.
(By the way, speaking of the boys, anyone else just LOVE that creepy two-note string theme for the Joker that is a clever inversion of the Batman theme?)
I would, however, call Wally Pfister’s work behind the camera this film’s closest thing to a lock. The lensers have tons of respect for this guy (I’d say his nod in 2005 was a surprise) and given the technological steps taken here with the IMAX technology — the sheer balls of lugging those cameras around for these action sequences — I’d say he’s in.
And of course — I’ve always felt Christopher Nolan has a play here. But I’m not willing to go there. Yet.
Just my two cents.
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$66 million
Are we ready to start believing that this film is going to be the highest grossing film of the year yet? Smashing the opening day record is a hell of a start.
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Not recommended
Watching “The Dark Knight” — a two-and-a-half-hour dense piece of textured, cinematic professionalism — twice in the same 24-hour stretch with only two hours’ worth of sleep in your tank I thought I was gonna fall out at the 9:30 last night.The film holds up, though like any film packed with such ambition, there are some scars that poke through once you know what is coming. I’ve decided my issues with length have little to do with the length and everything to do with the structure of what was clearly a complicated, but necessary, string of events.
And of course, Ledger’s performance settles in more and more, proving to be, probably, one of the most controlled portrayals I think I’ve ever seen. Watch his eyes in the mafia meeting.
Gamble: “You’re crazy.”
Joker: “I’m not. No…I’m not.”
Chilling.
Meanwhile, the debate rages for me and my friends. But I don’t want to spoil it here, so see my comment in the geek review.
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The ‘geek’ review
(Read the official “Dark Knight” review here.)Alright, now that most audiences have begun filing out of cinemas across the country, I figure it is time to offer up The Geek Review of “The Dark Knight.”
Bear in mind, this review/column/joygasm will be filled with spoilers. If you want to go into the film fresh (as indeed you should — despite the overall lack of major surprises), then steer clear. Most of the spoilerish stuff I’ll save for after the jump, but for now, I’d like to get into the filmmakers’ handling of the source material.
Christopher Nolan and company have always been aware of the necessity for being faithful to the seven decades of material available to them when digging into this franchise. What has kept the series fresh and not simply a cut-and-paste effort has been a willingness to test those fan-set boundaries and still get away with some rather brazen decisions.
“Batman Begins” was filled to the brim with such instances: Utilizing Ra’s al Ghul as a creation point of sorts for the Batman. Introducing a love interest previously absent from the canon and revealing Batman’s secret identity to her. Destroying Wayne Manor. Etc.
With that in mind, “The Dark Knight” has its fair share of departures that still work in the hyper-real-world setting of the franchise, and, presumably, will be allowed to pass, if not cheered outright by fans seeing the film this weekend.
Spoilers coming! You have been warned!
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Rounding up the big day’s Bat news
Today’s the big day. I’ve embarrassed myself for over a month with consistent “Dark Knight” coverage, and now, I guess everyone gets to see what the fuss was all about. You can find my review here.But before we fade off into the good night of Bat overload (save for whatever box office news is coming in the next three days), I figured it best to offer up a nice primer of the net’s news and views on the subject.
I guess it’s best to revert to the ole’ Oscar Round-up format (which I swear I’ll be implementing again soon enough as a regular feature):
- Christopher Nolan talks us through the IMAX process in an audio slideshow. [New York Times]
- Manohla Dargis gives the film a thumbs up, draws a parallel to David Fincher’s “Zodiac.” [New York Times]
- MSN grasps at straws for coverage, offers a photo gallery of Bat mantle-donning thespians. [MSN]
- Veronica Schmidt has coverage of the Black Carpet premiere in New York. [The Times of London]
- Michael Moran corners visual effects supervisor Nick Davis. [Blockbuster Buzz]
- Wally Pfister gets a nice write-up for his troubles behind those cumbersome IMAX cameras. [American Cinematographer]
- Fellow Bat-enthusiast Ryan Adams makes some fan space for the day of the ‘Dark.’ [Awards Daily]
- Jeffrey Wells stays up past his bedtime to hammer out a few thoughts. His verdict: Ledger’s portrayal belongs in the pantheon of great screen villainy. [Hollywood Elsewhere]
- David Poland can’t let it go, striving to be the only one with “perspective” in this whole pre-sales records media frenzy. [The Hot Blog]
- Tom O’Neil douses the awards hopes of Heath Ledger. (I still don’t understand why people actually think he’ll win…and the bulk of his Oscar nod talk began right here, so…). [Gold Derby]
- Amid tons of Bat coverage (and typical bullshit “exclusives”), Nikki Finke reports shattered midnight show records for the film. [Deadline Hollywood Daily]
- Christopher Campbell offers 10 lam excuses for not seeing the film this weekend. [Spout Blog]
- And at the time of this writing, she’s holding steady at 94%. [Rotten Tomatoes]
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REVIEW: “The Dark Knight” (***1/2)
Perhaps the summer’s most anticipated film lands in theaters today to the record-breaking advance ticket sales of dedicated fans and those newly curious alike. But what awaits in Christopher Nolan’s “The Dark Knight” isn’t merely a study in the psychology of a nearly 70-year-old character tailored to the familiar; instead audiences will be met with an accessible tale of deep and painful truths, a unique vision of hope in the face of seemingly aimless villainy, a new staple alongside the greatest of tragedies — in any medium.Picking up right where 2005’s “Batman Begins” left off, Gotham City is rebuilding itself in the wake of criminal warfare, infrastructural corruption and weakened, nearly vanquished public spirits. Right off the bat (no pun intended), the film begins to make good on the promise of Lt. James Gordon (Gary Oldman) at the end of the first film — escalation — as a new criminal mastermind has begun to systematically relieve the mob of its accrued earnings, bank by bank, and with a taste for theatricality.
The Joker (Heath Ledger) is revealed in the film’s opening scene (unveiled in December as an IMAX “prequel” with prints of “I Am Legend”) as a methodical, macabre merchant of chaos, yes, but with an ingenious sort of order and preparation that seems to fly in the face of his later insistence on a subscription to bedlam. But his own hypocrisies aren’t on the agenda, as he later exhibits to dramatic effect.
Gotham itself has been provided a sliver of hope amongst the former and upcoming strife of the city in the form of district attorney Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart), a “white knight” grinding away at the underbelly of the city and systematically cleansing the streets. The vigilantism of the outlaw Batman is on the table as well, but Dent is smart enough to understand that Gotham is responsible for the Dark Knight’s existence, having sat silent as the city slowly rotted from within.
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Oh, and putting a number to it…
I’m gonna go with $153 million for the opening weekend haul of “The Dark Knight.” I could be grossly off the mark, but I also kind of feel like a lot of the big box office naysayers are part of some strange backlash against all the pre-sales story madness. It could just as easily land around $135 million, but I sense a record-breaker, so that’s my call.
We’ll see. To those hitting up the late screenings, enjoy the show.
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The top 10 Joker stories of all time
In a a few hours’ time, I’ll be loading up on a few Red Bulls and braving the wee hours of the morning to take in Christopher Nolan’s “The Dark Knight,” as will thousands of other movie-goers who have apparently broken pre-sales records across the country.In the meantime, however, I thought I’d offer up a list of the all time greatest Joker stories, in honor of the late Heath Ledger and his portrayal in the film.
Here’s my take (no time for explanations…I want to get a nap in at some point tonight):
10. “Wildcard!”
By Marv Wolfman and Jim Aparo (Batman #450-451)9. “Slayride”
By Paul Dini and Don Kramer (Detective Comics #826)8. “Soft Targets”
By Ed Brubaker, Greg Rucka and Michael Lark (Gotham Central #12-15)7. “The Joker’s Five-Way Revenge”
By Dennis O’Neil and Neal Adams (Batman #251)6. “Mad Love”
By Paul Dini and Bruce Timm (One-Shot) -
‘Watchmen’ trailer makes editor soil himself
httpv://youtube.com/watch?v=R3orQKBxiEg
And in Quicktime here. Also, it just occurred to me the Smashing Pumpkins song on the trailer is a remix of a tune which originally showed up on the “Batman & Robin” soundtrack. Ha.
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Terry Gilliam should be ashamed of himself
To say nothing of the fact that he has proven to be painfully irrelevant for over a decade, director Terry Gilliam has crossed the line with his recents comments chastizing Warner Bros. for what he feels is “tasteless” capitalization on the death of Heath Ledger.From Yahoo! News (via WENN and The Movie Blog):
…the moviemaker fears that the producers of Ledger’s second to last picture, The Dark Knight, are shamelessly capitalising on rumours that the late star will be awarded a posthumous Oscar for his role as evil villain The Joker.
He says, “That’s what Warner Brothers are saying, but they’ll do anything to publicise their film. That’s just what they do and you can’t get upset because it’s bulls**t.
“They’re like a great white shark which devours whatever it can.”
“Bullshit” doesn’t begin to say it, Mr. Gilliam. Any time I hear someone go on about how the studio has disrespectfully gone out of its way to plaster Ledger’s image on the promotional materials for “The Dark Knight,” I immediately controlled the urge to wrap my fingers around a roll of quarters and smash a number of teeth entering the double digits out of their skull.
What would you have them do? The Joker was always going to be a focal point of marketing. This is the “it” role of the film. It is the character any marketing whiz would be a fool to ignore or even modestly exploit in the build-up to a release such as this. And because poor Terry Gilliam has so many years of trouble with studios digging into his side, he goes and joins the chorus of ignorance with comments such as this.
Give me a fucking break.
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Amen
Personally I find it to be a complete lack of understanding for acting. I also find it rude to try to create some kind of a sound byte for such a tragedy. The man was a complex man, he was a good man, but you know what, I saw him having nothing but the best time playing the Joker.
From Christian Bale’s interview with Matt Lauer on The Today Show, a very blunt, very serious and extremely direct response (given over and over at this point) to the continued ignorance displayed by those who want to paint the Joker as “the role that killed Heath Ledger.”
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Alfred and Lucius on The View
“The Dark Knight” old-timers Michael Caine and Morgan Freeman stopped by “The View” yesterday morning to chat with the gals. Of all the scheduled TV appearances this week and last, I’d say this duo on the couch at once is the most interesting get.
Here’s part one:
httpv://youtube.com/watch?v=PT_crYfF9Ik
And part two:
httpv://youtube.com/watch?v=rwfXLR-WCb4
They also dropped by The Today Show earlier in the day, which is also worth a look. Christian Bale did the same a few days prior, his only TV appearance from what I can tell.
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This has had me concerned for a while…
From New York Magazine’s David Edelstein, re: “The Dark Knight”:
The tumult is spectacularly incoherent. Nolan appears to have no clue how to stage or shoot action. He got away with the chopped-up fights in Batman Begins because his hero was a barely glimpsed ninja, coming at villains from all angles in stroboscopic flashes. There are more variables here, which means more opportunities to say ‘What the f— just happened?’
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What will be the Bat’s final haul?
I’m frankly surprised so many people seem to expect a $100-115 million opening weekend for “The Dark Knight.” That is, admittedly, where I placed my vote, but I didn’t expect so much company.I’ll probably put an actual number to my guess in that light some time this week (all these stories about blasting away advance ticket sales records have me wondering if we’re underestimating the thing). But for now, I’m curious what readers think the final box office tally of the flick will be.
So, have your say in this week’s poll. The final total for “Batman Begins” was right around $205 million, so I think it’s safe to say most people expect that bar to be hurdled. But I’m including good cross-section of choices, in case some folks want to be brazen.
And again, if you want to put an actual number to it, let us know below.
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Exclusive ‘Dark Knight’ clip from MTV
For some reason this clip isn’t working on the MTV’s site (where it originated), but I found it on YouTube. Holy, holy:
httpv://youtube.com/watch?v=RFUFHepGu-g
