Nolan Talks TDK, Confirms Dent

[BATMAN1]

From batman-on-film.com

Author: Jett
Tuesday, October 3, 2006 - 6:59 AM: Our friend “Stax” from IGN FILMFORCE sent me word that they attended "An Evening With Christopher Nolan" on Oct. 2 at the Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood, where Nolan's first feature, FOLLOWING, was screened along with the trailer for his next release, THE PRESTIGE. Nolan finally revealed what has long been suspected -- Harvey Dent is in THE DARK KNIGHT:

* Is Harvey Dent in the film - "I don't want to go into too many specifics. Yes, he is."

* Will Dent be played by an American, Aussie, or Brit, and has an actor been cast? - “You’ll see” and “Not yet.”

* Does it tie into BATMAN BEGINS? - “It does, absolutely. It's a pretty direct continuation of where the last film left off, and the last scene of BATMAN BEGINS suggests a strong direction we wanted to take the story in. It absolutely carries on with a lot of the thematic concerns and hopefully takes it someplace new.”

As far as the casting of Dent is concerned, BOF has heard for a while now that it is one of the most sought after roles in Hollywood right now. Actors Jake Gyllenhaul, Josh Lucas, and fan-fave Live Schreiber have been tied to the role over the past year, with Lucas actively pursuing the part of Gotham’s Asst. D.A. and eventual villain Two Face...

BOF'er "A.A." chimed in on Nolan's appearence with the following:

"I was at the [Nolan] screening last night. He did reiterate...that THEMATICALLY 'The Dark Knight' would continue from where 'Batman Begins' left off. He also talked extensively about how his films tend to be structured non-linearly [and how] you see this repeated in 'Batman Begins,' in the beginning. He [also] talked about how the scripts for his films teach the viewer how to read the structure of the film. But when it comes to the actual film, sometimes a scene that may be shortened on the page has to play out a bit more to allow the audience to gain a sense of mood, tone and attachment to the characters.

He [said] most of his films containing the same film 'grammar' -- a la 'The Prestige' still being "a bunch of actors standing near windows" as was his motif in 'Following.'"

As I've said, the buzz is that some official news should come down around the time of THE PRESTIGE's release, as Nolan and Bale are sure to be hammered with TDK questions on the press junket.

[BATMAN1]

From www.infocusmag.com

by Mike Russell


Much of “Batman Begins” was about Bruce Wayne coming to terms with what he is and what he does. Will you need to modulate his inner struggle in a sequel?
What do you mean by “modulate”?

Well, at the end of the first film, he sort of comes to terms with what he’s doing. He’s got this mission now. So I’d imagine that mission will have to evolve a bit.
Oh, yes. Or the world … Let me put it this way, without being too specific: When you embark on a mission, it’s extraordinarily rare that things turn out according to the mission plan. [laughs] The world is going to react in ways you don’t expect.

He did indeed achieve a certain sense of purpose or a certain resignation, in terms of how his life is going to wind up being dedicated to this — which is something that we begin with. But the world itself responds to our actions in ways we don’t anticipate.

You said something interesting about introducing The Joker at the end of “Batman Begins”: “That’s the point of the final scene. That [fighting evil] is not going to be easy. It’s going to get harder.” Is that a touchstone for the sequel?
Very much. Obviously, I can’t really talk much about it at this stage — but I think if you watch that last scene, it gives you a very, very clear direction of where the story’s going.

When Commissioner Gordon turns over that playing card, there’s a sense of dread.
Yeah.

Are the villains going to try to define themselves as extremely as Batman defines himself?
Yeah, in their own way.

Are you drawing any inspiration from Alan Moore’s “Killing Joke” — which made a point of grounding The Joker not in this “Clown Prince of Crime” stuff, but more in sadness and failure?
We’re drawing from the entire canon. I don’t want to talk too specifically about it. The thing I will say is that if you go back to the very first appearance of the Joker in the comics …

Which I’ve read. And he’s a bastard.
[emphatically] Yeah. And there’s a very clear direction … It’s pretty surprising how clearly drawn that character is in that book.

If you’ve read those early stories, Heath Ledger makes sense as a casting choice.
It certainly makes sense to me.

We got to see a lot more of Bruce Wayne out of costume in “Batman Begins” than in the prior “Batman” movies. He was also a lot more fun — buying hotels and engineering corporate takeovers. Will Batman’s alter ego play as prominent a role in the sequel?
Yeah. I mean, Bruce, to me, isn’t just Batman. There are also aspects of Bruce Wayne that are private and public.

Given how muted “Batman Begins” was, in terms of tone and color, do you see any risks in overstuffing a movie with colorful villains?
Well, you have to be careful about everything. [long, long pause]

[laughs] Well. You’ve said, “I actually see myself as a very mainstream filmmaker and always have.” Why do some people keep pegging you — even after “Batman Begins” — as an art-house director?
God, I have no idea. [laughs] The press tends to pigeonhole filmmakers from where they begin — which is actually not necessarily completely wrong — but I directed a “Batman” film, and people still talk about my independent-filmmaking roots.

Ridley Scott is a favorite filmmaker of mine — and for years, anything he did was immediately related to advertising, because he started out there. He’s only just about past it.
I certainly don’t have any complaints if people relate what I do to the independent films I started with. I would hope that all my films would have a personal and sincere foundation — whether they’re on a grand scale or not.

Certainly all your films have trafficked in misdirection. Even in “Batman Begins,” with Liam Neeson’s character.
Well, Batman is an interesting case in point, because you’re dealing with a mythic character. And one of the qualities of mythic stories is familiarity — and, to a certain extent, predictability.

I don’t mean “predictability” in its usual pejorative sense. I mean it in the sense of the inevitable thing — the thing that allows a story to take on the character.

There’s a tension in the storytelling between the familiar elements that make up the myth and being able to surprise people. What it ultimately amounts to is a need for the filmmaker to achieve the inevitable in surprising ways.

Right. Superhero movies are prone to discussions of whether they’re “faithful” or not … Superhero fans want their characters to be comforting, in a way.
That’s exactly the tension I’m talking about. It’s something I find very interesting. Because to me, being faithful to the character in the story is not about slavishly following a particular treatment of one comic or graphic novel — it’s about distilling the essence of the myth.

That’s always been the challenge of Batman, and its strength. You treat the essential elements as mileposts, and all the elements in between — all the other layers and threads — can be fresh and different and surprising. Get that stuff right, and you see the myth in a powerful way.

On a superficial level, when we approached re-designing the Batmobile, we weren’t too specific about what it had to be — other than that it had to be the most powerful car you’ve ever seen. And it had to be black. Other than that, we didn’t say, “It has to have a fin,” or anything like that. And so you’re able to create something completely original and fresh — a renewed concept of “the most powerful car.”

Well, having read the original comics, we’re just lucky you didn’t make it a red sedan. Is the script for “Dark Knight” finished?
I couldn’t tell you that.

Of course you couldn’t.
A script’s never finished with me. I write even as we’re shooting. But we’ve been working at it for quite a while now.

Will the title be “The Dark Knight”? Or do you think it will end up being “Batman — colon — The Dark Knight”?
No, it’ll be “The Dark Knight.”

It sets such a tone.
Yes. Well, that’s the idea.

You’ve said you’re not a huge Internet hound. Were you able to stay away from the ’net during the “Batman Begins” pre-release brouhaha?
Yeah, yeah. Certainly, when you’re making a film that everybody’s watching, you’re going to read a lot of stuff about your film and you’re not necessarily going to like all of it. So. If you’re happy doing that, fine. If you’re not…

When you take on something like Batman, that increases exponentially, and you’re already being hit from all kinds of other directions … I don’t have e-mail.

You know, with “The Prisoner,” you’re going to go through that again with an entirely different obsessive cult.
Yeah. Well. You know. I’ve been through it once before. You have to get on and do what it is you’re going to do. Which is not the same thing as being in any way disrespectful of the material. You have to take responsibility for yourself and get on with it and do a good job.

Well, and certainly the recent “Snakes on a Plane” experience shows that catering to the ’net doesn’t guarantee a successful experience.
I imagine it would have made my experience on either “Batman” or “The Prisoner” a lot harder, had that been shown to be a way to make a film more successful.



Uh…. Will the Joker be the only villain in “Dark Knight”? Can we safely confirm Ryan Phillippe as Harvey Dent and Philip Seymour Hoffman as The Penguin/Cobblepot?
You struck out with your last question!

I know.
How sad!

My editor wanted me to ask.
Wasted! Wasted!

I’m sorry.
Is there another question?

Could you see your Batman interacting with Singer’s Superman? [
Nolan laughs] Another strikeout?
Another strikeout!

Oh, Lordy.
One more. Third time lucky.

How did you come to collaborate with David Goyer on “Batman Begins”?
Wow. I’m sure I can answer that one.
I first met him years before, through mutual friends one morning at breakfast. I remember chatting with him and thinking he was an interesting guy, and then, years later, checked out some of his stuff — especially “Dark City.” I was really impressed with the ideas in that film.

And when I was looking for somebody who really knew the world of comics — who could set me off on the right foot and really get me going in the right direction — he seemed the obvious choice. But he was absolutely booked up, because he was about seven or eight weeks from going into production on “Blade: Trinity,” which he was directing.

So we just spitballed a few ideas. And he said, “Look, you can have these ideas. I can’t write the script for you. I’m just too busy.” And then, over the course of a week or two, I guess he just realized that he couldn’t turn down the opportunity to write on the film. He loved the character so much. So he came on for a very short, intense period where we just thrashed out a story and he wrote the first draft. He had to work very, very fast. He’s a very quick writer.

Yeah, I’ve read that draft. There’s such a strong idea at the core of that thing.
Yeah. A lot of the fun we had — which we’re also having as we do “The Dark Knight” — is throwing ideas around before anything is written. Just talking about the script. He’s a tremendous collaborator.

[BATMAN1]

FROM batman-on-film.coml

TDK Talk
Author: Jett
Thursday, October 19, 2006 - 5:16 AM: Knowing that the press junket for THE PRESTIGE was talking place last weekend, I figured that there would be a ton of TDK info online this week. And I was correct. Several BOF'ers sent us a link to an article over at VH1.COM. Here's a few blurbs:

Bale: "It's all top-secret stuff. Chris will call me in due time, and I trust him completely. On that, I know I'm in very good hands. All I know is that we will be improving upon a pretty d**n fantastic first BATMAN BEGINS."

Caine: "I spoke to [Nolan] about [The Joker] and said, 'This is how I think The Joker should be.' I said a certain thing about how it should be done, and he [Nolan] says, 'I've got a better way than that one.' And I went, 'Whoa,' because my way was good — my way was really good. Because, I mean, you have got to top Jack — and not a lot of people can top Jack....Christopher is very tight with everything. He won't tell you anything, even though I know him so well. But I think it will be incredible."

Nolan on BOF - errr - The Net and Bat-Fans: "I really don't look at any of that stuff, because when you work on something like 'Batman,' it's simply too confusing with all of the different amounts of interest in it. It's very gratifying that there is such a loyal fanbase and that they are interested. But I'm a bit of a Luddite when it comes to technology; I don't really use the Internet. I'm aware of some [rumors]; my wife tells me about the more outlandish ones and so forth. It is fun that people are so interested, and it's really a great thing that the fans are so passionate."

As you can see, everyone -- sans Caine -- was very coy about everything TDK related. Anyway, THE PRESTIGE hits theaters Friday and I'm sure Nolan and company will go full speed ahead with TDK.