Gallery: The Dark Knight

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Gallery: The Dark Knight

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Permalink | Email this | Comments

You know, I have always had a dislike for the collectible business. Most children of the 70's and 80's probably do, as we were generally left crying because our Transformers or Star Wars collections were incomplete. My own bitterness arises from not being able to get a figure of April O'Neill, the redheaded reporter and best friend of The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. That was the first time I learned that adults collected these things -- and not to play with, but to sell for ridiculously high prices. And I learned it courtesy of my dad, who knew guys hoarding April O'Neill figures, and who wouldn't cough one up to a fellow cop for his young, geeky daughter.

So, this story from the New York Post reporting Heath Ledger's Joker figure selling out everywhere makes me sad and angry. It's not that kids are being denied a Joker figure (I really do not think young children should be anywhere near The Dark Knight, and I'm pretty liberal about kids watching dark movies), but that Ledger's death is being shamelessly exploited on eBay. Because you know as well as I that those figures wouldn't be flying from the shelves if Ledger hadn't passed away earlier this year. I have no doubt it would be popular, but no one would be buying 30 of them. They wouldn't be going for $55.00 a pop. (Actually, it looks like that's some hyperbole, as a brief glance suggests it's more in the range of $30-$40, but it's still the principle of the thing. Sell enough and you've turned a tidy profit.)

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Finally, the wait is over! The second full length trailer for The Dark Knight is up and it is all kinds of cool. Unlike the feeling left by the two Incredible Hulk trailers, I feel like there's plenty of scary Joker goodness waiting for me in the theatre.

Maybe it was the long wait, maybe it's just that there's a point of excitement one reaches, but this trailer seems kind of ... understated? I don't want to say flat, because it is anything but -- yet compared to the explosions and shrill laughter of the first, this one suddenly brought Batman back into the real world. When the bootleg was leaked, my e-mail box was flooded with people complaining that Ledger was too "gritty" and "realistic" in his performance. I don't share the complaints, but the Joker is definitely missing the eerie, superhuman element. I like it, but I can see why many might not.

Love the foreshadowing surrounding poor Harvey Dent. I'm already half in love with the handsome D.A.; I can't wait to see how Nolan handles his fall from grace. Watch it, and rave about it. Or complain. I think this might be the trailer that divides an audience -- I'm watching the comments to see! The Dark Knight hits theatres July 18th.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Last night we took the crew to see Iron Man. You can read James's and Scott's reviews of the film, but I'll just add that this movie ROCKS, and in case you're a parent debating whether to bring your kids to see it, I felt that what violence is in the film is mostly cartoonish, Indiana Jones-level stuff, so if your kids can handle those films, they'll be fine. All of my kids were engaged in the film from start to finish, and there was nothing in it that scared them as much and that damn sea lion in Happy Feet.

But I digress. Before the film, of course, they had the usual array of trailers (Speed Racer, Indy 4, Prince Caspian), and one of them was for The Dark Knight. Now, I've generally been avoiding seeing or reading too much about The Dark Knight, so this was the first time I'd seen the trailer. And my reaction to it was ... I don't know if I want to see this film. Much as I love Christian Bale and Aaron Eckhart, I just found the scenes of Heath Ledger as the Joker oddly painful to watch.

Gallery: The Dark Knight

We were at Sundance when the news of Ledger's death broke, and the response among the film journalists there was not what you'd normally expect from people who work in this business to news of another tragic celebrity death. People were stunned, shell-shocked; there were a lot of red eyes around, even among the men, some of who normally tend toward the snarky end of the spectrum. I had to walk out of a room where the TV was showing the typical media blow-out reaction to a celebrity death -- so much tabloidization, so much capitalizing on what was, for his family, just a terrible tragedy.

But that was back in January, so I figured, by now, I'd be fine with seeing Ledger in this role. And after seeing the trailer I'm thinking, not so much. It probably seems stupid, but it was just painful to me to see him in that dark of a role, knowing the downward spiral his life took in the aftermath of that film. Not that I think anyone can say with certainty that playing the Joker directly caused Ledger's death, but the role is so dark, so twisted, and Ledger, in the trailer, seems to so embody that darkness, that I was just a bit overwhelmed by it. And honestly, I just don't know if I want to sit through an entire movie of watching him in that role.

I know, I'm a dork, and it's probably just me, but I wondered -- is anyone else having this reaction to The Dark Knight trailer? Or are you just so excited by the film in general, and in seeing Bale reprise the role of Batman, that seeing Ledger as the Joker just doesn't bother you?

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Gallery: The Dark Knight

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Permalink | Email this | Comments

The New York Times has a few new stills from The Dark Knight accompanying their excellent article. I didn't have to log in, so it doesn't look like registration is required to read or view. If it is, and all you want are the photos (for shame!), Superhero Hype has them. The one posted above is definitely the best one.

Also, Harvey Dent has gone live with the next viral challenge. It looks like he will be making campaign stops in most major cities -- and he's leaving very choppy voice mails for anyone who's given him a cell phone number.
In this election year, I think it will be hilarious to stand on a street corner with a Harvey Dent sign -- and I plan on doing it as soon as I can round up some company.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Long story short: A two-year-old video featuring Heath Ledger at a party where drugs were being consumed was purchased by Entertainment Tonight for a large sum of money (some are saying $200,000), and the show, as well as The Insider, planned to air the video in an attempt to "understand why Ledger died." Ledger's former PR firm sent out a mass email protesting the video, folks everywhere cried "poor taste" and ET ultimately decided not to air it. One imagines said video will arrive on YouTube within 24 hours, and at that time it will be everywhere; the secret video everyone will pretend they didn't watch.

Here's my question: Where do you draw the line? Almost everything these shows put on the air is in poor taste. So, instead of the Ledger video, they'll do 15 minutes on Britney Spears -- what she wore to the hospital, what she said to the doctor, how big her sh*t was that morning. This stuff -- this stalking of Britney Spears -- is okay. Airing a video showing Heath Ledger drinking a beer, while some dude snorts coke in the corner? Not okay. That's in poor taste. You should respect the Ledger family. What about the family of every other actor or actress who's caught doing something stupid? Where's the respect for them? There is no respect. You think the folks at ET respect Ledger or his family? They couldn't give two sh*ts about these people ... unless something they do is going to bring them more viewers. Hence, the video.

It's a pretty sick world we live in. I've watched this TMZ show on television, where the staff gets together and they write a bunch of stuff on a board. At the top of that board, it should read: How Will We Ruin Someone's Life Today? Isn't it sick to know that all of these people -- the shows, the websites, the magazines -- make all their money off humiliating other people? That that's a huge business; the business of humiliation. And then they go home at night to their wife, their significant other, their children -- and they attempt to be a good role model. " Help Jimmy with his math homework after you're done photo-shopping that pic of Britney's vagina, please."

If I were harassed as much as Britney Spears has been, I'd wind up in a mental institution. We all would. And if she does die, God forbid, it would be the media that killed her. And then how funny would it be to watch the media blame themselves for killing a celebrity? Of course they wouldn't do that -- they'd blame Britney, they'd blame her family, they'd blame her friends. They'd never blame themselves, unless they were blaming another outlet -- as if they were the good guys.

But you know who should really be blamed? Us. We're the ones with the desire to read and watch this sh*t. We feed them, and they prosper. I won't say we're the ones responsible for Ledger's death -- after all, a person has to take responsibility for what they put in their own body. But we're responsible for shows like Celebrity Rehab; we're responsible for Britney Spears going off the deep end; we're responsible for TMZ TV; we're responsible for Perez Hilton's ugly f**king face showing up on a VH1 special. We love it. We eat it up. And if you put that Heath Ledger video in front of 150 strangers, I bet at least 149 of them would watch it without thinking twice. Because it's mindless entertainment. And if it temporarily helps you forget about the fact that your life sucks, then bring it on.

We're the real addicts. And it's sad.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

In my opinion, Heath Ledger and Michelle Williams were both coming into their own when Ledger passed away early last week. The day before Ledger's death, I had a chance to watch Williams absolutely kill in the Sundance flick Incendiary -- her greatest performance yet, in my opinion. Both actors (who were married engaged, but separated) were approaching super-stardom, however we're now left to track the future career of only one. And regarding her future career, People reports that Michelle Williams will put all her films on hold for an undetermined amount of time while she grieves the loss of Ledger.

The actress had just finished shooting her last scene for the film Mammuth in Sweden when she heard the bad news, and now production on Blue Valentine, her next flick, has been postponed (it was supposed to begin shooting on February 25). The film stars Williams and Ryan Gosling as a couple struggling with their marriage. A source close to the production told People, "We will hold off until she is ready. The production is in the process of sorting it out in respect to her. We're hoping she will still come back and do the film and are happy to wait. The film is tailor made for those two so of course we would want to wait. You can't get much better than them." We'll be sure to keep you updated; in the meantime, keep an eye out for Incendiary -- the gal is a powerhouse in that film.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

• Russell Lloyd (1916-2008) - Oscar-nominated editor of John Huston's The Man Who Would Be King. He edited 11 of Huston's films in total, including Moby Dick, The MacKintosh Man, Reflections in a Golden Eye, The Unforgiven and Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison. He also edited Tinto Brass' Caligula, Anthony Page's The Lady Vanishes, Peter Sellers' final film, The Fiendish Plot of Dr. Fu Manchu and Julien Duvivier's 1948 adaptation of Anna Karenina, on which he was also a second-unit director. He co-directed the 1949 melodrama The Last Days of Dolwyn, which starred Richard Burton, and was a location director for the 1950 Disney adaptation of Treasure Island. He died January 21 in Cranleigh, England. (Independent)

• Christopher Allport (1947-2008) - Character actor who starred in the 1979 slasher flick Savage Weekend. He also appears in To Live and Die in L.A., the '86 Invaders from Mars remake and the horror film Jack Frost and its direct-to-video sequel Jack Frost 2: Revenge of the Mutant Killer Snowmen. He died in an avalanche January 25, in Wrightwood, California. (Star-Telegram.com)
• Christian Brando (aka Gary Brown) (1958-2008) - Actor and son of Marlon Brando. He appears in the Barbara Streisand movie Yentl and the Peter Sellers movie I Love You, Alice B. Toklas! He died from pneumonia January 26, in Los Angeles. (Variety)
• Heath Ledger (1979-2008) - Oscar-nominated actor who starred in Brokeback Mountain, Cassanova, The Brothers Grimm, 10 Things I Hate About You, Monster's Ball, The Order, A Knight's Tale, Ned Kelly, I'm Not There and The Four Feathers. He will be seen this summer as The Joker in The Dark Knight. Read Monika's original breaking news post and my update and also check out the Cinematical tribute to Ledger here.
• Reverend Lynn Lemon (1911-2008) - Minister who played a minister in Ed Wood's Plan 9 From Outer Space and Denis Sanders' Invasion of the Bee Girls. He also appears as himself in the documentary The Haunted World of Edward D. Wood Jr. He died of a heart attack January 15, in Bedford, Texas. (Fangoria)
• Gina Louise (1971-2008) - Hair stylist who worked on Playing Mona Lisa, which starred Alicia Witt and Harvey Fierstein, and Around the Fire, starring Tara Reid and Devon Sawa. She died January 1. (Entertainment Insiders)

• Brice Mack (1918-2008) - Background painter who worked on the Disney animated features Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Pinocchio, Fantasia, Cinderella, Lady and the Tramp, Peter Pan, Alice and Wonderland and Song of the South. He also painted the background for a number of Disney shorts, including the 1942 Oscar-winner Lend a Paw, and he co-wrote other shorts, including the 1952 Goofy toon How to Be a Detective. He went on to direct live-action films, including the 1978 horror flick Jennifer. He died January 2 in Hollywood. (Variety)
• Lois Nettleton (1929-2008) - Two-time Emmy-winning actress who co-starred in The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, Wes Craven's Deadly Blessing, George Roy Hill's Period of Adjustment, Arthur Hiller's The Man in the Glass Booth and Burt Kennedy's The Good Guys and the Bad Guys, Dirty Dingus Magee and Mail Order Bride. She died of lung cancer January 18, in Woodland Hills, California. (Variety)
• Kwan Wong (?-2008) - Stunt coordinator for Jackie Chan's Project A and Wheels on Meals and action director for the Hong Kong flicks In the Line of Duty 4, God of Gamblers II and Fight Back to School. He died of a heart attack January 3, in Beijing, China. (IMDb)
  

Permalink | Email this | Comments

It's been just about a week since the world was hit with news of Heath Ledger's untimely death. While folks still try to come to terms with how and why he died, those who last worked with him are starting to share their thoughts. Though he wasn't the last man to direct Ledger (that was Terry Gilliam), Christopher Nolan is the director of the last feature film Ledger will ever appear in ... The Dark Knight. As he notes in an article for Newsweek, Nolan is still in the editing room, piecing together the last bits of his film with the face of a young star who died too young staring back at him each and every single day.

Nolan says, "Heath was bursting with creativity. It was in his every gesture. He once told me that he liked to wait between jobs until he was creatively hungry. Until he needed it again. He brought that attitude to our set every day. There aren't many actors who can make you feel ashamed of how often you complain about doing the best job in the world. Heath was one of them."

Nolan also shared that Heath had been working on two short films at the time of his death; that, while shooting The Dark Knight, he would bring his laptop to the set and show Nolan what he was working on. Nolan continues: "When you get into the edit suite after shooting a movie, you feel a responsibility to an actor who has trusted you, and Heath gave us everything. As we started my cut, I would wonder about each take we chose, each trim we made. I would visualize the screening where we'd have to show him the finished film-sitting three or four rows behind him, watching the movements of his head for clues to what he was thinking about what we'd done with all that he'd given us. Now that screening will never be real. I see him every day in my edit suite. I study his face, his voice. And I miss him terribly."

Head over to Newsweek to read the entire tribute.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

I was on a shuttle bus at Sundance when my wife text messaged me the news about Heath Ledger. By the time I made it off the bus, everyone was buzzing -- his death had hit the fest like a virus. It didn't take much time, and only a few hours later I started seeing stories from people wondering whether Ledger's death had anything to do with the amount of work he put into the role of Joker in this summer's The Dark Knight. When the New York Times interviewed him last month, Ledger admitted to locking himself in a hotel room for a month to get into character, then downing sleeping pills afterward to catch up on some much-needed rest. Though we're not entirely sure yet, it was most likely a combination of sleeping pills and other medication that did him in.

Warner Bros. has already toned down their aggressive Dark Knight marketing plan, turning the movie's official website into a make-shift shrine dedicated to the actor. So if it was this role that ultimately sent Ledger off in an unhealthy direction, why did he take it on in the first place. ComicMix currently has up an exclusive audio interview with Ledger, conducted last month, in which the actor explains why, exactly, he decided to take on the part. According to the actor, he had no interest in re-creating what Nicholson had so expertly displayed earlier, and that if Burton was directing this film he probably wouldn't have done it. But when Christopher Nolan asked Ledger to play Joker, he watched Batman Begins, saw a different angle he could take and jumped right in. You can check out the interview over here.

Personally, I think it's a cop out to blame a role in a movie for a person's death. Obviously actors and actresses take on all kinds of roles in any given year -- some of which are a lot more demanding than the Joker -- and they come away just fine. What it boils down to is the kind of person you are; how much pressure you put on yourself and what you do to alleviate that pressure. Our thoughts and prayers are with his friends and family this weekend as they say goodbye to a man so many people loved dearly.

Permalink | Email this | Comments