Tag Archives: Christopher Nolan

MOVIES

Hero Express: Dark Knight Station – My Own Reaction to the ‘Rises’ Prologue

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Welcome to Dark Knight Station, the Hero Express‘s main stop for all the news on The Dark Knight Rises.We’ll keep you up to date on all the biggest bat-news coming straight from Gotham City.

Mind the gap and avoid the shadows; This stop is the Dark Knight Station for December 16th, 2011.

This edition of Dark Knight Station is going to be a little different than the others. Last night I went to the midnight show of Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol. Like most of the audience in the theatre, I was really there for the 6-minute prologue of The Dark Knight Rises. I’ll drop some info on the latest news below, but first I want to talk about the 6 minutes of Rises I got to experience. I’ll try to spoil as little as possible about what actually happens in the clip. I’m going to get right into it, here is my spoiler-free reaction to my first glimpse of The Dark Knight Rises.

Like the bank heist that introduced us to The Joker in the preview for The Dark Knight, the prologue is a high-tension scene that introduces us to the main villain, Bane. We’re dropped in almost mid-conversation and immediately start asking questions. If you followed the movie’s viral marking campaign, you’ll have a little more to go on, but suffice it to say that things escalate very quickly before taking an unexpected turn. Then it all goes haywire. The focus of the clip is to give us a sense of Bane’s capabilities and methods – again, it’s very much like The Dark Knight‘s prologue in that sense – but while The Dark Knight showed us The Joker was calculating in his ruthlessness, Bane makes it very clear that he has no love for subtlety or theatrics.

“Oh shit…”

That’s not to say that there’s no room for mind-bending action; the climax of the  preview is a sequence that is unlike anything you’ve ever seen before. It’s guttural and physical, and the IMAX camera makes it look gorgeous. Think of the sequence in The Dark Knight when Batman flipped the semi, then go much bigger.

Continue reading Hero Express: Dark Knight Station – My Own Reaction to the ‘Rises’ Prologue →

MOVIES

Hero Express: Dark Knight Station – Here Comes the Prologue

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Welcome to Dark Knight Station, the Hero Express‘s main stop for all the news on The Dark Knight Rises. We’ll keep you up to date on all the biggest bat-news coming straight from Gotham City.

Mind the gap and avoid the shadows; This stop is the Dark Knight Station for December 11th, 2011.

The Viral Marketing Campaign Revealed – (Splash page)

You probably remember that The Dark Knight really took advantage of the internet as a marketing tool, bringing fans closer to the movie and using their involvement to blend the movie’s world with reality in really creative ways. For fans it was a really surreal thing to be a part of; I remember being handed a Gotham City newspaper in downtown Toronto one day and reading it on the subway ride home. It made me giddy. So I kind of missed it when The Dark Knight Rises seemed to be going with a traditional, if not leak-filled, ad campaign.

But things have been moving along in the past few days, beginning last week with Wired‘s ‘leaked’ image of a CIA bulletin regarding a missing Russian physicist, and then this accompanying transcript between some unidentified militia and an unknown contact:


Following that, a third piece of the bulletin was released via mysterious Twitter account ‘@thefirerises‘:

The latest part of the missive gave fans mention of ‘Operation Early Bird’, sending them to discover the website of the same name. The page listed a series of numbers and a countdown clock, but they left it to the public to figure out what it meant. It didn’t take them long to do just that. When the clock reached zero, a map of North America and Europe popped up and internet users quickly discovered they were able to pinpoint locations for early screenings of the DKR prologue.


All in all, the campaign was much more subdued than the last movie’s massive undertaking, but it did manage to give us…

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MOVIES

Hero Express: Dark Knight Station – Big Prologue Announcements, Interviews and Possible Spoilers

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Welcome to Dark Knight Station, the Hero Express‘s main stop for all the news on The Dark Knight Rises. We’ll keep you up to date on all the biggest bat-news coming straight from Gotham City.

Mind the gap and avoid the shadows; This stop is the Dark Knight Station for December 3rd, 2011.

Official Announcement for the IMAX Prologue – (IGN)

News that a 6-minute prologue of The Dark Knight Rises would play with Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocal at IMAX theatres has been pretty well-known for a while now, with rumours and talk about it going on for months, but now Warner Bros. has cemented it with an official announcement. The full transcript:

“Warner Bros. Pictures’ “The Dark Knight Rises” — the epic conclusion to filmmaker Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy — is one of the most anticipated films of 2012, but moviegoers won’t have to wait until next year to see the six-minute opening sequence of the film. The film’s prologue will be unveiled exclusively in select 70mm IMAX® theatres worldwide. The announcement was made today by Dan Fellman, President of Domestic Distribution, and Veronika Kwan-Rubinek, President of International Distribution, Warner Bros. Pictures.

The Prologue will be released in North America on December 16, and in the UK on December 21, 2011. Additional international dates vary by territory and will be announced soon.

In making the 2008 blockbuster “The Dark Knight,” Nolan was the first to use IMAX® cameras in a major motion picture release, and, as now, audiences were given an advance look at that film’s prologue months prior to the Summer 2008 opening. Nolan employed the extremely high-resolution cameras even more extensively on “The Dark Knight Rises”—including the film’s prologue—to achieve unprecedented crispness and clarity and a truly immersive experience for the moviegoers.

Christopher Nolan stated, “Our experience on ‘The Dark Knight’ shooting and projecting IMAX 15 perf 65mm/70mm film was inspiring. The immersive quality of the image goes beyond any other filmmaking tool available, and in revisiting Gotham, we were determined to shoot even more of the movie in this unique format. Giving the fans an early look at an IMAX sequence is a great way to draw attention to what I believe will be an incredible way to experience our story when it comes out next summer.””

The prologue is only set to play in select theaters, and the press release includes a list of all the theaters in North America and the UK where it will run, which you can check out at the bottom of the page. Make sure you are somewhere near one of those places when the day comes. I know at the strike of midnight on December 16th I’ll be at Scotiabank Theatre, cape and utility belt ready to go.

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Movie News & Opinions

‘Akira’ Update – Oldman out, Ken Watanabe Might Be In

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A quick addendum to yesterday’s casting update for Warner Brothers’ remake of Akira: I’ve got my morning coffee, meaning I’m not nearly as bitter as I was yesterday. Oh and also, Superhero Hype has word that Gary Oldman has officially passed on the part of Colonel Shikishima, and Ken Watanabe (Inception) is their next choice for the character.

Watanabe is quickly becoming a recognizable face for his role in big movies like Christopher Nolan’s Inception and Batman Begins, but he’s had equal success in Japanese cinema. He’s a talented guy and would likely handle a complex role like ‘The Colonel’ pretty well, not to mention he’d be lending some much needed credibility to the rest of the young and fairly untested cast. With Oldman out, there’s not much star power left to carry the picture.

That said though, Garret Hedlund is still the only actor locked down as of yet. We’ll keep you updated on all the Akira news as it develops.

MOVIES

Hero Express – ‘Booster Gold’ Gets a Pilot, ‘Dark Knight’ Rumors Rise and ‘Star Trek 2’s Unlikely Villain

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Welcome back to the Hero Express, your one-stop sometimes SPOILER filled shop through the news filled world of superhero’s in Film, TV, Video Games and whatever else floats your boat.

This is the Hero Express for November 23rd, 2011:

SyFy shooting Booster Gold Pilot – (MTV)

Here’s a short one to lead us back in to where Scoot left off in yesterday’s Express: Andrew Kreisberg , whose work you may know from Fringe, is slated to write a pilot for SyFy based on DC hero, Booster Gold. Executive Producer Greg Berlanti will be backing the project, which fits in nicely with his previous work on Green Lantern and No Ordinary Family.

It will be interesting to see if DC can find a place for its lesser-known heroes on television, as it seems they remain unable to find a lasting home on the silver screen.

‘Powers’ Pilot getting another Shot on FX – (MTV)

A while ago it was announced that the popular comic, Powers, was shooting a live-action pilot for FX, though it seemed initially like it wasn’t going to make it through. However, word is that FX has passed on a competing pilot and given Powers another chance, provided they can go back and do some more work on the special effects.

The comic’s writer, Brian Michael Bendis, tweeted happily about the news:

“In regard to ‘Powers’ TV: the pilot was crazy expensive and very lovely and shows incredible potential for a long series,” Bendis wrote. “The reshoots are planned for January and are all about tone and clarity. I am very proud of the pilot, as [is] [Michael Avon Oeming]. Stay tuned.”

Supposedly, according to Bendis, the process of going back to work on a pilot is not necessarily a bad sign, as FX is known to do this sort of thing. He mentioned that hit series Sons of Anarchy had to do the same.

A Slew of Set Photos from The Amazing Spider-Man – (SuperHero Hype/Newscom)

Two sets of photos have surfaced regarding The Amazing Spider-Man production. One features an extensive gallery of the cast on set for re-shoots, which you can see here. The other is much smaller, but much more revealing:

Most exciting to see, at least for me, is Rhys Ifans‘ ugly hand up there, which looks a lot like it means Connor’s experiment was a success (Giant lizard-monster transformation notwithstanding).

Empire Magazine’s TDKR Issue – (SuperHero Hype)

And here we are with the the Hero Express segment that likely overshadows the rest of these links; welcome to Dark Knight Station. Here are some photos (The best quality the internet has of them so far) of the Empire issue dedicated to the upcoming Batman movie:

Continue reading Hero Express – ‘Booster Gold’ Gets a Pilot, ‘Dark Knight’ Rumors Rise and ‘Star Trek 2’s Unlikely Villain →

MOVIES

Hero Express – So Much ‘Dark Knight Rises’

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Welcome to Hero Express, your one-stop sometimes SPOILER filled shop through the news filled world of superhero’s in Film, TV, Video Games and whatever else floats your boat.

This is the Hero Express for October 06, 2011:

Catwoman set photos – (Cinema Blend)

Anne Hathaway’s upcoming turn in the catsuit has us all a little curious. What exactly has Christopher Nolan got in store for Selina Kyle in TDKR? Here are some new photos of  Hathaway rockin’ the new outfit. I particularly like the shot of her and Bats chatting behind off-camera.

Selina Kyle set photos – (Comic Book Movie)

Actually more interesting for me to see than Catwoman’s get up is getting a good look at the Selina Kyle in Nolan’s Bat-verse, which we get a ton of here. Hathaway looks amazing in these photos and I’m really seeing why she was cast as the character.

Interview with Nestor Carbonell – (Splashpage)

You know Nestor Carbonell as Gotham’s mayor, Anthony Garcia. Back for the ride in The Dark Knight Rises, he had a lot to vaguely say and tease about the experience of finishing the Batman trilogy:

“I finished [filming] about a month ago in Pittsburgh. It was a lot of fun, it’s nice to go back to Chris Nolan’s world […] He has announced that this is his last go at ‘Batman’ but yeah, if it is the last for him, he certainly goes out big. It’s massive.”

“What I saw of the sets was just unbelievable. When we were shooting a particular scene I snuck around to see the image on the dolly of what the D.P., Wally Pfister, Academy Award Winner [was shooting]. I looked and immediately thought, ‘Wow, I see why he is who he is, it’s beautifully framed, beautifully shot, half is on IMAX.”

On Christopher Nolan:

“He’s one of these amazing storytellers in our generation, he’s one of the guys who’s taken that genre and grounded it and done something with it that hasn’t done before […] He’s made it that much more real, much more accessible, and he’s made a psychological thriller out of all of them, so he’s great, he’s amazing.”

New set photos of Bane – (Script Flags)

Here we get to my most interesting part of the Hero Express so far; some new images of Tom Hardy as Bane. In addition to photos of the Inception co-star in the face mask, there are a couple of images and videos of his Bane Truck to enjoy:

And his truck:

Even MORE set photos; Christian Bale and JGL – (Comic Book Movie)

Okay, this is getting a little ridiculous. Here are some photos of Joseph Gordon-Levitt driving Christian Bale around Gotham in a police car.

Adam Rodriguez gets cast in TDKR – (Deadline)

Oh my God, look at that. News that isn’t 25 videos and a 360 degree photo gallery of Anne Hathaway’s leather-coated butt (Not that I’m complaining). Adam Rodriguez, famous for his role in CSI: Miami, has just been added to The Dark Knight Rises cast, in a small role that as yet hasn’t been announced.

And that’s it for this edition of The Hero Express! I have a new-found respect for SupaScoot, having filled in for him this week and sorting through piles of links and news stories. Drop a comment telling us what you think about all this Dark Knight Rises news!