Uno dei membri degli originali CITIZENS FOR BATMAN,noto come BRIAN DOG (da cui bdog86,uno dei fondatori dei CITTADINI PER BATMAN,ha tratto il suo nome in codice) è stato rapito da Joker mentre esercitava il suo operato in aiuto di Batman,poi brutalmente sfigurato e ucciso e infine impiccato in cima all’edificio in cui risiede l’ufficio del sindaco di Gotham,Garcia.Il tutto è stato documentato dall’emittente Gotham Cable News in un’edizione straordinaria del programma Gotham Tonight di Mike Engel,grazie anche ad un video girato e inviato dallo stesso Joker.Nel video,il clown,oltre a prendersi gioco del nostro amico,legato e torturato,chiede a Batman di rivelare la sua identità al mondo e di costituirsi,minacciando di uccidere qualcuno per ogni giorno che non lo farà.

Tutti noi ci auguriamo che Batman riesca a catturare questo folle terrorista al più presto ed esprimiamo ai CITIZENS FOR BATMAN e alla famiglia di Brian le più sentite condoglianze.

The Dark Knight is less than two weeks away! And this post is brought to you by SPOILER CONTROL, so you can enjoy these and future posts on my blog without wishing you had gouged your eyes out prior to reading them. This (for the present) applies to future TDK-related posts until the 18th. Enjoy!

Batman-On-Film has an interview with Jonathan “Jonah” Nolan (screenplay) and David Goyer (TDK story). Jonah says something in the interview about when he saw Batman Begins that mirrors why I get so excited to see a movie—especially this movie—I’m anticipating the first day it comes out.

… You know I worked a bit on the last film as an consultant — very briefly. And I went to see BATMAN BEGINS at the 12AM midnight sneak. That was an exciting thing to be able to watch it with an audience — and audience that was very excited to see it and respond to all the amazing ideas that they had put into it. That was cool.

The geeks and fanboys (or girls, hey!) are there opening day. The people who are just as, if not more, excited about the same film you are. (Goyer accurately describes them as a “real” audience.) I experienced this for the first time when I saw one of the Harry Potter movies … and it was such a rush. And hopefully I’ll get to see some people dressed up! If I do, I’ll try to take pictures and then post ‘em on my blog! Of course, I’ll be writing a review of The Dark Knight along with any other details of my movie-viewing experience on the 18th.

Anyway, here’s hope for the Bat-fans like me who want to see a non-traditional villain in the third film! Thank you!

JN: … Batman’s rogues gallery — most of them are very realistic. It’s BIG and it’s DEEP — that bench has a lot of depth. And uh, a lot of those characters feel as if they could fit into our “realistic” world.

DG: You know the thing is with the first one, people would say “Who are you going to use? The Penguin, The Joker, The Riddler, etc.” These are the well known characters — known principally from the TV show — and guess what, we used Ra’s Al Ghul and The Scarecrow. Now they weren’t characters from the other films or the TV show but these were big characters from the comics. And there are a lot of big characters in the comics that haven’t been used — comic book readers know who they are though.

Yes! Exactly what I think. On another note, there are some cool TDK wallpapers on Super Punch that you can add to your arsenal.

Entertainment Weekly’s new issue has just about the coolest TDK cover I’ve seen. And you can read their full article (which also rocks, but be careful—there’s some Joker spoilers in it) at EW.com.

You can watch a TDK Sneak Peak vid—which incorporates part of two of the twelve clips IESB.net recently featured—by E! News Now here. Now obviously something like that is a spoiler, so watch at your own risk (especially because the host is kind of annoying).

BOF.com has a list of upcoming talk shows that will have TDK actors as guest stars, starting with Aaron Eckhart on tomorrow’s The Tonight Show.

There’s a new episode of Gotham Tonight with Mike Engel up—guest starring Commissioner Loeb and Sal Maroni (haha, what an ass)! (I love how Maroni makes that “bored to death” comment and Engel is just like, “… No, we wouldn’t.” Haha! Poor Mike.)

The Citizens for Batman website shows two coordinates where fans are supposed to gather when the countdown ends tomorrow: 9 pm Central in Chicago and 10 pm Eastern in New York. Damn, too bad I can’t be there. More on that after it happens.

The Joker strikes (cell phones) again! Superhero Hype! posted this today:

UPDATE: Fans with the Joker phones just got the following from humanresources@whysoserious.com:

OK clown, I see one last test of skill in your future. Post this where everyone can see it: LAMB

Hmmm, what could that mean? Can anyone shed any light on this?

Anywho, want to see the Batmobile take on the Toyota F1 racing team and see how awkward (but fun) the Batpod must be to ride? Hell yeah! Click the Superhero Hype! link above to see the video. Besides all the picture-taking and driver posing mixed in, it’s pretty awesome.

There are four brand new, must-watch TDK tv spots here! These are absolutely kick ass, and they each have new footage and voice overs. Thanks to John for the link!

Andddd … oh my god! The trailer for The Dark Knight that was shown at last year’s Wizard World Chicago is finally online for our viewing pleasure! AWESOME! It’s way action-packed and has moments those of us who weren’t able to attend WWC have only recently been privy to. Like scenes from tv spots and hey, remember that special Two-Face scene on the Why So Serious page that’s now been taken over by the phrase “Hero today, gone tomorrow” (highlight everything on the site to see the message)? You can watch the trailer below. (Via /Film)

More talk on the Robin (??) front is going on. Some people on the top of the Bat-fandom food chain are saying Robin might just be the perfect next move … which I’ve been concurring with. In fact, the great comics writer Jeph Loeb even said something I’ve been saying for a couple posts now:

“Take the time to tell the story properly,” Loeb said. “There is a story of Dick Grayson and how he becomes Robin that is extremely moving and very helpful. …[Grayson/Robin] doesn’t understand why it is that he needs to do this and Bruce doesn’t understand why he’s doing it either because he’s not a parent. He doesn’t know how to be a parent,” Loeb said. “And together, they make each other better people. So that for me would be the next step.”

… “I wouldn’t let him become Robin until the third act, if that. I think that’s the other problem when you tell that story is that there’s this rush to put him in a costume by the end of the first 20 minutes and in that case I think it’s a disaster…”

Apparently Christian Bale is either dead-opposed or sarcastic (it’s hard to tell from articles sometimes written by people with no humor)—but various sources (like /Film and CHUD.com) say that this quote by him is sadly leaning towards the former:

“If Robin crops up in one of the new Batman films, I’ll be chaining myself up somewhere and refusing to go to work.”

Christian, as much as I adore you as a talented actor … WTF, man?!

Talk back: What do you guys think about the whole Robin deal? Would you like to see him in the next Nolan-Batman movie? And is it just me, or is Bale being just a tad ridiculous?

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Bat-update time!

Hey, this is cool. Today I received an email from MovieTickets.com about The Dark Knight that I thought might interest you guys.

Quick note we thought you might be interested in:

As of June 27, “Dark Knight” has sold eight times as many tickets on MovieTickets.com as “Spider-Man 3″ at the same point in the sales cycle — 21 days from the film’s official release. “Spider-Man 3″ is the No. 10 film on MovieTickets.com’s Top-10 Performing Films of All-Time.

Holy crap! That’s AWESOME!

All right, there are some cool new videos to check out, but I’m not going to embed any of them here just because there are several of them. First off, Entertainment Tonight has a TDK exclusive with new footage of the movie, and you can watch that here (despite the crappy quality because someone recorded it off of his tv).

David Letterman lists three ultimate reasons to see The Dark Knight (or is it Prince?) in this hilarious video. Hey, you’ve convinced me, Dave. ;D Opening day, here I come!

Whoo, somebody on Youtube recorded and uploaded the next two episodes of Gotham Tonight—which you’ll also be able to watch in better quality on the official website come Monday. And whoa, in the third episode (the first video of the /Film article) of Gotham Tonight with Mike Engel, the security feed of the Joker that can be seen here is explained. We also get to see Sal Maroni, the character who eventually takes revenge upon Harvey Dent.

The second video is with Lydia Filangeri and talks about Mr. Awesome, aka Jim Gordon (Gary Oldman)—and there’s a hilarious moment with him, too (pfft, “faulty lighting”). It’s pretty cool and we get to see his wife, Barbara Gordon! We also get a first look at Police Commissioner Loeb.

Those two new episodes of Gotham Tonight are pretty insightful, as the stuff they talk about is most likely tied with the plot of TDK. Next time around we get to see a “televised interview” with Harvey Dent, yay! Plus, a debate between Sal Maroni and Commissioner Loeb.

There are some cool new videos over at Comcast.net: a segment called “Filming in Chicago” (oh my god, was that the Tumbler that just drove into the water?!), a preview of “Batman Unmasked” (premiering on the History Channel July 16 and 17), and “Gotham Knight Behind the Scenes” (which discusses the connection between Batman and the villain Killer Croc).

According to /Film, there will indeed be a memoriam at the end of The Dark Knight.

As expected, Warner Bros’ The Dark Knight includes a dedication to the late Heath Ledger in the credits. The text will read:

“In memory of our friends Heath Ledger & Conway Wickliffe”

For those of you who don’t know, Wickliffe is the special-effects technician who was killed last September in a stunt-car accident on the set of the Batman sequel.

As you might be noticing, some of these pictures are new images from the film (thanks to Mr. John Bierly for sending me the link). The pic above resembles a panel from The Long Halloween comic (found it on Batman-On-Film), I believe.

So this isn’t really news or anything, but I noticed a couple things from reading Batman: Year One and Batman: The Haunted Knight (again, courtesy of John), two graphic novels that absolutely rock. For one, you know that device on the bottom of Batman’s shoe and the little whistle thingie he used to call the bats in Batman Begins? Totally from Year One. And Dr. Crane’s hilariously awesome line from the movie in which he says, “Dr. Crane isn’t here right now … but if you’d like to make an appointment …”? Straight from The Haunted Knight. I love fan tidbits like that.

Anyway. There’s an interview with Christopher Nolan over at IGN.com. Part of it has Nolan explaining why the one cop, played by Monique Curnen, isn’t named Rene Montoya:

Q: Along those lines of the supporting actors, your Batman films relative to other superhero films, have a pretty huge amount of supporting characters. What criteria do you use to decide which characters to bring in? For example, do you have a need for a female police officer and call her Rene Montoya?

Nolan: Yeah, well it’s not Rene Montoya. We looked at using her, but we wanted to change the character from the way the character is in the comics so we changed the name, and she became a different character — and that’s part of our process. We look at: What are the demands of our story based on our reading of various comics? As the story starts to shape itself, there’s a certain sense in which you decide which characters are we representing and which have changed a bit and therefore need to be our own characters and in what way the history of the comics is helping you tell your story. So that’s kind of the best way I can describe the process. There are certain legalistic aspects. I’ll sit there with Goyer saying, “Wouldn’t it be great if this happened or if we had a character do this?” And he’ll say, “Oh, that’s so and so from such and such.” And he has a great knowledge of the comics, so it’s very fun to run over stuff with him.

Well I guess that makes sense, even though I’d rather see Montoya.

This is also really awesome. God, Michael Caine rocks.

Q: There’s a quote attributed to you that said Superman is sort of the way that America views itself and Batman is the way that the rest of the world views America.

Nolan: That’s fantastic that that’s attributed to me, but it’s not my quote. It’s Michael Caine’s. No he said it to me the first time I met him. I thought it was very interesting. I thought it was a very interesting point of view.

And Parade magazine has a cool interview with Christian Bale. He also says something wickedly awesome about Caine, who has made TDK his 110th film.

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Batman fandom is my favorite kind of fandom. But the Joker rocks, too.

This is the shirt I will be wearing when I go to see The Dark Knight on the 18th.

Sideways shots PWN.

And the white of the Clown Prince of Crime’s face shall glow in the dark of theater … And it will be magical.

Nah, just kidding.

You can watch the new episode of Gotham Tonight over at GCN.com, and this time it’s a segment on Bruce Wayne’s playboy life. There are some rather hilarious moments, too—including the title of the feature shown in the image below, some random lady talking about the Waynes and nominating them for sainthood, a jerk talking about Wayne technology (he’s weird), and the best part (besides the sneak reference to the Joker … awesome): Bruce himself talking.

The third episode—which will be available to watch on Comcast Friday and online next Monday—is about Gotham’s criminal underworld, and the fourth (in two weeks) will feature Jim Gordon. Hurray!

Yesss! Finally, Batman-On-Film has the set interview with Christian Bale (that’s Batman, if you don’t know by now) up here. It’s pretty damn awesome. Bale always seems to do interesting and funny interviews. ;D

This is a REALLY good article about The Dark Knight—brought to you by the wonderful Mr. John Bierly.

Oh my god! There are FOUR freaking kick ass new The Dark Knight tv spots! Here, here, here, and here. Each of them has new clips and they’re all really awesome (the last three are of much better quality than the first one, too). Trust me, you have to check these out.

(Note: On #6 the sound is off near the end, so it sounds like Gordon and Batman are speaking a different language, LOL. But really Jim is saying, “Things are going to get ugly,” and Batman says, “I’m counting on it.” Thanks for the translation, John! Haha!)

I think somebody got a little carried away with the camera.

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Yay, the first episode of Gotham Tonight with Mike Engel is up on the Gotham Cable News viral website! This is a political debate you’ll actually want to watch. (Or maybe just Batman fans, whatever.) In the ep, Mike Engel (Anthony Michael Hall) talks with Harvey Dent’s Media Manager Allan Cypes (pictured below), the shady and corrupt Acting District Attorney Roger Garcetti, and Dana Worthington—who also ran for DA in the race—about Harvey Dent’s big win and the controversy over Batman.

Mike: “Who’s gonna make this guy [Batman] retire? You?!”

It also ties Harvey’s work to convict mob boss Sal Maroni, setting up the stage for Maroni’s revenge in court when he sprays Dent with acid, physically scarring him. Although based on what we’ve seen in trailers for the movie it looks like this is going to be done differently.

Garcetti also gets pissed during the heated debate and threatens to uncover chinks in “the White Knight’s armor.” Which isn’t good for Harvey, considering he has some pretty deep dents (pun very much intended), heh.

Another new episode of the viral show will appear on Comcast this Friday, and then I’m assuming it’ll also be put online Monday afternoon. I can’t wait, either, because Mike Engel is going to be doing a feature on Bruce Wayne, oohhh [/geek].

It’s really cool—but not surprising, considering all the stuff they’ve done for TDK—all the work they’re putting into this website. There are always new articles being put up, it seems.

Haha, I saw this headline running at the top of the website, too:

Gothamite Pearl Scople wins Spelling Bee; final word was “Anatidaephobia”

What is Anatidaephobia, you ask?

The fear that somewhere, somehow, a duck is watching you.

Ducks?! (Quack.) Who cares about ducks when you have the all-seeing eye of Batman watching over Gotham?

Moving on. Here’s something different: an interview with Monique Curnen, who plays Detective Ramirez (although we fans all know she should be named Montoya).

And speaking of Anthony Michael Hall, there’s a new interview with him here. Haha, it’s actually pretty interesting to read, and it’s not long at all.

Now THIS is awesome. Batman-On-Film’s Jett talks about his invitation to the set of The Dark Knight in June of last year. So cool, lucky bastard! Haha, and the story about the cash and Gary Oldman is hilarious.

And finally … Drum roll, please!

The Joker has done something really cool to pizza …

Whoaaaa. This is AWESOME. Our first actual clip from The Dark Knight?! GASP.

Here are some screenshots.

Hey, look, it’s GCN!

Anyone know who that’s supposed to be?

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Damn.

I thought they were going to show Gotham Tonight with Mike Engel on the Gotham Cable News website today. But according to this, they just meant Comcast OnDemand.

This is one of those times I really wish I had something more than local tv. (I also wish I lived in Chicago.) But why couldn’t they put it on the website, too? I was sure they were going to. Gah!

Good news, though, if you’re like me and missed it. GCN says it will webcast the episode this Monday at noon on their site.

Someone on Youtube had apparently uploaded the viral show, but it’s been taken down. An alternate Dark Knight trailer, though, aired and is still up on Youtube. It’s not very good quality and it cuts out before the very end (and it might just be me, but the sound seems off a bit), but it’s definitely worth watching. It includes some clips from the Imax featurette, but it also has lots of new stuff that’s really freaking cool.

… That needs to be in high-definition, now.

Hopefully they’ll show the semi-new trailer along with the webcast of Gotham Tonight on Monday? Fingers crossed.

Anyway, I know you were all on the edge of your seats wondering who would win the title of Gotham’s District Attorney. But have no fear …

… the Dentinator is here! And I just received this email from Dent’s campaign entitled “Our Job Has Just Begun”:

If someone were to tell me four months ago that Harvey Dent was going to win by the biggest margin in Gotham City history, I would have directed him to Arkham Asylum. But that’s the big story today. Thanks to the incredible efforts of people like you, we have changed the fate of Gotham City.

Harvey Dent won every precinct, every neighborhood, every demographic, and every gender and age group. His sweeping victory shows just how far the desire for real change goes in Gotham City.

This is not just Harvey Dent’s victory, it’s your victory. You passed out flyers, rallied, marched, created political videos, and got out and voted. You made your voices heard. And today, the entire world can hear you. Today, “Take Back Gotham” is not just a slogan – it is a reality.

This is the last campaign email we’re sending out. Now, we turn our energies to the hard job of fighting and winning the war on crime and corruption. We’ll need your help – to keep the pressure up on the politicians, to show the criminals our will, and to support Harvey Dent’s crackdown on corruption.

Together, we will save Gotham City.

Allan Cypes
Media Manager

This is really cool. Batman-On-Film is such a great site, and they just announced another giveaway. Click here to see more details and find out how you can enter to win these fabulous (and otherwise uber expensive) prizes.

Must … have!

Two shirts, two winners. Entries must be in by the end of June and the winners will be notified by July 2.

Now, I’m relatively new to BOF, but I think the answers to the contest questions are as follows (and someone correct me if I’m wrong):

1. 1998
2. JettD60’s BATMAN 5 Page
3. Darren Arnofsky/Frank Miller
4. Batman Triumphant
5. The Case of the Chemical Syndicate

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Pelo visto serei demitido nessa semana, tamanho é o barulho que a campanha viral de Dark Knight. Após as notícias da nova rodada de cabeças explodindo, é a vez do site do Gotham Cable News ser atualizado, com vídeos de notícias (dã!)! =D

Agora, o que interesa mesmo é a estréia de “Gotham Tonight”, programa de entrevistas que vai ao ar – adivinhe quando? – nesta sexta-feira 13. O texto da página segue abaixo, em tradução livre:

“Assista a um episódio inédito de Gotham Tonight  nesta sexta-feira!
O noticiário inquisidor e impiedoso da GCN traz as maiores notícias de Gotham.
Com a participação do mundialmente reconhecido jornalista Mike Engel — que ajudou a prender o “assasino lula” de Gotham — e a equipe de notícias do GCN.
Gotham Tonight. Gotham nunca pára, nós também não.”

Sexta será o dia da procrastinação e do desespero, amiguinhos. Recapitulando, até agora teremos:

- Resultado das eleições de Gotham;
- A promessa de “boas risadas” pelo Coringa e de ação pelos Clowns Against Dent;
- A estréia de Gotham Tonight.

Segurem-se, galera. Essa campanha ainda vai ser estudada em faculdades.