The Dark Knight rises again! Our last show on The Dark Knight Rises dealt necessarily with serious and troubling events offscreen. We return to the topic of Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy to uphold and celebrate the vast achievements and influences of this genre-defining enterprise, and to look ahead – to Superman, Man of Steel, Nightwing, and any other thing that might be waiting in the (bat)wings.
To download this episode, use this URL: http://rowthree.com/audio/mamo/mamo263.mp3
As part of our Countdown to The Dark Knight Rises series I was going to simply sing my praises of the Danny Elfman Batman score, which I find to be one of cinema’s most memorable and downright awesome blockbuster soundtracks ever created, but when I thought back to the music in the various cinematic incarnations of the character I realised that most of the scores have been pretty memorable, so instead I bring you Batman music through the ages…
You can’t talk about Batman music without including this, which I imagine made an appearance in the 1966 movie:
With Avengers set to clean up at the Box Office this weekend, trotting out and agenda of colourful, mindless fun and popcorn, it is no surprise that Christopher Nolan and company put out the grimmest, moodiest, downer of a trailer possible for The Dark Knight Rises. *Spoilers Ahoy* in this trailer below. Enjoy the silence. Enjoy the mayhem of the last few seconds.
Ladbrokes are launching a new Batman slots game to celebrate the release of The Dark Knight Rises. For your chance to win the jackpot, fend off hordes of enemies and defeat Batman’s old nemesis, the Joker. Keep an eye on www.ladbrokes.com for more news.
I remember when the poster for The Dark Knight debuted featuring fairly direct reference to 9/11 and terror – the tagline was “Welcome to a world without rules.” Matt Brown reminds us that Nolan’s films have often featured architecture since his budgets crossed north of $100M. The Dark Knight Rises promises much more of the mayhem of Chicago destruction (probably more interesting in the thematic department than Transformers 3) with its image a city crumbling on a macro scale.
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The gang is all here, with the addition of RowThree contributor Bob Turnbull to talk the glossy mega-budget blockbuster that has been getting a lot of folks yammering. Yes, we spend an hour plus dissecting the themes and complex plotting of The Sorcerer’s Apprentice to help you understand the significance…er…If you wake up at a different time, in a different place, could you wake up as a different person? Inception has big dreams and those dreams look like action movies and video games. But what is hiding amidst the fancy wardrobe, the bombast and the talky exposition? Gamble, Kurt, Andrew and Bob investigate the meaning and magnificence of Christopher Nolan’s brain teasing Blockbuster SPOILERS! SPOILERS! SPOILERS! and throw out a few criticisms to temper the love in. While they are at it we rank our favourite Nolan pictures which leads to Kurt and Gamble in flat out war over The Prestige. There is another heady-dreamy-glossy science fiction picture sneaking in under the radar (if you are in Canada), Jaco Van Dormael’s busy mix of destiny, love and string theory (this one is Spoiler Free). Opinions on the film vary, but we all agree that Mr. Nobody should be seen on as big of a screen as possible. Matt and Bob talk docs on iconic personages (Joan Rivers and Rush). Andrew makes a case for The Rock and The Race to Witch Mountain. Gamble makes a case for micro-budgeted comedian driven cult mayhem in Operation: Endgame. To cap it all off, it is a Powell & Pressberger and Bong Joon Ho love-in on the DVD front.
As always, please join the conversation by leaving your own thoughts in the comment section below and again, thanks for listening!
ALTERNATIVE (no music track):
http://rowthree.com/audio/cinecast_10/episode_175-alt.mp3
Full show notes are under the seats…
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We all know that Guy Pearce and Christopher Nolan have some history with the much loved Memento under their belt together. So is it out of the realm of possibilities that Guy Pearce (an actor I actually once championed to be the next Bruce Wayne) joins the next installment of the Batman franchise in one way or another? Well, over at Worst Previews, there is a juicy little quote that will get Pearce fans like myself a little antsy:
“I’d love to work with Chris again,” Pearce said. “There hasn’t been any discussion, we’ll have to wait and see. I have a lot of reluctance [to playing a superhero or villain], but doing it with someone like Chris Nolan would certainly make it appealing.”
Of course, Nolan isn’t even officially signed on for another Batman film yet, although there seems to be a general consensus that he would be bat-crazy not to, since The Dark Knight is a phenomenon not only adored by critics, fans, and general movie-goers alike, but it has made over $500 million in the US alone.
People seem to be throwing around “Guy Pearce” and “The Riddler” together as a great idea. I wouldn’t disagree. Remember, this is all speculation though and like he said, there hasn’t been any discussion on it. It’d be nice to see Pearce in a well-made blockbuster and get him to the top like he belongs – even if he seems completely happy making smaller, non-blockbuster films (which is fine by me, as long as they are of the quality of masterpieces like The Proposition and Memento).
My good friend Jon sent this to me and it was just too priceless not to share. I’m not going to spoil the hilarity of it, I’m just going to say that this is a leaked excerpt from a script for the The Dark Knight written by Michael Bay that was ultimately rejected by Warner Bros.
Check it out right here. My brother and I were literally ROFLing.
Happy Fourth of July to all and to all a good night!
The Academy has never really taken a liking to superhero movies. And probably rightfully so. I have plenty of fun watching the likes of Batman Begins, Spider-Man, X-Men, and Hellboy, but never once have I thought to myself, “Ooooh, Tobey Maguire could get a Best Actor nod” or “Man, I think X2 might be Best Picture material.”
Yet, I’ve been convinced since seeing the first footage of Ledger as the The Joker that he was going to win himself a posthumous Oscar and I’ve stood by that ever since. Yeah, sure, so no other competition for the Best Supporting Actor award will come around until the Fall at the earliest, so it’s pretty silly even making such a prediction since it’s impossible to judge what his competition will be, but I stand by my statement – and it looks like those that are finally actually seeing the film are agreeing here.
Here’s just a few excerpts about Ledger’s performance from recent early reviews
Sara Stewart – The New York Post
“Ledger’s green-haired fiend overshadowed all of them [his co-stars], from the first moment he appeared onscreen … In this flick, Ledger showed us what a masterful actor he was – certainly deserving of a posthumous Oscar nomination. … [I]t’s Ledger’s performance that clearly completes the movie.”
Peter Travers – The Rolling Stone
“I can only speak superlatives of Ledger, who is mad-crazy-blazing brilliant as the Joker. Miles from Jack Nicholson’s broadly funny take on the role in Tim Burton’s 1989 Batman, Ledger takes the role to the shadows, where even what’s comic is hardly a relief. … If there’s a movement to get him the first posthumous Oscar since Peter Finch won for 1976′s Network, sign me up.”
Kevin Smith – Filmmaker
“Heath Ledger didn’t so much give a performance as he disappeared completely into the role; I know I’m not the first to suggest this, but he’ll likely get at least an Oscar nod (if not the win) for Best Supporting Actor.”
Todd Gilchrist – IGN
“Finally, there’s Ledger, whose performance I suspect will be the subject of many analyses of all sorts in the weeks and months to come. What he does with The Joker is, quite frankly, nothing short of transcendent. … [Y]ou realize that Ledger was a master of his craft, only in his final years finding roles that truly offered him the chance to explore that mastery. His is the definitive movie Joker, and he owns the role and achieves a level of abject insanity that is terrifying as it is irresistible.”
So, can his performance really live up to this hype? If not a win, does Ledger have a nomination locked? Only time will tell – and us less privileged only have a few more weeks until we can make up our own minds.
