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All The Right Movies

@ATRightMovies

Jul 18, 2023 • 48 tweets • 28 min read • Read on X

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THE DARK KNIGHT was released 15 years ago today. Acclaimed as one of the greatest superhero movies and the film that cemented Christopher Nolan as the biggest event moviemaker of his generation, the making of story is a huge one…

A THREAD

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After the success of Batman Begins, Warner Bros were keen on Christopher Nolan directing a sequel. Two factors convinced Nolan to return:

- He’d never made a sequel before
- Batman Begins writer David S. Goyer had a treatment Nolan loved with The Joker as the villain

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Nolan and Goyer spent 3 months fleshing out the plot, with ‘Escalation’ a key theme. Nolan then brought in his brother, Jonathan Nolan and over 6 months the two drafted the screenplay. Nolan pitched the idea to WB as “The rise of The Joker.”

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Christian Bale returned as the title character. He received some criticism for his Bat-voice being too gruff this time round. Any issues are actually down to Nolan. During filming, Bale’s voice was like the first film but, in post Nolan had it edited to a rougher sound.

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Bale trained in a fighting style called Keysi as Nolan wanted Batman to use real techniques. They looked at a range of different styles and decided Keysi was the one because it’s effective against multiple assailants, which suits Batman. (Clip from Batman Begins)…

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Bale did some of his own stunts too. He tried riding the batpod himself, but couldn’t stay on it. It is We do see Bale though, in the helicopter shot where we see Batman on the tower block ion Hong Kong. It was filmed 100 storeys up.

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Also returning from the first film are Morgan Freeman (Lucius Fox), Michael Caine (Alfred) and Gary Oldman (Commissioner Gordon). And Cillian Murphy has a cameo as Scarecrow.

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One of the new characters is Gotham D.A. Harvey ‘Two Face’ Dent. Nolan’s first choice was Matt Damon. Damon was interested but couldn’t do it due to scheduling conflicts.

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Ryan Phillippe, Hugh Jackman, and Mark Ruffalo were all considered for the part but, having seen him in Thank You For Smoking, Nolan asked Aaron Eckhart to audition, and he won the role.

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Eckhart took inspiration from U.S. political figure, Robert Kennedy. who had taken on the mob. He also studied people who had a split personality medical condition and the psychological trauma suffered by burn victims.

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Katie Holmes had starred as Rachel Dawes in Batman Begins but reportedly signed on for Mad Money instead of The Dark Knight. Nolan replaced her with Maggie Gyllenhaal who said she treat the character as entirely new, and didn’t reference the previous film.

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After seeing him in Brokeback Mountain, Nolan wanted Heath Ledger as The Joker. Others expressed interest around the time of casting, including Paul Bettany, Adrien Brody, and Steve Carell.

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In the audition process, the part reportedly came down to three people: Sam Rockwell, Hugo Weaving, and Heath Ledger. Nolan said Ledger was the only person who understood the psychological aspect they wanted to draw out of the character.

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On Ledger being announced as The Joker, the internet went into meltdown and message boards across the globe full of fans voicing their complaint. Image from Reddit…

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In preparation for the role, Ledger hid away in a motel room for 6 weeks. During this time he developed the voice, the laugh, the tic, the walk, and the make up of The Joker. He also kept a diary which referenced A Clockwork Orange and its antihero Alex DeLarge.

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Heat was a big influence on Nolan, and he brings in one of the actors from that film in William Fichtner to play the bank manager. Also, Anthony Michael Hall (The Breakfast Club) shows up as reporter Mike Engel.

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A major influence on The Joker was Batman #1 – the first Batman comic book. This is where The Joker’s motivation is not money or power, he simply wants to cause public disorder. Nolan brought in Jerry Robinson – who co-created The Joker in 1940 - to act as consultant.

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The Nolans took inspiration from other comics. The idea of a bad day being enough to take somebody down to The Joker’s level is from The Killing Joke by Alan Moore and Brian Bolland. As is The Joker telling different stories about his past, like he doesn’t know himself.

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There’s a book called The Long Halloween by Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale and the story is different but the Gordon/Dent/Batman triumvirate who take on the bad guys is taken from that.

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The batsuit in Batman Begins was restrictive for Christian Bale. The head and body pieces were all one mould, making it impossible for Bale to turn his head. In The Dark Knight, an entirely new suit was constructed so the cowl was separate to the neckpiece.

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Nolan’s plan was originally to use make-up to create Two-Face’s scarred face but changed his mind when he realised the limitations of make-up. He had several versions of the scarred face designed using CGI and Nolan went for what he called the most realistic-looking one.

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To achieve the effect on-screen, Eckhart acted all scenes as normal and three HD cameras were set up at different angles to capture each side of his face. Eckhart wore markers and a prosthetic skullcap, which the CGI engineers then used to position the effect.

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Ledger designed The Joker’s make-up himself using cheap cosmetics from a drugstore. Once his design was approved by Nolan, the makeup team replicated that look each day for filming. In the film, you can see dried makeup on The Joker’s fingers after he’s applied it.

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The scars around The Joker’s mouth were created as prosthetics and they kept coming unstuck. Ledger had to lick them back into place, and this is where The Joker’s tic comes from where he licks his lips.

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The costume designer was Lindy Hemming. Nolan told her he wanted to be able to imagine what The Joker smells like just by looking at him. She then based The Joker’s look on famous rock icons like Johnny Rotten, Iggy Pop and Pete Doherty.

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Hans Zimmer returned as composer and wrote a theme to reflect the theme of escalation. The Joker theme is based on two notes, D and C, which came from DC Comics. In writing the music, Zimmer played piano wires with razor blades, and the guitar with shards of metal.

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The Dark Knight was the first feature film to be shot using IMAX cameras. It caused some unforeseen problems. The cameras were large and noisy so sound would spill into the scene. At the time, there were few IMAX cameras in the world, and they broke one making the film.

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Nolan’s longtime collaborator Wally Pfister was DP. Together, they created some incredible visuals, as you can see in our SnapShot compilation…

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Nolan has always been a filmmaker to use practical effects wherever possible and The Dark Knight was no different. Som stunning miniature and scale model work throughout the film…

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foreshadows the film. Here we see the symbol emerge from flames because, as Alfred says, “Some men just want to watch the world burn.”

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The first 4 days of production, Nolan didn’t shoot anything and screened films to the cast and crew to get them in the right frame of mind. The films were: Heat, Cat People, Citizen Kane, King Kong, Batman Begins, Black Sunday, A Clockwork Orange, and Stalag 17.

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The opening was shot in a post office, dressed up to look like a bank. The bus had to be taken apart then reassembled in the building. And the moment it was achieved by hiding it behind a fake wall then using an air cannon to propel it through.

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The robbers all wear clown masks, and the one that The Joker wears is exactly the same as one worn by Cesar Romero when The Joker made his first ever appearance in the Batman TV series from the 1960s.

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Ledger had aspirations of being a director, and Nolan helped him out. He let Ledger direct the homemade videos that The Joker sends to GCN…

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The truck flip wasn’t CGI or scale models, it was done for real. When Nolan told Effects Supervisor Chris Corbould what he wanted to do, Corbould laughed then realised Nolan wasn’t joking and said “You’re kidding right?”

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Corbould tried to persuade Nolan to flip something smaller and Nolan agreed. They were going to do one of the SWAT vans but then Nolan came back a couple of days later and said “no, sorry, it has to be the 18-wheeler.”

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Corbould’s team built a rig under the truck with a steel piston that would shoot out the bottom to make it flip. To get the piston to shoot out with enough force, they triggered it with TNT. They reinforced the cab with steel so the driver could stay in the truck.

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Also in filming the car chase sequence, the Chicago Police department received several phone calls from concerned citizens telling them that the police were involved in a mysterious dark vehicle.

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Bale said when they filmed the interrogation scene, Ledger was so in character he asked Bale to hit him as hard as he could, for real. Bale refused. The scene originally ended with Batman kicking The Joker in the head but Nolan removed it as he thought it too petulant.

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Aaron Eckhart said that between takes, Ledger would walk around in character, mumbling to himself. After filming the scene below, Ledger grabbed Eckhart’s hand aggressively and said, “That’s what acting’s all about.”

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Though never officially confirmed by Ledger or Nolan, it’s been reported that Ledger took inspiration from Tom Waits in creating The Joker’s voice. See for yourself…

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Heath Ledger tragically passed away in January 2008 at just 28 years old, but his iconic performance won him a posthumous Best Supporting Actor Oscar. Ledger posthumously won a total of 32 acting awards for his work on this movie, including the Golden Globe and a BAFTA.

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In the 15 months before the film’s release, WB ran an online campaign called ‘Why So Serious?’ – they shared Joker-vandalised pamphlets of Harvey Dent running for office, distributed dollar bills the Joker had written on, and created a website for Gotham Cable News (GCN).

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Shortly before the movie came out on DVD, WB were taken to court by the mayor of Batman (Huseyin Kalkan), a city in Turkey. Even though it wasn’t used in the title, the name of Batman was considered an infringement. The lawsuit was dismissed. Image: Bryce Edwards.

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On a budget of £185 million, The Dark Knight took $1bn globally, and surpassed Batman Begins’ total after just 6 days. It set all manner of box office records and was the largest opening weekend ever at $158m.

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