The Dark Knight Nolan Interview 10-19-06

[MSwift]

I was browsing around Joblo.com and found this interview. If it's been posted already, I apologize.


How nervous are you starting the new Batman film?

Yeah, I mean it's a pretty dumb thing of me to do, to go back and try and do it again. But you like the challenge. I just found the world and the characters pretty fascinating. And we felt that you just wanted to push with on the story really. But it'll be a huge challenge. We were very happy with the way the first film worked out and then was perceived. So yeah, it's an enormous risk. That's really what you have to be doing as a filmmaker, I think, is taking enormous risks.

How close is Jake Gyllenhaal to being cast?

[Laughs] Not very close at all. I mean, I haven't thought about casting at all. Other than Heath was a particular case in point because he just became a possibility and I jumped on that because he was the guy I needed. But I haven't finished the script yet. There'll be plenty of time for that.

Is pre-production going any easy because you have most of the main actors cast already?

There are certain things that obviously you're not having to worry about and spend time on. We've already made the Batmobile. We already have the main members of the cast. So, yeah. But frankly, the new film poses all kinds of new challenges so it'll be just as tricky in its own way.

When you say Heath became a possibility, is that because BROKEBACK made him a huge star?

I didn’t particularly think he’d be interested but I asked him and he luckily really got it. Really got what we were trying to do.

http://www.joblo.com/index.php?id=13222

 

[Batman1939]

Nice read and find thanks MSwift.

 

[Two-Face]

Nothing new but thanks for posting.

 

[bunk]

When he mentions the batmobile: Does he mean its already made because they're using the same ones the built for BB, or did they already build a new car for DK. I find it hard to believe they could have finished building brand new Batmobiles so soon. I thought the tumbler was cool, but I was also kinda hoping they might change it up a little.

 

[Shedhut]

He doesn't really answer the last question

 

[Maxwell Smart]

Actually he did. Just use your head. The fact that he didn't mention Brokeback in his answer says no- thats not the main reason he was cast(his stardom from that film).

 

[Cinemaman]

When he mentions the batmobile: Does he mean its already made because they're using the same ones the built for BB, or did they already build a new car for DK. I find it hard to believe they could have finished building brand new Batmobiles so soon. I thought the tumbler was cool, but I was also kinda hoping they might change it up a little.

I think we will see the same Tumbler, which was shown in BB.

Just read the interview again, Nolan says:

""We've already made the Batmobile. We already have the main members of the cast".

So if he says he has the main memebers of the cast (Bale, Caine, Oldman) from BB, then he also means that Tumbler from BB have already been made and they'll use it in sequel.

 

[Boom]

"There are certain things that obviously you're not having to worry about and spend time on. We've already made the Batmobile. We already have the main members of the cast. So, yeah. But frankly, the new film poses all kinds of new challenges so it'll be just as tricky in its own way."

Notice how he doesn't mention the Batsuit.

May mean nothing. May mean something.

 

[Ronny Shade]

they'll tweak it. I'm sure they will. Suits are always in need of work. They changed it between B89 and BR. They changed it between SM and SM2...

 

[Boom]

"I mean, I haven't thought about casting at all. Other than Heath was a particular case in point because he just became a possibility and I jumped on that because he was the guy I needed. But I haven't finished the script yet. There'll be plenty of time for that."

So basically, don't look forward to the Dent announcement anytime soon.

 

[Ronny Shade]

hooray! We can keep trying to think of male actors who haven't been mentioned. How about........Jet Li!

 

[Boom]

I don't remember which particular interview Nolan said this in, but didn't he say Ledger was alot like Bale in that he dedicates his mind AND BODY to the role?

Could this mean a thin Joker?

 

[Crooklyn]

Can't say I remember Nolan saying that...I'd love to be proved wrong though.

 

[Boom]

My mistake. His wife said it.

Emma Thomas: "Every film I see Heath in he's somebody who is completely different. He's very much like Christian (Bale) where he commits his body to whatever role he is playing."

 

[Katsuro]

If Nolan was telling the truth, then Jett is wrong about Dent casting being imminent. I'm starting to get the feeling Dent wont be cast for a couple months.

 

[Ronny Shade]

Thin Joker would kick ass.

 

[Seen]

If Nolan was telling the truth, then Jett is wrong about Dent casting being imminent. I'm starting to get the feeling Dent wont be cast for a couple months.

Who knows. I don't think we can believe really much of anything at this point. Look at Batman Begins and how much info was leaked pretty early into that film's production, including the script.

I have this weird, tingling feeling that Nolan and Co. are trying to keep things hush-hush as to not copy that same formula. They want to keep things secret this time, and a part of doing that is (possibly) manufacturing information like "Dent isn't close to being cast" and "the script isn't finished".

Could all be true (and I could blowing smoke outta my ass) but remember how out-of-the-blue Heath Ledger's casting was.

 

[Ronny Shade]

I don't think Dent is cast yet. I Really don't.

 

[Mee]

No one can top Tommeee LeE Jonezz!

 

[RakuMon]

USA Today has a nice profile of Nolan here:
http://www.usatoday.com/life/movies/news/2006-10-19-chris-nolan_x.htm

I especially liked this sentiment:

But Jackman says Nolan's skills go beyond fractured narratives. "He reminds me a lot of Clint Eastwood," Jackman says. "He doesn't get too stressed on set, he moves quickly. If he says the movie will be done on April 11, it will be done on April 11, and probably under budget."

Unlike a certain other superhero movie director who was unable to work efficiently and cost-effectively...

Inside the mind of Chris Nolan
By Scott Bowles, USA TODAY
LOS ANGELES — Christopher Nolan loves to mess with your mind.

Maybe it's a movie that unspools in reverse, like Memento. Or a hero who isn't so heroic, as in Insomnia. If you've left one of the director's films feeling as if you need to see it again, don't be embarrassed. Nolan likes it that way.

"Audiences have a tendency to watch movies a certain way, to expect certain things," says the director, 36. "I enjoy shaking up those expectations."

He tries to perplex moviegoers again with today's The Prestige.

The film, with Hugh Jackman and Christian Bale as magicians in a vicious competition, hopscotches through time, much like Nolan's 2000 breakthrough murder mystery, Memento, which began with the murder and played backward.

Unlike that Guy Pearce cult classic, Prestige comes freighted with heavier expectations.

After all, Nolan revived one of film's most beloved franchises by leading Batman Begins to strong reviews and $205 million in domestic grosses. His next installment, The Dark Knight, is due in 2008.

Before that, he decided to pull the rug from under audiences with the movie of Christopher Priest's novel about magicians who'll stop at nothing to learn each other's secrets.

"I told the studio that people were going to see this movie in different ways," Nolan says over a lunch of eggs and bacon at a coffee shop near his home. "It will depend on how you approach magic. Some people just want to be entertained, some people want to know the secret behind the trick."

Not that Nolan gives many secrets away. In the special edition DVD of Memento, for instance, viewers must decipher a code just to play the film — a device concocted by Nolan's brother Jonathan, who co-wrote Memento and Prestige.

Nolan has been getting behind a camera since he was 7, when he and friends made stop-motion war films with their action figures and a Super 8 camera.

He began making short films at University College in London and made his feature debut with the 1998 crime drama Following, which also used flashbacks and flash-forwards.

But it wasn't until 2000's Memento that Nolan got Hollywood's attention.

"When Chris told me he wanted to have the movie play backward, I thought he was a bonehead, and I told him," Jonathan Nolan says. "You can see how good my instincts are."

But Jackman says Nolan's skills go beyond fractured narratives. "He reminds me a lot of Clint Eastwood," Jackman says. "He doesn't get too stressed on set, he moves quickly. If he says the movie will be done on April 11, it will be done on April 11, and probably under budget."

Jackman recalls one day when crews were to shoot a sweeping mountain vista, only to find that Los Angeles had been shrouded in fog.

"Chris said, 'It's OK, we'll just shoot the fog.' And it was beautiful."

That, too, may be one of Nolan's tricks. He says he lives a relatively mundane life with his three children, aged 4, 3 and 15 months, and wife Emma Thomas, who produces his films. He still drives a 1987 Honda Accord with 146,000 miles on it.

And he still has that filmmaker's insecurity.

"I'm still not sure how I keep getting hired," he says. "Maybe the secret is making movies people need to see more than once."
Posted 10/19/2006 9:31 PM ET

 

[explode7]

Aren't we supposed to hear Dent casting today October 20th???

 

[Boom]

Aren't we supposed to hear Dent casting today October 20th???

Uh, no .

 

[explode7]

I could have sworn I saw a thread about that.

 

[Silver Souper]

that's what BOF was saying, but then again- how much has he got right in 06?

 

[Boom]

From what Nolan has been saying he hasn't even thought about it yet.