Production Notes (for anyone interested in knowing more!)
I learned a lot "The Dark Knight Project" and want to do something bigger, more cinematic and dark. After spending the past several months following plot leaks from "The Dark Knight Rises" and Bruce Wayne's self-imposed 9 year exile, I believe that the story I've worked out is pretty solid and could happen between the actual movies to follow Nolan's canon and splitting it up into three 10 minute episodes makes it more manageable to shoot and fundraise for. If we can pull off what's planned for the first episode, I think it will exceed a lot of people's expectations (especially fans) and crowd sourcing the subsequent episodes to see how the cliffhangers resolve will be a big help. Additionally I have composer Alex Safi who recreated the "Dark Knight Rises" prologue music note for note at this Youtube link.
http://youtu.be/1ccjgOKDIik
He's already at work coming up with themes for the GPD, Harley Quinn, Barbara Gordon, and our members of the "League of the Bat" who will rise in the Batman's absence in our narrative. He's going to integrate some of his own original themes for our characters using the Zimmer themes as a foundation. He's going to give the thing some musical gravitas and the music will also help make it shine as feature quality.
I was very proud of "The Dark Knight Project" and hope I can pull funding together to pull this off. Hoping the quality of it impresses people to help us with the fundraising efforts:
http://www.darkknightproject.com
We've got some good premium incentives also for people who pledge at the IndieGoGo link, including chrome metal Gotham PD badges I created from one of the screen used ones that were used during production of "The Dark Knight" when it shot here in Chicago.
http://www.indiegogo.com/shadowofthebat
If for no other reason, pledges secure everyone that donate $100 or up one of these and it will help us raise our funding!
Heath Ledger's untimely passing kept Christopher Nolan away from recurring his character in "The Dark Knight Rises". But if he had survived, how may the Joker have returned, and what would his agenda have been? Our premise follows, with the Joker intent on finishing the work he started in "The Dark Knight", exposing his corruption of Harvey Dent. But with the Dark Knight injured from their last encounter and underground to avoid capture by the Batman Task Force, who will take his place recapturing him to remand him into custody for placement at a Federal facility far away from Gotham until Bane arrives and exposes Harvey's crimes to serve HIS agenda 9 years later? Barbara Gordon and the League of the Bat (a brainier and more organized guardian group than "The Dark Knight" impersonators) emerge, our SHADOWS OF THE BAT. They'll face off with the Joker and his nihilist street gang groupies forcing Batman to resurface to avert potential tragedy so that no one else will ever again follow in the footsteps of his crusade and endanger themselves with the same consequences suffered by Rachel Dawes and Harvey Dent.
EPISODE I
As a "bridge" story between "The Dark Knight" and "The Dark Knight Rises", "Shadows" will also serve as a nice little sequel to "The Dark Knight Project" as it will be Batman's final confrontation with the Joker before he's remanded to a Federal facility, since he won't be in "The Dark Knight Rises" (and our reasons are unrelated to Heath Ledger's passing!) In our first film "The Dark Knight Project", I wrote it as Batman's first brushing encounter with the Joker, without an actual confrontation since I knew they'd first interact with each other in "The Dark Knight". So these will also serve as nice bookends to "The Dark Knight" while dealing with history that could precede "The Dark Knight Rises" without contradicting the events to unfold in it.
In coming up with the story and thinking how Nolan adapts characters for his reality, I wanted to give Harley a new backstory as it relates to the Joker. it won't be necessarily explained onscreen, but for my writing purposes, she and the Joker had history BEFORE he became the Joker:
Both are anti-social "goths", he was a low-level street tough/dealer and she was a stripper putting her way through med school so she could use her knowledge there on how to further manipulate people (her customers): she was dating the Joker BEFORE he got his scars. After he was scarred "ripping off mob dealers" and took up his crusade to take down the mob after he was disfigured by them, she "stood by her man" and was busy getting into position so she could help him escape if he were ever captured. So they already had history, with her shifting to intern work at Arkham in relation to her med school studies and infiltrating the system so she could be one of his people on the "inside" if he were ever captured because of course he would have been put straight into a criminal psych unit.
It's a one shot proposition for them which when resolved at the end of our serial, would never offer her another opportunity to put herself in a position where she could spring him again because her cover will then be blown and they'll both be put behind bars permanently.
There's intentional misdirection in the beginning as to "who" she is, hoping audiences will believe she's really scared or fans to think this is going to be about how the Joker "corrupts" her when in reality, my backstory for them follows Nolan's thinking with the Joker's "he just is". They just ARE. Fans will know who she is and be surprised at the direction, the uninitiated will be afraid for her character until she shows her true colors.
Here is what's planned if I can fundraise for Episode 1!
