The Dark Knight The Composite Christopher Nolan Interview Thread

[The Joker]

I'm delighted to hear Harvey's story is so pivotal to the movie. We should see Harvey's crusade against crime. His relationships with Batman, Gordon, and Rachel. And, his descent into becoming Two Face.

 

[Bright Knight]

Think of it this way....


The stars of Jaws were unequivicolly RObert Shaw, Roy Schneider and Richard Dreyfuss, but gosh darnit... The shark stole the show.

 

[SamuraiSon6]

^^well said

 

[DavidTyler]

OK... I read the whole thread and not one of you noticed an important fact that makes this brilliant....

Ready?

It's the SECOND movie and it's going to have TWO Face....

In the third, Two Face's SECOND appearance, we'll probably have him as the antagonist.

As to Joker screen time... are you all crazy? Do you think Nolan thinks Joker is so unimportant as to making him a minor character? Nolan is crafty. We all saw that in BB. He knows what he's doing and I can't wait to see how this next movie is going to play out.

We'll have The Batman and The Joker for all the exciting action related stuff while Bruce and Harvey will be the in-depth character studies.

Brilliant ... especially about introducing Two Face in the SECOND film!

 

[TheCaptain]

psst! the characters don't know they're in the second film.

 

[HankVenture]

its too late, the 4th wall is cracked.

 

[LastSunrise1981]

"I'm no executioner."
"I will go to Gotham and I will fight men like this..." And I forgot the rest of that line.

"I will go back to Gotham and I will fight men like this, but I will become no executioner."

 

[ianskyvox]

Can you see the Joker repenting about his crimes? Can you see him thinking for a moment? Can you see him being changed? Can you see him considering alternatives, thinking maybe I should be doing something different for once?

I sure can't. The Joker is what is known as a "static character." He doesn't change. At most, he might start bad and get worse.

Now, does that diminish him at all? No. Look, once again, at Hannibal Lecter. Here's a character who never changes at all. Absolutely no minute of the film is given to his introspection. He doesn't debate things, and nothing happens to him that changes his character or how he sees or relates to the world.

If anything is going to happen, we're going to understand more about his character, but he'll never change. Therefore, it has no arc - it's not going anywhere.

This is why I think Joker won't be taking up all the spotlight in this movie. The Joker is an element other characters react to more than a character who is consistently reacting to the world in new and different ways.

He doesn't do anything new. He just wants to burn it all down. He's new to other people, but in the frame of the story I very much doubt if the Joker is going to change his MO.

A+ = you. Thought the Joker's lack of an arc was a great idea before, but you've now convinced me to LOVE the idea.

 

[General Vulcun]

Great news this is. Dent's story has much importance and focus, and Joker's doing what Joker does best. Great move by Nolan.

PS He may look vaguely like Crow, but he'll act completely like Joker. Long live the Hoboker!

 

[Conebone69]

Heath Ledger and Aaron Eckhart join a line of high-profile actors who battle Batman.
By Geoff Boucher, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
January 13, 2008
HEATH LEDGER and Aaron Eckhart, welcome to Hollywood's elite and gaudy Arkham club.

In the highly anticipated new Batman film "The Dark Knight," which opens July 18, Ledger is stepping into the purple suit of the Joker, while Eckhart will portray Gotham City Dist. Atty. Harvey Dent, who starts the movie as a handsome lawman but ends up as Two-Face, the villain driven insane by disfiguring wounds.

"Harvey Dent is a tragic figure, and his story is the backbone of this film," says Christopher Nolan, the director of the acclaimed franchise-rejuvenating 2005 film "Batman Begins," who returns with Christian Bale again playing the caped crusader. "The Joker, he sort of cuts through the film -- he's got no story arc, he's just a force of nature tearing through. Heath has given an amazing performance in the role, it's really extraordinary."

Ledger and Eckhart will be joined in "Dark Knight" by "Batman" veteran Cillian Murphy, who reprises his role as the Scarecrow.

There's a long and colorful screen history of Gotham bad guys who all seem to die violently or end up imprisoned (if only briefly) in the bleak towers of Arkham Asylum. The scenery-chewing roles -- as well as some staggering paydays -- have attracted a gallery of Hollywood's biggest names, including four Oscar winners (Jack Nicholson, Tommy Lee Jones, Jack Palance, Christopher Walken) and half a dozen Oscar nominees (Michelle Pfeiffer, Liam Neeson, Jim Carrey, Uma Thurman, Ken Watanabe, Danny DeVito) and, um, one frosty-looking governor (Arnold Schwarzenegger).

Don't expect a lot laughs in this summer's return to the cave. "It's a dark and complex story," Nolan said, "and the villains are dark and complex as well."

I like the sound of that

 

[Darkness Falls]

That means if we take Nolan's quote logically that means we'll see Harvey Dent go from upstanding citizen to tragic villain, while The Joker just runs amok through Gotham causing mayhem and bloodshed and helping push other characters' stories along. That would make the marketing of this movie even cleverer, since we've seen next to nothing of Two-Face, meaning we've seen very little of the plot.

 

[ChicageauxTiger]

Don't expect a lot laughs in this summer's return to the cave. "It's a dark and complex story," Nolan said, "and the villains are dark and complex as well."

That's all I need to hear!

 

[regwec]

Crowker!!! LMAO!!! I get it. Heath looks like the Crow as the Joker so you've combined the two words together to get Crowker.

Simply magnificent.

It's cheap, but then one or more signifies instant defeat.

 

[Ama Zing]

That means if we take Nolan's quote logically that means we'll see Harvey Dent go from upstanding citizen to tragic villain, while The Joker just runs amok through Gotham causing mayhem and bloodshed and helping push other characters' stories along. That would make the marketing of this movie even cleverer, since we've seen next to nothing of Two-Face, meaning we've seen very little of the plot.

I was asked at Christmas what the plot for the movie was and beyond 'Joker screws with Gotham, Batman gets said, some people die and Dent gets Two-Face', I realized I didn't know anything. I mean, look at the trailer. There's no information in it, other than where Joker appears.

 

[TheBatman072]

It's cheap

You're right.

but then one or more signifies instant defeat.

You're right.

 

[Victarion]

Nothing wrong with showing your love for a character.

So if Harvey's the backbone, then what does that make Bruce? The femur?

 

[Anita18]

I think what Nolan means is that thematically Dent's story will be the core of the movie.

This movie is about the corrupting influence of evil and the inability to enforce justice on the world. Really, it is. Joker's mantra is, "There's no justice. There's nothing at all. There's just us." Dent, naturally, is going to be the golden boy figure who states the opposite. And we're going to see him get totally destroyed.

Ideals (Dent) meeting reality (Joker) is a fine backbone to any story. Batman is the one caught in between. He's too smart to completely get lost in Dent's vision, I bet, and when Dent falls from grace he's too good to get sucked in with him. He's going to have to tread a fine line.

Me likey.

What's interesting is how Joker chooses to kill and hurt people to prove his point. I'm pretty much an atheist - I believe there's someone out there looking out for me, but I don't believe that someone is waiting to judge us at the end of our lives. I want to be a good person because for having such a short time on this earth, we might as well be nice to each other and be happy.

Joker sez, "Screw all that" and mows people down mercilessly.

So if Harvey's the backbone, then what does that make Bruce? The femur?

Ribcage?

 

[Ama Zing]

Nothing wrong with showing your love for a character.

So if Harvey's the backbone, then what does that make Bruce? The femur?

The skin?

 

[CaptainClown]

Me likey.

What's interesting is how Joker chooses to kill and hurt people to prove his point. I'm pretty much an atheist - I believe there's someone out there looking out for me, but I don't believe that someone is waiting to judge us at the end of our lives. I want to be a good person because for having such a short time on this earth, we might as well be nice to each other and be happy.

Joker sez, "Screw all that" and mows people down mercilessly.


Ribcage?

Anita you know I like you but what did that Athiesm bit have to do with it.

 

[Anita18]

Anita you know I like you but what did that Athiesm bit have to do with it.

Me babbling. It kinda related to how Joker believes there isn't justice or order or other stuff, but I guess it got lost somewhere in the babble.

I mean, if you believed there was no God, would you still be a nice person, or be like

 

[Doc Samson]

I hope people aren't getting too confused, IMO, I think Nolan just meant this won't be a story ABOUT the Joker. He needs no backstory, he's just the ultimate evil Batman never expected. How do you stop someone who commits crime just to commit it, with no value for his or anyone else's life, with no goal or point to his madness?

Which draws us to the same decision Batman is always faced with, which I hope they include in the movie. And like SpinyNorman alluded to, it's killing the Joker. Now I'm not sayin they will touch on this, I just hope they do. Even in the trailer, where Joker is baiting him "Come on, Hit me!!" and Batman just can't do it. The Joker represents that absolute criminal Batman never accounted for when he started this mission. The Joker can never be helped and no jail can ever hold him. In the Dark Knight Returns, that was my favorite part of the whole story. After all those years and death, Batman still couldn't kill the Joker, he had to break his own neck just to get that "last laugh". This is the essence of their rivalry to me, this is essential to their never-ending battle....

 

[CaptainClown]

Me babbling. It kinda related to how Joker believes there isn't justice or order or other stuff, but I guess it got lost somewhere in the babble.

I mean, if you believed there was no God, would you still be a nice person, or be like

Well you can believe in God and do a bunch of bad things, even in his name. You could do it to spite him too.

Though I have a weird feeling Joker feels he is god, like me =)

 

[CaptainClown]

I hope people aren't getting too confused, IMO, I think Nolan just meant this won't be a story ABOUT the Joker. He needs no backstory, he's just the ultimate evil Batman never expected. How do you stop someone who commits crime just to commit it, with no value for his or anyone else's life, with no goal or point to his madness?

Which draws us to the same decision Batman is always faced with, which I hope they include in the movie. And like SpinyNorman alluded to, it's killing the Joker. Now I'm not sayin they will touch on this, I just hope they do. Even in the trailer, where Joker is baiting him "Come on, Hit me!!" and Batman just can't do it. The Joker represents that absolute criminal Batman never accounted for when he started this mission. The Joker can never be helped and no jail can ever hold him. In the Dark Knight Returns, that was my favorite part of the whole story. After all those years and death, Batman still couldn't kill the Joker, he had to break his own neck just to get that "last laugh". This is the essence of their rivalry to me, this is essential to their never-ending battle....

Thats my personal favorite Joker moment ever.

 

[Doc Samson]

Thats my personal favorite Joker moment ever.

Yup, mines too. I don't like everything Frank Miller has done, but there's a reason why to this day, you can still see the influence from that book in these characters...

 

[Mel Bell]

I hope people aren't getting too confused, IMO, I think Nolan just meant this won't be a story ABOUT the Joker. He needs no backstory, he's just the ultimate evil Batman never expected. How do you stop someone who commits crime just to commit it, with no value for his or anyone else's life, with no goal or point to his madness?

Which draws us to the same decision Batman is always faced with, which I hope they include in the movie. And like SpinyNorman alluded to, it's killing the Joker. Now I'm not sayin they will touch on this, I just hope they do. Even in the trailer, where Joker is baiting him "Come on, Hit me!!" and Batman just can't do it. The Joker represents that absolute criminal Batman never accounted for when he started this mission. The Joker can never be helped and no jail can ever hold him. In the Dark Knight Returns, that was my favorite part of the whole story. After all those years and death, Batman still couldn't kill the Joker, he had to break his own neck just to get that "last laugh". This is the essence of their rivalry to me, this is essential to their never-ending battle....

what a voice