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Dark Knight: ‘Know your Limits’ trailer

If you weren’t excited enough about the new Batman movie before, you defintely will be now as we see the horrifyingly deadly scope of The Joker’s madness and Two-Face’s tragic genesis

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Dark Knight: The film ruined for your pleasure

If you are one of those people who have to read every last detail about a film before they see it, there's a play-by play of the forthcoming Nolan/Bale Bat-flick over at i09.

Personally, I like to enter a movie theatre fresh, with no preconceptions, but that's not too easily done in my line of work

Dark Knight: New TV spot and two very pretty posters

These lovely new banner-shaped posters surely exist only to tempt the bloggers among us to give the hotly-anticipated new Batman movie some free advertising.

Read on to see the new TV spot which will be airing in theUS next week.

Dark Knight: The awesome new Joker poster in high res

Batman on film has snagged a satisfyingly large version of the newest Dark Knight poster, which shows Heath Ledger as the Joker in all his twisted glory. Go here to download the full-sized image, which deserves to be on every Batman fan's desktop until  mid-June at the very least.

Dark Knight: Two-Face revealed

This production visual of the scarring that turns driven District Attorney Harvey Dent into the schizoid master-villain Two face was posted by Comic Book Resources over the weekend. Grislier and more credible than the scarlet prosthetic that was used for Tommy Lee Jones' attempt at the role in Batman Forever it's a nod toward Jeph Loeb's Long Halloween comic book, an acknowledged influence for Batman Begins and  Dark Knight director Christopher Nolan,.

The Dark Knight: Tim Burton Edition

This marvellous video edit from College Humor takes the current Dark Knight trailer that we know and love and finds matching shots from Tim Burton's 1989 Batman movie. It's beautifully done, cleverly conceived, and demonstrates that a good idea is always worth repeating.

Juxtaposing the two trailers if not side by side then at least cheek by jowl   only serves to heighten the similarities and, surprisingly, gives me a powerful yen to watch Jack Nicholson's spectacularly hammy take on The Joker again.

See more funny videos at CollegeHumor

The Dark Knight: Tim Burton Edition

This marvellous video edit from College Humor takes the current Dark Knight trailer that we know and love and finds matching shots from Tim Burton's 1989 Batman movie. It's beautifully done, cleverly conceived, and demonstrates that a good idea is always worth repeating.

Juxtaposing the two trailers if not side by side then at least cheek by jowl   only serves to heighten the similarities and, surprisingly, gives me a powerful yen to watch Jack Nicholson's spectacularly hammy take on The Joker again.

See more funny videos at CollegeHumor

Dark Knight Viral: London Bound?

The complex online viral campaign for new Batman movie The Dark Knight had an entirely understandable pause after the untimely death of Joker actor Heath Ledger but seems now to be gathering momentum again. This Gotham-themed Drudge clone is my current favourite. The latest development is the mysterious Clown Travel website which is currently displaying a cryptic photo (see above) but may well be doing something altogether different tomorrow.

Most of the existing campaign has involved events in the US, but note the stickers on the suitcase (while trying to ignore the slightly shaky perspective work). Could the Clown Prince of Crime be on his way to London?

We'll find our on April Fools' day. Or maybe we won't. It depends on who exactly the Joker is setting out to fool.

More illumination on the Dark Knight

Dark Knight: "I believe whatever doesn't kill you simply makes you stranger"

The mighty Drudge Report has the hot Dark Knight news today, with a report from AP about a trade screening of new footage from the forthcoming Batman adventure.

With interesting and revealing quotes from the star, the director and (as in our headline) the Clown Prince of Crime himself the piece focuses on Heath Ledger's portrayal of the Joker in the second Christian Bale-led Batman movie.

Director Christopher Nolan said that of all Batman's rogues' gallery the Joker was the one who almost had to feature in the sequel:

"The psychopathic clown, that's an icon to stand with the guy with the ears and cape...it's just a wonderful visual relationship, and it's a terrifying image."

Ledger himself was reportedly astounded by the intensity of his own performance. Add this to the studied crazinesss of Aaron Eckhart's portrayal of doomed DA Harvey Dent and you can't help feeling that, despite the best efforts of Tim Burton, this is going to be the first Batman movie that really explores the magic and the madness of the Batman mythos.

Dark Knight: To the Dentmobile!

The Dentmobile is not, as you might have imagined, the dilapidated jalopy that transports impecunious journalists to movie screenings. It's part of the imaginary campaign to make Harvey Dent District Attorney of Gotham City which is currently forming the main thrust of Warners' marketing build towards the release of the next Batman movie Dark Knight. 

If you log in to Harvey's 'campaign site' you can submit video messages of support for the clean-cut young litigator who will eventually be transformed into Batman villain Two-face.

Aaron Eckhart, who plays Dent in the film, has said that he played all his scenes in Dark Knight twice - once as calm, rational Harvey Dent and once as the manic inner personality that manifests itself after the courtroom acid attack that 'kills' Harvey and gives birth to Two-face.

It's an interesting approach and one which the few commentators who have seen the footage describe as powerfully unsettling to watch. Add in the mixed emotions most viewers will feel at seeing Heath Ledger's Joker on screen and you have the makings of one of the strangest, most memorable, comic book adaptations ever.

Dark Knight: If you really need to know what happens now, read the New York Times

If you actually want to see this movie as nature intended, with few clues as to the twists and turns of the script, then do not under any circumstances click here. The New York Times ran a major Dark Knight feature over the weekend and in doing so let slip some major plot points for the forthcoming Batman adventure.

It's a great piece of writing but I can't in all conscience recommend that you read it. There's just too much great stuff in there that  people should be gasping at in cinemas, not inadvertently stumbling over on their computers.

There are a couple of lovely stills though, so I've taken  the liberty of running the best one here.

The biggest surprise from Dark Knight yet: Harley Quinn?

UK Management company RDF has added the role of 'Harley Quinn' in Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight to the bio for one of their clients, Sarah Jayne Dunn.

Sarah Jayne is best known in the UK as aspiring model Mandy Richardson in the long-running teen soap Hollyoaks

In the DC comics canon, Harley is The Joker's therapist, Harleen Quinn, who gets mixed up in a weird folie a deux love affair with the Clown Prince of Crime and joins his gang.

How much of this story will be included in Dark Knight? Warners aren't saying.

ShoWest Award for Dark Knight director

And they say the awards go to films that appeal to critics, rather than fans. Well, I say that actually. Because it's true.

It's not true in this case though: Christopher Nolan, director of gems like Batman Begins, The Prestige, Memento and (soon) Dark Knight is to be awarded the coveted ShoWest Director of the Year gong in Las Vegas next month.

Read the full story in Variety's rather exotic language here.

Heath Ledger as the Joker: Action figure finally revealed

One product range notable by its absence from last month's London Toy Fair was the expected avalanche of Dark Knight swag. The logical inference was that, out of respect for the recently deceased Heath Ledger the heat had been turned down underneath that particular merchandising opportunity.

Business is business however, and as the New York Post reports the first Joker figures are now being exhibited. The paper quotes Cliff Annicelli, editor of toy collector's bible Playthings, as saying that he expected that it will be a hotter collectible than it otherwise would have been before his death.

In the same article, an unnamed family spokesman is quoted as saying: "Heath was very proud of his work in the film, and his family is aware and supportive of Warner Bros. and its partners' plans for the movie" 

Batman: Gotham Knight

Set in the timeframe bertween Batman Begins and the hotly anticipated Dark Knight, the Batman:Gotham Knight DVD contains six Batman stories by the likes of David S.Goyer and Greg Rucka which have been animated by a number of top Japanese artists, giving them distinctly different look and feel to the by now standard Bruce Timm interpretation.

There are at least three animation houses producing content for the DVD: Madhouse, Prodiction I.G and Studio 4ºc are definitely working on segments. This should give each individual stories a characteristic visual style. It's reminiscent on the approach taken on The Animatrix, the suite of animations that was released between the two Matrix sequels and explored different aspects of the Matrix universe.

Anticipation for Christopher Nolan's next chapter in the Batman story is already running at fever pitch, so the appeal of this DVD, due out before June this year,  should spread far beyond the fans who bought feature-length animated Batman productions like Mask of the Phantasm. Personally? My order's in.