The Dark Knight Movie - Trailers, Theories, Viral Marketing & News

I'll be updating this post regularly so check back for any The Dark Knight new developments, new viral games, theories and news.

Here is The Dark Knight TV spot that was shown over the weekend of 10/11th May.


The Newest The Dark Knight Trailer!!


Follow the link for The Spill Crew's The Dark Knight Movie Review, at the moment you can see the Dark Knight Movie Trailer and tons of pictures and videos.

**Update 9th May**

The following The Dark Knight viral sites have been updated.

GothamPolice.com
GothamCityRail.com
Josephcandoloro.com
Gpdiad.com

For more information on what these mean visit WikiBruce



The Dark Knight Movie has now been rated a PG-13 in America. Read the story here.

****Scroll Down for all Videos and Images****

The Dark Knight Movie Viral Marketing Campaigns

The Dark Knight movie's viral marketing campaign has had every fan and film blogger talking. It's been quite possibly the BEST and most exciting viral marketing campaigns that's been created for any film. The campaign has had Dark Knight fans getting involved in all sorts of antics including the following:

* Going to bakeries and picking up cakes with cell phones in them
* Decoding messages on official theatre posters
* Submitting images of people wearing Joker makeup
* Using clues from other websites to turn in corrupt police officers

Get Involved in The Dark Knight viral marketing!

There have been plenty of games played already but as the film isn't out until July 18th I'm sure there is much more in the way or virals to come. If you want to get involved, try the following:

* Try and to hack into Acmesecuritysystems.com and your email and phone number will be put on the on a Gotham Police watch list. This will probably lead to the next phase of the virals, so sign up for police informant duty! There is also an email address on the site you can contact. This could keep you posted of future viral games.

* Joker-related games have come from people emailing humanresources@whysoserious.com, a recruitment email address from the Joker. (I've only just signed up to this one, hopefully it'll be used again and I'll hear something soon). In December 2007, the initiating participant list had been whittled down to 22 people carrying cell phones, but emailing that address could still get you on a mailing list for future use. On April 1, 2008, 28 more participants received cell phones from the Clowntravelagency.com game. An additional 27 more individuals received cell phones as part of the "Operation Slipknot" game on April 24, 2008. So there are currently 77 cell phone owners capable of receiving future messages from the Joker. Many participants with cell phones are users of forums such as Superhero Hype!. News on phone-related activity will be posted online there.

* Gotham-related games have come from submitting tips to Wearetheanswer.org, as well as websites found in Thegothamtimes.com. Wearetheanswer.org is currently on hiatus, but submitting a tip will put you on a mailing list for possible future use.

* If you think you've found the next viral site run it through the GoDaddy WHOIS Database. If the website is registered to Domains by Proxy in Scottsdale, Arizona, then it could be in the game; if it isn't, it isn't part of the viral.

Negative Reactions to The Dark Knight Viral Marketing Campaigns

It seems like not everyone has been taken in by the viral games. While most The Dark Knight fans have loved every minute of the marketing following the clues and putting together the pieces of the puzzles, some people have criticised the campaign. Read a reaction to The Dark Knight viral marketing campaign here.

Personally, I disagree with this viewpoint. When you look into the effort that's gone into this campaign and how the countless sites all link together to form pieces of a puzzle I think it's not only fun but certainly gives something back to the fans. Especially when they're receiving prizes like this!

A list of the Dark Knight viral sites

Gothamelectionboard.com - Gotham City's Election Board
Ccfabg.org - Concerned Citizens for a Better Gotham
Josephcandoloro.com - Website for the founder of Ccfabg.org
Trustgarcetti.com - Roger Garcetti's campaign page
ComicCon, July 2007 - Joker's scavenger hunt trail during Comic-Con 2007
Rent-a-clown.com - Final site of the ComicCon trail, now being used to continue the Joker games
Clowntravelagency.com - Launch pad for the April 1, 2008 event
Whysoserious.com: Halloween, Oct 2007 - Halloween site update
Personality Profile - Nov 2007, clue found in Thehahahatimes.com
Mausoleum - Nov 2007, clue given in humanresources@whysoserious.com and found in Whysoserious.com/Personalityprofile
The Perfect Getaway - Nov 2007, clue given in Thehahahatimes.com
Out Of Time - Nov 2007 - The solution to "The perfect getaway."
Step Right Up - Dec 2007 - Countdown to the 'final' clue, given in humanresources@whysoserious.com
Whysoserious.com/Steprightup/Pairofjokers - Dec 2007 - Reward for the "Step right up" scavenger hunt.
Itsallpartoftheplan - April 2008 - a 12-city event that led to a showing of a new theatrical trailer
Sittingducks - "reward" for the online contingent of Whysoserious.com/Itsallpartoftheplan
Happytrails - "reward" for winning Whysoserious.com/sittingducks, where the second theatrical trailer will presumably be released
Atasteforthetheatrical.com - URL found at the bottom of TDK teaser posters, where the first theatrical trailer was released online.
Thegothamtimes.com/media/jlevine/public - where hidden media is often stored
Gothamcab.com - Website for Gotham's cab service
Bettyshouseofpies.com - Betty's House of Pies
SecureInternalDocuments - Gotham Police Department's Secure Internal Documents database
Gpdiad.com - Gotham Police Internal Affairs
Gpdmcu.com - Gotham Police Major Crimes Unit
Gothamintercontinentalhotel.com - a Gotham hotel and site of the "Operation Slipknot" sting
Gothamcityrail.com - City Rail public transit system
GVAFoundation.org - Gotham Victims Advocate Foundation
Danaworthington.com - GVAFoundation.org President Dana Worthington's DA election campaign page
Acmesecuritysystems.com - ACME Security Systems


Source: Wiki Batman

Other The Dark Knight viral sites that also exist

TheHahaTimes.com
RememberingGina.org
GothamNationalBank.com
WeAretheAnswer.org
GothamPolice.com
whysoserious.com/PersonalityProfile
IBIHD.com
IBIHDT.com
Whysoserious
Rent-a-Clown
RorysDeathKiss
GothamTimes.com
Gotham Times (paper)
GothamCityRail
Wearetheanswer
Gothamcityclerk.com


You can find out about the entire The Dark Knight viral marketing campaign here with answers and clues to all the riddles on the websites.

ALL the Dark Knight Trailers

Twelve lucky The Dark Knight fans who followed the scavenger hunt on monday received actual 35mm film copies of the new Dark Knight trailer which is not released until sunday. It had been defaced by the joker! Here's what it looks like...

Here are some actual images of the 35mm film of the New Dark Knight trailer defaced by the joker

See the rest of these images here.

I think most of these The Dark Knight Trailers are official
Here's the bootleg of the NEW Dark Knight trailer that's being released this sunday (4/5/08). It's quite bad quality but is worth seeing. It was shown to people who took part in the WhySoSerious.com/ItsAllPartofthePlan viral marketing campaign that lead a few people to movie theatres around the USA and in London.

The Dark Knight Teaser Trailers

The Dark Knight New Movie Posters

The Dark Knight Cast

Christian Bale reprises the role of Bruce Wayne / Batman, a billionaire who has dedicated himself to protecting Gotham City from the criminal underworld as the "Dark Knight". Bale was confident in his choice to return in the role because of the positive response to his performance in Batman Begins. He trained in the Keysi Fighting Method, and performed many of his own stunts. He did not gain as much muscle this time, because of the storyline in which Batman builds a new suit that allows him to move with more agility. The actor described Batman's dilemma as whether "[his crusade is] something that has an end? Can he quit and have an ordinary life? The kind of manic intensity someone has to have to maintain the passion and the anger that they felt as a child, takes an effort after awhile, to keep doing that. At some point, you have to exorcise your demons." He added, "Now you have not just a young man in pain attempting to find some kind of an answer, you have somebody who actually has power, who is burdened by that power, and is having to recognize the difference between attaining that power and holding on to it." Bale felt that because Batman's personality was strongly established in the first film, it was unlikely that the character would be overshadowed by the villains: "I have no problem with competing with someone else. And that's going to make a better movie."

Heath Ledger portrays the Joker, whom the actor described as a "psychopathic, mass murdering, schizophrenic clown with zero empathy". Director Christopher Nolan had wanted to work with Ledger on a number of projects in the past, but had been unable to do so. When Ledger saw Batman Begins, he realized a way to make the character work in that film's tone, and Nolan agreed with his anarchic interpretation. To prepare for the role, Ledger lived alone in a hotel room for a month, formulating the character's posture, voice and psychology. While he initially found it difficult, Ledger was eventually able to generate a voice that did not sound like Jack Nicholson's take on the character in Tim Burton's 1989 Batman film. He started a diary, in which he wrote the Joker's thoughts and feelings to guide himself during his performance. He was also given Batman: The Killing Joke and Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth to read, which he "really tried to read [...] and put it down". Ledger also cited inspirations such as A Clockwork Orange and Sid Vicious“ and that they were "a very early starting point for Christian [Bale] and I. But we kind of flew far away from that pretty quickly and into another world altogether.” "There’s a bit of everything in him. There’s nothing that consistent," Ledger said, adding that "There are a few more surprises to him."

Bringing the Joker back to the big screen invited a wave of speculation over his depiction. Before Ledger was confirmed in July 2006, Paul Bettany, Lachy Hulme, Adrien Brody, Steve Carell, and Robin Williams publicly expressed interest in the role. Jack Nicholson jokingly expressed anger at not being invited to reprise the part: "You can't believe the reasons things do or don't happen. Not asking me how to do the sequel is that kind of thing," he said. "Maybe it's not a mistake. Maybe it was the right thing, but to be candid, I'm furious." After the trailer was released, director Guillermo del Toro and comic book writer Jeph Loeb lavished praise upon Ledger, while Batman: The Animated Series co-creator Paul Dini said, "He seems more street than any other version of the Joker [...] His attitude is mordant and sardonic as opposed to manic [...] No goofy gags or puns for him. This Joker doesn't split sides: he splits skulls." Mark Hamill, who voiced the part on The Animated Series, said "The balls-out debauched psycho approach seems like a great way of reinventing everyone’s favorite scary (and scar-y) clown." Ledger died on January 22, 2008 after filming ended. "It was tremendously emotional, right when he passed, having to go back in and look at him every day," Nolan recalled. "But the truth is, I feel very lucky to have something productive to do, to have a performance that he was very, very proud of, and that he had entrusted to me to finish."

Aaron Eckhart plays district attorney Harvey Dent / Two-Face, for whom battling the Joker takes a dark toll, and becomes a disfigured vigilante who uses extreme methods. Producer Charles Roven described Dent as initially the "white knight of the city". Whereas Two-Face turns into an evil villain in the comics, Nolan chose to portray him as a twisted vigilante to emphasize his role as Batman's counterpart. "[He] is still true to himself. He's a crime fighter, he's not killing good people. He's not a bad guy, not purely," Eckhart noted. The actor, who has played corrupt men in films such as The Black Dahlia, Thank You For Smoking and In the Company of Men, admitted "I'm interested in good guys gone wrong." Christopher Nolan and David Goyer had originally considered using Dent in Batman Begins, but replaced him with the new character Rachel Dawes when they realized they "couldn’t do him justice". Before Eckhart was cast in February 2007, Liev Schreiber, Josh Lucas, and Ryan Phillippe had expressed interest in the role.

Maggie Gyllenhaal plays assistant D.A. Rachel Dawes, a childhood friend of Bruce Wayne, and one of the few people who know that he is Batman. Gyllenhaal acknowledged her character as a damsel in distress to an extent, adding that Nolan had sought ways to empower her character. She said, "Rachel's really clear about what’s important to her and unwilling to compromise her morals, which made a nice change" from the many conflicted characters she has portrayed. Before Gyllenhaal's casting, actress Katie Holmes (who had portrayed Rachel Dawes in Batman Begins) was reported in August 2005 by producer Charles Roven to be signed for The Dark Knight. However, in January 2007, Holmes turned down the offer to reprise her role as Rachel Dawes due to scheduling conflicts, and the role was recast two months later.

Additional characters include:

* Michael Caine as Alfred Pennyworth: Bruce Wayne's trusted butler and father figure who tends to Wayne Manor.
* Gary Oldman as Lieutenant James Gordon: One of the few uncorrupt members of the Gotham City Police Department.
* Morgan Freeman as Lucius Fox: The recently-promoted CEO of Wayne Enterprises who supplies Bruce Wayne with the gear necessary to carry out Batman's mission.
* Eric Roberts as Sal Maroni: The gangster who now leads Carmine Falcone's mob family. Bob Hoskins and James Gandolfini were reported to have also auditioned for the part.
* Michael Jai White as Gambol: A gang leader at war with Maroni. David Banner also auditioned for the role.
* Nestor Carbonell as Mayor Anthony Garcia.
* Cillian Murphy as Dr. Jonathan Crane / Scarecrow: The former director of Arkham Asylum, who poisoned the Gotham water supply with fear hallucinogen in Batman Begins.
* William Fichtner as Gotham National Bank Manager: A bank manager working for the mafia, confronted by the Joker in the film's opening. Fichtner's casting was a nod to Heat. Musician Dwight Yoakam was approached for the role, or to play a corrupt cop, but he chose to focus on his album Dwight Sings Buck.
* Winston Ellis as Gator: A villain who serves as Gambol's bodyguard along with actor Chucky Venice. He is confronted by the Joker in the first full length trailer.
* Monique Curnen as Detective Ramirez: A member of the GCPD.

Anthony Michael Hall has been cast as a reporter. Keith Szarabajka has been cast as a detective named "Stephens" (according to his website), and Beatrice Rosen and Joshua Harto also have minor roles. Edison Chen cameos as a villain. Batman fan and United States Senator Patrick Leahy, who previously was an extra in the 1997 Batman & Robin and also was a guest voice actor on Batman: The Animated Series, will have a cameo in The Dark Knight, in a scene with Batman and the Joker. Singaporean actor Ng Chin Han also reportedly has a "major and highly-confidential" role in the film. Melinda McGraw and Nathan Gamble, also appear as Gordon's wife and son.

Source Wikipedia


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