The Official MovieSet Blog
Posts Tagged ‘dark knight’
Great Halloween costumes
Thursday, November 27, 2008
Yeah, I know Halloween was almost one whole month ago but Cinematical just got around to publishing their winners for their best movie themed Halloween costumes. They’ve got 10 picks for best kids costume and 10 picks for best adult costume and all of them are wonderful, fantastic and awesome — but my favorite kids costume is this little darlin’ all done up like The Joker from The Dark Knight. How creepy would it be to see this on your doorstep asking for candy?
If you liked this costume go look at the rest of them — there’s an amazing Optimus Prime and a pretty cool Stay Puft Marshmallow Man!
Posted at 2:31PM by Patrick
For your consideration: The Dark Knight for the Best Picture Oscar
Monday, November 24, 2008
Cinematical scanned in two ads that Warner Bros. placed in the pages of Variety to promote their behemoth Dark Knight movie for consideration for an Academy Award as Best Picture. There was also an ad for Heath Ledger under the Best Supporting Actor category, something that I’m sure will happen. But does The Dark Knight stand a chance of winning Best Picture? Ten years after Titanic became the highest grossing movie of all-time as well as winning Best Picture, is there still a stigma attached to rewarding blockbuster movies for Hollywood’s highest award? There hasn’t been a science fiction, action or superhero movie yet that has won a Best Picture Oscar but if there was to be a likely candidate that stood a good chance to nab that idol, The Dark Knight is it (I think it’s got a better chance than Star Wars did back in the 1977 Oscar race.)
Click through to see the two For Your Consideration ads. Continue reading…
Posted at 11:30AM by Patrick
Dark Knight on December 9?
Friday, October 10, 2008
Amazon.com is now taking pre-orders for The Dark Knight on DVD/Blu-ray and they’ve pegged the home video release date as December 9. While Warner Bros. hasn’t made an official announcement for when they plan on rolling out their superhero megahit on DVD, 12/9 seems like about the right time. Plus, when have you ever known Amazon to be wrong about major DVD release dates?
Amazon isn’t listing any specs for the 2-disc Dark Knight disc but rumor has it that there isn’t that much in the way of bonus material on the release besides a couple of featurettes, a documentary and six episodes of a fake Gotham City news show. My guess is that the director’s audio commentary et al will come our way in a year or so. Ah, the joys of double dipping.
Posted at 6:44PM by admin
Poster design by branding
Thursday, October 09, 2008
You’ve noticed it in nearly every mainstream movie, the moment when our hero/heroine pulls out a cell phone and the name of the company is prominently displayed, or they’re sitting down watching TV and the company name of the TV manufacturer is front and center, or…you get the idea. Branding is everywhere in movies these days. So what would it look like if a movie poster showed you how many companies were represented in the film? I’m guessing that those kinds of posters look a lot like these babies.
Created by Antrepo Design Industry as “alternative movie posters about brand integration,” these one-sheets dispense with the movie logo and showing us who’s in the film and go for an ultra-minimalist look. What the designers of these posters wanted on display were the names of the companies that are seen or represented in the film and that’s precisely the message that is communicated when you look at them. I was kind of surprised to see that there were only 12 brands displayed in all three Matrix movies but there’s a whopping 51 listed in just The Bourne Ultimatum.
See what the posters for Ocean’s Eleven, The Dark Knight, Kill Bill Vol. 1 and Iron Man look like. Collect all 6!
Posted at 6:42PM by admin
Dark Knight to be re-released
Thursday, September 11, 2008
So word is Warner Bros. is going to do the right and smart thing and re-release The Dark Knight come January 2009. Lest you believe that the sole motivation by WB is so that they could try and make the box office tally of TDK soar past Titanic’s $600 million dollars, I actually believe that the Warner suits aren’t motivated by greed. Is there anyone out there that doesn’t think that the DVD/Blu-ray sales for The Dark Knight won’t be astronomical? No, I think that they’re gunning for the glory: for a superhero movie to win Oscars outside of the special effects/make-up/sound effects categories.
In the nearly 30 years since Christopher Reeve starred as Superman, superhero movies may have proved to be lucrative revenue generations and franchise creators but they haven’t earned the critical respect given to dramas or thrillers. Remember back to 1991 and how The Silence of the Lambs, which I remember being marketed as a horror, suddenly became a psychological thriller? Oscars went to the two lead stars, the director, the writer and the film won Best Picture for the year. Could The Dark Knight be poised to do for the superhero genre what Silence of the Lambs did for horror? Personally I can’t see TDK winning Best Picture but I could see the picture getting a nomination as well as Chris Nolan get ting one and possibly even win depending on how the fall/winter movie season’s line-up of films play out. Of all the Oscar categories, I’d consider Heath Ledger is a lock; depending upon how WB wants to submit his role, Ledger could stand more chance if he were considered for Best Supporting Actor and not Best Actor. Or — consider this my “go for broke” scenario — WB plays out Ledger for the Best Actor category and Aaron Eckhart could be marketed under the Supporting category. I’d also give the film a healthy point spread for an original screenwriting nomination, not counting the technical department noms. Best case scenario: it’s a weak awards season and The Dark Knight picks up 5 or 6 Oscar wins including ones for Ledger, Nolan, the writers, music, sound and something like costuming or editing. Likely case: TDK wins a few technical awards and Ledger or Nolan take home the night’s single non-technical Oscar. I think it’s going to go down that way.
Posted at 7:47PM by admin
The top 13 hottest female characters from the summer of 2008
Thursday, August 28, 2008
With the end of the summer movie season swiftly falling upon us this weekend let us reexamine what’s come our way these past four months — and really, what better way to pass judgment on the worthiness of a film than imposing one’s subjective perspective on who were the hottest female characters?
Now before my female readers go all Gloria Steinem and call me a pig-headed creep, let me offer this reasoning in my defense: beauty is entirely subjective. What you may find attractive may not what I consider attractive, and someone’s charisma may be amplified (or taken away) by other traits like their personality, clothing or the number of guns that they own. The bottom line is that when you read this list you should bear it in mind that none of these characters are real and so any offense you might take is also imaginary.
13. Asajj Ventress (from Star Wars: The Clone Wars)
So what if she’s evil? She’s also bald, can command the Force, has two red lightsabers and also happens to be a better character than any of the bad guys George Lucas showed us in Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith (I’ll give George the upper-hand for the creation of Darth Maul in Phantom Menace.) You know what they say about bad girls being interesting, so if killing a few Jedi makes Asajj such a terrible love connection then I don’t want to be right. Plus, I was never into that whole slave Leia costume thing so let’s hope some female cosplayers get inspired to dress up as Asajj at the next Comic Con.
12. Agent Dana Scully (from The X-Files: I Want to Believe)
Six years after the TV show ended Gillian Anderson reprised her role as Special Agent Dana Scully in the second X-Files movie — and no one cared enough to go see the movie. Hell, I didn’t go see it…but that doesn’t mean that I don’t want to believe Scully is still a hottie. Anderson proved that while no one cares about the X-Files anymore, that conservative business suit look still works for guys like me.
11. The women from Sex and the City
Look, I don’t even like Sex and the City but I’m not dumb enough to dismiss the power and appeal of it. While you couldn’t get me close enough to Sarah Jessica Parker, Kim Cattral and that chick that plays Charlotte can go shopping with me for a new pair of Manolo Blaniks anytime. But what the Sex and the City movie did that I love is show stuffy Hollywood movie moguls that a large number of people will pay to see a movie with 40 and 50-something women dolled up and cougar prowling the Big Apple. If Helen Mirren were in a movie this summer she’d beat SJP but all we got were these spy photos of her in a bikini.
10. Betty Ross (The Incredible Hulk)
Ten years after Liv Tyler left her impression as Ben Affleck’s love interest in Armageddon we find Steven Tyler’s little girl still playing the doe-eyed girlfriend to a CG character. However, the cool thing about Betty Ross is that she stands by her man even though he turns into a rampaging green monster. Could you say that about any of the chicks from Sex in the City?
9. Trixie (Speed Racer)
Speed Racer proved to be one of the summer’s bombs but it did give us Christina Ricci’s performance as Speed’s rock solid girlfriend. She’s into cars, she loves Speed completely and she’s cool with his folks. How many of you would settle for just two outta those three? Plus she’s got her own pink helicopter to come pick you up in. That’s a win-win-win-win in my book of love.
8. The Joker as a nurse (The Dark Knight)
Don’t look at me that way. Go on, tell me that you never got a funny feeling as a kid when you saw Bugs Bunny dresssed up as a woman.
7. Donna Sheridan (Mamma Mia!)
Donna may be a mom and she may be played by Meryl Streep but damn if she doesn’t have the energy and spirit of a 20-year-old club chick. It doesn’t matter if Donna is having a fun moment with her two gal pals or feeling down in the dumps thinking about life as a single woman, she’s got a song in her heart for every situation and chances are you want to sing along too. Get Donna out of those denim dungarees and into a nice sundress, maybe get a bit of a tan and she’s suddenly she’s spending time with Carrie Bradshaw and her troop of Manhattan fashionistas.
6. Irena Spalko (Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull)
The first female bad guy for Doctor Jones to face off against and she’s played by Oscar-winner Cate Blanchett. The movie may have sucked but for all those guys out there that dig their femme fatales in army clothing, Irena was their pin-up woman of the year. Give her Indy’s whip and let’s see how far we can go with this.
5. EVE - (Wall*E)
For the guys that love their iPhones or iPods more than their significant others there was Disney/Pixar’s EVE. She’s got the curves, the commanding voice and those arms that can atomize anything so to me she’s ’08’s version of Ripley from Aliens. She may have a tough exterior but as anyone that saw the movie will know, once EVE finds out how much of a softie Wall*E is she fell in love with the beat-up little robot — which only goes to prove that even robot nerds can hook up with robot hotties if they play their cards right.
4. Rachel Dawes (The Dark Knight)
As played by Maggie Gyllenhaal, Rachel’s got it all: looks, gusto, an important job as a lawyer, a boyfriend who’s star is rising and she knows the secret identity of who Batman is. I thought that Gyllenhaal improved on Katie Holmes’ performance of the character so I’m excited to see where she takes Rachel in the inevitable sequel to The Dark Knight. Oh. That’s right, I forgot about that…thing that happened. Oh. Well…uhm…hey, wasn’t that redhaired wig on The Joker kind of sexy?
3. Agent 99 (Get Smart)
She’s the brains behind Maxwell Smart and she’s also better with a gun than the hero. Anne Hathaway did an awesome job stepping into the boots of Barbara Feldon and was able to be the straight man opposite Steve Carell. Plus, she’s hot. What’s with all of these actresses and their brunette bobbed hairdos this summer? Did Trixie, Spalko and Agent 99 have the same hairstylist?
2. Fox (Wanted)
She’s a trained assassin who wants to give private lessons to the film’s hero. She has scores of tattoos all over her back and arms. She can curve a bullet. She has a gun that can shoot around corners. And she’s played by the present supermom of the planet, Angelina Jolie. Fox (gee, I wonder why she was named that?) is the best action babe of the summer and Brad Pitt agrees with me 100%.
1. Pepper Potts (Iron Man)
I’ve never been that much of a fan of Gwyneth Paltrow except when she played a head in a box in Seven, but in Iron Man the mother of Apple does a first-rate job of playing this summer’s hottest female character. Pepper’s got nearly the full package: she’s got brains, she’s got talent, she’s got a killer sense of business attire, she keeps the schedule of her boss (billionaire Tony Stark) and it was her gift to him that saved Iron Man’s ass when it seemed he was down for the count. The only thing that Pepper lacks that some other ladies on the list have is armament; even Scully has a gun. But here’s the thing: Pepper’s boss is friggin’ Iron Man himself. Stark makes IM suits in less than 12 hours, so why can’t Pepper get to be Iron Woman in sequel #2 or #3? See, that’s where my mind is headed, hombre.
Plus, I think that Pepper and that SHIELD guy would make a cute couple.
So do you agree with my placement of the ladies in the list or think that I’m mentally unstable, sexist or downright creepy for placing The Joker on it? Sound off and tell me what you think in our comment section below. The more comments, the greater the chance that I may be fed by my corporate masters!
Posted at 10:53PM by admin
Speculation on the next Batman movie starts flying
Monday, August 25, 2008
With The Dark Knight about to cross the $500 million dollars in ticket sales across North America mark this week it’s no wonder people are speculating as to what direction the next sequel will take. Everyone associated with the movie are keeping tight lips about what form the next Batman movie will take (or even if there’s been any discussion about which characters will be in the movie.) Still, that hasn’t stopped one media source from leading the charge with rumors about who’s going to be cast in Dark Knight 2 (or Batman Begins 3, depending on how you want to look at the franchise.)
The news outlet that is reporting the first Batman 3 casting rumor is Britain’s Daily Telegraph newspaper, not known for its sterling reputation when it comes to being accurate with entertainment rumors. According to a source that the Telegraph claims is in the know, 62-year-old rocker Cher is supposedly director Christopher Nolan’s first choice to play Catwoman in the movie.
Of course I don’t believe this crap for one second.
The Telegraph also repeats a rumor that emerged from fan circles last month, that being Pirates of the Caribbean star Johnny Depp is out to play The Riddler in the next Batman movie. While I’m OK with the thought of an actor like Depp playing Riddler, I also don’t see it happening. Everyone knew that The Joker was going to be in The Dark Knight but Nolan didn’t go with a major star in the part, he went with a slightly lesser known star like Heath Ledger. Same thing goes for Aaron Eckhart who played Two-Face in the flick. I can’t see Nolan casting an actress substantially older for a character like Catwoman when she’s going to be a romantic interest for Batman…not that I have anything wrong with a cougar relationship for Bruce Wayne, but a Cher/Christian Bale hook-up borders on sci-fi.
But what really seals the deal for me on the Telegraph’s article being BS is that they also claim that the next Batman is going to film in Vancouver early next year. That’s absolutely 100% false. There’s no buzz amongst Vancouver’s film scene that the next Batman movie is filming up here. And not only that, why the hell would Nolan move his production from Chicago to Vancouver when the former city has served so well as the setting for Gotham City? It’s not like Warner Bros. needs to cut costs down on the next Batman movie when number two just made them a billion dollars and is the second biggest grossing movie of all-time.
This rumor is total junk!
Posted at 5:38PM by admin
The Dark Knight is tops again
Monday, August 11, 2008
In a feat that hasn’t been matched since New Line Cinema’s release of Peter Jackson’s ‘The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King‘ in 2003 the latest Batman film, The Dark Knight reigns supreme at the box office for the fourth week in a row. The weekend saw the film take in another $26,117,030 bringing the total U.S. box office since it opened to an amazing $441,628,497 putting the film third in all-time grosses behind only Star Wars at number two, a goal still attainable by The Dark Knight at $461 million, and Titanic at number one with $600 million.
Global grosses are even more impressive for The Dark Knight at a whopping $704,728,497 (and no I haven’t written that wrong).
Also of note was the opening of the Seth Rogen stoner flick, ‘Pineapple Express‘ capturing the number two spot for the weekend at a respectable $23,245,025.
Posted at 11:12PM by admin
An early look for “Dark Knight” Joker
Friday, August 08, 2008
With The Dark Knight now the highest grossing superhero film of all time and Heath Ledger’s portrayal of The Joker now safely resting in the nightmares of everyone, here’s an interesting look at an early concept for Batman’s penultimate villain. Doesn’t this version look even more freakier than what was in the film?
The image comes from the new Dark Knight art book which shows off all of the movie’s conceptual designs from the Batpod (that motorcycle thingy) to Two-Face’s scarred mug.
Three more looks at this early idea for The Joker can be looked at here.
Posted at 6:44PM by admin
“The Dark Knight” just cracked $400 million in box office
Tuesday, August 05, 2008
Add another feat to The Dark Knight’s stratospheric success story: the high-flying superhero flick just zoomed past the $400,000,000 mark at the box office. According to Box Office Mojo the Batman movie took in $6,287,429 yesterday at theaters, bringing its total 18 day gross to $400,038,494. The Dark Knight also just beat the record for the fastest climb to the $400 million mark in ticket sales surpassing the snail-like pace of Shrek 2’s 43 days. The Dark Knight is now the eighth highest domestic grossing film of all time, sandwiched inbetween Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith ($380 million, #9 spot) and Spider-Man ($403 million, #7 and soon to be ousted spot.)
I think Dark Knight is going to beat the original Star Wars (#2, $460 mil total) but that it can’t beat Titanic’s $600 million top spot. Maybe I could be wrong and during the next month the history books will keep being rewritten but my gut tells me the film is going to level off at $500 mil and change.
Posted at 11:28PM by admin
