We brought you an update on The Dark Knight Rises last week; now we have a bit more speculation, some new information, and a congratulations.
To begin with The Filmsmith would like to send out a huge congratulations to director Christopher Nolan who, at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival, received the festival’s most prestigious award, the Modern Master Award. In the past this award has gone to the likes of Michael Douglas, Jodie Foster, Sir Anthony Hopkins, Diane Keaton, Sean Penn, Jeff Bridges, Peter Jackson, George Clooney, Cate Blanchett, and Clint Eastwood. Catch some coverage of Nolan’s speech and more from the festival below.
On the The Dark Knight Rises:
More recently, at the Writers Guild Awards, Nolan won the award for Best Original Screenplay for Inception. On top of that, earlier last week Deadline posted coverage of the annual Visual Effects Society Awards and it’s no surprise that Nolan’s Inception took home awards–four in total. The VES also awarded him an even higher honor, the inaugural VES Visionary Award. Nolan gave a brief statement:
I’m often quoted in the press talking about visual effects like an actress talks about her use of botox… I know visual effects people pride themselves on doing the impossible. I’d just like to encourage you to say no to the unreasonable.
More information has surfaced on The Dark Knight Rises from Nolan’s frequent collaborator, four-time Oscar-nominated cinematographer Wally Pfister. The cinematographer recently did a phone interview with the Kevin and Josh Movie Show where he gave fans a taste of what to expect in the Batman follow-up. When asked how Nolan could possibly top The Dark Knight, Pfister said:
“I read the script 2 weeks ago, and he’s done it. Plain and simple — he’s done it. It’s a phenomenal script. He’s still in the process of cutting it back because it’s a very long script right now, but it’s really phenomenal. And he actually had me go back and wanted me to watch, in IMAX, Batman Begins and The Dark Knight again. When I watched those I had read the script for The Dark Knight Rises and was like, ‘dude, it is a perfect trilogy.’ I think that was his intent, to work off those two pictures — and they are very different pictures. And it’s funny, we all had different opinions about which picture we like better.”
It’s well known that Nolan likes to shoot on film as much as possible (Thank you Mr. Nolan!) and that in The Dark Knight, Pfister shot on the IMAX format, which the team brought back for Inception. When asked about plans for IMAX in The Dark Knight Rises Pfister stated:
“Our goal is to shoot as much in IMAX as we can. We’re going to put in on the screen, and put it on the screen big. And I really encourage everyone to see it in IMAX if they can because we’re really going for it this time. In terms of the action, we are all scratching our heads right now trying to figure out how we’re going to do it; how we’re going to do it in the amount of time we’re going to do it in. The opening scene of the movie will blow your mind.”
When asked about Anne Hathaway and his thoughts about her incorporation into the cast, he said:
“She is a great, great actress…and she looked phenomenal in the wardrobe.”
The Filmsmith will let you speculate on that last remark but for more on that conversation head over to, arguably, the best place on the web for all things Nolan-related, NolanFans. Last week Deadline broke with the story that actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt was in talks, and most likely, to join the cast of The Dark Knight Rises but did not have any information on what role he would be fulfilling. Long ago, fans speculated that Dick Grayson, more well known as Robin, would perhaps make an appearance, though this was shot down by both Christian Bale and Christopher Nolan. MoviesOnline said:
Christopher Nolan has made it clear that the new “Batman” film franchise will not bring Robin into the mythology as long as he is directing
When asked about the possibility of Robin joining the line-up, StarPulse said Bale:
declared he will quit the comic book movie franchise if producers ever decide to reintroduce the caped crusader’s sidekick Robin.
Flashforward to the future and fans are trying to figure out who JGL will be. Some have brought back the possibility of Robin while others say he may be cast as a detective in Commissioner Gordon’s (Gary Oldman) group. Head on over to the NolanFans forums to read up on the many possibilities for JGL. And even more information can be found over at SlashFilm.
Who do you think JGL will be playing? What are your thoughts on Pfister’s comments? Do you think Anne Hathaway will play Catwoman or will Nolan keep her as plain Selina Kyle? We’d love to hear your thoughts!
— Aaron Faulkner
The Filmsmith 