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cinema rock news cinema rock CHRISTIAN BALE as Batman and ANNE HATHAWAY as Catwoman in Warner Bros. Pictures' and Legendary Pictures' "THE DARK NIGHT RISES," a Warner Bros. Pictures release. TM and © DC Comics.
BATMAN: THE DARK KNIGHT RISES
Warner Bros., Legendary Pictures directed by Christopher Nolan starring Christian Bale, Anne Hathaway, Tom Hardy, Marion Cotillard, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Michael Caine, Gary Oldman, Morgan Freeman. Writers: Christopher Nolan, Jonathan Nolan. Producers: Christopher Nolan, Emma Thomas, Charles Roven. Composer: Hans Zimmer. RELEASE DATES: 25 JULY (FRANCE) / 20 JULY 2012 (USA)
J. EDGAR Warner Bros. Pictures' Drama directed by Clint Eastwood starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Naomi Watts, Judi Dench, Armie Hammer, Josh Lucas.
EXTREMELY LOUD AND INCREDIBLY CLOSE Warner Bros. pictures' Drama directed by Stephen Daldry starring Tom Hanks, Sandra Bullock.
DARK SHADOWS Warner Bros. Pictures, Village Roadshow Pictures' Gothic Comedy directed by Tim Burton starring Johnny Depp, Michelle Pfeiffer, Eva Green.
THE ARTIST Warner Bros. pictures' Comedy, Romance, Drama directed by Michel Hazanavicius starring Jean Dujardin, Bérénice Bejo, John Goodman.
CONTAGION Warner Bros. Pictures' Thriller directed by Steven Soderbergh starring Matt Damon, Gwyneth Paltrow, Jude Law, Kate Winslet, Marion Cotillard.
DREAM HOUSE Morgan Creek Productions' Suspense Thriller distributed by Warner Bros., directed by Jim Sheridan starring Daniel Craig, Naomi Watts.
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(C) 2012 WARNER BROS. ENTERTAINMENT INC. AND LEGENDARY PICTURES FUNDING, LLC.
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SHERLOCK HOLMES: A GAME OF SHADOWS Warner Bros. Pictures' and Village Roadshow Pictures' Action Adventure Mystery by Guy Ritchie .
THE DARK KNIGHT RISES Warner Bros., Legendary pictures directed by Christopher Nolan starring Christian Bale, Anne Hathaway, Marion Cotillard.
The final weeks of principal photography were spent in New York City, where locations included the Trump Tower, which served as the exterior of Wayne Enterprises, and the Queensboro Bridge, the upper span of which was closed for two days for filming, including a shot of Batman overlooking the city he was willing to sacrifice everything to protect. Nolan states, “Gotham has always drawn a lot from New York. It’s a heightened version of it, but that was always the inspiration, hence the name Gotham. So I felt that we should get more of New York into this film, specifically because ‘The Dark Knight Rises’ is very much about Gotham…more than the previous two films have been. ”From people to places, the themes of the film are all captured in the movie’s score. The music was composed by Hans Zimmer, marking his fourth collaboration with Nolan, including all three Dark Knight films. “It’s a joy and a privilege to work on these movies and to work with somebody like Chris Nolan, who invites comments and welcomes your observations.” For this final installment, Zimmer included echoes of the earlier scores, but, he says, “We went in a completely different direction for Bane. I wanted to use a big symphony orchestra, but I said to them, ‘I’m going to make you unlearn everything you’ve learned. I’m going to treat you as if you were a primeval drum circle.’ And it turned out to be very liberating for them, like a musical adventure,” he smiles. Zimmer also prominently incorporated a chant into the music associated with Bane, which became, for the composer, an opportunity to reach out to fans to participate in the film’s soundtrack. People were invited to send in their chants via UJAM—a website that can be used to compose, produce, and publish music—and thousands responded from all over the globe. Submissions were then synched to create the haunting chant heard in the film. Zimmer recalls, “I suggested to Chris that this was a way to give something back to the fans and let them be a real part of this world. There was some question about if it would work, but it all came together beautifully.” Nolan remarks, “I have never worked with someone so dedicated to the idea that the real risk is in playing it safe. Hans taught me that you sometimes have to go in what appears to be the wrong direction to discover all the possibilities, and that without exploring those possibilities you can never do anything truly exceptional. He sets creative goals for every film that are higher than you ever thought practical…or even reachable.” Zimmer says that, like the character, the theme accompanying Selina Kyle is “full of ambiguity, which is far more interesting than just being bad or good. Chris’s movies always contain a certain amount of ambiguity, and I try to put some of that into the music.” The one musical thread spanning all three films is the music Zimmer composed for Bruce Wayne. “He’s got the simplest of themes; it’s just a little two-note motif that never quite resolves,” he describes. “I always wanted the music to somehow pose the question of ‘what if’ for Bruce. But I do think that this movie leads to a sort of resolution—that those same two notes have shifted and now provide an answer.” Reflecting on the completion of the Dark Knight trilogy, Christian Bale says, “It was very bittersweet when I took off the cowl for last time, because it’s meant so much to me personally to play this character. It never stopped giving me goose bumps to stand in that suit, because I recognize the honor of having portrayed this icon. And I can’t help but feel immensely proud.” Christopher Nolan concludes, “Bruce Wayne’s story has fascinated people for more than 70 years because it’s a great story. We were thrilled to bring our interpretation of this legend to the screen with these three films. It has been an extremely gratifying experience. We are very proud of this ending, and we hope the audience shares our excitement.”
CONTAGION Warner Bros. Pictures' thriller directed by Steven Soderbergh starring Matt Damon, Gwyneth Paltrow, Jude Law, Kate Winslet, Marion Cotillard, Laurence Fishburne and John Hawkes.
SELINA There’s a storm coming, Mr. Wayne. The gripping action of “The Dark Knight Rises” is ignited in mid-flight, with the skyjacking of a CIA plane carrying a man named Dr. Pavel, who is obviously someone of value to the U.S. government, as well as others with less savory intentions. This is where we first meet Bane, who proves what an ingenious and utterly ruthless villain he is. Just as Bane is revealed, a huge C-130 Hercules transport plane approaches from above, and four terrorists, suspended on cables, rappel out of the cargo bay. Landing on the wings of the CIA’s turboprop and shooting out the windows, they then tether the plane to the Hercules, rendering the smaller aircraft powerless. Given Nolan’s preference for doing as much in-camera as possible, most of the prologue was actually shot in mid-air over Inverness, Scotland. From start to finish, it was a coordinated, multi-departmental feat of timing and precision. Planning of the high-altitude prologue began months in advance, primarily to ensure everyone’s safety. Executive producer Kevin De La Noy attests, “A lot of what we do either pushes the envelope or punches right through it, but we’re always very careful because safety margins are put there for all the right reasons.” Prior to filming in live action, the visual effects team, led by supervisor Paul Franklin, created an animatic—a low-resolution computer animation of the scene—so the different departments could analyze what would or would not work. Franklin says, “Through our initial pre-visualization, we could figure out what was going to be stunts, what was going to be special effects, and what would require visual effects. It really helped all the departments to understand what their part would be in the finished sequence.” Tom Struthers went to great measures to eliminate risks to the aerialists who would be dropping from the C-130 onto the turboprop. The stunt coordinator recounts, “To my knowledge, it’s never been done—where four people flew out of the back of an aircraft on separate lines and land on another plane. So we did a great deal of testing with dummies and different kinds of rigs before we ever put an actual person up. We had emergency procedures in place to allow them to cut away and parachute to the ground, which thankfully were never necessary. The guys who did it were fantastic.” There were also preparations being done on the ground, where the fuselage of the CIA plane would eventually fall to earth. Everything was cleared from the area, to ensure that there was no threat to people or wildlife. The weather also cooperated, giving the filmmakers clear skies. When everything was in place, Nolan and cinematographer Wally Pfister caught all the action from a helicopter that had to match air speeds with the two planes. The best testament to the efficiency and expertise of those involved was that the entire sequence—which was originally scheduled to take up to nine days—was accomplished in two. “It was a ride for us, and I think it will be for the audience as well,” Nolan says. The struggle unfolding inside the turboprop plane was filmed at Cardington, a converted airship hangar north of London. Corbould’s team constructed the fuselage of the plane on a gimbal, which was able to tip the aircraft from horizontal to vertical and rapidly roll it from side to side, severely testing the equilibrium of the cast and crew. “I don’t know why on Chris’s sets we always end up tumbling around or turning upside down,” Pfister says, only half-joking. “Logistically, it makes for quite a challenge when you’re shooting it, but it also makes for a great bit on film.” The film’s prologue was shot entirely with IMAX cameras, which were utilized throughout the production, including on all of the major action scenes. “I love working with the IMAX cameras,” states Nolan, “because it adds scale and broadens the tableau of the image. We learned a lot with our use of the cameras on ‘The Dark Knight,’ so we were able to refine our techniques to give us better exposure and so forth. There was a lot of technical innovation, which enabled us to take it to the next level.” Pfister affirms, “IMAX is a very immersive format in both picture and sound because of the way the image is filling your vision and how the sound hits you from all around the theatre. We spent about six months working with Panavision and IMAX to retool the viewfinder on the cameras and craft new lenses, which allowed us to shoot in very low-light conditions. With those advancements, we were able to do things we couldn’t do on the previous film.” Filming in low light was especially important for “The Dark Knight Rises” because a number of crucial scenes take place underground, including those in the Batcave. With Wayne Manor—and therefore the original Batcave—destroyed in the first film, Bruce Wayne had temporarily moved his base of operations to the Bat-Bunker. However, the mansion was rebuilt with the inclusion of a new Batcave, which echoes design elements of both earlier sets. Nathan Crowley, who teamed with fellow production designer Kevin Kavanaugh on this film, explains, “Chris and I pondered how to mix the Batcave and the Bat-Bunker, which is incredibly geometric and modern and everything is cleanly recessed into the walls. It occurred to us that we could carry over the same idea by flooding the Batcave so everything is hidden underwater. When you enter, it’s just a cave, but you press a button and up come these perfect cubes that hold different objects, from the Batsuit to a super computer.” Nolan offers, “It’s a terrific combination of the tactile reality of the Batcave and the functionality of the Bat-Bunker.” The Bat-Bunker was again erected at Cardington. However, the new Batcave set, complete with working waterfalls, was constructed on Stage 30 of Sony Studios in Culver City, California. The soundstage was ideal because it contains a water tank that can hold more than 720,000 gallons of water. Currents of water were also a main feature of Bane’s base of operations, found in the sewer system beneath Gotham City. The set was constructed at Cardington, where the cavernous space allowed the production to build tunnels leading to a concrete and corrugated steel structure, several stories high. In lighting the set, Pfister says, “I suggested we use heavily overexposed lights to turn it into something that feels like an arena. So we have these really bright points of light that go to stark white and help to establish the harshness of the environment.” Cardington also housed an even more imposing multi-leveled set: a hellish prison, which, apart from being beneath the ground, is a far cry from Bane’s lair. The prison is a rough-hewn labyrinth of stone cells in a vast abyss. The barred doors of the cells are unlocked because there is only one escape: an impossibly high vertical shaft leading to the surface. There were actually two shafts constructed at Cardington, the taller being 120 feet high. Exteriors above the prison were filmed in Jodhpur, India, where the forbidding landscape added to the desolation. In sharp contrast to the remote location, the exterior of palatial Wayne Manor was an existing mansion found in Nottingham, England. Although Bruce fulfilled his promise to rebuild the house “brick for brick,” the interior was designed to be more sterile, a house rather than a home. In the first two movies, Chicago had doubled as Gotham City, but for the conclusion of the trilogy, three separate cities stood in for Gotham: Pittsburgh, Los Angeles and New York. In a few sequences, the action overlapped locations, beginning in one city and seamlessly transitioning to another. Pfister says, “It was extremely challenging in terms of continuity. We were shooting in different cities, in different seasons, at different times of day, so it required an enormous amount of planning to match the lighting and make sure everything made sense. It all had to be mapped out very carefully with Chris and the location managers to figure out precisely when we were going to shoot on what streets.” In Pittsburgh, more than 11,000 extras flocked to Heinz Field for the scene in which Bane kicks off his revolution with an explosive show of force. The home of the city’s beloved Steelers football team became the gridiron of the Gotham Rogues, who sported the black and gold colors of the stadium’s real-life resident team. Executive producer Thomas Tull is also a co-owner of the Pittsburgh Steelers, so he was proud to see them represented, even fictionally, in the film. A number of Pittsburgh Steelers stars were drafted to “play” for the Gotham Rogues. On the opposing side, the current Mayor of Pittsburgh, Luke Ravenstahl, joined in the game, playing the kicker for the Rapid City Monuments. Emma Thomas notes, “When you’ve been working on a movie for a few months, you might start to think you’re the center of the universe. Then you bring in the Steelers with the Pittsburgh fans, and you see a whole new level of stardom. It was thrilling to have them there that day.” “We had a great time in Pittsburgh,” Nolan adds. “Everyone was extraordinarily welcoming to us, especially considering we were shutting down entire sections of the city for weeks at a time. That really helped us to achieve a lot of shots that would have been virtually impossible to do anywhere else.” The production took advantage of the fact that the turf of the stadium was scheduled to be replaced for the approaching football season. Corbould’s special effects department strategically placed explosives that were detonated along the field. A platform was built on top of the existing surface to give a player on the Gotham Rogues a running lane and to give the illusion that the players chasing behind him were falling into the growing chasm. The collapsing field and resulting crater were rendered digitally by Paul Franklin’s visual effects team. In Los Angeles, a number of notable sites were used for interior sets, including the L.A. Convention Center, which was turned into the Applied Science Division of Wayne Enterprises; historic Union Station, which became a makeshift courtroom; and a building on South Spring Street, which was transformed into the trading floor of the stock exchange. The exterior of the stock exchange was appropriately located in the financial hub of Wall Street in New York City. Over two weekends, the production closed down the entire financial district to shoot two of the film’s climactic confrontations, involving main cast, stunt teams, and several thousand extras. There were ultimately 600 stunt people engaged in the action, so in order to teach everyone the carefully choreographed moves, Struthers had them all broken down into groups and then sub-divided into smaller units. “Filming on a location like Wall Street is always going to be logistically complex, particularly with the sheer number of people we had,” Nolan says. “We had tremendous cooperation from the city, and everything went very smoothly, which is a testament to everyone involved. I’ve been very lucky to have found excellent people to work with on these films, in all departments. I know I can rely on them to offer valuable input and always give me their best, and that makes my job much easier.”
NEW YEAR'S EVE New Line Cinema's Romantic Comedy directed by Garry Marshall starring Halle Berry, Jessica Biel, Jon Bon Jovi, Abigail Breslin, Chris "Ludacris" Bridges.
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