Public Enemies - What Did You Think?
Last night, the Academy of Science-Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films held the 35th annual Saturn Awards. The Dark Knight was the big winner of the night, taking home five awards, including Best Action/Adventure/Thriller Film, Best Supporting Actor (Ledger), Best Writer, Best Music and Best Special Effects. Iron Man, Battlestar Galactica, and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button each won three awards. A full listing of winners is available after the jump
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There are a lot of Award shows in Hollywood. Some of them are serious presentations, awarding accomplishment and talent: the Academy Awards, the Golden Globes..etc. Other award shows are nothing more than pure spectacle. The MTV Movie Awards falls into the latter category. Every year we post the award winners, and every year we complain about how some tween heartthrob, this year - Zac Efron, beats out some insanely talented actor, this year Robert Downey Jr, for Best Male Performance. Or how Twilight beat out both The Dark Knight and Slumdog Millionaire to win Best Movie.
But truth is, we love to bitch about the MTV Movie Awards, which explains why I’m posting these results. It’s certainly not that we give credence to this list of winners. Any award show which gives out five statues to Twilight can’t be taken seriously. So leave your comments below. Be smart, clever, funny, and biting.
Adam Berg’s Dark Knight-Inspired Short Film Carousel
Posted on Friday, April 17th, 2009 by Peter Sciretta
Directed by Adam Berg, Carousel is a 2 minute 19 second short film sponsored by Philips. The film offers an exploration into one single frozen moment of time in a robbery gone wrong in one Hard Boiled-inspired continuous tracking shot. The story line is obviously taking a cue from Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight, featuring a swat team who has moved in to a decimated hospital, entering into a shootout with a bunch of robbers wearing sinister clown masks. Around 90 per cent of the footage and stunts were captured in camera.
Created entirely by Stink Digital, this new interactive campaign promotes Philips’ latest entrant into the television market, the CINEMA 21:9. Berg conceived it to work as an endless loop. Visitors to the microsite therefore have the option to ‘spin’ through the film’s single take shot repeatedly, to stop on a specific frame, or to watch it at the preordained speed. The film also contains embedded hotspots, which, when triggered, transport the viewer seamlessly from the heavily posted film to a behind-the-scenes version of the same shot. Check out the short film, embedded after the jump.
Back in November, we posted a College Humor animated short called The Dark Knight Meets Superman, and Batman was forced to face his toughest adversary yet: real super powers. And every good superhero film spawns a sequel… In Part 2, Superman goes on vacation leaving Batman to protect Metropolis with the Justice League. Watch the short after the jump.
Michael Caine Says We Probably Won’t See a Dark Knight Sequel until 2012
Posted on Friday, April 3rd, 2009 by Peter Sciretta
The public expectation has been that Christopher Nolan’s sequel to The Dark Knight to hit theaters in the Summer of 2011, but Michael Cain, who plays Alfred in the series, thinks it might take a little longer.
“All I know is that Christopher Nolan, who writes and directs Batman is doing a picture called Inception, and I’m not in it. So I think another Batman film is a long long way off. Long Way. I would say three years, must be.”
The timetable is very short, and if Warner Bros were to announce a Summer 2011 release date for Batman 3, Nolan would be forced to begin principal photography before Inception is even finished post production. I’ve always said it, and I’ll say it again, Summer 2012 is much more likely. Ad besides, we don’t really want Nolan and crew to rush another film, do we?
South Park Takes on Watchmen and The Dark Knight
Posted on Thursday, March 19th, 2009 by Peter Sciretta
Last night’s episode of South Park took aim at Watchmen, The Dark Knight, The Spirit and the new trend in Hollywood to produce darker superhero movies. Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns even makes a cameo. Watch a clip above or the full episode on SouthParkStudios.com.
Rhys Cooper has created a tribute to Heath Ledger, a limited edition art print titled “Vote Chaos”. The site reads: “This art print has been created to celebrate his amazing performance and journey to the acclaim he rightly deserves. Based on the flood of campaign posters in support of Barrack Obama on his rise to history, this parody offers a different view, a chance for the people who wish to vote for a different set of… morals. It’s time people embrace the Agent of Chaos. Vote Chaos.” Printed on 17.9 x 26.7 250gsm recycled art paper off white/tan paper, this print is signed, numbered by the artist, limited to 200 and available for $35 on GigPosters.
42 Entertainment’s Why So Serious Viral Campaign: The Future of Movie Marketing?
Posted on Wednesday, February 25th, 2009 by Peter Sciretta
I was just reading an interesting article in the new issue of Maxim (not available online, as far as I can tell) about 42 Entertainment, the marketing comapny behind The Dark Knight’s viral campaign when I stumbled across this video created by Alternative Reality Branding (via: FSR).
The bottom line effects of viral marketing on a film’s box office and DVD sales have yet to be proven. But watching this video on 42 Entertainment’s Why So Serious campaign will help make you a believer. It will be interesting to see how companies like 42 Entertainment and CampfireNYC (the film behind Terminator Salvation’s SkyNet campaign) will use the next few years to create a connection between the film and the potential audience. One can’t deny that the interactive experience is cool, but the arguemnt is if a viral is actually is worth the millions of dollars that it costs a movie studio.
For a film like The Dark Knight, I believe a viral keeps the fans excited and causes a word of mouth stir that is worthy of the investment. Fans feel like they are a part of the movie and take it upon themselves to promote the movie to friends, family, and anyone who will listen. On the other hand, Sony hired 42 Entertainment for The International. The resulting alternative reality game was just as good as the company’s Why So Serious campaign, but fans just wen’t interested and the turn out was minimal in comparison. My conclusion so far is that Virals only work in two arenas: 1. With a project hidden in mystery that fans are eager to uncover (ie Cloverfield) or 2. A Highly anticipated property that has a year or more runway to develop a connection with it’s audience.
Video Blog: The Oscars and The Future of Batman Movies
Posted on Tuesday, February 24th, 2009 by Peter Sciretta
Throughout the week I have super-geeky conversations with Steve from Collider, and we’ve decided to bring the conversations onto the site. In today’s video blog, we talk about Sunday night’s Academy Awards (for about four minutes) and then we have an in depth discussion about the future of the Batman franchise.
We talk about what is actually going on behind the scenes right now with the development with a third film. We talk about where The Dark Knight leaves off, and what the next film might bring us. What are some of the possible villains? Could Joker of Two-Face return? Could their be more than two big villains? What will Warner Bros do after Nolan leaves? Justice League? Could Zack Snyder direct Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns? How about a Batman Beyond film? What directors could carry on the Batman franchise after Nolan. And much more.
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Discuss: What Villains should be in the next Batman movie? What would you like to see happen? What director should take over the franchise after Nolan? Watch our video blow and leave your thoughts in the comments below!
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What if The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and The Dark Knight were combined into one movie, starring… Jimmy Kimmel? No need to wonder “What If?”, check out The Curious Case of Benjamin Batman embedded after the jump.
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The Dark Knight Passes $1 Billion at Box Office
Posted on Saturday, February 21st, 2009 by Peter Sciretta
The Dark Knight has finally done it, passing the $1 billion mark at the worldwide box office. Christopher Nolan’s comic book sequel becomes the fourth film to ever make more than $1 billion: Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest with $1.066 billion, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King with $1.119 billion and Titanic with $1.842 billion. The strategically planned IMAX re release pushed the film over the $1 billion mark.
source: Variety
Christopher Nolan is the Only Screenwriter Currently Attached to Next Batfilm
Posted on Tuesday, February 17th, 2009 by Brendon Connelly
Let’s stop calling the next Batman film Batman 3, shall we? Let’s just call it the next Batman film - or TNBF, if you want. That’ll do. The Batman films didn’t start with Begins, you know. Not nearly.
IGN have discovered a tiny crumb of info on TNBF that is bound to fuel speculation. According to their detective work, the only screenwriter formally attached to the project is Christopher Nolan.
