Former Tori Spelling deflowerer, turntable spinner and current Terminator TV star, Brian Austin Green, has thrown his hat (sideways baseball cap?) into the casting ring for Batman 3. B.A.G. was wowed by Heath Ledger’s performance in The Dark Knight and feels deep down he’s the right thespian to play The Riddler in the next installment…
“I would love to be the Riddler,” Green told MTV in all seriousness. “I hope to God they don’t replace Heath and have the Joker [again]. So they need a new villain and The Riddler makes sense. …[My Riddler] would take years of preparation. It’s tough. Heath set the bar a new level.”
How do our readers [...]

/Film readers Max B and David B have sent over this fan made poster for a possible sequel to The Dark Knight. Seems like the artist, like most everyone I have talked to, wants The Riddler to attack Gotham City in the next film. But yes, it is just a fan creation (If the question mark didn’t give it away). But the rest of the poster is well done. I doubt they would use the title The Dark Knight Returns unless it was an adaptation of the Frank Miller graphic novel. I have heard that the next film might employ the cape crusader’s on screen nickname “The Batman” in the [...]

This not a good week for fast food (is it ever?). While Burger King is dealing with a prized employee bathing in the friggin’ sink, Gotham’s Clown Prince is peddling Happy Meals at McDonald’s. We can foresee this rad fan-made image being a perennial poster favorite in spring break head shops and messy dorms. Good job. And thanks to Stradtler for the tip.
via Motifake

Iron Man just bitch slapped The Dark Knight for having a BA in philosophy. To be more precise, a non-blackface Robert Downey Jr. candidly discussed his rabid thoughts about the biggest fanboy movie of all time to MovieHole. Nice.
“The Dark Knight. “My whole thing is that that I saw The Dark Knight. I feel like I’m dumb because I feel like I don’t get how many things that are so smart. It’s like a Ferrari engine of storytelling and script writing and I’m like, ‘That’s not my idea of what I want to see in a movie.’ I loved The Prestige but didn’t understand The Dark Knight. Didn’t get it, [...]

As it turns out, a The Dark Knight video game probably isn’t going to happen (a missed opportunity for sure or maybe not?). Either way, /Gamer has the details on another new Batman video game called Batman: Arkham Asylum which features a story was written by Paul Dini.

For weeks, many of the IMAX screenings of The Dark Knight have been sold out. Ticket-buyers have left those screenings ranting and raving about the IMAX difference. So yesterday, 20th Century Fox and Paramount announced that they will also be releasing Night at the Museum 2 and Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen on the big big BIG screen, and it makes me angry because Hollywood doesn’t even understand why people loved the IMAX version of The Dark Knight in the first place. It was because Christopher Nolan shot 20-plus minutes of the film using the large format IMAX cameras. The difference in those four sequences (combined with some establishing [...]

The Hollywood Reporter lists one of the reasons The Dark Knight won’t top Titanic’s $601 million box office record is because Warner Bros is planning on releasing the film on DVD in December to capitalize on the Holiday sales season. The film has currently grossed $441.6 million domestically, and is on track to make $510-$525 total in the US.

It is interesting to think about how much cinema has changed in the last 25 years. Now-a-days, the long tail is on DVD, Downloads and On Demand. Two decades ago you could have kept Dark Knight in the theaters for 7 months. Without an available home video option, people would still pay [...]

After 24 days at the top, The Dark Knight has been dethroned at the #1 ranked movie on the Internet Movie Database’s top 250 films of all time list. The Christopher Nolan Batman sequel is now placed #3 on the list.
Interesting to note: The Shawshank Redemption comes out the victor in this contest of internet fandom. A couple weeks ago The Godfather fell to the #3 spot when, presumably, Dark Knight fans began voting down the Francis Ford Coppola gangster film. The result is that Shawshank now sits in the top position, and Godfather places second.
It’s also worth noting that all three films have a weighted 9.1 average user rating. [...]

When Morgan Freeman got into a car accident, the blogosphere was declaring The Dark Knight a cursed film. When Issac Hayes died immediately after Bernie Mac, some observed that Samuel L Jackson might be next due to the trio’s connection through the upcoming movie Soul Men. I don’t think anyone actually believes in these things, do they?
Now Defamer is declaring The Curse of Billy Bob Thornton. The latest death watch conspiracy theory involves the many co-stars of Thornton who have have suffered death, injury or sickness. John Ritter, Bernie Mac, J.T. Walsh, and Heath Ledger all died prematurely. Morgan Freeman and Shia LaBeouf both suffered car accidents, and Patrick Swayze [...]

Many people predicted that it wouldn’t happen, but The Dark Knight won its fourth straight weekend, taking in $26 million, compared to Pineapple Express‘ estimated $22.5 million. The last film to accomplish this feat was 2003’s Lord of the Rings: Return of the King. In less than a month, the Batman Begins sequel has grossed $441.5 million domestically, making it the third highest grossing film of all time (before inflation of course), knowing Shrek 2 from the throne. The only two films which have made more money domestically (before inflation) are Star Wars and Titanic.
The Dark Knight will likely top Star Wars’ $460.9 million in the coming weeks. And [...]

Pineapple Express premiered nationwide on Wednesday with $12.1 million, but dropped 50% on Thursday for an estimated $6.35 million. The Dark Knight has beaten Mamma Mia, Space Chimps, Step Brothers, X-Files 2, The Mummy 3, Swing Vote… but will the cape crusader be able to take down the Judd Apatow stoner comedy? Steve Mason is predicting that Pineapple Express will make $28.7 million over the weekend ($47 million for it’s five day opening), while The Dark Knight is eyeing a number somewhere in the $27 million range. The bottom line is that for right now, it is too close to call.

These early pre-Heath Ledger Joker conceptual designs can be found in The Art of The Dark Knight. I was shocked to discover that the Joker design they eventually settled on, actually seems a lot tamer than some of the early concepts. I recommend picking up the book, as it also features the entire shooting script.

Bob Dullam built a full size working replica of The Tumbler from Batman Begins and The Dark Knight. The whole thing was built from scratch without blueprints, using only photo references found online. The total cost is an estimated $50,000-$70,000. He did the project for fun, and does not plan to sell. “You wouldn’t want to sell this if you had one, believe me,” Bob writes

“It’s a once in a lifetime project. I did this alone, no help. I have found with other things in the past that if you have help, the help often does not get it right, and you have to do it over 95% of the [...]

Looks like The Joker is running free in upstate New York. /Film reader Rob H came across this vandalized real estate billboard on Route 9 in Saratoga Springs, NY. Next thing you know, watch dog groups are going to be calling for a ban of the film, claiming it is a bad influence on the youth of America. Just remember folks - Guns don’t kill people, video games kill people. :P

The Dark Knight has just crossed the $400 million mark in a record setting amount of time - just 18 days of release. To give you an idea of just how big that is, let me share with you the previous record holder - Shrek 2, which crossed the same $400 mark in 43 days! It’s also worth noting that the movie is still grossing over $6 million on a Monday, which is more money than X-Files 2 took in during the film’s premiere Saturday/Sunday. [mediabynumbers]