RKMBs Forums .::Robegories::. Media Batman: The Dark Knight casting, news and rumors

THE TWO PERFORMANCES OF TWO-FACE

We don't know much about Aaron Eckhart's performance as Harvey Dent in The Dark Knight, do we? Let's change that.

Forget Tommy Lee Jones's one-note butchering of the character in Batman Forever, Christopher Nolan is experimenting with a fascinatingly schizophrenic depiction of Two-Face that will blend sane and insane line readings from Eckhart. Basically, Nolan shot complementary takes of Eckhart in Two-Face makeup so he could visually represent the duality of Dent in a less cartoony fashion. What Nolan's doing doesn't sound all that far removed from the Gollum/Smeagol model, though the obvious difference here is that Dent isn't motion-capture; he's a fifty-fifty split of the same actor giving two wildly divergent performances in the same shot. And because he has two takes of each scene, Nolan has the luxury of shaping Eckhart's performance in post; it's just a matter of switching the dial between normal Harvey and bug-fuck Two-Face. Again, both will be present in the shot, but only one will dominate the poor bastard's conflicted consciousness at any given moment. The technical audacity required in pulling this off may be the reason Two-Face was held back in the trailer.

This is just one of many creative decisions that's got folks over at the Warner Brothers lot giddy about July 18th. Given the... er, informed speculation I've heard regarding The Joker's more sinister actions in the film, I'll be shocked if this film doesn't encounter some trouble with the ratings board. Still, the dark tone doesn't surprise me nearly as much as Dent's prominent role in the narrative; it sounds like it's his vanity (pre-Two-Face) that brings The Joker's wrath down on Batman.

Everything I'm getting on Nolan's film is coming in piecemeal, but trust me on this: The Dark Knight is going to play rough. There may be more to come, but I may sit on it for fear of spoiling the film any further.

How does a face being half burned qualify as "cartoony?" The whole reason he was burned in the first place was so he would suffer character conflicts based on how he perceived himself.

Nolan's standards for realism are retardulous. It's like he won't be happy until he's done as much counter-intuitive crap to the Batverse as possible.

How does a face being half burned qualify as "cartoony?" The whole reason he was burned in the first place was so he would suffer character conflicts based on how he perceived himself.

Nolan's standards for realism are retardulous. It's like he won't be happy until he's done as much counter-intuitive crap to the Batverse as possible.

The billboards arrived without fanfare or explanation in more than a dozen major cities last May. Bearing two simple catchphrases, "Harvey Dent for district attorney" and "I believe in Harvey Dent," they featured a photo of a stately Dent (imagine Eliot Spitzer with a shock of blond hair) against an American flag.

But within 72 hours, each billboard had been defaced by identical graffiti: The candidate's eyes were scrawled over with black rings, his lips crudely rouged with a smeary, clownlike grin. As well, each of the placards' messages had been altered to read: "I believe in Harvey Dent TOO."

.........

On March 12, a rally for the fictional D.A. candidate was broken up by Chicago police who seemed perplexed by volunteers handing out Harvey Dent bumper stickers, buttons and T-shirts.

n December, followers noted a mysterious countdown on whysoserious.com that instructed viewers to travel to 22 real-world addresses in cities from coast to coast to pick up a "very special treat" under the name "Robin Banks" (get it?).

Turns out the addresses were bakeries in possession of cakes bearing phone numbers spelled out in icing. Many of those who called the number recoiled in confusion when the cake in front of them began to ring - cell phones encased in "Gotham City Evidence" bags had been baked inside, each containing a phone charger, Joker paraphernalia and explicit instructions to keep the phone with them at all times. In addition to enlisting the players as the Joker's minions, the devices conveyed invitations to special screenings of newly cut Dark Knight Imax trailers.

"Wow. You really took the cake! Now put the icing on it," the note says.

New pictures of the joker


The second one could be recent.

No more recent than January I'd guess.

You really are slow, aren't you?

But I can get it from my mom.

Oh yeah, I heard you can get a phone call from Gordon hisself.

psst, he aint real!

A lot of things in a campaign look differently from the inside. Take the current media wildfire. Now, there's not a shred of evidence linking Harvey Dent to any questionable behavior. But the media is creating such a ruckus that from the outside, it's impossible to see anything else.

Well, I can tell all of you that the Dent campaign is still going strong. We're still committed to bringing Harvey Dent's message of change to every corner of this city.

Harvey Dent is not letting the smear campaign impact our campaign. He's continuing to do what a candidate does -- and he's continuing to lead the charge against the corruption that's destroying our city.

So rest assured -- this campaign is not over. Indeed, it has hardly begun. We WILL take Gotham back.

Allan Cypes
Media Manager, Dent for DA

psst, he aint real!