Tag: The Dark Knight (1-10 of 10)

Apr 11 2013 01:46 PM ET

'Man of Steel' will open door for more DC Comics superhero movies -- EXCLUSIVE

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Image Credit: Clay Enos

When Man of Steel hits theaters on June 14, it won’t just mark the arrival of a new Superman — it will also lay the groundwork for the future slate of films based on DC Comics.

Jeff Robinov, president of Warner Bros. Pictures Group, spoke to EW for this week’s cover story on the Zack Snyder-directed, Christopher Nolan-produced movie, and allowed a peek over the wall of secrecy surrounding their DC Comics plans: “It’s setting the tone for what the movies are going to be like going forward. In that, it’s definitely a first step.”

Will Man of Steel include references to other DC heroes headed to the big screen, as Marvel did with its pre-Avengers series of flicks?

“I think you’ll see that, going forward, anything can live in this world,” he said. “[Nolan’s] Batman was deliberately and smartly positioned as a stand-alone. The world they lived in was very isolated without any knowledge of any other superheroes. What Zack and Chris have done with this film is allow you to really introduce other characters into the same world.”

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Dec 12 2012 08:51 AM ET

Why is every superhero movie an origin story?

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The title of the movie might be Man of Steel, but the star of the latest clip from Zack Snyder’s franchise reboot isn’t actually Superman. It’s Clark Kent, the alien boy who grows up to be a (hipster-bearded!) man, learning along the way some tough lessons about power, responsibility, and the cost-benefit bottom line of using his super strength to save all his schoolmates from a submerged bus. Which makes it official: Man of Steel isn’t just going to be another superhero movie. It’s going to be everyone’s — yours, mine, Hollywood’s — favorite kind of superhero movie: an origin story.

Why exactly do we love watching our favorite heroes begin again (and again)? Do we get some kind of parental joy from seeing their tall-building-spanning baby steps? Were scientists right about the Twitterfication of our attention spans? Maybe, but there’s also a deeper-seated reason: creation stories show the exact moment when a normal guy goes from being Just Like Us to being somehow better, faster, stronger. It’s the bridge between the relatable and aspirational parts of the hero myth. It’s also a handy way for filmmakers to pay their dues to a brand’s fan base (“See? I know my stuff!”) before sending its character off on a splashy villain-fighting quest that might diverge wildly from anything in the sacred comic book canon.

And so, having found that origin stories are a handy narrative tool for kicking off a franchise, Hollywood decided that every superhero movie should be an origin story, dropping our spandex icons into a Groundhog Day loop of childhood traumas, first kisses, and clumsy jumps off high roofs. The intro portion that used to take 10 minutes at the beginning of a movie is now filling entire movies — franchises, even. READ FULL STORY »

Nov 28 2012 09:00 AM ET

'The Dark Knight Rises': Tom Hardy, Anne Hathaway talk 'End of a Legend' in Blu-ray featurette -- EXCLUSIVE VIDEO

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Image Credit: Warner Bros

The finale to Christopher Nolan’s caped crusader triptych, The Dark Knight Rises, may be about redemption, but it’s also about endings. Finalizing Nolan’s trilogy, Christian Bale’s broken down Batman rises up from the depths, physically and emotionally, to defeat his own resignation and kick Tom Hardy’s evil Bane behind.

Check out this exclusive clip from the featurette The End of a Legend, one of the many extras included in the movie’s upcoming Blu-ray combo pack. The Dark Knight Rises Blu-ray, DVD, and digital download touch down on Dec. 4. Hardy, Anne Hathaway (Catwoman/Selina Kyle), Morgan Freeman (Fox), Michael Caine (Alfred), and Gary Oldman (Commissioner Gordon) sound off on working with Nolan. READ FULL STORY »

Jul 18 2012 05:15 PM ET

'The Dark Knight Rises' preview: Christopher Nolan, Christian Bale discuss the key scene at the heart of the Batman trilogy

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Image Credit: Ron Phillips

With the release of The Dark Knight Rises, director Christopher Nolan completes a trilogy of grave and gritty Batman films that began with Batman Begins in 2005 and continued with The Dark Knight in 2008. The third installment brings unity and closure to the saga  – but that’s not to say Nolan and his collaborators had a master plan from the start. The filmmaker says he always knew he would never make more than three Bat-flicks, but he approached each project as if it might be the last. His strategy: Pour every Batty idea into the work at hand; remain consistent with the themes and plot of the previous chapter; keep a fuzzy option or two open for what might come next… except for Rises, which Nolan swears is his Batman swan song. “The truth is I always wanted to tell more of Bruce Wayne’s story, but in a superstitious sense, you can’t plan on that,” says the helmer, whose other credits include Memento and Inception. “You have to tell one great story, one great film. And if people demand another one, you have permission to make it.”

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Jul 12 2012 11:59 PM ET

Comic-Con: Up close and personal with every single Batmobile ever -- VIDEO

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Image Credit: Laura Hertzfeld/EW

There are very few things in life better than getting to strap into the impossibly cool Batmobile from the Michael Keaton-era Batman movies and enjoy a quick spin in the sun-dappled dusk of San Diego Comic-Con.

To commemorate the end of Christopher Nolan’s Bat-trilogy next Friday with The Dark Knight Rises, Warner Bros. trotted out six iterations of the Caped Crusader’s sweet wheels: The cartoony car from Adam West-era TV series; the sleek Keaton-era car from both Batman and Batman Returns; the outlandish cars from the Joel Schumacher-era Batman Forever and Batman & Robin; and the Nolan-era tank-like “Tumbler” vehicles from Batman Begins and The Dark Knight.

We got an up-close look at all of them, including that aforementioned ride in the Keaton-era Batmobile — and you’re likely not going to believe who was driving it. Check out my full video report below:  READ FULL STORY »

Jun 22 2012 09:05 AM ET

'The Amazing Spider-Man': How could its debut stack up against past superhero box office?

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Image Credit: Columbia Pictures

When Spider-Man debuted 10 years ago on the first weekend of May, it broke through what seemed at the time to be an unbreakable box-office barrier, becoming the first movie ever to earn over $100 million on its three-day opening weekend — $114.8 million, to be exact. That was a whopping 27 percent improvement over the previous record-holder, 2001′s Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, which banked $90.3 million over its first three days of release. A new really high-water mark for box-office achievement had been set, and as Hollywood began to truly understand the financial potential of comic books, the ensuing decade of blockbuster cinema was born.

Ten years later, according to The Hollywood Reporter, tracking reports estimate the debut for Sony Pictures’ reboot of the Spidey franchise, The Amazing Spider-Man, at $125 million or more. While that is certainly good news for Sony, Andrew Garfield’s spandex-clad web-slinger is nonetheless swinging into quite a different marketplace. A $125 million debut just doesn’t quite mean what it used to, but figuring out what it does mean isn’t all that easy, either. Here’s why: READ FULL STORY »

Dec 23 2011 02:50 PM ET

'MI:4' director on filming in IMAX and how Christopher Nolan is 'throwing down the showmanship' with 'The Dark Knight Rises'

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Image Credit: David James

Brad Bird wanted to be a filmmaker since the moment he learned to draw. “I didn’t realize this until later,” says the 54-year old director of Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol, “but the very first drawings I did when I was a kid at age 3 were sequential. They weren’t great drawings – they were just stick figures – but they were meant to be viewed in a certain order. So from the very beginning, I was trying to make films.”

The pictures have only gotten got more sophisticated — and larger — since then. Bird made a name for himself in animation with The Iron Giant, then won Oscars with two Pixar blockbusters, The Incredibles and Ratatouille, both of which he wrote and directed. His winning streak has continued with his first live-action effort: Ghost Protocol, the fourth installment in Tom Cruise’s signature spy-fi franchise — and the second to be shepherded by producer J.J. Abrams — has received rave reviews (EW’s Owen Gleiberman even has it on his 10 best of ’11 list) and is poised to be one of the biggest movies of the holiday season. (The film, which opened in theaters nationwide on Wednesday, grossed over $17 million during a 6-day run on 425 IMAX screens.) Bird took a few minutes to speak with EW about the animation-to-live-action-to-IMAX transition. READ FULL STORY »

Dec 16 2011 02:45 PM ET

'The Dark Knight Rises' prologue: Big, brawny, Bane-tastic

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At last! The wait is over! The prologue to The Dark Knight Rises is finally here… just to ratchet up our already maxed-out expectations for the climactic chapter in director Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy and make the wait for the whole thing (due July 20) feel even longer. The follow-up to The Dark Knight — set eight years after the Joker made a mess of Gotham City and a killing joke out of the caped crusader’s brand of vigilante justice — stars Oscar winner Christian Bale as Bruce Wayne/Batman, but the prologue (which actually represents the first several minutes of the three-quel itself) is all about Bane, a smart and seething brute with a mecha-malevolent mask played by Thomas Hardy (Warrior, Inception). If you’ve seen the prologue at select IMAX theaters showing Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol, or if you’re planning to this weekend, we’d love to read your reactions in the message boards below. I hope you don’t mind if I get the conversation started with my thoughts about… READ FULL STORY »

Dec 6 2010 06:53 PM ET

Hans Zimmer says he's not flying with 'Superman'

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Despite reports to the contrary, Hans Zimmer will not be scoring the Zack Snyder-directed Superman, the Dark Knight maestro tells The Hollywood Reporter. “You know, it’s like some dirty quote taken out of context,” he told THR about the reports. “Let’s just be absolutely straight here: I have never in my life met Zack Snyder. I think I need to give him a ring.” Zimmer, however, will likely score The Dark Knight Rises. “My heart belongs to Batman,” he said.

Dec 1 2010 08:40 PM ET

Christopher Nolan says Heath Ledger will not appear in 'The Dark Knight Rises'

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Christopher Nolan and producer Emma Thomas have swatted down an internet rumor that unused footage of the late Heath Ledger as the Joker in The Dark Knight would appear in the highly anticipated follow-up The Dark Knight Rises, according to The Hollywood Reporter. At an awards season reception for Nolan’s 2010 film Inception on Tuesday, Thomas, Nolan’s producing (and life) partner said, “I heard the rumor. We’re not doing that.” Nolan also made clear that, although the script for The Dark Knight Rises isn’t yet finished, he felt Ledger’s performance should live in 2008′s The Dark Knight alone.

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