Anyone that was reading the site in the year prior to Batman Begins making it to the big screen will know that I devoted quite a few posts to all the many and varied tidbits of news that were being released by (and occasionally simply leaking out of) the set of the film.
Well earlier this year the sequel The Dark Knight began filming, despite an early set back following a fire on set. It’s been a quiet few months but finally all the juicy details are starting to emerge.
For those who aren’t insanely knowledgable Batman fans like me, here’s how the movie pans out. As with Batman Begins being a loose adaptation of the Batman : Year One plotline by Frank Miller, The Dark Knight is also being loosely adapted from an actual Batman plotline. Based on The Long Halloween (and anyone that’s read this blog for any length of time will know how excited that got me) we see the Batman’s vigilante side being reigned in so that he can form an alliance with Jim Gordon and Gotham’s newest District Attorney, Harvey Dent (Yes…that Harvey Dent) in an effort to bring to justice Gotham’s newest criminal, a sadistic bank robber that calls himself the Joker.
So, now we’re all caught up…onto the news. The following is behind the cut to avoid giving away any spoilers, though most of the really big spoilers didn’t make it into this entry.
Our first image is the obvious one, the image everybody wanted to see. The new Batsuit. It’s not really the traditional back to basics suit that the purists would love to see however that suit really wouldn’t work on-screen. Movie fans need their high tech and they need to actually see that Batman is armoured up to the hilt and not just a man wearing tights (In the comics Bruce tends to wear a whole heap of gadgets and body armour hidden away underneath what is essentially a simple fabric costume) so the new suit is perfect in that way. The new suit does look a lot more like the military armoured suit it’s meant to be and thankfully the bat symbol remains plain, black and embossed across the chest. New to this costume is something no other movie Batman has been capable of…Christian Bale can move his head freely. In all previous suits the mask has been a part of the suit, however this time round it’s been especially designed to allow Bale full movement of his neck…as you can see in the picture below.
Next up we have the new wheels. The Bat-Cycle is returning with the same over-the-top makeover that the Batmobile recieved in the last movie. To summarise, huge wheels with the engines mounted in the hubs and steering is performed using the shoulders rather than the arms…I believe the arms are encased in protective shielding to allow them access to the weapon controls or something like that. There was a lot of geeky description which I’m pretty sure nobody will really care about when they’re watching the thing getting chucked about Gotham (aka Chicago.)
My favorite leak is that of the Joker’s new appearance (which is a little bit on the weird and freaky side, I might add.) Recently a viral marketing campaign for the film began when ibelieveinharveydent.com popped up. In The Long Halloween part of the Batman’s inner monologue was to emphasise that his new alliance was finally giving him things to believe in. At the end of a particular chapter he ends with the above line. Click the link and you’ll find a campaign poster.
Shortly after another site made an appearance, apparently a spoof of this one. ibelieveinharveydenttoo.com showed a vandalised copy of the campaign picture which slowly faded to reveal the Joker’s scarred visage (though without the hair.) However since then the images vanished to be replaced by a simple “Page not found” on a black background.
Highlight that background and you get “Hahaha” repeated over and over for pages. Some eagle eyed readers spotted that not all the letters are “H” and “A” and those that aren’t spell out a message;
“See you in December.”
There’s nothing like a bit of intrigue. 
Disclaimer: The two pictures come from Batman-On-Film.com and the Joker news comes courtesy of this IGN article.
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