Despite a complete lack of attention given to The Dark Knight at Warner’s Comic-Con panel over the weekend, the film remained one of the more talked about projects thanks to some clever marketing, including the circulation of fake dollar bills and a phone number in sky writing. Gaining the most attention, however, was the website WhySoSerious.com that provided fans with a precise location around the convention grounds to meet at 10am Friday.
For a full report of the day’s events - written as a Gotham City Police report - visit this link. The main site also features the simple first teaser for The Dark Knight in high definition Quicktime format - it’s little more than an animated logo and some dialogue, though you do get to hear Heath Ledger in his much anticipated role as The Joker.
A new image - as seen above - has also been released, offering a better glimpse at Ledger in costume and in all his homicidal glory.
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Personally, I’m a big fan of what we’re seeing so far. As much as Batman movie fans have a soft spot for Jack Nicholson’s take on the character, it’s all too easy to forget sometimes that it’s been almost a generation since we last saw The Joker on the big screen. This homicidal maniac being portrayed by Ledger seems to be an entirely different take and significantly more creepy than what we’ve previously seen on film. My only gripe would be that the viral marketing may prove to hype the character up so much that disappointment ensues come next year.
Hopefully, that won’t be the case.
In the meantime, fans can expect more news to come out of Wizard World Chicago between August 9-12.
3 Comments
It may just be my, as you said, personal liking of Jack Nicholson; however, Heath sounds like he’s trying to use the same dialect Jack did.
The one thing that would ruin it is if Heath actually tried to out-perform Jack in his own role. I think the only way Ledger has a chance to get away from the Nicholson bias is to play a completely different Joker.
Reverend
The brief bit of dialog and the laugh in the teaser sounded to me like Heath is going to be quite effective in the role.
The overall tone of the voiceover also made it sound to me like (and I know this will NEVER happen) the movie would be best served with an R rating.
Vic
Reverend, could it be that the crazed, maniacal dialect is simply the one most likely to have been envisioned in the earliest of Joker appearances?
With the scarred lips, black eyes and homicidal stare… I’d say this most definitely IS a completely different Joker, insofar as Ledger and Nicholson are still playing the same comic book character.
You could make the same argument about all the different Batmans, with their lower-pitch growl when in costume.
Vic, I too think it’s a shame this has to be aimed at a broader audience… an R rating would really allow them to step it up.
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