Trivia for
The Dark Knight (2008)

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• Hugh Jackman, Ryan Phillippe, Liev Schreiber, and Josh Lucas expressed interest in the role of District Attorney Harvey Dent.
  
  
• As a joke, one bat suit was made with nipples. It was presented to Christian Bale as the real bat suit, but he knew instantly it was a joke, having seen a few design pictures during preproduction. He did pose for some publicity photos in the "nipple" suit.
  
  
• This is the first Batman film to not have "Batman" in the title.
  
  

• Christopher Nolan has a son named Rory, for whom the working title of the film ("Rory's First Kiss") was named.
  
  
• At the time when the Penguin was rumored to be in the movie, Bob Hoskins appeared as a fan favorite. He stated that he would have loved to portray the role and work with Christopher Nolan, calling him a fantastic director. Nolan then stated he had no intention of using the Penguin, calling him a too far-fetched character.
  
  
• Robin Williams, Lachy Hulme, Paul Bettany, and Adrien Brody all expressed interest for the role of the Joker before Heath Ledger was cast.
  
  
• When asked, "Why Heath Ledger as the Joker?" Christopher Nolan said, "Because he's fearless."
  
  
• Dwight Yoakam turned down two roles in this movie. Originally he was offered the part of a cop; then he was offered to play a banker who had dealings with the Joker (Heath Ledger). Yoakam passed on both roles because he was working on a Buck Owens tribute album.
  
  
• Turning down a salary estimated at between $1 million and $2 million -- an increase over the roughly $1 million she was believed to have earned for Batman Begins (2005) -- Katie Holmes chose not to reprise her role as Rachel Dawes. This was due to what was described as 'scheduling conflicts'.
  
  
• Jerry Robinson, one of the original creators of the Joker back in 1940, was hired as a consultant on the film (the Joker is to be portrayed according to his first two appearances in the comics, which Robinson was involved in). His "Batman" co-creator 'Bob Kane (I)' had earlier been hired as a consultant for Batman (1989).
  
  
• Before Maggie Gyllenhaal replaced Katie Holmes in the role of Rachel Dawes, both Rachel McAdams and Emily Blunt were rumored for the part.
  
  
• While filming on the streets of Chicago in April 2007, the filming was carried out under the fake movie title "Rory's First Kiss". Fliers regarding the filming carried this fake title, complete with a fake "RFK" logo for the movie and an address for the film's production offices.
  
  
• One of the extra's military uniforms has the name "Philo" on it, after the film's extras casting director, Joan Philo.
  
  
• On Thanksgiving weekend, 2007, fake four page tabloid size "Gotham Times" newspapers were distributed at various public events. Headlined "City at War - Batman Saves Entire Family", every article teased events in the film, and everything in the handout was geared toward the film, including the weather ("Gloomy and overcast...”) and advertisements for Gotham National Bank, the Gotham Girl Guides and recruitment for the Gotham Police Department.
  
  
• To prepare for his role as the Joker, Heath Ledger lived alone in a hotel room for a month, formulating the character's psychology, posture and voice (the last one he found most difficult to do). He started a diary, in which he wrote the Joker's thoughts and feelings to guide himself during his performance. He was also given Alan Moore's comic "Batman: The Killing Joke" and "Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth" to read. Ledger also took inspiration from A Clockwork Orange (1971)'s Alex and Sid Vicious.
  
  
• Director Christopher Nolan and co-writers Jonathan Nolan and David S. Goyer decided not to explore the origins of the Joker in order to portray the character as "absolute."
  
  
• Christopher Nolan cites the film Heat (1995) as a major influence on this movie.
  
  
• Christopher Nolan shot part of the film in the IMAX format. Nolan had wanted to shoot in IMAX for 15 years, and even now wishes he could have shot the entire film in IMAX, as he felt "if you could take an IMAX camera to Mt Everest or outer space, you could use it in a feature movie." Nolan shot in IMAX four major action sequences and quiet dramatic scenes which he thought would be visually fascinating.
  
  
• Off-duty Chicago Police Officers along with Officers from Elyria OH, Hammond IN, Buffalo Grove IL and Joliet IL played Gotham Police officer extras.
  
  
• Elaborate, interactive marketing campaigns were launched in the months leading up to the release of this film. One of which was an event at the 2007 San Diego Comic-con called "Why So Serious", which involved fans following clues hidden around the city. The legions of Joker-painted fans ended up congregating in the street across from the convention center, where one of their numbers was welcomed into a black Escalade (with Gotham license plates) that had just pulled up. After a moment the fan started screaming and the SUV sped away. Later that day, a "Gotham City newspaper" was circulated reporting that a man believed to be the Joker was found beaten to death. Included were "crime scene photos" of the fan who had gotten into the Escalade, and a mention that he was found with a playing card in his hand, on which was scribbled "See you in December."
  
  
• Heath Ledger's sudden death on January 22, 2008 prompted immediate speculation as to the state of this film. Late the same day, Warner Bros. released a statement declaring that Ledger had completed all his scenes and post-production work, thus making the Joker the actor's final completed appearance in a film.
  
  
• It's Sir Michael Caine's opinion that Heath Ledger beat the odds and topped Jack Nicholson's Joker from Batman (1989): "Jack was like a clown figure, benign but wicked, maybe a killer old uncle. He could be funny and make you laugh. Heath's gone in a completely different direction to Jack, he's like a really scary psychopath. He's a lovely guy and his Joker is going to be a hell of a revelation in this picture." Caine bases this belief on a scene where the Joker pays a visit to Wayne Manor. He'd never met Ledger before, so when Ledger arrived and performed he gave Caine such a fright he forgot his lines.
  
  
• Aaron Eckhart described his portrayal of Harvey Dent as simultaneously coming from and being apart from the same world as Batman (Dent is the white knight of Gotham, as opposed to the Dark Knight). His challenge was "looking for the similarities and the tension between the two; to find what's similar to Batman and then what's opposite to him." Eckhart prepared for his role by studying split personalities.
  
  
• Bruce Wayne develops and wears a new Batsuit in the film. This Batsuit was an improvement on the outfit from Batman Begins (2005), and made Christian Bale more comfortable and agile in his performance. It was constructed from 200 unique pieces of rubber, fibreglass, metallic mesh, and nylon (producing an impression of sophisticated technology), with elastic banding added for tightening the costume to fit Bale. The gauntlets had their razors made retractable and able to be fired. The suit's cowl was based on a motorcycle helmet and separated from the neck piece, allowing Bale to move his head left/right/up/down, and comes equipped with white eye lenses for when Batman turns on Bat-sonar.
  
  
• The Joker make-up was composed of three pieces of stamped silicone, which only took an hour to apply to Heath Ledger on each day of shooting. Ledger described it as "new technology which is much quicker to apply than regular prosthetics;" he felt he was not wearing any make-up at all.
  
  
• Costume designer Lindy Hemming based the Joker's look around his personality, in which "he doesn't care about himself at all." Hemming was inspired by countercultural pop culture artists like Pete Doherty, Iggy Pop, and John Robert Mariani. She avoided his design being vagrant, but made it scruffier and grungier, therefore making his movements slightly twitchier and edgier.
  
  
• For the film's opening sequence, a 200-foot fireball was filmed at the Battersea Power Station in London. The fireball created calls from panic-stricken local residents, who assumed a terrorist attack was on the out-of-use Station.
  
  
• Nestor Carbonell who plays the Mayor in "The Dark Knight" coincidentally also played "Bat Manuel", a parody of Batman in the comic-based live action "The Tick" TV series.
  
  

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