Corona | Coming Attractions

An examination about Warners' absorption of New Line and closing of Warner Independent and Picturehouse uses The Dark Knight as an example of the type of tentpole film Warners wants to make, and yet doesn’t have next summer.

The interesting piece details what makes a tentpole pic and why Warners aims to make a bunch of them, yet has none for next summer -- that’s why it pushed Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince from November to July.

A spy slipped JoBlo some shots of the various Dark Knight DVDs coming out. Looks like the options will be a two-disc DVD, a Blu-Ray, a steelbook two-disc special edition, and two collectors DVDs: a Batpod edition and a Bat mask edition. Pretty cool stuff, but we're hoping for a Joker edition with either the “Why so serious?” slogan or “How about a magic trick?”

Moviehole interviewed Robert Downey Jr. about his role in Tropic Thunder, and then asked the Iron Man star about another comic book movie and found that Mr. Downey, apparently, doesn’t have much affection for a certain Dark Knight…

"I feel like I'm dumb because I feel like I don't get how many things that are so smart," The Man Who Played Stark said. "It’s like a Ferrari engine of storytelling and script writing and I’m like, ‘That's not my idea of what I want to see in a movie.’"

Downey says that he loved The Prestige but didn't understand The Dark Knight, and still couldn’t tell you what happened in the movie. "I’m like, ‘I get it. This is so highbrow and so f**king smart, I clearly need a college education to understand this movie.’" He then adds, "You know what? F**k DC comics. That's all I have to say and that's where I’m really coming from."

Downey does have a self-deprecating awareness about his opinions, though. "You know, you’re never too old to burn your bridges because I believe I have offended everyone,” he laughs, saying that the favorite phrase he’s created is “I’ll burn that bridge when I come to it."

The Dark Knight smokes Judd Apatow's Pineapple Express to claim the box office for week four with a $26-million weekend, giving the flick a total domestic gross of $441.5 million.

This pushes TDK to the third-highest-grossing film of all time (passing Shrek 2). Its next target: spot #2, currently occupied by a little indie film called Star Wars ($461 million) before taking on the number one spot, held by the SS James Cameron (aka Titanic) at $600 million.

Slashfilm has posted some early concept art for the Joker’s look from the Art of The Dark Knight book. While Heath Ledger’s makeup is creepy, this stuff is downright disturbing (and the fact that it looks like the concepts were painted by the bastard child of Jon J Muth, Ben Templesmith and Dave McKean doesn’t help). Say goodbye to a good night’s dreaming after viewing these puppies.

Today is the day we all wish we had a time machine and could go back and invest in Warner Bros. stock, for today The Dark Knight crosses the $400-million mark. Monday’s box office Bat-take was $6.3 million, for a total domestic gross of $400.1 million in 18 days (in contrast, Shrek 2 took 43 days to hit this mark).

However, the news that will be more important to actual Warner Bros. stockholders and executives working for the company: as of today The Dark Knight is now the highest grossing picture released in 2008.

It seems like The Dark Knight is in some ways starting to be a cursed film: first stunt coordinator Charles Wickliffe is killed during shooting, then Heath Ledger’s death, and Christian Bale’s arrest on charges that he assaulted his mother and sister. Now TMZ reports that Morgan Freeman was injured in a one-car accident last night in Mississippi. The 71-year-old actor was airlifted to a Memphis hospital, and currently the conditions of Freeman and his unidentified female companion are unknown.

Los Angeles Times theater critic Charles McNulty writes a great article on his appreciation of Heath Ledger’s talent, primarily focusing on his Dark Knight work. It’s a wonderful tribute to Ledger, full of great poetic lines like "But it’s through Ledger’s eyes that we can peer into the actor’s bottomless conviction and track the scurrying-rodent logic of his character’s inexplicable evil."

Ever read a review you didn’t agree with? Sure you did. Ever threaten to disembowel the critic (in writing)? Hopefully not. Hopefully you’re not this gent, who responded to Keith Uhlich’s negative review of The Dark Knight by writing this threatening note on the Rotten Tomatoes boards (all grammatical and spelling errors intact):

"You know, some people have been so enraged by your little opinion piece that they want you to kill yourself. Please DON'T!!! You know why, because I am going to have so much fun killing you myself! I promise, it WON'T be painless. I am going to carve a smile in your face. And then I am going to carve you stomach. And you know why? Because i just want my phone call. You're my bitch now! I am going to track you down through your IP address and then I am going to f@#%!%* kill you!!!"

(According to Filmbrain, who reported this missive, the writer later claimed that he was channeling his inner Joker.)

Uhlich, by the way, has written for UGO and Indiewire, so regardless of your view of his review (and we’re not on his side with this one) you have to admit that he’s more professional journalist than fanboy-in-the-basement-in-the-dark-with-a-laptop.

You can read Uhlich’s review (“Trickster Heaven, Two-Faced Hell”) on his site, The House Next Door Online (warning: major spoilers), then check out the brouhaha (hahahahaha) at Filmbrain.

The Dark Knight grossed another $75 million dollars this weekend (technically, $75.6 million), setting a second-weekend record and breaking the $300-million barrier in just 10 days. TDK’s BO take now stands at $314.2 million, and that’s just the domestic box office. True, box office dropped 52%, but since it made $158.3 million last weekend I think we can forgive it for taking a breather this week.

Also, Dark Knight bat cash boosted Warner Bros.'s annual grosses to over the $1 billion today, the earliest the studio ever reached that mark.

A week after The Dark Knight’s release, producer/screenwriter (Don’t Say A Word) and Edgar-winning novelist (Empire Of Lies) Andrew Klavan says that “[t]here seems to me no question that the [film] currently breaking every box office record in history is at some level a paean of praise to the fortitude and moral courage that has been shown by George W. Bush in this time of terror and war.” No, really. Seriously.

Read Klavan’s entire article and see if you agree with his findings. Then read Variety writer Brian Lowry’s response to this and similar arguments. Then listen to Dennis Miller’s interview with Klavan. Then cry a little.

A sad note amongst all the great Dark Knight news and grosses: Fox News reports that lead actor Christian Bale has been arrested in London on charges of assaulting his mother and sister. Bale, who was released on bail after four hours of questioning by police, denies the allegations. He was not charged.

That Kevin Smith review of The Dark Knight is up at Slashfilm. You can listen to and/or download just the review, or last week’s whole show with the longer Kevin Smith segment. Check it out right here.

The Bat, The Cash, and The Record: The Dark Knight nabs the highest-grossing non-holiday weekend ever with a grand take of $158.3 million, squashing like a bug Spider-Man 3’s opening of $151.1 million last May. That means that in three days TDK took in about 75% of the entire domestic gross of its predecessor, Batman Begins (which pulled in $205 million in its North American run).

UPDATED: For some bizarre reason, Warners had AICN take down the Sienkiewicz Dark Knight art they’d posted, so here’s a link to some of it on the artist’s site. Enjoy your Jokers!