Making A Killing

Foreshadowed in the very last scene of Batman Begins, everyone knew about and keenly anticipated the impending arrival of the Joker in the Dark Knight. Buzz was already building prior the film's scheduled summer release date. The Joker was a tough character to play. Legendary. Larger-than-life. You either amplified the legend of the Joker's persona or you made a hash of it. Jack Nicholson's stellar turn in Batman was going to be even more difficult for any actor attempting to fill those shoes. And worse, with Nolan's gritty, grounded realism for his Batman films, how on Earth would a Joker be able to fit in without being too corny?

The casting of the uber-talented Heath Ledger was a good beginning. Audiences were already warmed-up to the duo of Christian Bale and Michael Caine (trio if you included Gary Oldman).

Perhaps, like in many films before, the Dark Knight's publicity received extra boost by the untimely death of Heath Ledger.


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The first casualty of The Dark Knight was Katie Holmes. After marrying Tom Cruise in the previous Novemeber, Holmes had begun 2007 with new advisors and a seeming change of mind about the sequel. Rumours circulated that Tom Cruise objected to the love scenes she was to play.

Without even negotiating, Holmes withdraw from the project citing 'scheduling difficulties' and the committed instead to a comedy with Queen Latifah entitled Mad Money.

Disappointed, Nolan turned to his casting directors who recommended Maggie Gyllenhaal.

The character of Bruce Wayne may have been a billionaire by inheritance but Batman Begins achieved it in a matter of months, from accummulative box offices around the world.

Helped by good word-of-mouth and positive reviews, it stormed the box office to the tune of a USD120 million weekend, the largest ever, and by-passing Spiderman 2 record.

In retrospect, Nolan's decision to turn to the roots of Batman was not as crucial as his intention to keep the vision grounded in a dark, humanistic vision. A true epic, his cinematic style of hard cuts, compressed timelines and cross-cutting editing style kept people glued to their seats despite the two hour plus length.

For a while it threatened to surpass Titanic, but eventually petered out just past the billion mark, another USD800 million short of its target. At least Batman Begins would surpass Jim Cameron's magnum opus in one area by a wider margin: merchandising.