Christopher Nolan discusses his reason for upping the ante in The Dark Knight.

The famed Batmobile is back with a vengeance in The Dark Knight – but director Christopher Nolan didn’t want to stop there.

He decided that Batman and audiences needed something new and fantastic, so he went to work in his garage at home – and came up with the Bat Pod, a high- powered, massively armed two-wheeler.

Nolan wanted the Caped Crusader to have a different means of transportation – “something very exotic and powerful-looking. But it’s definitely not a motorcycle.”

The Bat Pod has monster tires, just like the Batmobile, but it also carries heavy artillery – blast cannons, 50-calibre machine guns, even grappling hooks.

And it all happened in Nolan’s garage, a place where he constantly finds inspiration.

“We did a lot of the design work for The Dark Knight in my garage at home before we got too many people on the film. It keeps it a little more intimate and let’s us kind of explore ideas without having a massive payroll of people that we have to feed drawings to . . .”

In the case of the Bat Pod, Nolan and production designer Nathan Crowley retreated to the garage to figure out what they wanted it to be like.

“We thought – what if you took an anti-aircraft gun and put it on wheels? That was the sort of design jumping-off point. And we built small models and then, still in my garage, we actually put out a full-size mock-up to show to the special effects guys.”

The special effects guys initially freaked out when they saw what the filmmakers had in mind: Crowley recently described the encounter as “the usual clash of design versus engineering.”

After recovering from their first sight of the Bat Pod, the special effects people turned to Nolan and Crowley and bluntly said: “You guys don’t know anything about motorbikes do you?”

“We had to admit that was true,” Nolan remembers. “But then we said, ‘But it looks great! Can’t you find a way that it could work?’ And they did. They built this thing for real and it really runs. But, in terms of full disclosure, there is only one person in the world who can ride it because it is extraordinarily difficult to ride and to steer and so forth.”

And that person, of course, is Christian Bale, the most essential ingredient in the new movie if Nolan was to come back and direct it.

By the time he unveiled Batman Begins three years ago, Nolan knew he wanted to add further instalments to the saga. Having established the traumatic origins of millionaire playboy Bruce Wayne, aka Batman, the 37-year-old British filmmaker felt that it was time to up the ante, throw in the sociopathic figure of The Joker (Heath Ledger) and also introduce one of the most complex villains in the Batman mythology, Harvey “Two-Face” Dent (Aaron Eckhart) and let things rip.

Nolan says he became intrigued by the idea of “escalation” in the Batman universe – “the idea that, having established Batman as this heroic figure in Gotham who’s going to take Gotham back for the good people of the city, there was going to be an incredible criminal response to that . . . so what were the criminals going to come back with? That really manifests itself in the person of The Joker. That was really my interest – taking this story forward and seeing it expand out so that Batman’s internal struggle from the first film really takes on a city-wide aspect now.

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You will want to see The Dark Knight more than once – “Repeat viewings are a certainty.”

“The Dark Knight” is pure adrenaline. Director Christopher Nolan, having dispensed with the introspective, moody origin story of 2005′s “Batman Begins,” now puts the Caped Crusader through a decathlon of explosions, vehicle flips, hand-to-hand combat, midair rescues and pulse-pounding suspense.

Nolan is one of our smarter directors. He builds movies around ideas and characters, and “Dark Knight” is no exception. The ideas here are not new to the movie world of cops and criminal, but in the context of a comic book movie, they ring out with startling clarity. In other words, you expect moralistic underpinnings in a Martin Scorsese movie; in a Batman movie, they hit home with renewed vigor.

None of this artistic achievement denies the re-energized Warner Bros./DC Comics franchise its commercial muscle. Those bags of money in the movie’s opening bank heist are nothing compared with the worldwide boxoffice haul “Dark Knight” will take from theaters following its July 18 release via Warner Bros. Repeat viewings are a certainty.

Repeat viewings might also be a necessity. That adrenaline rush comes at a cost: With the film’s race-car pace, noise levels, throbbing music and density of stratagems, no one will follow all the plot points at first glance.

“Dark Knight” revolves around notions of the yin and yang between Hero and Villain and of those gray areas where social conscience and individuality collide. Thinking logically, Nolan and his co-writer/brother Jonathan, working from a story by Christopher Nolan and David S. Goyer, imagine that the heroism of Bruce Wayne’s Batman (a returning and very buff Christian Bale) is a double-edged sword. (A theme the current “Hancock” toyed with but badly mucked up.) Cleaning up the streets of Gotham City turns the crime cartels into an even more dangerous beast that, once cornered, resorts to its own doomsday machine: the maniacally clever and criminally amoral Joker (the late Heath Ledger). And vigilante justice is nonetheless “justice” from outside the law. So who or what polices him?

Running for cover, the mob head (Eric Roberts) first takes refuge with a Hong Kong crime mogul (Chin Han). Then when Batman takes him down, he and his fellow mobsters hold their noses and in desperation settle on a man who knows no rules and plays everyone against one another. The Joker relishes the assignment precisely because of his “admiration” for the Dark Knight. In one key confrontation, the Joker purrs to Batman, like a bride to a groom, “You complete me.” The criminal clown, his makeup designed to emphasize his facial deformations, sees in a man dressed up in a bat suit “a freak like me.”

Seemingly on the side of good are the city’s White Knight, District Attorney Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart); his girlfriend/Assistant DA Rachel Dawes (Maggie Gyllenhaal) — and, if you recall from “Batman Begins,” Bruce Wayne’s longtime love — and police Lt. Jim Gordon (Gary Oldman). But loyalties are easily dislodged by threats or money. The Joker’s true purpose, besides amusing himself trying to outwit Batman, is to see if he can “turn” the White Knight to his dark side.

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Another excellent review for the upcoming The Dark Knight movie. Read on:

Having memorably explored the Caped Crusader’s origins in “Batman Begins,” director Christopher Nolan puts all of Gotham City under a microscope in “The Dark Knight,” the enthralling second installment of his bold, bracing and altogether heroic reinvention of the iconic franchise. An ambitious, full-bodied crime epic of gratifying scope and moral complexity, this is seriously brainy pop entertainment that satisfies every expectation raised by its hit predecessor and then some. That should also hold true at the box office, with Heath Ledger’s justly anticipated turn as the Joker adding to the must-see excitement surrounding the Warner Bros. release.

With the Bruce Wayne/Batman backstory firmly established, “The Dark Knight” fans out to take a broader perspective on Gotham City — portrayed as a seething cauldron of interlocking power structures and criminal factions in the densely layered but remarkably fleet screenplay by helmer Nolan and brother Jonathan (stepping in for “Batman Begins’” David S. Goyer, who gets a story credit).

Using five strongly developed characters to anchor a drama with life-or-death implications for the entire metropolis, the Nolans have taken Bob Kane’s comicbook template and crafted an anguished, eloquent meditation on ideas of justice and power, corruption and anarchy, and, of course, the need for heroes like Batman — a question never in doubt for the viewer, but one posed rather often by the citizens of Gotham.

Indeed, with trusty Lt. Jim Gordon (Gary Oldman, superbly restrained) and golden-boy District Attorney Harvey Dent (a cocksure Aaron Eckhart) successfully spearheading the city’s crackdown on the mob, even Wayne himself (Christian Bale) figures his nights moonlighting as a leather-clad vigilante are numbered. The young billionaire hopes to hang up the Batsuit for good and renew his relationship with assistant D.A. Rachel Dawes (Maggie Gyllenhaal, an immediate improvement over Katie Holmes), who has taken up with Dent in the meantime.

But Batman’s stature as a radical symbol of good has invited a more sinister criminal presence to Gotham City — and, as seen in the crackerjack bank-robbery sequence that opens the pic, one who operates in terrifyingly unpredictable ways. Utterly indifferent to simple criminal motivations like greed, Ledger’s maniacally murderous Joker is as pure an embodiment of irrational evil as any in modern movies. He’s a pitiless psychopath who revels in chaos and fears neither pain nor death, a demonic prankster for whom all the world’s a punchline.

After Ledger’s death in January, his penultimate performance (with Terry Gilliam’s “The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus” still to come) will be viewed with both tremendous excitement and unavoidable sadness. It’s a tribute to Ledger’s indelible work that he makes the viewer entirely forget the actor behind the cracked white makeup and blood-red rictus grin, so complete and frightening is his immersion in the role. With all due respect to the enjoyable camp buffoonery of past Jokers like Cesar Romero and Jack Nicholson, Ledger makes them look like — well, clowns.

Pic shrewdly positions the Joker as the superhero-movie equivalent of a modern terrorist (one of several post-9/11 signifiers), who threatens to target Gotham civilians until Batman reveals his identity. Batman, Gordon and Dent uneasily join forces, but the Joker seems to have the upper hand at every step, even from a jail cell; the city, turning against the hero it once looked to for hope, seems more fractious, vulnerable and dangerous than ever.

Though more linear than “Memento” and “The Prestige” (two fiendishly intricate thrillers also co-scripted by the Nolans), “The Dark Knight” pivots with similar ingenuity on a breathless series of twists and turns, culminating in a dramatic shift for Eckhart’s Dent. While this subplot reps the film’s weakest link, packing too much psychological motivation into too little screen time to be entirely credible, Eckhart vividly inhabits the character’s sad trajectory, underscoring the film’s point that even symbols of good can be all too easily tarnished.

From Wayne’s playful debates with faithful butler Alfred (Michael Caine) about the public perception of Batman to the Joker’s borderline-poetic musings on his own bottomless sadism, the characters almost seem to be carrying on a debate about the complicated realities of good vs. evil, and the heavy burden shouldered by those fighting for good. One of the few action filmmakers who’s capable of satisfying audiences beyond the fanboy set, Nolan honors his serious themes to the end; he bravely closes the story with both Gotham City and the narrative in tatters, making this the rare sequel that genuinely deserves another.

Viewers who found “Batman Begins” too existentially weighty for its own good will be refreshed to know that “The Dark Knight” hits the ground running and rarely lets up over its swift 2½-hour running time. Nolan directs the action more confidently than he did the first time out, orchestrating all manner of vertiginous mid-air escapes and virtuosic highway setpieces (and unleashing Batman’s latest ooh-ah contraption, the monster-truck-tire-equipped Bat-Pod). In a fresh innovation, six sequences were shot using Imax cameras, and will presumably look smashing in the giant-screen format (pic was reviewed from a 35mm print).

Though not as obsessively detailed as “Batman Begins,” “The Dark Knight” shares with that film a robust physicality and a commitment to taking violence seriously; a brief shot of bruises and scrapes on Bale’s torso conveys as much impact as any of the film’s brutal confrontations. Bale himself is less central figure than ensemble player, but the commandingly charismatic thesp continues to put his definitive stamp on the role, and also has devilish fun playing up Wayne’s playboy persona.

Tech work is at the first entry’s high standard, with many artists reprising their contributions here — from Nathan Crowley’s imposing production design, shown to flattering effect in Wally Pfister’s gleaming widescreen compositions, to the propulsively moody score by Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard. Perhaps most impressive is Lee Smith’s editing, confidently handling multiple lines of action and cutting for maximum impact.

Exteriors were lensed in Chicago aside from an early scenic detour to Hong Kong, which marks the first time a Batman film has ventured outside Gotham City.

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“Dark Knight is a great work of art”, says Todd Gilchrist (IGN). This is a well executed masterpiece.

It isn’t an overstatement to call The Dark Knight the most sophisticated and ambitious work of its kind. Superior to all three Spider-Man installments and even its amazing predecessor in terms of conceptualization, writing, acting, and direction, Nolan’s follow-up to Batman Begins is a dark, complex and disturbing film, not the least of which because it grafts its heroics onto the blueprint of actual reality rather than that of spandex-clad supermen. And while such a distinction may make little difference to those already eagerly anticipating the return of the caped crusader, suffice it to say that The Dark Knight qualifies as the first official comic book adaptation that truly succeeds in being a great artistic achievement in its own right.

Christian Bale returns as Bruce Wayne, the billionaire playboy who moonlights as Batman. Having eased more comfortably into a lifestyle of excess, Wayne lurks on the fringes of his family’s corporation as CEO Lucius Fox (Morgan Freeman) runs the boardroom. But when an ambitious district attorney named Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart) comes forward to challenge Gotham City’s villainy through proper legal channels, the man also known as Batman sees an opportunity to replace his vigilante persona with a figure of virtue who will truly inspire the best in the citizenry.

Unfortunately, Batman’s success as a crime fighter has generated new problems for Gotham, including a consolidation of the crime lords who once controlled the city independently. Meanwhile, a new adversary named The Joker (Heath Ledger) proves particularly dangerous because he seeks not only to advance the cause of Gotham’s underworld, but obliterate the foundations of liberty and order that Batman protects. Torn between championing Dent and meting out justice as a masked vigilante, Wayne soon finds himself at a crossroads between being the hero that Gotham needs and the one it deserves.

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Aaron Eckhart, Christian Bale, Christopher Nolan

IGN talks to Christian Bale (Batman), Aaron Eckhart (Harvey Dent); and director Christopher Nolan.

Believe it or not, it’s been over three years since Batman Begins reunited moviegoers with the Caped Crusader in Christopher Nolan’s bold, dark vision for the Gotham vigilante’s origin story. Now, with the introductions out of the way, Nolan’s returned to bring fans the next eagerly anticipated installment in the big-screen Batman saga. And he’s brought Christian Bale, the (sadly) late Heath Ledger, Golden Globe-nominated actor Aaron Eckhart, and a killer supporting cast along for the ride.

Bale once again embodies the Dark Knight in a film that takes him across the world in his quest to fight a growing criminal threat. With the help of Lieutenant Jim Gordon (Gary Oldman) and District Attorney Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart), Batman has been making headway against local crime… until a rising criminal mastermind known as The Joker (Heath Ledger) unleashes a fresh reign of chaos across Gotham City. To stop this devious new menace — Batman’s most personal and vicious enemy yet — he’ll have to use every high-tech weapon in his arsenal and confront everything he believes.

We’ve been tracking the flick here on IGN — you know how we do! And we were recently fortunate enough to visit the TDK set and talk to the man behind the camera, the man behind one-half of a gruesome make-up job, and the man behind the cowl. Here are our interviews with Christopher Nolan, Aaron Eckhart, and Christian Bale.

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Shooting is under way for Terminator Salvation: The Future Begins.

Terminator Salvation: The Future Begins, starring Sam Worthington and Christian Bale, began principal photography on May 5, 2008, in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The Halcyon Company Presentation of a Moritz Borman Production of a McG Film, Terminator Salvation is directed by McG from a script by Michael Ferris and John Brancato.

The film is being produced by Moritz Borman, Derek Anderson, Victor Kubicek and Jeffrey Silver and executive produced by Peter D. Graves, Bahman Naraghi, Mario F. Kassar, Andrew G. Vajna, Joel B. Michaels, Dan Lin and Jeanne Allgood. Warner Bros. Pictures is handling all U.S. and Canadian distribution rights for the film, with Sony Pictures Entertainment handling distribution rights in most international territories (excluding Korea and select Mideast territories).

In the highly anticipated new installment of The Terminator film franchise, set in post-apocalyptic 2018, Christian Bale stars as John Connor, the man fated to lead the human resistance against Skynet and its army of Terminators. But the future Connor was raised to believe in is altered in part by the appearance of Marcus Wright (Sam Worthington), a stranger whose last memory is of being on death row. Connor must decide whether Marcus has been sent from the future, or rescued from the past. As Skynet prepares its final onslaught, Connor and Marcus both embark on an odyssey that takes them into the heart of Skynet’s operations, where they uncover the terrible secret behind the possible annihilation of mankind.

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Scott Collura of IGN tracks the development of the highly-anticipated summer blockbuster The Dark Knight.

The new Batman film The Dark Knight is perhaps the most anticipated movie of 2008, at least as far as the fanboy masses are concerned. Continuing the exploits of the younger, darker, more realistic Batman who we first met onscreen in 2005′s Batman Begins, The Dark Knight’s title alone is enough to make comic-book fans grow faint. A direct reference to the psychologically complex version of the age-old character depicted in Frank Miller’s seminal 1986 graphic novel The Dark Knight Returns, the name also implies what fans seem to love most about Bruce Wayne and his alter ego: his gritty, no nonsense, single-minded (bordering on psychopathic) devotion to crime-fighting.

But how did this movie come to be and what hurdles have its creators faced in its making? Read on as IGN traces the origins of The Dark Knight, a film that is destined to be greatly admired by Batman fans everywhere but will also be remembered as the swan song of one of its stars, the late Heath Ledger.

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New Dark Knight trailer

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IGN has the new Dark Knight “Welcome to a world without rules” poster. Click here to check it out.

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See More The Dark Knight Various at IGN.com

Above is a new pic of the Joker (Heath Ledger) form the upcoming The Dark Knight. Click on the link above to go to IGN and view the other cool pics.

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