Movie Chronicles

THE DARK KNIGHT’S OFFICIAL IMAX PRESS RELEASE

BURBANK, CA, 29 May 2006 – In an unprece­dented move, direc­tor Christo­pher Nolan is film­ing four sequences in the next install­ment of Warner Bros. Pic­tures’ Bat­man fran­chise, “The Dark Knight,” with extremely high res­o­lu­tion IMAX® cam­eras using the giant 15/70 film for­mat. The announce­ment was made today by Jeff Robi­nov, Pres­i­dent of Pro­duc­tion, Warner Bros. Pic­tures. While it is not unique for a fea­ture lensed on tra­di­tional 35mm film to be re-mastered to screen in IMAX® the­atres, this marks the first time ever that a major fea­ture film has been even par­tially shot using IMAX cam­eras, mark­ing a rev­o­lu­tion­ary inte­gra­tion of the two film formats.

The mar­riage of footage filmed with IMAX and 35mm cam­eras in the final fea­ture will have a major impact on the audience’s view­ing expe­ri­ence, whether see­ing “The Dark Knight” in an IMAX or tra­di­tional the­atre. When the scenes shot on IMAX cam­eras are shown in IMAX the­atres, the aspect ratio will morph to 1.43 to 1, expand­ing the image to fill the entire screen and mag­ni­fy­ing the over­all effect, both lit­er­ally and figuratively.

In mak­ing the announce­ment, Jeff Robi­nov stated, “Warner Bros. has always been com­mit­ted to advanc­ing the art of film­mak­ing. The use of IMAX cam­eras to film select scenes in an action fea­ture is a great step for­ward in big-screen enter­tain­ment, espe­cially in the tal­ented hands of Christo­pher Nolan. We can’t wait to see the results, and we think audi­ences will share our excite­ment when the movie opens on July 18, 2008.”

The first of the scenes, includ­ing a pro­logue that intro­duces Batman’s arch-nemesis The Joker, was shot in April, sev­eral weeks in advance of the actual start of prin­ci­pal pho­tog­ra­phy. Addi­tional selected scenes are being filmed with IMAX cam­eras dur­ing the course of pro­duc­tion on “The Dark Knight.”

Direc­tor Christo­pher Nolan added, “In con­tin­u­ing the story of such a great icon I’m thrilled to be able to expand the scope of the film, not just in terms of its story, but in giv­ing Bat­man and The Joker the largest pos­si­ble can­vas on which to face off. No exist­ing tech­nol­ogy com­pares with the IMAX for­mat in terms of its abil­ity to throw the audi­ence into the action, and we’re very proud and excited to use this tech­nol­ogy in a way that no one has before.”

Dan Fell­man, Warner Bros. Pres­i­dent of Domes­tic Dis­tri­b­u­tion, offered, “Chris has been a huge fan of IMAX tech­nol­ogy for a long time. It will be a ground­break­ing event to see him incor­po­rate the use of IMAX cam­eras into the 35mm pre­sen­ta­tion of ‘The Dark Knight’ when it opens nation­wide on July 18, 2008, day-and-date with IMAX theatres.”

“Mr. Nolan’s enthu­si­asm towards IMAX, com­bined with the suc­cess of ‘Bat­man Begins’ in IMAX the­atres under­scores the sig­nif­i­cant impact that The IMAX Expe­ri­ence® has on audi­ences and the role IMAX can play in pro­vid­ing film­mak­ers with inno­v­a­tive ways to deliver movies,” said IMAX Co-Chairmen and Co-CEOs Richard L. Gel­fond and Bradley J. Wech­sler. “We are very excited to con­tinue break­ing new ground with Warner Bros. Pic­tures, and we look for­ward to shar­ing Mr. Nolan’s new pic­ture with our cus­tomers and their patrons next summer.”

Greg Fos­ter, Chair­man and Pres­i­dent of IMAX Filmed Enter­tain­ment, added, “Chris shares our vision that the moviego­ing expe­ri­ence should trans­port audi­ences into the action. His inno­v­a­tive use of IMAX cam­eras to film scenes in ‘The Dark Knight’ will allow our crys­tal clear images, 14 thou­sand watts of dig­i­tal sur­round sound, and screens up to eight-stories tall to give Bat­man fans the most immer­sive cin­e­matic expe­ri­ence in the world. It is enter­tain­ment in a big, big way.”

This is not the first time that Warner Bros. Pic­tures has set a new stan­dard in its asso­ci­a­tion with IMAX. Christo­pher Nolan’s 2005 block­buster “Bat­man Begins” was the first action fea­ture to play on IMAX screens in muse­ums as well as mul­ti­plexes, after being dig­i­tally remas­tered for the IMAX Expe­ri­ence with pro­pri­etary IMAX DMR® technology.

In 2006, “Super­man Returns” became the world’s first live-action fea­ture to have selected seg­ments con­verted from 2D into IMAX® 3D. Most recently, the mega-hit “300” oblit­er­ated all pre­vi­ous atten­dance records at IMAX the­atres in its record-breaking open­ing week­end in March.

The follow-up to the action hit “Bat­man Begins,” “The Dark Knight” reunites direc­tor Christo­pher Nolan and star Chris­t­ian Bale, who reprises the role of Batman/Bruce Wayne. In the new film, Bat­man raises the stakes in his war on crime. With the help of Lieu­tenant Jim Gor­don and Dis­trict Attor­ney Har­vey Dent, Bat­man sets out to dis­man­tle the remain­ing crim­i­nal orga­ni­za­tions that plague the city streets. The part­ner­ship proves to be effec­tive, but they soon find them­selves prey to a reign of chaos unleashed by a ris­ing crim­i­nal mas­ter­mind known to the ter­ri­fied cit­i­zens of Gotham as The Joker.

The film also stars Acad­emy Award win­ner Michael Caine (“The Cider House Rules”) as Alfred; Acad­emy Award nom­i­nee Heath Ledger (“Broke­back Moun­tain”) as arch-villain The Joker; Gary Old­man as Lieu­tenant Jim Gor­don; Aaron Eck­hart as Dis­trict Attor­ney Har­vey Dent, who becomes bet­ter known as another of Batman’s arch-nemeses, Two-Face; Mag­gie Gyl­len­haal as Rachel Dawes; and Oscar win­ner Mor­gan Free­man (“Mil­lion Dol­lar Baby”) as Lucius Fox.

“The Dark Knight” is being pro­duced by Emma Thomas, Charles Roven and Christo­pher Nolan, with Kevin De La Noy, Ben­jamin Mel­niker and Michael E. Uslan serv­ing as exec­u­tive pro­duc­ers. Nolan is direct­ing the film from a screen­play writ­ten by Jonathan Nolan and Christo­pher Nolan, story by Christo­pher Nolan & David Goyer. “The Dark Knight” is based upon Bat­man char­ac­ters cre­ated by Bob Kane and pub­lished by DC Comics.

“The Dark Knight” will be pre­sented by Warner Bros. Pic­tures in asso­ci­a­tion with Leg­endary Pic­tures. The film will be dis­trib­uted world­wide by Warner Bros. Pictures.

IMAX Cor­po­ra­tion is one of the world’s lead­ing enter­tain­ment tech­nol­ogy com­pa­nies, spe­cial­iz­ing in dig­i­tal and film-based motion pic­ture tech­nolo­gies. The world­wide IMAX net­work is among the most impor­tant and suc­cess­ful the­atri­cal dis­tri­b­u­tion plat­forms for major event Hol­ly­wood films around the globe, with IMAX the­atres deliv­er­ing the world’s best cin­e­matic pre­sen­ta­tions using pro­pri­etary IMAX, IMAX 3D, and IMAX DMR tech­nol­ogy. IMAX DMR is the Company’s ground­break­ing dig­i­tal remas­ter­ing tech­nol­ogy that allows it to trans­form dig­i­tally vir­tu­ally any con­ven­tional motion pic­ture into the unpar­al­leled image and sound qual­ity of The IMAX Expe­ri­ence. IMAX’s renowned pro­jec­tors dis­play crystal-clear images on the world’s biggest screens, and the IMAX brand is rec­og­nized through­out the world for extra­or­di­nary and immer­sive enter­tain­ment expe­ri­ences for con­sumers. As of Sep­tem­ber 30, 2006, there were 280 IMAX the­atres oper­at­ing in 40 coun­tries. IMAX®, IMAX® 3D, IMAX DMR®, IMAX MPX® and The IMAX Expe­ri­ence® are trade­marks of IMAX Cor­po­ra­tion. More infor­ma­tion on the Com­pany can be found at www​.imax​.com

CHRISTOPHER NOLAN TO DIRECT WARNER BROS. PICTURES’ UPCOMING BATMAN MOVIE, THE DARK KNIGHT CHRISTIAN BALE REPRISES TITLE CHARACTER, HEATH LEDGER JOINS CAST AS THE JOKER

BURBANK, CA, 31 July 2006 – As a fol­low up to last year’s block­buster Bat­man Begins, Christo­pher Nolan is set to direct Warner Bros. Pic­tures’ The Dark Knight, writ­ten by Jonathan Nolan, based on a story by Christo­pher Nolan and David Goyer. The film will be pro­duced by Emma Thomas, Charles Roven and Christo­pher Nolan. Addi­tion­ally, Chris­t­ian Bale will resume his role as Bruce Wayne and Acad­emy Award nom­i­nee Heath Ledger has been cast as The Joker. The announce­ments were made today by Jeff Robi­nov, Pres­i­dent of Pro­duc­tion, Warner Bros. Pictures.

Christo­pher Nolan revamped the Bat­man fran­chise in 2005 with the immensely suc­cess­ful Bat­man Begins, star­ring Chris­t­ian Bale in the title role, which chron­i­cled the early years of the super­hero. Nolan first gar­nered atten­tion from crit­ics and fans in 2000 with the ground­break­ing drama Memento, which he wrote and directed. He went on to direct the thriller Insom­nia, star­ring Al Pacino and Robin Williams, and recently wrapped pro­duc­tion on The Pres­tige, with Hugh Jack­man and Bale.

Bale was most recently seen in the ensem­ble cast of Ter­rence Malick’s The New World. His other cred­its include Lit­tle Women, Por­trait of a Lady, Metroland, Amer­i­can Psy­cho, Lau­rel Canyon and Steven Spielberg’s Empire of the Sun, which was his first star­ring role.

Ledger most recently earned Oscar, Golden Globe, BAFTA and SAG Award nom­i­na­tions and won the New York Film Crit­ics Cir­cle Award for Best Actor for his por­trayal of Ennis Del Mar in the award-winning drama Broke­back Moun­tain. His other cred­its include Casanova, Monster’s Ball, Lords of Dog­town, The Broth­ers Grimm and The Patriot.

“Chris’ unique vision is what made Bat­man Begins such an out­stand­ing film and we could not imag­ine any­one else at the helm of The Dark Knight,” said Robi­nov. “We also can’t wait to see two such for­mi­da­ble actors as Chris­t­ian and Heath face off with each other as Bat­man and The Joker.”

“I’m excited to con­tinue the story we started with Bat­man Begins,” added Nolan. “Our chal­lenge in cast­ing The Joker was to find an actor who is not just extra­or­di­nar­ily tal­ented but fear­less. Watch­ing Heath Ledger’s inter­pre­ta­tion of this iconic char­ac­ter tak­ing on Chris­t­ian Bale’s Bat­man is going to be incredible.”

Pro­duc­tion is set to begin on The Dark Knight in early 2007.