While many would happily listen to Tom Hardy talk gibberish as long as they got to stare longingly at him, Warner Bros. apparently doesn’t share that feeling when it comes to The Dark Knight Rises. The studio has asked director Christopher Nolan to edit the sound mix of the Bronson star’s voice after fans and several critics complained that he was pulling a Darth Vader beneath his headgear. Since Hardy’s version of the villainous strongman promises to be amazing, we’d have to agree and say that we’d like to be able to hear what he’s saying — and we think we can just fine for the most part.
THR reports that Nolan only wants to change things up slightly. A source elaborated that “Chris wants the audience to catch up and participate rather than push everything at them. He doesn’t dumb things down. You’ve got to pedal faster to keep up.” If you haven’t watched the trailer yet (and who are you?), check it out past the break. Let us know if mister mumbles should get a pass. Read More »
1. Slashfilm got an early look at Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight Rises prologue, and discovered that the finished film will have a whopping 50 minutes of IMAX shot-and-projected footage. Here’s a spoiler-free recap.
2. This could be interesting: Spike Lee has signed on to direct Eddie Murphy in a new HBO biopic about former Washington DC mayor Marion Berry — aka the man once caught smoking crack in a hotel room full of prostitutes. John Ridley (Red Tails, Da Brick) is on board to pen the script. [via THR]
3. A group of Occupy Wall Street protestors took over the set of Law & Order: SVU last night; the show was shooting an episode that was centered around a fake encampment in Foley Square. “They’ve delivered us this perfectly wrapped Christmas present with a bow on top: they rebuilt our camp,” OWS organizer Jake De Groot told Mother Jones. “How could we not go and take it?” [via TV Squad]
4. “If Columbine is reenacted or some shit, that’s gonna be on my f*cking head. Yeah, it’ll be my fault, just like it was Em’s and Marilyn’s and fucking Slipknot’s and all them motherf*ckers.” — Tyler, the Creator is talking about Columbine again.
5. Pharrell Williams and famed composer Hans Zimmer have been named the musical consultants for this year’s Academy Awards; neither of them have worked on the show in the past. [via THR]
Last month, we reported on an interesting rumor floating around that Zuccotti Park would feature as a backdrop in Christopher Nolan’s new Batman movie, The Dark Knight Rises, which apparently just wrapped up production today. Now, thanks to IndieWire’s recent interview with Matthew Modine, who plays a supporting character named Nixon in the film, we now know the reason why that never came to be.
“The wisdom of Christopher Nolan and his incredible team was that, while it seemed like a good idea to give [the protestors] an opportunity for work, to give them money, it would send a terrible message,” he explains. “At the end of the day, we’re making a movie. What’s happening down there is more important than that. To co-opt what’s happening there and around the country… we didn’t want to trivialize it. It was more important to respect what they’re doing than to do anything that could potentially trivialize the political situation downtown.” Sounds reasonable to us. Are you glad that Nolan avoided the Occupy Wall Street protests altogether, or were you hoping to see them figure in to the film in some way? [via Vulture]
MTV may be documenting (or exploiting, or celebrating, or whatever) Occupy Wall Street in an upcoming True Life documentary, but don’t expect to see Zuccotti Park lighting up the big screen in Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight Rises. The production will begin shooting in New York before the end of the month, and it was reported last week that the film’s actors were being prepped for possible scenes at the demonstration. But Entertainment Weekly has just gotten word from Warner Bros. that dropping in on democracy in action is not actually part of Nolan’s plan. This all makes a certain kind of sense to us — heroic as he may be, if Bruce Wayne isn’t part of the 1%, we don’t know who is.
Jeff Mangum, Roseanne Barr, Talib Kweli, Naomi Klein, Slavoj Žižek, and even Kanye West have shown up at the Occupy Wall Street protests in the past month. Now, it looks like this powerful protest movement might find a permanent place in pop culture — as the setting for a scene in Christopher Nolan’s new Batman movie, The Dark Knight Rises. According to the Los Angeles Times, the production has left LA for New York City, where it will shoot for two weeks, beginning October 29th. An anonymous source close to the film said that actors have been informed that some scenes may be shot at the movement’s headquarters of Zuccotti Park, and the paper speculates that Nolan could simply be using Occupy Wall Street as a backdrop for a scene from the original shooting script. Of course, it’s possible that the demonstration will have been evicted from the park by the time The Dark Night Rises arrives — but we have to imagine that, if the city economy stands to profit from the shoot, Mayor Bloomberg will do his best to ensure that no one gets kicked out before it’s through. [via Slashfilm]
Of all of the rumors currently swirling around the production of Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight Rises, this one really caught our eye: it seems that the abandoned Salina Turda Salt Mine in Transylvania — which has been around since the Middle Ages and is currently open to the public as a tourist attraction — is said to be one of the locations in the running for the Batcave. In fact, Nolan himself reportedly visited the site back in January and met with Bucharest officials about the possibility of filming there. From what we’ve seen, the space looks absolutely ideal. Not only is it massive enough to hold all of Batman’s toys, but it has also got the slightly dark and futuristic aesthetic that the iconic hideout requires. Click through to get a better look at the interiors, and let us know in the comments if you think it would make a good Batcave.
Welcome to “Trailer Park,” our regular Friday feature where we collect the week’s new trailers all in one place and do a little “judging a book by its cover,” ranking them from worst to best and taking our best guess at what they may be hiding. This week, we’ve only got six new ones — perhaps due to last week’s trailer overload — but there are two very big superheroes among them. Check ‘em all out after the jump.
Although we’re pretty sure it’s playing on every single screen in the country and its Fourth-of-July weekend release is timed to make its ingestion some sort of a patriotic duty, we here at Flavorwire would like to officially discourage you from seeing Transformers: Dark of the Moon, because it is soulless and empty and loud and stupid and basically the personification of all that is derivative and evil in contemporary Hollywood (it is the second sequel to a film based on an ‘80s cartoon based on a toy line — in 3-D!).
There are those master filmmakers whose careers, fortunately for us, have spanned decades. What happened between Woody Allen’s 1979 Manhattan and Woody Allen’s Manhattan of the 2000′s? How far had Stanley Kubrick been able to push it since Lolita? How has unpredictable aging of the director’s beloved stars changed the way they treat their pet themes? What happened since… dum dum dummm… the Internet? Here are our favorite old-timers who have seen the world change and — willingly and unwillingly — have shown it through their films.
1. If you’ve spent the last few years anxiously awaiting Coldplay’s followup to Viva La Vida, you’ll be glad to hear they’ve finally released a new single. Listen to “Every Teardrop Is a Waterfall”here.
2. Gil Scott-Heron‘s funeral took place yesterday at Harlem’s Riverside Church, and ended with a performance by Kanye West of “Lost In The World,” which contains a sample from Heron’s poem “Comment #1.” [via NME]
3. Some people are saying that three “mysterious videos” that have been posted to YouTube by a user called “TheFireRises” may offer our first glimpse at Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight Rises — or they were just made by a fan with too much time on his hands. Adding fuel to the rumor mill: Warner Bros. is refusing to comment. [via EW]
4. We regret to inform that you Lil Wayne’s Carter IV, which was originally supposed to drop on May 16th, has been delayed yet again. The new release date is August 29th, so it’s probably wise to look elsewhere for your song of the summer. [via Vulture]
5. Scarlett Johansson and Sean Penn — whose relationship reminded us way too much of Lost in Translation in the first place — are no longer dating. [via People]
