Minnesota State University Reporter

Issue date: 7/9/08 Section: Movies

With summer comes the year's biggest and most anticipated films and this summer is no exception.

But while "Indian Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" didn't live up to its hype, there's still one film many people are expecting to be huge.

The release of Christopher Nolan's new Batman film, "The Dark Knight," is still more than a week away but people are already buying their midnight tickets so they can be the first to see it.

Despite the death of one of its biggest star's earlier this year, "The Dark Knight" is being advertised everywhere. After Heath Ledger's unexpected death, people wondered whether the film would be released on time and how it would effect publicity.

Only days after Ledger's death, CNN.com said that "marketing of the film, currently in post-production, has been thrown into a turmoil, the trade paper Variety notes."

But the bulk of advertising for "The Dark Knight" focused around Ledger's character The Joker and the film's hype grew even more after his death.

According to the New York Times, before his death Ledger said his character was a "psychopathic, mass-murdering, schizophrenic clown with zero sympathy." Some questioned whether Ledger's death was in some way due to his role as The Joker.

Fox News reported Ledger had locked himself in an apartment for an entire month to immerse himself in the crazed, criminal-minded character.



Ledger's "Dark Knight" co-star Gary Oldman said, "I know there are these rumors out there that playing The Joker drove him to his grave, but I never saw anything of that."

In a recent Entertainment Weekly article, director Christopher Nolan said Ledger was always his first choice to play The Joker and from the beginning he and Ledger had the same ideas on how the character should be portrayed.

"We had the same take on the character," Nolan said. "The idea of anarchy as an absolute. The idea of chaos as the most frightening thing to society. The idea of a motiveless criminal, somebody who just wants to watch the world burn."

Jack Nicholson previously portrayed The Joker in 1989's "Batman." His depiction of the villain was done as more of a clownish cartoon character, wearing a bright purple, orange and teal suit. Ledger's Joker, on the other hand, has a demented and dark look. His stained, deformed face, scratchy voice and dark appearance are what differentiates him from Nicholson's Joker.

According to The Melbourne Herald Sun and The Mercury, Michael Caine said Ledger's performance topped Nicholson's. "He's gone in a completely different direction to Jack. Jack was like a clown figure, benign but wicked, maybe a killer uncle," he said. "He could be funny and make you laugh… Heath is like a really scary psychopath."

Even excluding Ledger, "The Dark Knight" is loaded with a star-studded cast.

Returning from 2005's "Batman Begins" are Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Morgan Freeman and Gary Oldman. New faces include Aaron Eckhart and Maggie Gyllenhaal, who replaces Katie Holmes.

Whether Ledger's January death was at all related to the character he plays in "The Dark Knight" is still up in the air, but many people will be in the theater July 18 to see him play the evil role in his last film.


Ali Ramsey is the Reporter variety editor

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