Showing posts with label Batman. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Batman. Show all posts
Monday, September 17, 2012
Were the Batman murders a covert op?
Friday, July 27, 2012
Jon Rappoport
http://www.naturalnews.com/036612_Batman_massacre_covert_op.html
(NaturalNews) The obvious way to begin an investigation is to look at the event itself for any obvious contradictions or unexplained details.
For example, in the Batman murders, we have two witnesses who were in the theater and implied there were accomplices.
One witness, Corbin Dates (aka Dayton), told Aurora news outlets a man sitting in the front row took a cell phone call and went to a side exit, propped the door open with his foot, and seemed to be signaling somebody. Ten to 15 minutes later, James Holmes appeared in full gear with weapons as the exit door swung open The other witness (no name as yet) stated that, during the massacre, a gas canister was thrown from a direction where Homes wasn't.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t-fcD7pyfL8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h4MW_qhAPAU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&v=Hoaiw2jrpmE&NR=1
Despite the statements of these apparent witnesses, Aurora Chief of Police Daniel Oates claims he is sure James Holmes acted alone.
But we need to back up. First of all, neither witness actually IDed Holmes. They IDed a man who was dressed in black from head to toe, wore a helmet, body armor, and a gas mask. Actually, no one has identified Holmes as the man in the theater. How could they? His face and body were covered and concealed.
How did the shooter get into the theater? Clad in black, wearing body armor, carrying several weapons, he buys a ticket and walks in with everyone else? Authorities suggest he came through a side door. If so, how did he know the door would be unlocked? After a few months of meticulous planning, he simply hoped it would be?
Watching these two witnesses being interviewed by TV news reporters is extremely frustrating. The reporters have their hands on potentially explosive information and they don't follow up. Nor do they press police for comments on the witness statements.
Nevertheless, from what we can provisionally surmise about the crime scene, there are huge gaps in the official scenario---if we can even call it a scenario.
Standing out above everything else is the fact that no one can ID Holmes as the shooter.
We are told by police that, after Holmes was done killing people in the theater, he exited a side door (the same door through which he had entered?), stood quietly, and surrendered himself to the authorities. This, too, is unclear. The police were already stationed at the exit door? Holmes waited until they arrived? Was he still holding weapons?
It's said he was calm. He gave himself up.
After killing scores of people and wounding others, the first-time shooter was calm? How could this be? Well, drugs would enter the equation. What drugs? Vicodin. Others? Where were these drugs obtained? Who wrote the prescriptions? Where is the doctor? Why have we heard nothing about a doctor? What, exactly, going back into childhood, is Holmes' pharmaceutical history?
If this was a true covert op, it would have been easy for a pro shooter to decimate the people in the theater, slip out the exit door with his accomplice or accomplices, where the patsy, Holmes, drugged, was waiting with other operatives. After dousing Holmes with gunpowder residue, the pros left the scene, disappeared into the night, leaving a pre-programmed Holmes there to confess to the crime and state that his apartment was rigged with explosives.
If this is how things happened, it would explain how Holmes, possessed of no apparent knowledge about constructing bombs, could have had his apartment wired with exotic devices. Holmes didn't put them together. The pros did.
At Holmes' court appearance on Monday, he certainly looked drugged as he moved slowly in the courtroom and sat in his chair. If so, who gave him the drugs in jail?
Of course, huge gaps exist in Holmes' life story. We have no explanation for his transformation from a young eager science student into a blank-faced defendant in a mass-murder case. Had he ever been to see a psychiatrist? If so, what drugs were prescribed? Ritalin, which can cause violent behavior? Antidepressants, which can cause violent behavior?
Had he ever been enrolled in a clinical trial of an experimental drug? During his brief matriculation at the University of Colorado, Denver, had he been used in a neuroscience experiment? The web page for the University neuroscience department, where Holmes studied on a government grant, has been taken down.
One oddity about the investigation of the killings: the FBI presence is minimal. We don't know what the FBI is doing behind the scenes, but by contrast, in the 1999 Columbine massacre the FBI was all over the scene in a very visible way. They interviewed witnesses, processed evidence, and made public statements. Here, they're in the background. Why?
I offer one possible explanation. In Columbine, the FBI became a lightning rod for doubts and questions, and accusations of overlooking/suppressing evidence that would lead to more than two shooters. Here in Aurora, it's all local: "we have the killer, he's in jail, the case is proceeding, nothing to see, move along." This appears to be an intentional strategy. Keep it simple, don't stir up the populace.
We'll have to watch, as the disposition of the court case unfolds, to see whether the "simple" strategy is extended. Perhaps we'll have a guilty plea and a quick sentence. Or perhaps court-appointed psychiatrists will decide Holmes is incompetent to cooperate in his own defense, in which case he'll be remanded to a mental facility for a period of time, after which he'll quietly enter a guilty plea and be sentenced. But what does "incompetent" mean? Drugged into submission?
I believe there are specific items of evidence which, if known, would provoke new questions on top of the witness statements above. For example, was an older model (outdated) police car seen leaving the area of the theater after the shootings? What was the blood evidence on Holmes' clothing and shoes? Whose blood was it? Did it belong to victims inside the theater? Was Holmes, as he stood at the exit to the theater and surrendered himself, covered in more blood than he would have accumulated as a shooter? In other words, was he set up as the designated patsy?
And are there more witnesses in the theater who saw accomplices? If so, as in Columbine, they will, no doubt, be told by law enforcement to keep quiet. If there is a trial, will Corbin Dates and the other anonymous witness mentioned above be asked to testify? The chances are slim to none.
If the Batman murders are indeed a covert op, the motives behind it don't need much explanation. The UN Arms Trade Treaty, which has been under final discussions in New York since July 3rd, and is due to wrap up on July 27th, is a new step in the direction of gun confiscation, despite its announced aim of limiting only the export of weapons from one nation to another. Once the Treaty is signed, it will need senate ratification to go into effect and impact the 2nd Amendment. That ratification is the hard part for gun-control advocates. The tragedy at the Batman premier on July 20 could act as a pressure wave-front on senators to rubber-stamp the treaty.
Other motives to stage the shootings in Aurora? The manufacture of a consensus for massive "crime prevention," and that means the extended use of medical drugs to influence behavior and the brain toward the goal of passivity and conformity---with the victims ENJOYING IT. (See Soma, the drug of choice in Huxley's Brave New World.)
"Say something, see something" is only part of the picture. Creating a nation of snitches is certainly on the DHS's to-do list. But we are in the Century of the Brain. Researchers are eager to pawn off their discoveries for the development of technology that can literally limit behavior and thought. Behind the facade of "curing mental disorders," this is where brain research is heading. Free will and choice are considered flimsy outmoded notions that need to be cast aside, so the Brave New World can emerge. James Holmes becomes a classic case of a man whose brain needs "restructuring." The globalist technocrats want every inch they can win in the battle to convince the public that brain manipulation holds a promising future for the human race. Of course, their idea of the future is synaptic and neuronal control. Holmes is one more poster child for their chilling agenda.
Brad Garrett, a former FBI profiler and now an analyst for ABC News, is one of the prime go-to experts who deliver pronouncements on mass murderers. Garrett supplies the public perception of these killers.
Here are his off-the-shelf conclusions about James Holmes: "[Mass killers are] insecure, they start having, perhaps, dark thoughts that people are following them or that there are voices---auditory voices---that are directing them...some version of this happened to Mr. Holmes...the onset of whatever this chemical imbalance might be, it starts taking over, and he starts withdrawing..."
It's a well-recognized fact that there are no chemical or biological tests to confirm a diagnosis of any so-called mental disorder. The whole hypothesis of "chemical imbalance" as the basis for mental disease is just that, a hypothesis. Nevertheless, Garrett promotes it as if it's accepted science, and he doubles down by suggesting that Holmes was hearing voices directing his actions.
But psychiatric drugs (e.g., Ritalin, Prozac, Paxil, Zoloft, Haldol, etc.), used to curb mental problems, instead actually CAUSE patients to experience paranoia and hallucinations and withdraw---and plan and commit violence. It's the drugs. Garrett is providing cover to explain Holmes' actions as mental illness, when in fact he knows nothing about what Holmes experienced or why. If Holmes was, in fact, a mind-control subject, that is hidden behind psychobabble.
Garrett supplies exactly the kind of narrative that calls for "early intervention," prevention of crime throughout society before it occurs, which, in the hands of brain researchers, means chemical and other means of controlling "anti-social" impulses.
It is noteworthy that a young neuroscience student, Holmes, who was at one point studying "the biological basis of mental disorders," winds up as an accused mass murderer who is "obviously deranged" and "suffering from a chemical imbalance in the brain."
At this point, we go down the rabbit hole, and the pieces of the puzzle are strange and tantalizing.
A video has emerged of Holmes, at age 18, six years ago, lecturing to fellow attendees at a science summer camp at Miramar College in San Diego.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lotOPjLlbDU
Holmes explains he has been studying temporal illusions and subjective experience. A temporal illusion, he states, is the idea that you can change the past.
At the Cannonfire blog (http://cannonfire.blogspot.com) there are comic-book panels posted from what Joseph Cannon calls "the most famous passage in the most famous of all Joker stories, Alan Moore's 'The Killing Joke.'"
The Joker is asked: "I mean, what is it with you? What made you you the way you are? Girlfriend killed by the mob? Maybe brother carved up by some mugger...?"
The Joker replies: "Something like that happened to me, you know...I'm not exactly sure what it was. Sometimes I remember it one way, sometimes another...if I'm going to have a past, I prefer it to be multiple choice! Ha ha ha!"
James Holmes, at 18 years of age, said he was studying temporal illusion, "the idea that you can change the past," a feat the fictional Joker had obviously accomplished.
In the last ten years, the film that explored this subject---and Holmes' other interest, the subjectivity of experience---most deeply, through its treatment of dreams and the insertion of synthetic experience in the mind, was Inception, directed by Christopher Nolan, who of course also directed the recent Batman trilogy, including The Dark Knight Rises. In yet another version of changing the past, in 2000 Nolan directed Memento, which unraveled its story backwards, as a victim of anterograde amnesia, who can't store memories, tries to revenge his wife's murder by leaving clues for himself that will lead him to the identity of her killer.
Are we simply talking about a neuroscience student's (Holmes') interest in comics and films, or did he participate in experiments that attempted to alter his subjective view of the world and his own past?
For example, there is wealth of information about the criminal experiments conducted by Canadian psychiatrist, Dr. Ewan Cameron, who operated with funding from the CIA during the 1950s. Cameron ran MKULTRA Subproject 68, during which he used massive electroshocks, sensory isolation, drug-induced periods of sleep (7-10 days), and audiotapes of "re-patterning" commands to attempt to wipe out patients' pasts, their memories, their former subjective mindsets, their very personalities---in favor of recreating these patients as "new and improved people."
As a teen, Holmes interned at the Salk Institute in San Diego. Salk carries out studies using functional MRI, a technique of brain mapping that involves correlating read-outs with various mental activities. It's only speculation at this point, but somewhere along the line, did Holmes participate in such experiments, and were the results used to map regions of his brain for later inputs, so someone could achieve behavioral/thought control over him?
To even suggest Holmes may be a mind-control subject brings immediate criticism, to which I would offer this counter: why accept the scenario of the crime put forward by the Aurora police? Why do they deserve the benefit of the doubt? Why limit and narrow the investigation to their story?
Was law enforcement correct about the JFK and JFK and MLK assassinations? Was law enforcement correct about the Columbine massacre, in which 101 witnesses state they saw other shooters? Was law enforcement correct about the lone duo of plotters in the Oklahoma bombing? Was law enforcement correct about 9/11?
In all cases---no.
I'll tell you this. If the authorities really wanted to know what makes James Holmes tick (a prospect I strongly doubt), their best chance would be to send someone into his cell who could talk to him about Christopher Nolan, Inception, Memento, functional MRI, the TV series, Lost, which contained time-travel themes and was a show he and his friend, Ritchie Duong, used to watch together every week when they attended UC Riverside. Talk to Holmes about what he wants to talk about. Who knows what would eventually unravel?
It might be far more than the police wish to uncover.
Sources:
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Nolan
About Jon Rappoport
The author of an explosive new collection, THE MATRIX REVEALED, Jon was a candidate for a US Congressional seat in the 29th District of California. Nominated for a Pulitzer Prize, he has worked as an investigative reporter for 30 years, writing articles on politics, medicine, and health for CBS Healthwatch, LA Weekly, Spin Magazine, Stern, and other newspapers and magazines in the US and Europe. Jon has delivered lectures and seminars on global politics, health, logic, and creative power to audiences around the world.
NoMoreFakeNews.com
QJRConsulting@gmail.com
Wednesday, August 17, 2011
Wayne Manor & The Batcave: Official DC Blueprints
It's hard to think of a more popular piece of pop culture real estate than Wayne Manor, especially with its extra square footage in a structurally sound cave below. When it comes to the digs of Batman, it's hard to combine it's impressive monetary value and cultural importance in one spot of land.
For most of its history, Wayne Manor has been left undefined in its actual architectural design, leaving fans to fill out the blanks rather than have them defined. One notable exception is in 1986, when DC Comics licensed out Batman to Mayfair Games as part of the DC Heroes Role Playing Game. Mayfair released the Batman Sourcebook, which included blueprints and floorplans of both Wayne Manor and the Wayne Foundation Building, which included his penthouse apartment. Each had its own private underground Batcave lair. To check out these blueprints over the web:
http://www.konformist.com/2011/Batman-Blueprints.pdf
The dimensions are pretty impressive: 125 X 225 feet, for a square footage of 28,125. It's also a three story home, with a nice basement (and an even nicer basement beneath it.)
For those who want to read the entire Batman Sourcebook, which is chock full of interesting information on Bruce Wayne and the entire cast of Batman characters:
http://www.konformist.com/2011/Batman.pdf
Meanwhile, to check out a non-authorized version of Wayne Manor, look at the blueprints made by Mark Bennett for his book TV Sets: Fantasy Blueprints of Classic TV Homes.
http://robalini.blogspot.com/2010/12/book-of-week-tv-sets.html
And here's some places to check out to see real life addresses for Wayne Manor:
Batman TV series
380 South San Rafael Avenue
Pasadena, California
In the series, the Batcave entrance is found at the Bronson Cave in L.A.'s Griffith Park:
http://www.humanform.info/htm/bronson.htm
Tim Burton's Batman
Exterior: Knebworth House
Hertfordshire, England
http://www.knebworthhouse.com/
Interior: Hatfield House
Hertfordshire, England
http://www.hatfield-house.co.uk/
Joel Schumacher's Batman
Webb Institute
Glen Cove, New York
http://www.webb-institute.edu/
Batman Begins
Mentmore Towers
Buckinghamshire, England
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mentmore_Towers
The Dark Knight Rises (2012)
Wollaton Hall
Nottingham, England
http://www.wollatonhall.org.uk/
Credit must go to Wikipedia.org and Scott Rose of ScottWorld.com for research help on this...
For most of its history, Wayne Manor has been left undefined in its actual architectural design, leaving fans to fill out the blanks rather than have them defined. One notable exception is in 1986, when DC Comics licensed out Batman to Mayfair Games as part of the DC Heroes Role Playing Game. Mayfair released the Batman Sourcebook, which included blueprints and floorplans of both Wayne Manor and the Wayne Foundation Building, which included his penthouse apartment. Each had its own private underground Batcave lair. To check out these blueprints over the web:
http://www.konformist.com/2011/Batman-Blueprints.pdf
The dimensions are pretty impressive: 125 X 225 feet, for a square footage of 28,125. It's also a three story home, with a nice basement (and an even nicer basement beneath it.)
For those who want to read the entire Batman Sourcebook, which is chock full of interesting information on Bruce Wayne and the entire cast of Batman characters:
http://www.konformist.com/2011/Batman.pdf
Meanwhile, to check out a non-authorized version of Wayne Manor, look at the blueprints made by Mark Bennett for his book TV Sets: Fantasy Blueprints of Classic TV Homes.
http://robalini.blogspot.com/2010/12/book-of-week-tv-sets.html
And here's some places to check out to see real life addresses for Wayne Manor:
Batman TV series
380 South San Rafael Avenue
Pasadena, California
In the series, the Batcave entrance is found at the Bronson Cave in L.A.'s Griffith Park:
http://www.humanform.info/htm/bronson.htm
Tim Burton's Batman
Exterior: Knebworth House
Hertfordshire, England
http://www.knebworthhouse.com/
Interior: Hatfield House
Hertfordshire, England
http://www.hatfield-house.co.uk/
Joel Schumacher's Batman
Webb Institute
Glen Cove, New York
http://www.webb-institute.edu/
Batman Begins
Mentmore Towers
Buckinghamshire, England
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mentmore_Towers
The Dark Knight Rises (2012)
Wollaton Hall
Nottingham, England
http://www.wollatonhall.org.uk/
Credit must go to Wikipedia.org and Scott Rose of ScottWorld.com for research help on this...
Thursday, July 28, 2011
Wednesday, June 22, 2011
DC Universe Goes Back to Zero
The Mayan calendar begins anew in December 2012, but DC Comics is doing the same this August. The reasoning isn't some complex astro-science way beyond modern man's understanding, but a plot to sell more comics.
DC is rebooting it's universe, starting with Justice League # 1, the series that combines Batman, Superman, Green Lantern, The Flash, Wonder Woman and Aquaman. 51 more first issues will follow, with artist Jim Lee (no relation to Stan of Marvel Comics fame) redesigning the costumes of all the heroes.
Perhaps just as groundbreaking, as USA Today notes: "DC is making all of the re-numbered titles available digitally via apps and a DC website the same day they arrive in comic shops. It marks the first time that a major comics publisher has done so with its popular superhero titles."
DC Comics unleashes a new universe of superhero titles
Brian Truitt
5-31-11
http://www.usatoday.com/life/comics/2011-05-31-dc-comics-reinvents_n.htm
DC is rebooting it's universe, starting with Justice League # 1, the series that combines Batman, Superman, Green Lantern, The Flash, Wonder Woman and Aquaman. 51 more first issues will follow, with artist Jim Lee (no relation to Stan of Marvel Comics fame) redesigning the costumes of all the heroes.
Perhaps just as groundbreaking, as USA Today notes: "DC is making all of the re-numbered titles available digitally via apps and a DC website the same day they arrive in comic shops. It marks the first time that a major comics publisher has done so with its popular superhero titles."
DC Comics unleashes a new universe of superhero titles
Brian Truitt
5-31-11
http://www.usatoday.com/life/comics/2011-05-31-dc-comics-reinvents_n.htm
Wednesday, February 2, 2011
Anne Hathaway Is Catwoman
In what may be the best casting decision by Christopher Nolan since picking Heath Ledger as The Joker, Anne Hathaway has been chosen to play Selina Kyle AKA Catwoman in The Dark Knight Rises. Now at least we know what Batman is rising over.
Hathaway beat out Keira Knightley, Rachel Weisz, Blake Lively and Natalie Portman for the role, all who would've been great choices in their own right. Tom Hardy has also been picked to play Bane...
Anne Hathaway to Play Catwoman in The Dark Knight Rises
Sara Hammel
Wednesday January 19, 2011
http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20458850,00.html
Hathaway beat out Keira Knightley, Rachel Weisz, Blake Lively and Natalie Portman for the role, all who would've been great choices in their own right. Tom Hardy has also been picked to play Bane...
Anne Hathaway to Play Catwoman in The Dark Knight Rises
Sara Hammel
Wednesday January 19, 2011
http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20458850,00.html
Wednesday, December 1, 2010
Top 10 Movie Plot Holes You Probably Never Noticed Before
http://www.wired.com/geekdad/2010/11/top-10-movie-plot-holes-you-probably-never-noticed-before/
Top 10 Movie Plot Holes You Probably Never Noticed Before
Matt Blum
November 16, 2010
It’s a rare movie that has no plot holes at all. Even movies nearly everyone likes, like Star Wars (I speak of Episode IV, in case that’s unclear), are occasionally rife with them. Of course, for many geeks — myself included — part of the fun of seeing a movie is identifying and discussing its plot holes afterward.
Here, then, are ten plot holes from geeky movies that, in my judgment, are ones that are easy to miss — even though some of them seem pretty obvious once you think about them. Please feel free to add your own favorite plot holes in the comments, and check out the first and second lists of plot holes (AKA “unanswered questions”) we’ve published on GeekDad before. (Note: The list below contains spoilers for the movies listed, out of necessity.)
10. The Matrix - The machines are keeping humans alive for their body heat, right? But they also have nuclear fusion reactors, and (while I haven’t run the numbers) I’d be willing to bet that a single fusion reactor would generate more net energy in an hour than all the humans on today’s Earth would in a day. Plus, fusion reactors are considerably less likely to try to escape, so it’s pretty clear the only reason the humans are still around is so the movie can exist. Oh, and while we’re at it, how come the simulated world everyone’s living in still has computers? Wouldn’t it be much smarter to remove the computers, thus significantly reducing the likelihood of someone like Neo making an appearance?
9. Jurassic Park – The scientists clone dinosaurs from the DNA in the blood in a preserved prehistoric mosquito. The problem is that blood cells in many animals (humans included) don’t carry DNA, and when they do they don’t carry nearly enough that the frog DNA they use to fill in the gaps wouldn’t dominate the bits of dinosaur DNA. Plus, of course, they would have no way to determine which DNA strands came from which dinosaur — and which from the mosquito itself!
8. Spider-Man 2 - Doctor Octavius is trying to find Spider-Man, and Harry suggests he talk to his good buddy Peter Parker, because Pete is always taking photos of Spider-Man. Doc Ock promptly finds Peter and Mary Jane at a coffee shop, and introduces himself by throwing a car at them through the window, which would certainly have killed them if Peter hadn’t been Spider-Man, sensed the danger, and pulled himself and MJ to the floor. But Doc Ock has no idea that Peter is Spider-Man, so why would he try to kill the person he wants help from?
7. Superman & Superman II – It’s just astonishing how Superman conveniently acquires new powers whenever his already-impressive selection of powers is inadequate to the task. In the first film, Lois Lane dies in the massive earthquake caused by the nuclear missile hitting the San Andreas fault. Superman, understandably distraught, suddenly and miraculously not only has the ability to turn back time by flying around the Earth really fast a lot of times, but somehow knows that he has that ability, despite it never having been mentioned previously. Then, at the end of the second film, the same thing happens again — only this time it’s an amnesia kiss. How exactly is he supposed to be able to remove the memory that Clark Kent is Superman, while leaving other memories intact? It’s never explained at all.
6. Star Trek II & Star Trek III - At the end of STII, the Genesis device creates a planet out of the Mutara nebula and the USS Reliant, right? And that’s fine as far as it goes, because scientists do in fact think that planets form out of nebulae. There’s just one tiny little question, though: Where did the sun for the planet to orbit come from? It sure wasn’t there before the device detonated, and if the device could create a star from a nebula, you’d think Carol Marcus would’ve mentioned it.
5. Batman Begins – Ra’s al Ghul (AKA Ducard) and the Scarecrow use the microwave emitter they stole from Wayne Enterprises to vaporize all the water in Gotham City, thus making people inhale the toxin contained therein. A creative idea, to be sure, except that human beings are 60-75% water (depending on age and other factors). So everybody in Gotham should be boiled to death in their own tissues.
4. Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith – The final, climactic battle between Obi-Wan and Anakin rages all over and around the river of lava on Mustafar. Then it ends when Obi-Wan leaps onto the bank and tells Anakin he’s lost because Obi-Wan has the high ground. He turns out to be right, as Anakin leaps into Obi-Wans flashing lightsaber. Seriously, though, how does being on high ground matter when you’re both wizards who can levitate objects with your minds, leap incredibly high, and move astonishingly fast?
3. The Princess Bride – When the Brute Squad is cleaning up the Thieves’ Forest, Fezzik finds Inigo and nurses him back to sobriety. He tells him about Vizzini’s death and, more importantly, about “the existence of Count Rugen, the six-fingered man.” That’s great, except… how does Fezzik know Rugen is the six-fingered man? We see Westley notice Rugen’s extra digit, but he’s knocked out and taken directly to the Pit of Despair, so he clearly had no chance to tell Fezzik. And even if Fezzik had seen Rugen, is it really likely he’d have noticed? Fezzik isn’t that bright or that observant. (Incidentally, I looked this bit up in the book, and it doesn’t explain how Fezzik knew, either.)
2. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire - This is a problem in the book as well, but it’s in the movie so it counts. Barty Crouch, Jr., disguised as Mad-Eye Moody, arranges for the Triwizard Cup to be a portkey to take Harry to the graveyard in Little Hangleton so that he can be used to bring Voldemort back to life and then killed. He’s in the guise of a teacher at the school, so he had any number of opportunities to make a portkey out of, well, pretty much anything that he could be sure Harry would touch — Harry’s schoolbooks, his shoes, whatever. It’s been argued that Voldemort wanted to keep his existence a secret and make it look like Harry perished during the task, but really, having Harry just disappear without a trace wouldn’t be any more suspicious. And, incidentally, why did he make the cup a two-way portkey? It’s been established that most portkeys are one-use, one-way only. Why not make this portkey one of those, so that Harry had no way to escape?
1. Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back – Once Luke starts to figure out that the silly-acting, funny-looking little creature he’s with is in fact Yoda, Yoda’s mood changes. He criticizes Luke (legitimately, it must be said) and argues that Luke shouldn’t be trained to be a Jedi. Obi-Wan has to argue with him to get him to change his mind. Really, though, what choice does Yoda have? He either trains Luke or… what? The Empire wins? Good plan, Jedi Master.
Top 10 Movie Plot Holes You Probably Never Noticed Before
Matt Blum
November 16, 2010
It’s a rare movie that has no plot holes at all. Even movies nearly everyone likes, like Star Wars (I speak of Episode IV, in case that’s unclear), are occasionally rife with them. Of course, for many geeks — myself included — part of the fun of seeing a movie is identifying and discussing its plot holes afterward.
Here, then, are ten plot holes from geeky movies that, in my judgment, are ones that are easy to miss — even though some of them seem pretty obvious once you think about them. Please feel free to add your own favorite plot holes in the comments, and check out the first and second lists of plot holes (AKA “unanswered questions”) we’ve published on GeekDad before. (Note: The list below contains spoilers for the movies listed, out of necessity.)
10. The Matrix - The machines are keeping humans alive for their body heat, right? But they also have nuclear fusion reactors, and (while I haven’t run the numbers) I’d be willing to bet that a single fusion reactor would generate more net energy in an hour than all the humans on today’s Earth would in a day. Plus, fusion reactors are considerably less likely to try to escape, so it’s pretty clear the only reason the humans are still around is so the movie can exist. Oh, and while we’re at it, how come the simulated world everyone’s living in still has computers? Wouldn’t it be much smarter to remove the computers, thus significantly reducing the likelihood of someone like Neo making an appearance?
9. Jurassic Park – The scientists clone dinosaurs from the DNA in the blood in a preserved prehistoric mosquito. The problem is that blood cells in many animals (humans included) don’t carry DNA, and when they do they don’t carry nearly enough that the frog DNA they use to fill in the gaps wouldn’t dominate the bits of dinosaur DNA. Plus, of course, they would have no way to determine which DNA strands came from which dinosaur — and which from the mosquito itself!
8. Spider-Man 2 - Doctor Octavius is trying to find Spider-Man, and Harry suggests he talk to his good buddy Peter Parker, because Pete is always taking photos of Spider-Man. Doc Ock promptly finds Peter and Mary Jane at a coffee shop, and introduces himself by throwing a car at them through the window, which would certainly have killed them if Peter hadn’t been Spider-Man, sensed the danger, and pulled himself and MJ to the floor. But Doc Ock has no idea that Peter is Spider-Man, so why would he try to kill the person he wants help from?
7. Superman & Superman II – It’s just astonishing how Superman conveniently acquires new powers whenever his already-impressive selection of powers is inadequate to the task. In the first film, Lois Lane dies in the massive earthquake caused by the nuclear missile hitting the San Andreas fault. Superman, understandably distraught, suddenly and miraculously not only has the ability to turn back time by flying around the Earth really fast a lot of times, but somehow knows that he has that ability, despite it never having been mentioned previously. Then, at the end of the second film, the same thing happens again — only this time it’s an amnesia kiss. How exactly is he supposed to be able to remove the memory that Clark Kent is Superman, while leaving other memories intact? It’s never explained at all.
6. Star Trek II & Star Trek III - At the end of STII, the Genesis device creates a planet out of the Mutara nebula and the USS Reliant, right? And that’s fine as far as it goes, because scientists do in fact think that planets form out of nebulae. There’s just one tiny little question, though: Where did the sun for the planet to orbit come from? It sure wasn’t there before the device detonated, and if the device could create a star from a nebula, you’d think Carol Marcus would’ve mentioned it.
5. Batman Begins – Ra’s al Ghul (AKA Ducard) and the Scarecrow use the microwave emitter they stole from Wayne Enterprises to vaporize all the water in Gotham City, thus making people inhale the toxin contained therein. A creative idea, to be sure, except that human beings are 60-75% water (depending on age and other factors). So everybody in Gotham should be boiled to death in their own tissues.
4. Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith – The final, climactic battle between Obi-Wan and Anakin rages all over and around the river of lava on Mustafar. Then it ends when Obi-Wan leaps onto the bank and tells Anakin he’s lost because Obi-Wan has the high ground. He turns out to be right, as Anakin leaps into Obi-Wans flashing lightsaber. Seriously, though, how does being on high ground matter when you’re both wizards who can levitate objects with your minds, leap incredibly high, and move astonishingly fast?
3. The Princess Bride – When the Brute Squad is cleaning up the Thieves’ Forest, Fezzik finds Inigo and nurses him back to sobriety. He tells him about Vizzini’s death and, more importantly, about “the existence of Count Rugen, the six-fingered man.” That’s great, except… how does Fezzik know Rugen is the six-fingered man? We see Westley notice Rugen’s extra digit, but he’s knocked out and taken directly to the Pit of Despair, so he clearly had no chance to tell Fezzik. And even if Fezzik had seen Rugen, is it really likely he’d have noticed? Fezzik isn’t that bright or that observant. (Incidentally, I looked this bit up in the book, and it doesn’t explain how Fezzik knew, either.)
2. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire - This is a problem in the book as well, but it’s in the movie so it counts. Barty Crouch, Jr., disguised as Mad-Eye Moody, arranges for the Triwizard Cup to be a portkey to take Harry to the graveyard in Little Hangleton so that he can be used to bring Voldemort back to life and then killed. He’s in the guise of a teacher at the school, so he had any number of opportunities to make a portkey out of, well, pretty much anything that he could be sure Harry would touch — Harry’s schoolbooks, his shoes, whatever. It’s been argued that Voldemort wanted to keep his existence a secret and make it look like Harry perished during the task, but really, having Harry just disappear without a trace wouldn’t be any more suspicious. And, incidentally, why did he make the cup a two-way portkey? It’s been established that most portkeys are one-use, one-way only. Why not make this portkey one of those, so that Harry had no way to escape?
1. Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back – Once Luke starts to figure out that the silly-acting, funny-looking little creature he’s with is in fact Yoda, Yoda’s mood changes. He criticizes Luke (legitimately, it must be said) and argues that Luke shouldn’t be trained to be a Jedi. Obi-Wan has to argue with him to get him to change his mind. Really, though, what choice does Yoda have? He either trains Luke or… what? The Empire wins? Good plan, Jedi Master.
Sunday, November 28, 2010
Top 25 Movies of the 2000s
Not-So-Zeroes for the Zeroes
Robert Sterling, Konformist.com
http://robalini.blogspot.com/
11-28-2010
After releasing The Konformist 25 Turkeys list of Zeroes for the Zeroes, some people emailed wondering if we came up with a best movie list for the decade. Here it is.
Please note that this isn't a personal list, which would be quite different. Instead, this list is based on a secret mathematical formula, which includes information from IMDB.com, RottenTomatoes.com, BoxOfficeMojo.com and Razzies.com, along with Google and Yahoo searches. In cases where more than one movie in a series would make the list, either the entire series is cited, or the best example of the series is cited, with the others receiving honorable mention.
1. The Dark Knight (2008)
Honorable Mention: Batman Begins (2005)
2. The Lord of the Rings Trilogy (2001-3)
* The Fellowship of the Ring (2001), The Two Towers (2002), Return of the King (2003)
3. Memento (2001)
4. The Departed (2006)
5. Gladiator (2000)
6. Avatar (2009)
7. Sin City (2005)
8. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)
9. Kill Bill: Volumes 1 & 2 (2003-4)
* Kill Bill: Volume 1 (2003), Kill Bill: Volume 2 (2004)
10. The Prestige (2006)
11. V for Vendetta (2006)
12. Donnie Darko (2001)
13. Amelie (2001)
14. City of God (2003)
15. Pirates of the Caribbean (2003)
16. Requiem for a Dream (2000)
17. WALL-E (2008)
18. No Country for Old Men (2007)
19. Inglourious Basterds (2009)
20. 300 (2007)
21. Slumdog Millionaire (2008)
22. Snatch (2000)
23. Pan's Labyrinth (2006)
24. Finding Nemo (2003)
25. District 9 (2009)
Robert Sterling, Konformist.com
http://robalini.blogspot.com/
11-28-2010
After releasing The Konformist 25 Turkeys list of Zeroes for the Zeroes, some people emailed wondering if we came up with a best movie list for the decade. Here it is.
Please note that this isn't a personal list, which would be quite different. Instead, this list is based on a secret mathematical formula, which includes information from IMDB.com, RottenTomatoes.com, BoxOfficeMojo.com and Razzies.com, along with Google and Yahoo searches. In cases where more than one movie in a series would make the list, either the entire series is cited, or the best example of the series is cited, with the others receiving honorable mention.
1. The Dark Knight (2008)
Honorable Mention: Batman Begins (2005)
2. The Lord of the Rings Trilogy (2001-3)
* The Fellowship of the Ring (2001), The Two Towers (2002), Return of the King (2003)
3. Memento (2001)
4. The Departed (2006)
5. Gladiator (2000)
6. Avatar (2009)
7. Sin City (2005)
8. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)
9. Kill Bill: Volumes 1 & 2 (2003-4)
* Kill Bill: Volume 1 (2003), Kill Bill: Volume 2 (2004)
10. The Prestige (2006)
11. V for Vendetta (2006)
12. Donnie Darko (2001)
13. Amelie (2001)
14. City of God (2003)
15. Pirates of the Caribbean (2003)
16. Requiem for a Dream (2000)
17. WALL-E (2008)
18. No Country for Old Men (2007)
19. Inglourious Basterds (2009)
20. 300 (2007)
21. Slumdog Millionaire (2008)
22. Snatch (2000)
23. Pan's Labyrinth (2006)
24. Finding Nemo (2003)
25. District 9 (2009)
Saturday, November 13, 2010
BATMAN, INC. #1
http://www.dccomics.com/dcu/comics/?cm=15998
BATMAN, INC. #1
Written by GRANT MORRISON; Art and cover by YANICK PAQUETTE; 1:25 Variant cover by ANDY KUBERT
Grant Morrison continues his earth-shattering run on the Batman titles with this exciting, new ongoing series! Featuring; Art by the remarkable Yanick Paquette (SEVEN SOLDIERS: BULLETEER), BATMAN, INC. marks the next stage of evolution for The Dark Knight. This can't-miss series will star not just Bruce Wayne as Batman, but also a huge number of guest-stars! Don't miss out on this all-new start to a stunning direction for Batman!
Batman
32pg.
Color
$3.99 US
On Sale November 17, 2010
Sunday, April 11, 2010
Great Movie Quotes: The Dark Knight
The Joker: A little fight in you. I like that.
Batman: [appearing suddenly] Then you're gonna love me. [punches the Joker]
Batman: [appearing suddenly] Then you're gonna love me. [punches the Joker]
Thursday, February 4, 2010
Faster than the speed of sound
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/news/faster-than-the-speed-of-sound-the-man-who-falls-to-earth-1877875.html
Faster than the speed of sound: the man who falls to earth
Daredevil Felix Baumgartner, who made the first unpowered flight across the English Channel in 2003, now plans to skydive from the edge of space. Tony Paterson reports
Monday, 25 January 2010
He is about as close as it is humanly possible to get to being a real life Batman and he does it without resorting to capes, masks or the assistance of a Boy Wonder. Instead he uses spies, disguises, sponsorship and a hefty supply of nerve to achieve his near-legendary reputation.
For years, Felix Baumgartner has taken to the skies in a way most of us can only hope to emulate in an aeroplane. From skydiving to base-jumping, his endeavours have thrilled onlookers and frequently enraged the authorities. But like most extreme athletes, Baumgartner has always been on the lookout for the ultimate rush - and now, it appears, he has found it.
His goal, which he hopes to achieve this year, is to make the highest ever parachute jump. It will be from well into the stratosphere. It will mean breaking the speed of sound. And, if it succeeds, it will break a record that has stood for 50 years.
Several others have attempted to break that long-standing record, which has stood for decades as marks for other altitude extremes have tumbled. The most recent attempt was made in 2008, by a former French paratrooper, Michel Fournier, who spent years preparing only to have the balloon that was set to take him up break from its moorings and float away.
Luckily, Baumgartner has a former US Airforce colonel, Joe Kittinger, to guide him. And Kittinger is not just any air force colonel. For it was he who leapt from a gondola attached to a high altitude balloon in 1960 to fall from a height of 19.5 miles. He is the only man who can advise the challenger from experience. "He was my childhood hero," Baumgartner says.
The Austrian adventurer has come a long way from the boy who worshipped his Vietnam-veteran predecessor. Now Baumgartner is occasionally known as the "God of the Skies". His more prosaic nickname is 'Fearless Felix". He is best known in Britain for his extraordinary feat of July seven years ago, when he skydived over the English Channel starting thousands of feet above Dover and flew without any external propulsion across to Calais.
Baumgartner did it by jumping out of the back of a so-called "skyvan", a fixed wing aircraft, at 32,000 feet with a 6-foot span carbon wing and oxygen bottles strapped to his back. He flew the 22 miles to Calais in a mixture of free fall and gliding, reaching a top speed of over 200 mph. He finally opened his parachute at 4,000 feet, and floated gently down to the grassy cliff top of Cap Blanc Nez some seven minutes later.
The 40- year-old Austrian extreme sportsman pulled off the stunt 94 years after Luis Bleriot's first powered flight across the Channel, and his account of his experience was almost poetic: "While I was still at a high altitude, I flew into my own shadow, which the morning sun was casting on to a cloud together with a rainbow . I don't think anyone has experienced that before," Baumgartner said.
Yet his Channel crossing was a comparatively simple undertaking, mainly because it had the approval of the authorities on both sides. It required no resorting to SAS-style covert activities. Baumgartner's habit of base-jumping – the highly dangerous business of throwing oneself off high buildings – is his stock in trade, and the authorities in most countries do their best to stop him.
Some say that his most dangerous feat was a leap from the statue of Christ the Redeemer in Rio De Janeiro – a relatively small structure, but all the riskier as a result. But Baumgartner says he conquered his base jump Everest in December 2007, when he chucked himself off the 1,280 foot high Taipei 101 Tower - the highest building in the world until earlier this month. His free fall lasted five seconds before his parachute flew open. "I've finally fulfilled a dream," he exclaimed.
He had attempted to jump off the building on three previous occasions but had been caught each time by Taipei security guards. He eventually had to use spies to case the building in advance. They noted the positions of security cameras, smuggled in his parachute and hid it the ceiling of a top floor lavatory. Baumgartner dressed in several different disguises in order to inspect the building unnoticed before making his jump. Eight years beforehand he jumped off the 1,242 foot high Petronas twin tower complex in Kuala Lumpur, which was then the world's highest building. Batman eat your heart out.
Still, even those feats would pale in comparison to the altitude record that Baumgartner now hopes to set. His collaboration with Kittinger is a throwback to an era before the first American sub-orbital space trip and in the midst of the cold war, when the goal was to provide data on the effect of high-altitude bailouts from aircraft. Then, as now, the risks were considerable. A pressurised glove failed on the ascent and his hand swelled up to twice its usual size. But Kittinger decided to go ahead with the jump anyway, falling at 614 mph, slowed only slightly by his drogue parachute.
His previous jump, a year earlier, nearly killed him. Falling out of another gondola at 76,400 feet in November 1959, Kittinger's equipment failed and caused him to lose consciousness. His body went into a terrifying flat spin that caused him to rotate like a propeller blade, turning at a speed of 120 mph. The G forces on parts of his body were calculated to be a staggering 22 times the force of gravity. Fortunately the automatic parachute opener in his equipment functioned properly. It saved his life. So is Baumgartner scared? "Of course," he says. "I always use fear to my advantage, for focus."
The attempt is planned for an as-yet unnamed location in North America. Dressed in a specially modified full pressure suit and helmet, he will ascend to the stratosphere in a pressurised capsule attached to a 450-foot high helium filled balloon. He then intends to jump out at an altitude he hopes will exceed 120,000 feet, or nearly 23 miles, and make a descent lasting over five minutes. Scientists say he will almost certainly break the sound barrier during his free fall and become the first human to do so without the aid of a machine.
Baumgartner views his forthcoming attempt with a mixture of excitement and adrenalin-fuelled apprehension. "No one really knows what that will be like," he says. "The fact is that you have a lot of different air flows coming around your body. Some parts of you body are in supersonic flow and some parts are in transonic flow. What kind of reaction that creates, I can't tell you." Baumgartners' backers, the Austrian Red Bull energy drink firm, say that if all goes well, he should break the speed of sound some 35 seconds into his descent.
Colonel Kittinger, who is one of the few people to have experienced such high altitude free fall is quite clear about what the project entails. "It is extremely hostile up there and the further you fall, the friendlier it becomes," he said.
The main challenge facing Baumgartner will be to stop his body going into the kind of consciousness-robbing flat spin that Kittinger experienced. Most scientists say it is almost impossible to pull out of a spin once it gains momentum. As a result Baumgartner, like his predecessor, will be equipped with a device which will open his parachute automatically should he black out.
Yet his jump is also an attempt to further space exploration. Baumgartner says it will help to make it possible to bring astronauts back to Earth alive, should their space capsules malfunction on entering the stratosphere. "We want to prove that astronauts can make it safely back to Earth, if they are forced to bail out at 120,000 feet," he said.
Yet Baumgartner may find that he has got more than a 120,000-foot free fall and the threat of flat spins to contend with during his record breaking attempt. Michel Fournier has also pledged to have a go at beating Kittinger's record in 2010, if he secures the right funding. A race for the sky could be on.
Faster than the speed of sound: the man who falls to earth
Daredevil Felix Baumgartner, who made the first unpowered flight across the English Channel in 2003, now plans to skydive from the edge of space. Tony Paterson reports
Monday, 25 January 2010
He is about as close as it is humanly possible to get to being a real life Batman and he does it without resorting to capes, masks or the assistance of a Boy Wonder. Instead he uses spies, disguises, sponsorship and a hefty supply of nerve to achieve his near-legendary reputation.
For years, Felix Baumgartner has taken to the skies in a way most of us can only hope to emulate in an aeroplane. From skydiving to base-jumping, his endeavours have thrilled onlookers and frequently enraged the authorities. But like most extreme athletes, Baumgartner has always been on the lookout for the ultimate rush - and now, it appears, he has found it.
His goal, which he hopes to achieve this year, is to make the highest ever parachute jump. It will be from well into the stratosphere. It will mean breaking the speed of sound. And, if it succeeds, it will break a record that has stood for 50 years.
Several others have attempted to break that long-standing record, which has stood for decades as marks for other altitude extremes have tumbled. The most recent attempt was made in 2008, by a former French paratrooper, Michel Fournier, who spent years preparing only to have the balloon that was set to take him up break from its moorings and float away.
Luckily, Baumgartner has a former US Airforce colonel, Joe Kittinger, to guide him. And Kittinger is not just any air force colonel. For it was he who leapt from a gondola attached to a high altitude balloon in 1960 to fall from a height of 19.5 miles. He is the only man who can advise the challenger from experience. "He was my childhood hero," Baumgartner says.
The Austrian adventurer has come a long way from the boy who worshipped his Vietnam-veteran predecessor. Now Baumgartner is occasionally known as the "God of the Skies". His more prosaic nickname is 'Fearless Felix". He is best known in Britain for his extraordinary feat of July seven years ago, when he skydived over the English Channel starting thousands of feet above Dover and flew without any external propulsion across to Calais.
Baumgartner did it by jumping out of the back of a so-called "skyvan", a fixed wing aircraft, at 32,000 feet with a 6-foot span carbon wing and oxygen bottles strapped to his back. He flew the 22 miles to Calais in a mixture of free fall and gliding, reaching a top speed of over 200 mph. He finally opened his parachute at 4,000 feet, and floated gently down to the grassy cliff top of Cap Blanc Nez some seven minutes later.
The 40- year-old Austrian extreme sportsman pulled off the stunt 94 years after Luis Bleriot's first powered flight across the Channel, and his account of his experience was almost poetic: "While I was still at a high altitude, I flew into my own shadow, which the morning sun was casting on to a cloud together with a rainbow . I don't think anyone has experienced that before," Baumgartner said.
Yet his Channel crossing was a comparatively simple undertaking, mainly because it had the approval of the authorities on both sides. It required no resorting to SAS-style covert activities. Baumgartner's habit of base-jumping – the highly dangerous business of throwing oneself off high buildings – is his stock in trade, and the authorities in most countries do their best to stop him.
Some say that his most dangerous feat was a leap from the statue of Christ the Redeemer in Rio De Janeiro – a relatively small structure, but all the riskier as a result. But Baumgartner says he conquered his base jump Everest in December 2007, when he chucked himself off the 1,280 foot high Taipei 101 Tower - the highest building in the world until earlier this month. His free fall lasted five seconds before his parachute flew open. "I've finally fulfilled a dream," he exclaimed.
He had attempted to jump off the building on three previous occasions but had been caught each time by Taipei security guards. He eventually had to use spies to case the building in advance. They noted the positions of security cameras, smuggled in his parachute and hid it the ceiling of a top floor lavatory. Baumgartner dressed in several different disguises in order to inspect the building unnoticed before making his jump. Eight years beforehand he jumped off the 1,242 foot high Petronas twin tower complex in Kuala Lumpur, which was then the world's highest building. Batman eat your heart out.
Still, even those feats would pale in comparison to the altitude record that Baumgartner now hopes to set. His collaboration with Kittinger is a throwback to an era before the first American sub-orbital space trip and in the midst of the cold war, when the goal was to provide data on the effect of high-altitude bailouts from aircraft. Then, as now, the risks were considerable. A pressurised glove failed on the ascent and his hand swelled up to twice its usual size. But Kittinger decided to go ahead with the jump anyway, falling at 614 mph, slowed only slightly by his drogue parachute.
His previous jump, a year earlier, nearly killed him. Falling out of another gondola at 76,400 feet in November 1959, Kittinger's equipment failed and caused him to lose consciousness. His body went into a terrifying flat spin that caused him to rotate like a propeller blade, turning at a speed of 120 mph. The G forces on parts of his body were calculated to be a staggering 22 times the force of gravity. Fortunately the automatic parachute opener in his equipment functioned properly. It saved his life. So is Baumgartner scared? "Of course," he says. "I always use fear to my advantage, for focus."
The attempt is planned for an as-yet unnamed location in North America. Dressed in a specially modified full pressure suit and helmet, he will ascend to the stratosphere in a pressurised capsule attached to a 450-foot high helium filled balloon. He then intends to jump out at an altitude he hopes will exceed 120,000 feet, or nearly 23 miles, and make a descent lasting over five minutes. Scientists say he will almost certainly break the sound barrier during his free fall and become the first human to do so without the aid of a machine.
Baumgartner views his forthcoming attempt with a mixture of excitement and adrenalin-fuelled apprehension. "No one really knows what that will be like," he says. "The fact is that you have a lot of different air flows coming around your body. Some parts of you body are in supersonic flow and some parts are in transonic flow. What kind of reaction that creates, I can't tell you." Baumgartners' backers, the Austrian Red Bull energy drink firm, say that if all goes well, he should break the speed of sound some 35 seconds into his descent.
Colonel Kittinger, who is one of the few people to have experienced such high altitude free fall is quite clear about what the project entails. "It is extremely hostile up there and the further you fall, the friendlier it becomes," he said.
The main challenge facing Baumgartner will be to stop his body going into the kind of consciousness-robbing flat spin that Kittinger experienced. Most scientists say it is almost impossible to pull out of a spin once it gains momentum. As a result Baumgartner, like his predecessor, will be equipped with a device which will open his parachute automatically should he black out.
Yet his jump is also an attempt to further space exploration. Baumgartner says it will help to make it possible to bring astronauts back to Earth alive, should their space capsules malfunction on entering the stratosphere. "We want to prove that astronauts can make it safely back to Earth, if they are forced to bail out at 120,000 feet," he said.
Yet Baumgartner may find that he has got more than a 120,000-foot free fall and the threat of flat spins to contend with during his record breaking attempt. Michel Fournier has also pledged to have a go at beating Kittinger's record in 2010, if he secures the right funding. A race for the sky could be on.
Monday, August 24, 2009
Obama Joker artist unmasked: A fellow Chicagoan
"After Obama was elected, you had all of these people who basically saw him as the second coming of Christ. "From my perspective, there wasn't much substance to him... In terms of domestic policy, I don't think he's really doing much good for the country right now. We don't have to 'hero worship' the guy."http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/washington/2009/08/obama-joker-artist.html
Obama Joker artist unmasked: A fellow Chicagoan
August 17, 2009
When cryptic posters portraying President Obama as the Joker from "Batman" began popping up around Los Angeles and other cities, the question many asked was, Who is behind the image?
Was it an ultra-conservative grassroots group or a disgruntled street artist going against the grain?
Nope, it turns out, just a 20-year-old college student from Chicago.
Bored during his winter school break, Firas Alkhateeb, a senior history major at the University of Illinois, crafted the picture of Obama with the recognizable clown makeup using Adobe's Photoshop software.
Alkhateeb had been tinkering with the program to improve the looks of photos he had taken on his clunky Kodak camera. The Joker project was his grandest undertaking yet. Using a tutorial he'd found online about how to "Jokerize" portraits, he downloaded the October 23 Time Magazine cover of Obama and began digitally painting over it.
Four or five hours later, he happily had his product.
On Jan. 18, Alkhateeb uploaded the image to photo-sharing site Flickr. Over the next two months, he amassed just a couple thousand hits, he said.
Then the counter exploded after a still-anonymous rogue famously found his image, digitally removed the references to Time Magazine, captioned the picture with the word "socialism" and hung printed copies around L.A., making headlines.
Alkhateeb's original Flickr page surpassed 20,000 views. The Times found his Flickr site last week thanks to a tip left by a loyal reader of The Ticket. By Friday, the page had been taken down.
On Alkhateeb's page, a manipulated image condemning fellow Chicagoan and White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel (captioned "epic fail") was mixed in with parodies of the "Guitar Hero" game franchises -- dubbed Quran Hero -- and of Napoleon riding a motorcycle.
Flickr had removed the Joker image due to copyright-infringement concerns, Alkhateeb says the company told him in an e-mail. A Flickr spokeswoman declined to comment due to a company policy that bars discussing inquiries about individual users.
Alkhateeb says he wasn't actively trying to cover his tracks, but he did want to lay low. He initially had concerns about connecting his name with anything critical of the president -- especially living in Chicago, where people are "very, very liberal," he said.
"After Obama was elected, you had all of these people who basically saw him as the second coming of Christ," Alkhateeb said. "From my perspective, there wasn't much substance to him."
"I abstained from voting in November," he wrote in an e-mail. "Living in Illinois, my vote means close to nothing as there was no chance Obama would not win the state." If he had to choose a politician to support, Alkhateeb said, it would be Ohio Democratic Rep. Dennis Kucinich.
Possibly becoming a villain in his home city wasn't his only worry. Time's cover and the Joker obviously aren't Alkhateeb's copyrights to fool around with.
Concerned about a lawsuit, Alkhateeb, an unnamed superstar whose nationally recognized artwork had stunned friends and family, was relieved that the situation had floated for months without any major news organizations discovering that he was the man behind the paint.
After we contacted him, he hesitantly agreed to an interview.
If it's any consolation, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a nonprofit organization that defends digital rights, says Alkhateeb has a strong fair-use defense if Time or DC Comics decides to take him to court -- that is if one even does file a lawsuit.
"You really want to think twice about going after a political commenter," said Corynne McSherry, a senior staff attorney at the EFF. In Time's case, "a news organization probably doesn't want to be in the situation of pursuing political criticism."
Perhaps the strongest case for anyone, McSherry said, is for Alkhateeb to claim money derived from people selling T-shirts with his picture. Is it worth pursuing? "It would be nice, but it's not that big of a deal," Alkhateeb said.
Although Alkhateeb claims he was making no political statement with the artwork, he's plugged into the Washington debate. Though born in the United States, his Palestinian family closely follows Middle Eastern politics.
"I think he's definitely doing better than Bush was," Alkhateeb said of Obama. Alkhateeb's views on foreign relations align with the Democrats, he said, while he prefers Republican ideals on domestic issues.
Alkhateeb's assessment of Obama: "In terms of domestic policy, I don't think he's really doing much good for the country right now," he said. "We don't have to 'hero worship' the guy."
Someday, Alkhateeb hopes to be a history teacher and high school football coach. He won't be pursuing a full-time career in art, but he'll continue playing with Photoshop on the side. He's honored by Shepard Fairey's assessment of his Joker picture, but disagrees with some of Fairey's comments criticizing the message of the Socialism poster.
"He made a picture of Bush as a vampire," Alkhateeb said about Fairey. "That's kind of speaking with two faces."
Regardless, Alkhateeb does agree with the Obama "Hope" artist about "socialism" being the wrong caption for the Joker image. "It really doesn't make any sense to me at all," he said. "To accuse him of being a socialist is really ... immature. First of all, who said being a socialist is evil?"
-- Mark Milian
Thursday, April 23, 2009
Batman Upstages Bugs Bunny on Giant Mural
http://carpetbagger.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/04/08/batman-replaces-bugs-bunny-on-giant-mural-at-warner-brothers-burbank-studio-lot/April 8, 2009
Batman Upstages Bugs Bunny on Giant Mural at Warner’s Burbank Studio Lot
By Brooks Barnes
Every studio has them: giant posters (usually of upcoming movies) prominently displayed next to the front gates that serve to stroke the egos of powerful producers, directors or stars. It’s a big deal to get one, particularly at a studio like Warner Brothers, which churns out dozens of films and television shows every year.
So Warner understandably stirred up discussion a couple months ago when it took down the giant vanity billboard dedicated to its animation department and DC Comics. The sign, a three-dimensional version of Mount Rushmore with Bugs Bunny and pals as the presidents, had been in place for 15 years on the north side of Stage 3. Workers began erecting a new one (behind a scrim) around the time that the studio laid off several hundred people, prompting some more talk: If Warner needs to cut costs by laying off the rank and file, why is it spending money re-doing a billboard?
The answer came last night. The studio unveiled a new billboard – officially a “mural” – that primarily showcases super heroes from DC Comics against the Hall of Justice from the series “Super Friends.” Batman (go figure) looms largest, with Wonder Woman and the Green Lantern (both getting feature films in coming years) also appearing. Making cameos: Scooby Doo, Tweety Bird, Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck. At night, black lights reveal villains like Catwoman and Two-Face in the background.
The mural – Warner’s not saying how much it cost – was planned back when the studio was still hot on making a tentpole movie featuring multiple heroes called “Justice League.” A Warner statement said it was time for an update after 15 years, particularly as the studio’s animation strategy has shifted (repeatedly) over that time.
Over 500 people attended the unveiling. Warner served mini-cupcakes and popcorn, handed out free DVDs and rolled out the Mystery Machine and Batmobile for attendees to admire. Some fans came dressed as characters, and Peter Roth, president of Warner Brothers Television, gave a short speech. Bizarrely, Mario Lopez hosted the “festival,” which featured a performance by an all-girl dance team from the 2009 edition of the MTV show “Randy Jackson Presents America’s Best Dance Crew.”
Saturday, April 4, 2009
Hands-on with Batman: Dark Asylum
http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2009/03/hands-on-with-batman-dark-asylum.arsHands-on with Batman: Dark Asylum
We got to play Batman: Dark Asylum at GDC 2009, and our expectations were more than met. This is a dark, violent, and thrilling take on the character... complete with explosive foam.
By Ben Kuchera
March 27, 2009
While it can sometimes be hard to actually get your hands on a game to play at GDC—people talk about their titles more than they're willing to let writers try them—I was delighted to be able to spend about 20 minutes with Batman: Dark Asylum.
We weren't able to show the story; instead we were offered the chance to play some of the Challenge Rooms, and see how the battle system works out. The good news is that the title looks and feels like Batman; in one room I was using my Batarang to jump from gargoyle to gargoyle in a large gothic area, before swooping down to take out enemies... one at a time.
If an enemy walks below you while you're stalking, you can tap the "Y" button to slide down for a moment, grab him, and string him up. If you're feeling particularly nasty, you can glide away, turn back, and then cut the rope with a batarang, causing him to fall. You don't kill anyone with the game, and the title is keeping a Teen rating, much the same way that Dark Knight was a PG-13 movie with more than enough darkness. In this title, Batman comes off as suitably badass and menacing.
The gadgets are also impressive. There is a Sonic Batarang that you can throw which sends off a pulse to attract enemies to investigate, and then detonates when they are near. There is explosive gel that you can spray on the ground to drop down a level and take someone out. You can throw a Batarang to take out enemies; the right bumper allows the camera to follow the flying weapon. Skulking through the levels, using every trick you can find to battle your enemies, causing them to scatter in terror as they're picked off... it really does feel like you're the godda***d Batman. That's not to say you'll always rely on terror to do your job: you're more than able to take down a group of enemies with some liberal use of acrobatics and misdirection. With one brutal attack I disarmed an opponent and cracked his skull with his own baseball bat, before dropping it, confusing the other two enemies with my cape, and then slamming the fourth into the wall. Delicious. It's hard to describe, but you feel trapped and desperate in the game, yet more than able to tackle the challenges ahead of you.
The other good news is that the voice cast from the sublime Batman: The Animated Series is providing the vocals. I'm tired of Bale's cartoony growl from the movies. Kevin Conroy from the cartoon ironically sounds more like Batman in my head. Mark Hamill is the quintessential Joker, and I'm told that Mr. Skywalker was a blast to work with in the studio, riffing on his lines and providing in-character improvisation for the game. "You just hear his laugh, and it makes you go..." the Warner Bros. spokesmen shivers, and I know what he's talking about. Hamill does a helluva Joker.
The combat is cinematic without making you feel weighed down by the animations. Finishing moves and brief moments of slow-mo to show off a brutal attack give you the feeling of power and weight. This is how the Batman operates: he feels like an almost unstoppable foe, but still human; the world's greatest detective is more than well represented in Dark Asylum.
Sunday, February 15, 2009
DC readies lesbian Batwoman for take-off
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2009/feb/11/lesbian-batwoman-dc-comicsDC readies lesbian Batwoman for take-off
Alison Flood
guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 11 February 2009
Fans at Comic Con in New York this week were treated to a sneak preview of DC Comics's highest profile gay superhero, Batwoman, described by her creator as "the kind of sexy that makes you think of a succubus with a very bad attitude".
With fiery red hair, a skin-tight leather cat suit and knee-high red stiletto boots - complete with a blood red bat symbol on her ample chest - Batwoman, the alter ego of Kathy Kane, is set to make her debut on bookshelves this June in Detective Comics 854. Her appearance follows the shock – apparent – demise of Bruce Wayne, the multi-millionaire philanthropist who has protected the streets of Gotham City as Batman since 1939.
Writer Greg Rucka said that Batwoman - who first appeared in 1957 but was killed off in 1979 - was "exceptionally cool".
"Yes, she's a lesbian. She's also a redhead. It is an element of her character. It is not her character. If people are going to have problems with it, that's their issue," he told Comic Book Resources. "Frankly, she should be judged on her merits."
Kane was first outed in 2006 when it was revealed that she was the former lover of Gotham detective Renee Montoya. She has made passing appearances in the comics since, with June's outing to be her most high-profile.
"Nobody has really seen her. They don't really know who this person is," said Rucka. "You are going to figure out what she does, why she does it and who she has to help her. I obviously get into what makes her different than Batman. They share a lot, more than including a bat. But they have different techniques and different approaches."
He expects readers to be shocked when they read the first issue. "I think people are going to fall out of their seats," he said, providing the first few pages of the comic at his blog.
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Governor Batman? Kilmer May Seek Office
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/07/arts/07arts-GOVERNORBATM_BRF.html
Governor Batman? Kilmer May Seek Office
Dave Itzkoff
February 6, 2009
Having variously portrayed God, Moses and Philip II of Macedon in his unpredictable career, Val Kilmer, below, may be contemplating a role that would carry more real-world authority. In an interview with The Associated Press, Mr. Kilmer said he may consider running for governor of New Mexico in 2010, when term-limit laws would prevent Gov. Bill Richardson from seeking a third stay in office (although opponents of Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg of New York thought the same thing). “I’m just looking for ways to be contributive,” Mr. Kilmer said, according to The A.P. “And if that ends up being where I can make a substantial contribution, then I’ll run.” Though born and raised in Los Angeles, Mr. Kilmer, a star of films including “The Doors” and “Batman Forever,” has lived for two decades in New Mexico, where he has a 6,000-acre ranch outside Santa Fe. He said he had not conclusively decided to seek office but told The A.P., “If I run, I’m going to be the next governor.”
A version of this article appeared in print on February 7, 2009, on page C2 of the New York edition.
Governor Batman? Kilmer May Seek Office
Dave Itzkoff
February 6, 2009
Having variously portrayed God, Moses and Philip II of Macedon in his unpredictable career, Val Kilmer, below, may be contemplating a role that would carry more real-world authority. In an interview with The Associated Press, Mr. Kilmer said he may consider running for governor of New Mexico in 2010, when term-limit laws would prevent Gov. Bill Richardson from seeking a third stay in office (although opponents of Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg of New York thought the same thing). “I’m just looking for ways to be contributive,” Mr. Kilmer said, according to The A.P. “And if that ends up being where I can make a substantial contribution, then I’ll run.” Though born and raised in Los Angeles, Mr. Kilmer, a star of films including “The Doors” and “Batman Forever,” has lived for two decades in New Mexico, where he has a 6,000-acre ranch outside Santa Fe. He said he had not conclusively decided to seek office but told The A.P., “If I run, I’m going to be the next governor.”
A version of this article appeared in print on February 7, 2009, on page C2 of the New York edition.
Sunday, December 21, 2008
Eddie is Riddler in new Batman
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/showbiz/bizarre/article2048300.ece
Eddie is Riddler in new Batman
By GORDON SMART and JESS ROGERS
12-17-8
FUNNYMAN EDDIE MURPHY will play The Riddler in the next Batman movie, The Sun can reveal.
The Beverly Hills Cop star, 47, has been signed up by British director CHRISTOPHER NOLAN to reprise the role played by JIM CARREY in 1995’s Batman Forever.
The surprise move follows speculation linking Pirates of the Caribbean star JOHNNY DEPP to the part.
The film, set for a 2010 release, is being developed under the working title Gotham.
Execs have also signed up rising Transformers star SHIA LABEOUF, 22, to play Robin.
CHRISTIAN BALE will return as Bruce Wayne, while MICHAEL CAINE will again play Bruce’s assistant Alfred.
Meanwhile, Brit RACHEL WEISZ is said to be up for the Catwoman role.
Insiders also revealed to The Sun the flick will end on a cliffhanger over whether Batman survives a blast at Wayne Towers.
Nolan had been tight-lipped about the future of the Batman films after being rocked by the January death of HEATH LEDGER — tipped to receive a posthumous Oscar for his role as The Joker in Batman Returns.
A film insider said: “Chris wasn’t sure if he wanted to do another movie but as soon as he decided to, he got the wheels in motion.
“Eddie’s a fantastic addition. Everyone’s excited to see what he does as the Riddler.”
g.smart@the-sun.co.uk
Eddie is Riddler in new Batman
By GORDON SMART and JESS ROGERS
12-17-8
FUNNYMAN EDDIE MURPHY will play The Riddler in the next Batman movie, The Sun can reveal.
The Beverly Hills Cop star, 47, has been signed up by British director CHRISTOPHER NOLAN to reprise the role played by JIM CARREY in 1995’s Batman Forever.
The surprise move follows speculation linking Pirates of the Caribbean star JOHNNY DEPP to the part.
The film, set for a 2010 release, is being developed under the working title Gotham.
Execs have also signed up rising Transformers star SHIA LABEOUF, 22, to play Robin.
CHRISTIAN BALE will return as Bruce Wayne, while MICHAEL CAINE will again play Bruce’s assistant Alfred.
Meanwhile, Brit RACHEL WEISZ is said to be up for the Catwoman role.
Insiders also revealed to The Sun the flick will end on a cliffhanger over whether Batman survives a blast at Wayne Towers.
Nolan had been tight-lipped about the future of the Batman films after being rocked by the January death of HEATH LEDGER — tipped to receive a posthumous Oscar for his role as The Joker in Batman Returns.
A film insider said: “Chris wasn’t sure if he wanted to do another movie but as soon as he decided to, he got the wheels in motion.
“Eddie’s a fantastic addition. Everyone’s excited to see what he does as the Riddler.”
g.smart@the-sun.co.uk
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
Batman RIP
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/arts_and_culture/7753966.stmComic Batman reaches end of road
Bruce Wayne has fought crime in the comics since 1939
11-28-8
Warning: If you do not want to know about the plot of Batman RIP, stop reading now.
Batman's alter ego Bruce Wayne has apparently been killed off in the latest issue of the superhero comic.
Scottish writer Grant Morrison revealed earlier this week that Wayne would either retire or be killed in a clash with crime syndicate Black Glove.
The story - Batman RIP - sees Batman shot by villain Simon Hurt, who claims to be Wayne's father Dr Thomas Wayne.
The caped crusader first appeared in comics in 1939, and has spawned a 1960s TV series and a host of films.
The "death" of Wayne's father - shot alongside his mother by a robber when he was a boy - was the catalyst for the young industrialist to become the vigilante crime fighter Batman.
New Batman?
In the final scene, Hurt tries to escape in a helicopter after shooting Batman.
But the wounded superhero throws himself at the helicopter, causing it to crash. The comic story ends without a frame showing Wayne's body, however.
Morrison said earlier this week: "This is the end of Bruce Wayne as Batman. But, like I say, it's so much better than death.
"People have killed characters in the past but to me, that kind of ends the story. I like to keep the story twisting and turning.
"So what I am doing is a fate worse than death. Things that no-one would expect to happen to these guys at all."
Wayne may be dead, but publisher DC Comics shows no sign of bringing to an end the Batman franchise.
Morrison would not reveal who would be the new Batman, but the frontrunners include Tim Drake, who has been Robin since 1991, and Dick Grayson - the original Boy Wonder - who now protects Gotham City as Nightwing.
It is not the first time a superhero has met an unfortunate end in the comic world.
Last year, Captain America was killed after being shot by a sniper in New York.
***
http://www.examiner.com/x-1739-Los-Angeles-TV-and-Film-Writing-Examiner~y2008m11d26-Is-it-Curtains-for-Batman-Hardly
Is it Curtains for Batman? Hardly
November 26, 2008
by Susan Marx, Los Angeles TV and Film Writing Examiner
Fear not... he'll be back
News Flash! Scottish Batman comic strip writer Grant Morrison announces that today's strip entitled "Batman Rip" marks the demise of the caped crusader! Oh no! Is it curtains for Batman? Hardly. Bruce Wayne may die, or appear to die and then return in some other form, but Batman is forever!
Clue #1: A sound byte fed to the media by Mr. Morrison himself:
What I am doing is a fate worse than death, things that no one would expect to happen to these guys at all
So, RIP (rest in peace) means something besides death. We already get that. I guess we'll have to read the next strip to find out how dark and dastardly his rest in peace will be. This is a classic publicity stunt wrapped in a "cliff hanger". You can bet they'll be counting the numbers who hit the strip today. And with luck, the story will go viral. Or maybe it already has...
Here are two more cents:
D.C. Comics (which is owned by Warner Brothers) is pursuing the rumored storyline of having numerous D.C. superheros together in one film and this is setting us up for it. The death of the megabudget superhero ensemble pic Justice League (also a WB venture) a few months ago clinches a possible D.C. Universe ensemble pic to rival Marvel's plans for The Avengers, which will feature IronMan, Captain America and The Hulk in 2011.
What's most interesting to me here is watching the starmaker machinery in motion. Just how totally CAN the marketing gurus manipulate the masses into buying more movie tickets and memorabilia? And don't forget, The Dark Knight dvd is out on BluRay disc December 2! You gotta love it. They're going for the gold.
Morrison's announcement (which was most likely dictated to him by Warner Brothers mid-level management who had it dictated to him by an anonymous but obvious Warner Brothers kingpin) couldn't come at a better time. It's Thanksgiving weekend and this is right on the heels of the record-breaking Batman feature The Dark Knight . It also coincides perfectly with other strategically placed media blurbs about the storyline for the sequel "under wraps". If it IS curtains for Batman, then this...
Clue #2: Batman is going to need some serious help from his friends. If you ask me, he's prepping a standing ovation.
The real story is the rivalry between studio heads at Paramount (who has Marvel in their corner) and Warner Brothers (who owns D.C.) Looks like they're going to duke it out in 2011.
Saturday, September 13, 2008
‘DARK KNIGHT’ EXCLUSIVE
http://splashpage.mtv.com/2008/09/08/dark-knight-exclusive-michael-caine-says-johnny-depp-is-the-riddler-philip-seymour-hoffman-is-the-penguin/
‘DARK KNIGHT’ EXCLUSIVE: Michael Caine Says Johnny Depp Is The Riddler, Philip Seymour Hoffman Is The Penguin
Published by Casey Seijas on Monday, September 8, 2008
It’s one of the biggest — and most hotly debated — questions in fandom…which actors (and characters) will director Christopher Nolan enlist as a villain for his third “Batman” film? Rumors have abounded since the release of “The Dark Knight,” and Nolan has remained fiercely tight-lipped. But now, has one of his main players revealed some of the biggest casting news of the decade?
In an interview with MTV News conducted just hours ago at the Toronto Film Festival, Michael Caine — there to promote “Is There Anybody There?” — seemed to confirm rumors that the next installment of the “Batman” film franchise will feature two very well-known names playing the roles of The Riddler and the Bumbershoot Bandit, The Penguin. “They’ve already got them in mind,” said Caine, when asked who he’d like to see take up arms against the Caped Crusader. “It’s Johnny Depp as The Riddler. And The Penguin is Philip Seymour Hoffman. I read it in the paper.”
So Caine is like the rest of us, reading gossip in the tabloids, right? Except for one thing…according to the actor, he confirmed the news through the studio itself.
“When Christopher [Nolan] said we were going to do ‘The Dark Knight’ next, I didn’t what that meant in Batman terms,” related Caine, who plays Bruce Wayne’s loyal butler, Alfred Pennyworth. “I said, ‘What’s the story?’ and he said The Joker. I said, ‘Oh, s–t! How are you going to top Jack [Nicholson]?’ He said, ‘Well, I’ve cast Heath Ledger. And I went ‘Ha! I couldn’t top Jack, but if anyone could, maybe Heath could.’ And he did.
“I was with [a Warner Bros.] executive and I said, ‘Are we going to make another one?’ They said yeah. I said, ‘How the hell are we going to top Heath? And he says ‘I’ll tell you how you top Heath — Johnny Depp as The Riddler and Philip Seymour Hoffman as The Penguin.’ I said, ‘S–t, they’ve done it again!’” [Laughs]
While rumors of Depp and Hoffman have been hot topics around the upcoming film for quite some time, this is the first instance of one of the film’s stars speaking about the news, as well as Caine citing an albeit unnamed WB executive.
Meanwhile, when asked if he’s spoken to Nolan about the news or the next installment’s script, Caine made mention of Nolan’s vacation, and hinted that, “No. He’s gone. He’ll come back with a script sometime.”
‘DARK KNIGHT’ EXCLUSIVE: Michael Caine Says Johnny Depp Is The Riddler, Philip Seymour Hoffman Is The Penguin
Published by Casey Seijas on Monday, September 8, 2008
It’s one of the biggest — and most hotly debated — questions in fandom…which actors (and characters) will director Christopher Nolan enlist as a villain for his third “Batman” film? Rumors have abounded since the release of “The Dark Knight,” and Nolan has remained fiercely tight-lipped. But now, has one of his main players revealed some of the biggest casting news of the decade?
In an interview with MTV News conducted just hours ago at the Toronto Film Festival, Michael Caine — there to promote “Is There Anybody There?” — seemed to confirm rumors that the next installment of the “Batman” film franchise will feature two very well-known names playing the roles of The Riddler and the Bumbershoot Bandit, The Penguin. “They’ve already got them in mind,” said Caine, when asked who he’d like to see take up arms against the Caped Crusader. “It’s Johnny Depp as The Riddler. And The Penguin is Philip Seymour Hoffman. I read it in the paper.”
So Caine is like the rest of us, reading gossip in the tabloids, right? Except for one thing…according to the actor, he confirmed the news through the studio itself.
“When Christopher [Nolan] said we were going to do ‘The Dark Knight’ next, I didn’t what that meant in Batman terms,” related Caine, who plays Bruce Wayne’s loyal butler, Alfred Pennyworth. “I said, ‘What’s the story?’ and he said The Joker. I said, ‘Oh, s–t! How are you going to top Jack [Nicholson]?’ He said, ‘Well, I’ve cast Heath Ledger. And I went ‘Ha! I couldn’t top Jack, but if anyone could, maybe Heath could.’ And he did.
“I was with [a Warner Bros.] executive and I said, ‘Are we going to make another one?’ They said yeah. I said, ‘How the hell are we going to top Heath? And he says ‘I’ll tell you how you top Heath — Johnny Depp as The Riddler and Philip Seymour Hoffman as The Penguin.’ I said, ‘S–t, they’ve done it again!’” [Laughs]
While rumors of Depp and Hoffman have been hot topics around the upcoming film for quite some time, this is the first instance of one of the film’s stars speaking about the news, as well as Caine citing an albeit unnamed WB executive.
Meanwhile, when asked if he’s spoken to Nolan about the news or the next installment’s script, Caine made mention of Nolan’s vacation, and hinted that, “No. He’s gone. He’ll come back with a script sometime.”
Thursday, September 4, 2008
The Dark Knight Tops $500 Million at Box Office
http://www.usmagazine.com/the-dark-knight-tops-500-million-at-the-box-office
The Dark Knight Tops $500 Million at Box Office
Sunday August 31, 2008
After forty-five days in release, The Dark Knight continues to make movie history!
The Dark Knight– which was the fastest flick to earn $400 million – has become the second movie in history to gross over $500 million at the box office the Associated Press reported on Sunday.
The Batman sequel has raked in over $502.4 million in just over six weeks - half the time it took Titanic, which reached the half-billion mark in a little more than three months the AP reported.
The Dark Knight ranks second behind Titanic's $601 million gross.
Dan Fellman, head of distribution at Warner Bros., said he expects The Dark Knight to finish at about $530 million, though it could reach $550 million.
"I keep raising the number because it just keeps holding better than expected," Fellman told the AP.
"It's wonderful!" Christian Bale told Usmagazine.com of the movie's box office success. "But I'm not a business man. I just enjoy doing what I do and whatever happens after that is gravy."
The Dark Knight is expected to reach about $505 million by Labor Day, the AP reported.
The Dark Knight Tops $500 Million at Box Office
Sunday August 31, 2008
After forty-five days in release, The Dark Knight continues to make movie history!
The Dark Knight– which was the fastest flick to earn $400 million – has become the second movie in history to gross over $500 million at the box office the Associated Press reported on Sunday.
The Batman sequel has raked in over $502.4 million in just over six weeks - half the time it took Titanic, which reached the half-billion mark in a little more than three months the AP reported.
The Dark Knight ranks second behind Titanic's $601 million gross.
Dan Fellman, head of distribution at Warner Bros., said he expects The Dark Knight to finish at about $530 million, though it could reach $550 million.
"I keep raising the number because it just keeps holding better than expected," Fellman told the AP.
"It's wonderful!" Christian Bale told Usmagazine.com of the movie's box office success. "But I'm not a business man. I just enjoy doing what I do and whatever happens after that is gravy."
The Dark Knight is expected to reach about $505 million by Labor Day, the AP reported.
Thursday, August 21, 2008
'Dark Knight' 2nd Highest Domestic Grosser
http://www.deadlinehollywooddaily.com/dark-knight-to-become-2nd-highest-grosser/
'Dark Knight' Today Became 2nd Highest Domestic Grosser Behind Only 'Titanic'
I'm no joker: the Warner Bros comic book caper achieved this domestic gross milestone Saturday on its 30th day of release. As of Sunday, The Dark Knight's North American cumulative stood at $$471,493,000, ahead of Fox's Star Wars (incluing all re-releases) with $460,998,007. No. 1 is still Paramount's Titanic with $600,788,188. Of course, none of these totals are adjusted for inflation, or higher ticket prices, or number of tickets sold, etc. This weekend, the latest Batman installment was knocked out of No. 1 after 4 straight weekends as the top movie at the box office. It finished #2.
Posted by Nikki Finke on Saturday, Aug 16th, 2008
'Dark Knight' Today Became 2nd Highest Domestic Grosser Behind Only 'Titanic'
I'm no joker: the Warner Bros comic book caper achieved this domestic gross milestone Saturday on its 30th day of release. As of Sunday, The Dark Knight's North American cumulative stood at $$471,493,000, ahead of Fox's Star Wars (incluing all re-releases) with $460,998,007. No. 1 is still Paramount's Titanic with $600,788,188. Of course, none of these totals are adjusted for inflation, or higher ticket prices, or number of tickets sold, etc. This weekend, the latest Batman installment was knocked out of No. 1 after 4 straight weekends as the top movie at the box office. It finished #2.
Posted by Nikki Finke on Saturday, Aug 16th, 2008
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