Batman: The Dark Knight (First Ledger Pics, Video & Spoi

This is from a friend who works across from the Chicago Post Office which is being used as the Gotham City Bank which caught on fire today unrelated to the filming of Batman. More info on that below:

I arrived at 9am. At that point they were already in the process of filming in front of the post office, using a grey jeep with a camera crane mounted on it to film:

The gray suburban comes around the corner and comes to a fast stop infront of the post office / bank stairs. The three goons and the Joker (Heath himself, in mask) jump out of the car. He hangs back for a moment, looking around and scoping out the area as the others run straight through the doors and inside. Wash rinse and repeat for three times that I saw.

Done with that, pretty much the entire production crew that was out on the street for that scene moves down the street to where the school bus is in the fake wall. Commence an hour of setup work, with a camera being setup on the Canal St. side of the street (looking down Van Buren and towards the bus.) The scene is partially being filmed by the camera truck, which is on its own wooden ramp right next to the bus, so that its back half is lifted perhaps a foot off of the ground.

As they are setting up, SEVEN (not twenty), seven other school buses come down Van Buren, facing towards Wacker, cued up on the street. At this point an idea started to form in my head... and it turned out to be right.

Last chance to avoid your scene spoiler here!

The extras are all set, normal cars, Gotham Police cars (regular and SUV type) and Gotham cabs are all set. The scene begins to roll:

All of the school buses begin to drive past the fake wall / school bus that is in the wall. Who is driving it? Heath Ledger's stunt double (who has green hair, identical costume, no makeup, and clown mask).

In between the sixth and the seventh bus, the Joker-driven school bus pulls out of the broken wall (with debris on top no less) and joins the caravan of school buses. As they are pulling away, five Gotham squad cars rush up to the broken wall and CUT!

This scene repeated approximately five times, and on the sixth time the scene began to run, but was interupted by the fire that has already been talked about.

So there you have it, the school bus is the escape vehicle, and it escapes by joining a convoy of seven other buses.

After the fire debacle, which occurred around 11:20am, they were preparing to shoot again around 1 or so. During this time, after the fire trucks had cleared out, partial demolition took place on the fake wall, with the doors and broken framework being removed.

As this was happening, the grey suburban was being set up on the corner of Van Buren and Canal, just around the corner from the bank. The actors playing the Joker goons and the identically dressed stunt drivers were all there, and eventually one of the stunt drivers got behind the wheel.

Unique to this scene being filmed was that in the back of the surburban, inside, was a camera, and at least three people and Christopher Nolan all crammed into it. When they were finally ready to shoot, Heath Ledger appears in mask and costume. The extras and cars begin moving and they film Ledger getting into the car. Then the car goes around the corner, stops infront of the bank, and all four clowns get out and storm the bank. Seems to be a continuation / extension of what I saw earlier.

They ran this scene about four times, before they stopped. Ledger talked with some people briefly (which let me get the below pictures) and then waved to them and went inside. I left at this point, though I understand that more filming was being setup to take place.

All in all it was a very exciting day. Be on the lookout for the video of the scene to be posted, and enjoy the pictures provided. Also, I wanted to note: Ledger appears paler in these pictures than he did to my naked eye. HOWEVER his face did seem paler to me than is normal, just not as pale as the picture suggests.


First pic of Ledger. Notice the hair: as far as I could tell only the front part of his hair had the green splotch. It looked very hastily done and I have to think it was deliberate. There was no green in the back as far as I could tell. Also, his suit isn't purple as far as I could tell.





Ledger's Stunt Double, trying not to call attention to himself. Note, his hair was entirely green, unlike Ledger's:


Director Christopher Nolan returning to the set after the fire department left:


Gotham police cars ready to make their scene entrance:


The film truck:


In this one, note the suburban in the shot, with its open door after the Joker and the henchmen have left it:












It seems that the Willie Wonka factory is in Gotham!:




Video of scene filming from The Dark Knight:


Video about fire on Batman set here:
http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?sec...l&id=52 39921

me either.

I still cant beleive this movie is coming out. wow, I cant wait to see it. I know the joker wil pwnd batman in this like he do in any other movie or cartoon.

Good lord ANOTHER batman movie is being made

Some more filming of TDK:
http://one.revver.com/watch/247845/flv/affiliate/83874

Joker is going to kick ass for an updated version, but I still think Jack Nichaelson role of joker in the old batman with michael keaton is still unstoppable

I cant wait til this releases

The trailor is awsome

Yea I Like the trailor . But did anyone see the new Trailor where joker is seen clearely?

I saw. actually this joker looks alot more darker and evil than the batman joker back in the 90's

I agree, but it looks iteresting though.