A complex, multi-layered mystery adventure, “Watchmen” is set in an alternate 1985 America in which costumed superheroes are part of the fabric of everyday society, and the Doomsday Clock – which charts the USA’s tension with the Soviet Union – moves closer to midnight.

When one of his former colleagues is murdered, the outlawed but no less determined masked vigilante Rorschach sets out to uncover a plot to kill and discredit all past and present superheroes. As he reconnects with his former crime-fighting legion – a disbanded group of retired superheroes, only one of whom has true powers – Rorschach glimpses a wide-ranging and disturbing conspiracy with links to their shared past and catastrophic consequences for the future.

Their mission is to watch over humanity… but who is watching the Watchmen?

“Watchmen” is directed by Zack Snyder (“300″) and produced by Lawrence Gordon, Lloyd Levin and Deborah Snyder. The screenplay is by David Hayter and Alex Tse, based upon the graphic novel co-created and illustrated by Dave Gibbons and published by DC Comics. Herbert W Gains and Thomas Tull are the executive producers, with Wesley Coller serving as co-producer.

Playing the film’s core group of “Masks,” the adventurers at the center of the story, are Malin Akerman (“27 Dresses”) as Laurie Jupiter, aka Silk Spectre II; Billy Crudup (“The Good Shepherd”) as Jon Osterman, aka Dr Manhattan; Matthew Goode (“Match Point”) as Adrian Veidt, aka Ozymandias; Carla Gugino (“Night at the Museum”) as Sally Jupiter, aka Silk Spectre; Oscar nominee Jackie Earle Haley (“Little Children”) as Walter Kovacs, aka Rorschach; Jeffrey Dean Morgan (TV’s “Grey’s Anatomy”) as Edward Blake, aka The Comedian; and Patrick Wilson (“Little Children”) as Dan Dreiberg, aka Nite Owl II.

Joining Snyder behind the scenes were director of photography Larry Fong (“300″), production designer Alex McDowell (“Charlie and the Chocolate Factory”), editor William Hoy (“300″), costume designer Michael Wilkinson (“300″), and visual effects supervisor John “DJ” DesJardin (“The Kingdom”). The music is by Tyler Bates (“300″).

Warner Bros Pictures and Paramount Pictures present, in Association with Legendary Pictures, a Lawrence Gordon/Lloyd Levin Production, a Zack Snyder Film, “Watchmen,” based on the award-winning graphic novel.

“Watchmen” will be distributed domestically by Warner Bros Pictures and internationally by Paramount Pictures. The film has been rated R by the MPAA for strong graphic violence, sexuality, nudity and language.

www.watchmenmovie.com

ABOUT THE PRODUCTION

WHO WATCHES THE WATCHMEN?

New York, 1985 – a world darkened by fear and paranoia. Where regular human beings who once donned masks to fight crime now hide from their identities. Where the ultimate weapon – an all-powerful superbeing – has tilted the global balance of power, pushing the world implacably closer to nuclear midnight. Where desperate men conjure desperate measures in the stark face of Armageddon.

This is the world of “Watchmen,” the big-screen adaptation of the most celebrated graphic novel of all time, brought to life for the first time by visionary director Zack Snyder.

Spray-painted across a wall in the shadows of a dark, gritty New York alley is a question that pervades “Watchmen”: “Who watches the Watchmen?” Snyder offers, “Who has the right to say what’s right and what’s wrong? And who monitors those who decide what is right and what is wrong?”

Watchmen first appeared as a 12-issue limited comic book series. It was originally published by DC Comics from 1986 to 1987, then republished as the now-legendary graphic novel. The blood-stained “smiley face” on the cover, the image of a clock face advancing one minute closer to midnight, and the twelve-chapter structure are all emblematic of the richly complex work that has long been credited with elevating the graphic novel to a new art form: Watchmen is the only graphic novel to win the prestigious Hugo Award or to appear on Time magazine’s 2005 list of “the 100 best English-language novels from 1923 to the present.” It also earned several Kirby and Eisner Awards.

When it was released, Watchmen resonated with a generation raised with the prospect of nuclear war, not as an abstraction but a palpable reality. It has been praised for giving voice to the anxiety and unease of the times, the fear and awe of power and its abuses, and the cloud of paranoia and impotence experienced every day by average people considered insignificant to the power brokers. In the decades since its publication, it has garnered a legion of diehard fans from all walks of life that continues to grow.

“In the ’80s, there was a lot of paranoia about the Cold War – was it going to escalate and what would happen if it did – and how fragile our society was, how very little would have to be done to completely wipe out everything that we had,” the graphic novel’s co-creator and illustrator Dave Gibbons comments. “That was very real to me. And though it has receded a bit, there are new fears of mass destruction, so I think that paranoia is always going to be there.”

Subverting and deconstructing the concept of superheroes, the story introduced a handful of characters that have been called “more human than super” – real people who deal with ethical and personal issues, who struggle with neuroses and failings and who, aside from Dr Manhattan, are without superpowers. The original team of heroes, the Minutemen, was comprised of The Silhouette, Silk Spectre, The Comedian, Hooded Justice, Captain Metropolis, Nite Owl, Mothman and Dollar Bill. The next generation of masked adventurers – those at the heart of the graphic novel’s mystery – are Silk Spectre II, Nite Owl II, Rorschach, Dr Manhattan, Ozymandias, and The Comedian, who is the only holdover from the Minutemen. Each is a symbol of a different kind of power, obsession, and psychopathology. A different kind of superhero.

Adding to the book’s mystique – with its intricate, multi-layered storytelling and dialogue, symbolism and synchronicity, flashbacks and metafiction – Watchmen has long been considered both in a class of its own…and virtually unfilmable.

For over a decade, producers Lawrence Gordon and Lloyd Levin held the faith that it wasn’t the latter, nurturing the project and waiting for the right moment and the right filmmaker to bring the book to life in a manner worthy of the work itself. “I read Watchmen when it first came out,” Levin relates. “I was a big comic book fan, but I had never read anything like it. It was the first time that I really connected with a graphic novel, just in the sense of feeling that it was my world, the world we all live in. It’s a great piece of literature. The clockwork nature of the storytelling, how profoundly it deals with the human condition, the epic nature of the story – all of that makes it a very thrilling and provocative read.”

The project fully came together when filmmaker Zack Snyder, while still in production on what would become the blockbuster “300,” expressed to the producers his affinity for the graphic novel and desire to direct it. “With Watchmen, there has always been an element of serendipity, coincidence, and timing,” says Gibbons. “It seemed to be that this was a good time for it to happen, and Zack was absolutely the right person to do it properly. But none of this would have ever come to pass without the patience and passion of Larry and Lloyd, who wouldn’t do it until they could do it right.”

Lawrence Gordon offers, “After having worked for over 15 years to get ‘Watchmen’ made, I couldn’t be more thrilled. In every aspect of the production – from developing the screenplay to assembling our creative team, from directing the wonderful cast to realizing the film’s look – Zack Snyder did an incredible job.”

Snyder’s goal was to bring Watchmen to life as it was, not updated to the present, not substantially altered, but to be as true to the work as possible with a motion picture. “Zack respected the source material so much that he knew the only way to adapt it was to hew as close to the source as possible,” says the director’s wife and producing partner, Deborah Snyder. “Changing the time period, or emphasizing any of the characters over the others, would never serve the story that’s told in the graphic novel, which has always been more than the sum of its parts. There were aspects we knew we couldn’t include entirely – like Under the Hood, which was Hollis Mason’s chronicle of the Minutemen, the first masked adventurers from the 1930s, and Tales of the Black Freighter – but we knew we could do something with these ancillary bits on the DVD. For Zack, the key for doing this massive project was to always stay true to the graphic novel.”

“People always said Watchmen was the unfilmable graphic novel,” says Zack Snyder. “The story itself is a pretty straightforward mystery, but inside of that, there’s this huge plot that has international intrigue and a super-villain and everything you want from a superhero story. There is a tonal quality to every bit of it, from the interaction of the characters to the design structure, whether it be a flashback or a flash forward, or a parallel story being told. It’s at once very traditional and also unusual in the way that it’s structured. It doesn’t owe anything to any specific genre; it’s just its own, true to itself and all of its characters.”

The screenplay, adapted by David Hayter and Alex Tse, maintained the graphic novel’s depiction of superheroes as very human characters subject to the same social and psychological pressures as anyone else. Snyder observes, “With all these characters, you feel that they are deeply loved by their creators, regardless of their flaws or how they’re viewed in a real-life context, or what they point to in other icons of superhero mythology.”

“Watchmen is more complex in that it doesn’t just create an archetypal character; it goes through all the variations of why you would put a costume on, why you would want to fight crime,” Gibbons states. “Are you slightly mad? Are you altruistic? And what would happen if you did get super powers and you couldn’t care less?”

 

THE MASKS OF “WATCHMEN”

“Watchmen” unfolds in a world at the brink of war, in which costumed superheroes, called Masks, have been outlawed, driven underground by a society that once revered them but then grew to fear and despise them.

The uniqueness of the project attracted many talents. “We read a lot of actors for the movie,” Levin affirms. “Ultimately the cast that emerged were, of course, talented, but also they absolutely believed in the words that they were saying and in the characters they were playing.”

“‘Watchmen’ studies these characters’ politics, their sexuality and their philosophy, their deviances and inadequacies,” says Patrick Wilson, who plays Nite Owl II. “That’s something you haven’t seen before in this genre.”

Carla Gugino, the film’s Sally Jupiter, notes that the prospect of embodying the characters of what she calls “the ‘Citizen Kane’ of graphic novels” was both daunting and exhilarating. “There was a great amount of responsibility to do it justice,” she says. “There was not one person who felt the need to shine more than anybody else. It was a wonderful true ensemble.”

Cast as Rorschach, Jackie Earle Haley was struck by the opportunity to portray “the humanity behind the mask,” adding, “It explores what the world might be like if people really did dress up in costumes and went into the vigilante business. What are their weaknesses, their morality, the beliefs driving their behavior?”

They also quickly found that Snyder’s enthusiasm was infectious. “I’ve never seen someone more passionate about a project in my life,” says Jeffrey Dean Morgan, who plays The Comedian. “How passionate he is about this novel and making this movie true to it was a sight to behold and it invigorated everybody.”

Even before Snyder selected the cast, fans were trying to select it for him. “About three years ago,” recalls Haley, “people on the ‘Net were suggesting me for the role of Rorschach. At the time I didn’t know the novel. I looked it up and was fascinated by it. So when I heard the film was going ahead, I was very pumped and fought like hell to win the part.”

The only Mask to openly defy the Keene Act, which outlawed costumed heroes, Rorschach remains vigilant, continuing to haunt the gutters of New York, hunting society’s “vermin”…his mask the last thing they see before he metes out his judgment. Rorschach’s moral compass has only two directions: right and wrong.

“We live in a complex world of shades of gray, but for Rorschach, the world is black and white,” says Haley. “For him, complexity makes no sense. Complexity simply justifies the victimization of himself and everybody who is made to suffer from someone else’s special interest.”

Rorschach’s psychology and sense of honor alike are reflected in the mask he wears, with shifting, mirror image patterns of black and white, like the inkblots of a Rorschach test. “Rorschach has this noirish quality about him,” says Snyder. “He is the detective of the story, but at the same time, he is almost psychopathic in his uncompromising pursuit of justice. He’s a very fascinating character. He comes from a broken family and grew up on the mean streets, and then gradually, through events both in and out of the mask, he became Rorschach.”

The mystery unfolds following Rorschach’s discovery that Edward Blake, also known as The Comedian, has been murdered, thrown from his 30th-floor apartment window. A disenchanted killing machine who has spent his years doing unsavory jobs for the government in both war and peacetime, The Comedian sees the world as a dark place where small acts of brutality or heroism alike make little to no difference.

“The Comedian is as American as can be, but he is also the dark side of what America has the potential to be,” remarks the director. “He rides that edge; he’s always doing some dark job for the government, but he’s doing it as a superhero would do it.”

To Rorschach, he’s nothing short of a super-patriot, an American hero who died in service to his country.

Tonight, a Comedian died in New York, Rorschach writes in his journal. Somebody knows why.

Rorschach believes someone is picking off costumed heroes, of which The Comedian is only the first. He sets out to warn the members of the interconnected group that in past years fought by his side – six souls tied together by fate and the desire to make their own brand of justice. His first visit is to Dan Dreiberg, who, as Nite Owl II, was his partner in the glory days of the Masks.

“Dan was probably the closest friend that Rorschach has ever had on the planet,” says Haley. “The police don’t like Rorschach. The citizens don’t like him. None of the other Masks like him. When he stumbles upon this murder, he is going to pursue it all the way to the end. But I also think there’s a little piece of him that sees the murder as a reason the guys should get back together.”

Unlike Rorschach, however, Dan has moved on. Prior to assuming the identity of Nite Owl, Dreiberg had been “rich and bored, with this romantic fantasy of fighting crime, being a superhero, of saving and getting the girl,” says Patrick Wilson. “He has an old-fashioned sense of values. He sees the good in people. When he went out and fought crime, it was about justice and helping people.”

Dan now lives a quiet life and makes weekly visits to his predecessor, the original Nite Owl, Hollis Mason (Stephen McHattie), to reminisce over a beer. “Dan has gotten soft physically, politically, sexually…” Wilson notes. “Without the costume on, he doesn’t have an identity. He has no place in society and feels impotent in the face of its problems. He’s terrified to put the suit on, but you also get the sense he can’t live without being Nite Owl.”

“It’s only when he is confronted with this mystery that’s unfolding – his colleagues being murdered – that he begins to see the potential of putting on the old costume,” adds Snyder. “Once he gets the costume back on, he realizes that that’s who he really is. He’s this sort of Everyman who is lost until he rediscovers his purpose.”

Adrian Veidt, aka Ozymandias, has already established a new purpose beyond his previous life as a Mask. The world’s smartest man and now one of its richest, Veidt retired before the Keene Act and made his fortune exploiting the masked vigilante era in the form of action figures, cartoons, perfumes, books and movies. Nevertheless, he believes he has a higher calling. Obsessed with the exploits of Alexander the Great and the Egyptian pharaoh Rameses II (Ozymandias is the Greek name for Rameses II), Veidt seeks to perfect the human condition.

Where Rorschach seeks to punish the guilty, Veidt considers those efforts pointless when everything they know could be obliterated at any minute. “Adrian has a bit of a god complex,” explains Matthew Goode, who plays the gilded magnate. “He has this idea that the world needs to be fixed because humanity seems to be broken. We are constantly warring with each other and he believes that no price is too high to get the world to unite in brotherhood.”

“That philosophy is in many ways the spine of the movie,” Snyder asserts. “How do you reshape humanity and make it peaceful? Can anyone really have that kind of control?”

“They’re all just fundamentalists, in a way,” says Billy Crudup, who plays Dr Manhattan, the only Mask with true superpowers. “They see a threatening world where their only recourse is to take matters into their own hands, and their desire to order a disordered world overcomes morality. But Jon believed in the goodness of his country, in following the designs of his leaders.”

Before the accident in a nuclear lab that forever altered his life, Dr Manhattan was Jon Osterman, the son of a watchmaker, a brilliant physicist and “a quintessential ’50s male,” says Crudup, the actor behind the blue light that emanates from Manhattan’s body.

Though Manhattan chose to join the informal group of Masks, the others are, by comparison, “people who play dress up,” Crudup states. “They are vigilantes. They don’t believe in the stability of the government. They don’t believe in the community’s capacity to take care of itself. Osterman was the exact opposite: someone who was by the book, believed in the stability of his country and the morality of his government. He did whatever they wanted. And initially after he becomes Dr Manhattan, he continues to do it.”

The accident transformed Jon Osterman into a superbeing, who experiences past, present and future at once and has the power to control matter itself. “He didn’t put himself back together as mortal; he put himself back together as a deity,” says Crudup.

Comparing Dr Manhattan to the existence of a nuclear bomb, Snyder remarks, “It became a force in itself in that its existence changed the way we looked at everything. I think in some ways that’s what Manhattan represents – this ability to save us or destroy us at the same moment. The implications of this new power are tremendous: Is he truly on our side? What if that power goes away or turns on us? How do you relate to that as a person? He brings into question so many things about our own way of thinking.”

As Manhattan moves further into the limitless dimensions of time and matter, he commences a gradual disconnection from humanity and ambivalence about its existence. “He has apathy for almost everything, except for the inner workings of the atom,” attests Crudup. “He sees the way the universe works. Humanity has a variable that physics doesn’t seem to have. Physics is an ordered world to be discovered. And human interaction is a chaotic world to be taught through harsh experience. It becomes frustrating and burdensome to the point that I think he just doesn’t care anymore.”

“He longs for a relationship in a sense, but at the same time he’s outside of his ability to connect to humans,” describes Snyder. “He can see your subatomic particles; therefore you become an abstraction to him and it’s hard to relate to that abstraction.

“What would that do to you as a person?” Snyder asks. “What does that do to your relationships with other people, with humanity?”

The one human being with a genuine connection to Dr Manhattan is Laurie Jupiter, aka Silk Spectre II, who fell in love with Manhattan as a teenager. Laurie is played by Malin Akerman, who offers, “Laurie was head over heels in love with him, but as he grows more and more distant, there’s nothing left for her in the relationship. His work comes before her in her eyes. She feels him falling out of love with her and the more he drifts away, the more she loses her identity.”

After the murder of The Comedian, Laurie reconnects with Dan Dreiberg, who shares her inchoate sense of loss. “Reconnecting with Dan gives Laurie back her sense of being a woman,” Akerman affirms. “Someone is looking at her, for the first time in God knows how many years, as one human being to another. That reconnection reignites the fire that used to be there as Silk Spectre, the need for the adrenaline rush.”

“Their common bond is that they have the same memories of fighting crime,” adds Wilson. “They’ve since become regular human beings just trying to muddle through life without any special powers, moral certainty or superhuman brilliance. Laurie opens Dan up to putting the suit on again. It’s the thing that he’s most terrified of and the thing he wants more than anything. He just needed somebody to look him in the eye and say, ‘Let’s do it.’”

Laurie had been pushed into the role of superhero as an adolescent by her mother, Sally Jupiter, who had been the first Silk Spectre. “As Silk Spectre II, Laurie learned to fight like a man,” says Akerman. “She was this strong, powerful woman and, in spite of her reluctance to be a Mask, somewhere inside she loved it.”

The vampy Sally Jupiter now lives in a retirement community in California and spends her time reminiscing about the limelight she once enjoyed as a rare female crime fighter. “Sally is from the old school of superheroes, the same as The Comedian,” says Snyder. “She represents to me the golden age of superheroes. They were almost like movie stars then. So, in a lot of ways, she’s like a faded movie star who was never able to recapture that same glory and spotlight that she had in her heyday.”

Carla Gugino describes her character as someone who “likes to think of herself as a little more polished than she really is. Sally definitely wanted to fight crime but she also wanted the attention. As she aged she foisted that upon her daughter. Sally’s a very complex character who has been through a lot, but much of the drama was self-induced. This is a woman who in her heart of hearts is in love with The Comedian, even though they were never really able to be together.”

Sally and Edward Blake, aka The Comedian, were intensely attracted to each other during the golden years of the Minutemen, the original group of superheroes. But their relationship was irreparably marred by an encounter that changed both their lives. “That was the moment that everything changed for Edward Blake,” asserts Jeffrey Dean Morgan, who plays the role. “That’s when the true lone wolf came about. He realized he didn’t have the skills to convey his feelings; instead, he hurt the woman he’s in love with. After that, his whole life is spent virtually alone. I don’t know what kind of existence that would be for somebody. I think there’s something incredibly sad about The Comedian. I think he wants so much more than he’s been able to have in his life. He’s a lost soul. The only time he isn’t alone is in the midst of a war, with his buddies behind him. He laughs through the worst of it because the little things don’t matter for him. Even death doesn’t matter to him – until that moment when he realizes what’s really going on.”

Morgan provided at once the charisma and the brutality of his character. “There’s duality in every role, but particularly in The Comedian,” says Deborah Snyder. “When he’s firing on a mob during riots, it makes you wonder, ‘Who’s better, the angry mob or The Comedian?’ The way Jeffrey plays him, you shouldn’t really like this guy and yet you do.”

From New York to Mars, plots and conspiracies are unfolding with the fate of all life on earth suspended in the hands of a few. As the Doomsday Clock moves to near-midnight and humanity falls into its shadow, these masked heroes – lonely or megalomaniacal, compassionate or disturbed, loving or outcast, human or superhuman – must decide if they can make a difference, if the world is theirs to make or if, in the end, their fate is to simply find comfort in their mission or each other as the pieces of history fall into place around them.

“Who makes the world?” muses Dave Gibbons. “I guess it’s the people in it. It’s planning, because people do nothing if not plan. But, at the end of the day, I believe plain luck and happenstance are much more important factors than any of us thinks; they’re woven throughout the fabric of reality. No matter how carefully you plan or however many people want something, it still doesn’t mean it’s going to happen. I think in the end, you have to bow to the greater power of the universe.”

 

FROM PANELS TO FRAMES

Snyder’s goal, and that of the cast and filmmaking team he built around him, was to create an experience true to the feeling of the graphic novel and unlike anything put to screen before. “There’s massive spectacle in this movie,” says the director. “It’s that mix of hard emotional reality with Dr Manhattan on Mars in this giant glass palace, floating above the Martian landscape, or Manhattan 200-feet-tall walking through the jungles of Vietnam. It goes back and forth between action and what that action means to the characters. We tried to push the storytelling to the very edge, and to push the look as far as we could to truly bring to life the experience of the graphic novel.”

Using the graphic novel and the screenplay as a starting point, Snyder storyboarded the entire film to lay out his vision for all involved in what would no doubt be an epic undertaking.

Production designer Alex McDowell remembers, “Zack opened his books of storyboards and that in itself was revelatory. Then, on the opposite page, he had picture references and extensions of the ideas contained inside the boards. So, we had two incredible volumes that we constantly referenced: the graphic novel and Zack’s bible.”

But where the visual landscape of “300″ was created almost entirely on a computer, for this film Snyder wanted to set his characters on solid ground. “With ‘Watchmen,’ the sets are so intimate,” he notes. “As we started to build New York City, we realized these characters are going to be walking down these streets. You might as well build the whole thing. So, we ended up having something like 200 sets in the movie.”

But the film also encompasses less earthly vistas. “‘Watchmen’ is this gritty, real story, but yet a quarter of the film takes place on Mars,” Snyder continues. “And other scenes take place in Antarctica, at a retreat built by a millionaire ex-superhero. So there are operatic aspects to it as well. I’m naturally interested in those big thematic visions of reality. That’s not to say Rorschach doesn’t walk down a seedy 42nd Street world, but at the same time, there is this giant glass palace that’s built on Mars. There are flying machines, huge blimps hanging over the New York skyline, and other things that we were able to layer in. I think that that’s part of the strength of this visual approach.”

One set among the many created for the film would be entirely digital: Dr Manhattan’s Glass Palace on Mars. “The design is a combination of quantum physics and a clock,” comments McDowell. “There are layers and layers of references to clocks and watches in ‘Watchmen’ – the ticking clock of the nuclear countdown, the watch Osterman wears and then leaves behind, setting off the chain of events that leads to the creation of Dr Manhattan. So, there’s some idea that the Glass Palace is an elaborate clock mechanism that he creates in reference to his father.”

With so many sets, including an entire city, needing to be constructed, the next step, says executive producer Herb Gains, was “to figure out where we could shoot this movie. As Zack continued to draw the boards and I started seeing more and more of his vision, I realized that even under the best of circumstances any single location was going to fall short of what he required. It became obvious that we had to control our own destiny, to build everything and create the environments with very little location work, which is essentially what we did.”

McDowell created a large schematic that incorporated images from the graphic novel, set designs, and other references to keep track of the multiple sets and characters and the timelines that define them. This schematic became a valuable tool for every member of the crew. “As we developed the language of the production, we used this as a way of feeding all the necessary beats back to all the departments, from set dressing, construction and costumes to the actors,” he explains. “It was really a vital part of how we planned the film.”

BUILDING THE WORLD OF “WATCHMEN”

Filming was accomplished at several locations around Vancouver, Canada, and a number of sets were constructed on four stages at CMPP Studios (Canadian Motion Picture Park). In addition, a new backlot was built from the ground up on what once was a vast lumber yard on the outskirts of town. There, McDowell and his team built from scratch the New York City that Watchmen fans will recognize – from the Gunga Diner to Rorschach’s alley to The Comedian’s high-rise apartment.

“In ‘Watchmen,’ there are many subplots and threads layered within the imagery,” observes McDowell. “It’s very, very dense. As a production designer, one of the tasks is to set up an environment that the audience can enter and become completely immersed in, and then your work becomes part of the storytelling process.”

Production utilized mostly local crew, under department heads from both sides of the border. Everyone was provided with a binder of source materials that included extensive clippings and interviews with the creators, and the graphic novel itself, which was referenced daily. “Putting together a crew is just as important as casting the picture,” says Gains. “We often had activity on four stages every day for weeks, different units shooting and Zack going back and forth. It wasn’t just a job; there was passion. We all knew we were working on something magical.”

Under McDowell’s direction, the crew compressed the entire city as represented in the graphic novel into three intersecting streets. The relatively upscale Brownstone Street incorporated Dan Dreiberg’s apartment and also that of the first Nite Owl, Hollis Mason, while Blake Street housed The Comedian’s high-rise apartment building.

Blake Street was eventually converted to Riot Street, where the Owl Ship lands during a scene depicting the Keene Riots. The central hub street, intersecting both Riot and Brownstone and representing the seedier part of town, was called Porno Street. An off-shoot, called Fight Alley, became the site of a major fight sequence between Dan and Laurie and the Knot Top gang.

Also built at an intersection on the backlot was the Newsstand, a key element from the graphic novel containing the overlapping stories presented in the Tales of the Black Freighter novel-within-a-novel chapters. Snyder shot those sequences specifically for a planned feature on the future DVD.

“One of the things that was great about working with Zack,” says McDowell, “is that he was as fanatically interested in finding the Easter eggs in the graphic novel and pulling them into the film. On some films, you make a decision that you’ve gone deep enough; let’s just shoot the thing. But Zack shares my same obsessive interest in the fine detail, so it was great fun to do.”

In the middle of the New York environments, McDowell’s team situated the Saigon bar, where Edward Blake has a run-in with a former Vietnamese mistress, with a full exterior and an interior shooting space with a depth of 40 feet. “We created a little piece of Vietnam right in the middle, with Brownstone Street on one side and decrepit New York on the other side,” McDowell notes.

One of the production designer’s favorite sets to create was President Nixon’s bunker at NORAD, which was inspired in part by the War Room in Stanley Kubrick’s “Dr Strangelove.” A member of the crew added an extra layer of serendipity to the sequences shot on this set. Director of photography Larry Fong remembers discussing how the moving, changing maps in the War Room might have been done. “My hunch was projection, others thought it was painted graphics with light bulbs, and then the gaffer said, ‘Oh, I know how they did that. That was rear projection.’ I had to ask him: ‘How do you know that?’ And he answered, ‘Because I was there. I was doing the rear projection.’ It was crazy. What were the chances? There was a lot of experience on this crew.”

Production also took over Vancouver’s former Riverview Hospital, and remade it into the Gila Flats nuclear testing facility where Jon Osterman becomes Dr Manhattan.

On soundstages at CMPP, McDowell’s team built the production’s largest set, Adrian Veidt’s Antarctic retreat, Karnak, where the film’s climax unfolds. They also created Veidt’s palatial office at Veidt Enterprises in the form of a multi-purpose set that could be his interior office if shot from one angle, and his exterior office if shot from another.

Also built on these stages were the interiors for The Comedian’s and Dan Dreiberg’s apartments. The Comedian’s apartment was comprised of three sets: the living room set, where Blake fights off his assassin; a tall platform set with a trick window for visual effects elements; and a bedroom set, with his closet and the secret compartment where he hides his Comedian memorabilia. Additionally, CMPP held the green screen stages for the film’s visual effects sequences.

Veidt inhabits an environment of extravagant materials, in a palette of royal purple and gold, surrounded by priceless artifacts collected from his travels. “With the set design, we wanted to show what Veidt Enterprises is doing in terms of its connection to airlines, toys, and other endeavors,” says McDowell. “Around his office, you can see the Mask action figures, so he is profiting from his friends. We also wanted to infuse the backgrounds with imagery surrounding the Nostalgia perfume that Veidt created. It became one of the ways of insinuating how pervasive his empire is in the culture of 1985.”

“The guys were so good, it got to the point where I just expected a Veidt aspirin bottle to show up, or a pair of Veidt shoes,” Snyder says with a laugh. McDowell confirms that “the shoes did, in fact, appear.”

A soundstage at CMPP also housed the old subway tunnel, which Dan Dreiberg converts into the Owl Chamber. “Dan’s brownstone leads through a secret passageway down into an old, abandoned subway station. We created three sets: the exterior of the apartment, built on the backlot, and, on the stage, the interior of Dan’s home and the Owl Chamber, which houses the Owl Ship,” explains McDowell.

Nite Owl’s Owl Ship, Archimedes (“Archie”) – an engineering marvel that Dan created and once used to combat crime – is one of the indelible elements of Watchmen. McDowell brought together a team of artisans, starting with sculptor and boat builder Jack Gavreau, to bring Archie to life down to the hull scrapes and turbine exhaust ports. “Everyone, from sculptors and painters to set dressing and props, worked in this tiny little space,” McDowell recalls. “But it proved to be one of the most satisfying sets in the movie for us. The idea with the Owl Ship is that form follows function, and everything is there because it has a purpose. In the Owl Chamber, we also incorporated dents and damage where we assumed he crashed while flight testing. It was very important for the audience to believe that this was a real craft, so it’s covered in scratches and scrapes.”

The other multi-purpose location taken over by production was an old paper mill called Domtar, which was large enough to contain Dr Manhattan’s government lab and apartment. “We built Manhattan’s apartment based on the idea that Manhattan lives in the middle of this industrial space,” McDowell describes. “But we imagined that the government officials had hired the best decorators to design an elaborate living space within the lab, befitting the most important man in the world.”

At the height of shooting, Dave Gibbons visited the set, an experience he found overwhelming. “I was just bowled over by the level of attention to detail,” he attests. “Careful thought had been given to every little corner, even things I had stuck in the artwork that I hadn’t given a second thought to. When you draw something from your imagination, you have this misty impression of a picture that you then try to interpret. This was like seeing that misty picture crystallized into reality.”

Gibbons, who had previously only seen his Owl Ship on paper, had the rare experience of physically exploring his creation. “I looked at the model of the full-size Owl Ship, knocked on it, stood inside it, moved some of the controls,” he marvels. “It was so fantastic for somebody who lives in their imagination a lot of the time to see these things actually become solid in the real world. It was one of the most exciting experiences I’ve had connected with comics.”

Snyder admits he was as nervous as everyone else about Gibbons’s visit to the set. “When Dave arrived, we were all a little bit afraid, but excited at the same time. We loved the book, we loved the images; we cared to make them come to life as much as we could, and to make it respectful. You can show a set to a fan who says, ‘The Owl Ship looks awesome,’ but it’s another thing entirely when the creator sees it and says, ‘Wow, you guys loved that, didn’t you?’ That was what we wanted. It was pretty cool.”

The cast was equally inspired by the world within a world they inhabited for a few months over a Vancouver winter. Jeffrey Dean Morgan asserts, “The details of it were just astonishing in their quality, right down to the smallest detail. I’ve never been a part of anything like this in my life. Every day I came onto the set and I was blown away by the scale of it, the work that so many people put into this thing. The novel literally came to life.”

One of the most subversive elements of the novel, which McDowell sought to incorporate into the film, was “the twisting of the conventional primary palette of comic books into the secondary colors. It immediately made the Watchmen series into an incredibly striking package. People had not seen those colors in this medium before. Watchmen had fantastic graphic decisions throughout, from the smiley face cover onward, so that was key for us.”

What would not work on film were the clean lines of a graphic novel. “To embed these characters in the real world, clean lines don’t translate,” the production designer says. “But we found that if we took a grittier, more textured style, then added the strong secondary palette of the graphic novel to it, it became a way to find a common language of stylization.”

FABRICATING THE MASKS

The use of the graphic novel’s color palette extended to costume design as well. “We wanted to be very respectful to the source material, so that affected a lot of our color choices,” notes costume designer Michael Wilkinson. “We used a lot of greens, purples, oranges and browns… the murky secondary colors that darken as the story progresses.”

With the novel spanning several decades – from 1938 to 1985 – and with much cutting back and forth between eras, it was essential to choose clothing that was appropriate for each period to make it clear where in the timeline a scene is taking place. The design team settled on “archetypal pieces that really summed up each decade and gave a sense of period authenticity to the movie,” says Wilkinson. While that sounds straightforward, the task was anything but, especially considering there were, at times, more than 300 extras in a scene. “There is a myriad of uniforms in the film – everything from World War II soldiers and sailors, to 1938 NYPD, to Vietnam War uniforms from both sides – and each one had to be meticulously well-researched. Adding to that, we had diner waitresses, prison cooks, security guards, flower children protesting in the 1960s, Soviet soldiers, astronauts and much more. I estimate there must have been about 150,000 pieces in our costume stock. We had a 600-page manifest, down to every last earring, and that’s a lot to wrap your brain around.”

The costumes for the key cast, like their environments, would need to be intimately designed, particularly their crime-fighting outfits. Wilkinson worked with the specialty costume company Quantum FX to create full body casts of all the major characters, upon which they then sculpted the details of each costume in clay. “We could then take those molds and render them in foam latex so you get a stylized physique – wrinkle-free and with beautiful, sculpted details, while being flexible and breathable for the actors,” he says.

For Dreiberg’s Owl costume, Wilkinson and his team researched 1970s aerospace technology to mimic Dan’s knowledge of birds and aerodynamics. “We looked at interesting NASA-style technology, things like exposed zippers, and air vents that might help him move through the air in a smoother way,” the costume designer offers. “At the same time, Zack wanted Nite Owl to be a little fear-inspiring; it’s important that putting on his costume has a very empowering quality. It helps Dan access a side of his personality that’s different from his very shy, retiring daytime character.”

The juxtaposition of daytime personality against the masked vigilante is also quite dynamic in the character of Silk Spectre. Sally Jupiter had created a sexy costume for her teenage daughter, a yellow and black mini-dress only marginally more modest than Sally’s costume had been. Wilkinson updated Laurie’s costume to be a form-fitting latex suit. “We wanted to keep the spirit of the graphic novel intact; Silk Spectre is in the same colors and has the same graphic silhouette as her costume in the book,” Wilkinson explains. “But we rendered it in latex because we liked the idea of that extreme, hyper-sexualized version of her character. It juxtaposes so beautifully with Laurie’s day-to-day look, which is very stitched together, tailored and precise, wanting to be taken seriously. We enjoyed exploring the two different sides of her personality.”

In contrast to the characteristically extreme costumes of the majority of the Masks is the almost non-descript costume of Rorschach: a simple trench coat. “When you read about the character in the graphic novel, he has a very bleak outlook on life,” Wilkinson observes. “He’s very misanthropic. He just wants to bring a little bit of justice in the world. In terms of his costume, there is the sense that he gave up caring about his appearance a long time ago. He just wears this outfit, not to make a particular impression, just because it’s what he wears. He keeps it in a dumpster. It has years of layers of grime and other encrusted crud on it. The whole litany of his past can be read through his trench coat.”

TRANSFORMING THE MASKS

Nevertheless, Rorschach has one of the most striking attributes of all the costumed superheroes: his mask of shifting inkblots. “The evolution of Rorschach’s mask was a long and complex one,” remarks Wilkinson. “We developed a printing process onto a fantastic four-way Lycra that enabled us to create a rough, canvas-like texture but also had a stretchy quality, so we could achieve that smooth, egg-like silhouette. And then the digital effects team created these beautiful moving inkblots on top of the fabric. It was a great collaboration between costumes and visual effects.”

In order to complete the effect of the perpetually morphing inkblot mask – which Rorschach calls his “face” – the lycra was embedded with motion capture markers. “It was covered in tracking dots, except for my eyes,” describes Haley, who dubbed his mask “the sock.” “Even though Rorschach’s eyes aren’t visible under the mask, I was able to see what I was doing. So, the material and the blots move; it’s just absolutely awesome.”

“It was fascinating how Jackie was able to communicate so much emotion through this medium,” comments Deborah Snyder. “The patterns were designed as a reflection of his performance, and it was amazing how much complexity Jackie brought to Rorschach through his voice and body…how the mask became part of him.”

The visual effects team, under the supervision of John “DJ” DesJardin, animated the transitions between the inkblot patterns at different speeds, according to what Snyder wanted for the given scene. “We tried to model his expressions after the ones Dave Gibbons drew for the graphic novel,” DesJardin reveals. “The inkblots are not just black and white; the edges are grey and animated in a way that makes it look like the ink is coming out of the cloth and sinking back in again.”

Snyder and DesJardin engendered a natural collaboration in ensuring the tone of the visual effects would align with the vision the director was creating on the live sets. “The visual effects are a partner in the movie,” says Snyder. “Whether it was extending practical sets or inserting floating blimps in the skyline, or rendering Rorschach’s mask or Dr Manhattan’s body – those are all things that have to go into the pipeline. And DJ did an amazing job of keeping this massive endeavor down to a very personal, shot-by-shot approach to the movie.”

Beyond visual effects, the embodiment of Dr Manhattan hinged primarily on the actor playing him. “Dr Manhattan was the biggest challenge for us,” says Deborah Snyder, “because we had to figure out how to create this god on earth that glows blue light, who can be 100-feet-tall, then shrink down to human size. At the same time, there was a real person playing Dr Manhattan, through the medium of performance capture. It takes a really disciplined actor to pull that off, and Billy did such a great job.”

Billy Crudup’s performance would provide both the physical and the emotional anchor for the superbeing. Notes Levin, “Manhattan is an amazing, fascinating character, yet I never made the kind of emotional connection to the character in the book as I did watching Billy play him. It was deeply moving. There are so many moments in the film where the material coupled with the cast’s performances resulted in the kind of alchemy that only great actors are able to conjure when bringing a character to life.”

In addition to his physical embodiment, Manhattan has an effect on the environment around him: a blue glow that emanates from his body. “When I read the graphic novel, Manhattan was the only element that made me think, ‘How do we do this?’” recalls cinematographer Larry Fong.

Together, DesJardin and Fong found a creative solution. “We ultimately made a suit that had all the tracking markers we needed for motion capture but also thousands of LEDs that put out this nice, diffuse, blue light,” DesJardin explains. “Zack’s idea was that when Jon Osterman pulled himself back together, he made this ideal male form for him to embody. So, while keeping Billy’s face and remaining accurate to his performance, we created a CG character with a powerful, ultra-ripped, perfected body.”

Other cast members, however, could not rely on digital effects to alter their physical appearance or to prepare them for the intense action sequences in the film. Instead, they each undertook an individualized training program under the guidance of veteran stunt co-ordinator Damon Caro and his team.

“We looked at the characters specifically to determine what would be needed for each of their fight scenes, and all of the actors brought so much energy and enthusiasm to the table” says Caro, who had also worked with Snyder on “300.”

Malin Akerman had never done any kind of fight work so, Caro relates, “We pieced together a series of drills for her and she was so game to learn everything.” The actress also worked closely with her stunt double, Bridgett Riley, whose background is in women’s kickboxing and boxing.

“Bridgett trained me so hard, but I loved it,” Akerman states, admitting, “After the first week of training, I was thinking, ‘What did I get myself into?’ But then it got easier and it was such an amazing experience to learn the fight choreography. It brought out a whole different side of me that I didn’t know was there,” she smiles, “and definitely helped me get more into the character.”

For Rorschach, whose stature belies his strength, Caro offers, “Going in we figured that since Rorschach wears a mask, it would be easiest just to double him. But it turned out that Jackie was so psyched to do it. I looked at his movement and martial arts ability, and it was awesome. We ended up using him a lot.”

Haley adds, “I’ve been working out for a long time, doing different things to stay in shape. When I got this part, I started a new regimen to increase muscle mass and I also started to look at the proper way to eat. It was all about core training, and I started getting results that were off the hook.”

Unlike his partner, Patrick Wilson, as Dan Dreiberg, aka Night Owl II, had to appear alternately mild-mannered and threatening. The actor actually put on a fair amount of weight to reflect the contradiction between his alter egos. “I was in a different place from the other guys because I needed to be in shape to do all this fighting, but I had to gain 25 pounds or so to do the role; there was always an issue of Dan’s weight. I’m a runner but I had to stop doing any sort of cardio. Instead I did weights and more strength training because I needed Dan to be big but a little soft.”

Executive producer Herb Gains remarks, “We put the actors through physical training; aging make-up; wigs; prosthetics; bulky, uncomfortable suits… Everybody had a tremendous amount of pressure put on them and everybody delivered.”

Apart from the cast, the combination of intense action sequences and digital effects, done in such a stylized way, put specific demands on Larry Fong and editor William Hoy. “I tried to get my cues from how Zack wanted to apply his visual style to the film, from the complicated title sequence onward,” says Fong. “The shots he wanted were very precisely designed; they’re very specific, if you look at the storyboards.”

“The whole idea of symmetry plays a big role in the graphic novel, and Zack took that approach in composing shots,” comments Deborah Snyder. “The best way to do that was with a single camera. There’s not a lot of SteadiCam. The action plays out within the shots almost like the frames of a comic panel. It was something we all gave a lot of thought to and worked closely together to achieve.”

Every shot was highly controlled. “There were certain iconic frames that we wanted to stay true to that relate back to the graphic novel,” says Hoy. “These are the images you want to just burn into the viewer’s mind, but not to encroach on what’s happening emotionally among the characters.”

In addition to the characters who are so well known to Watchmen aficionados, the film has glimpses of some famous people of the day. A team of special make-up designers, led by Greg Cannom, created facial prosthetics to bring to life the many historical and celebrity figures that were integral to their respective eras, including Presidents Kennedy and Nixon, and younger versions of Mick Jagger, David Bowie, Annie Leibowitz, and The Village People.

Music also plays a major role in establishing the timeline of the story. Snyder affirms, “Music is really important to me because not only does it set us in a place in time, it has the ability to evoke a flood of images and emotions.”

“Watchmen” features a collection of classic songs from such legendary artists as Nat “King” Cole, Billie Holiday, Simon & Garfunkel, Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin. In addition, the group My Chemical Romance performs a reinterpretation of the Bob Dylan song “Desolation Row.” The film’s musical score is by composer Tyler Bates.

Snyder asserts, “It’s a history with similarities to the one we all know. The big events – the sounds and sights – are largely the same. It’s the details that are different.”

“All of the different elements of the film made it hugely complex logistically and a colossal endeavor overall. I have to commend Zack, who took the whole thing on his shoulders and never seemed to break a sweat,” says producer Lloyd Levin. “He knows how important Watchmen is to so many people. But he embraced it fully and completely, without any fear.”

Producer Lawrence Gordon agrees, adding, “Perhaps equally as impressive as his exciting vision for the movie was Zack’s ability to remain a nice guy throughout the making of it. And now that the film is finished, I can say it was well worth the wait.”

Deborah Snyder states that everyone involved brought unparalleled passion and commitment to their work in bringing Watchmen to the screen. “Watchmen is not only significant to the comic book community; it has so much significance as a piece of literature. Our hope is that whoever sees the film discovers or rediscovers the graphic novel because there’s so much more than we can possibly get on the screen.”

Zack Snyder reflects, “Watchmen is such a milestone; it was a privilege to direct this film. Deborah and I had so much fun working alongside everyone involved to finally make it happen. For me, the ‘why’ of this movie is all the small moral questions that lead to a giant moral question, and that question has no real answer. The end of the movie is meant to spark debate. I hope people come out of it thinking about which side of the question they might fall on. The graphic novel makes you question who is a good guy and who is a bad guy, and I hope the movie does the same thing.

“What is it that someone does that makes him a hero, even in real world terms? Those questions aren’t always as cut and dried, or as easy, as they are in movies. I think in the end ‘Watchmen’ wants to make that really difficult for you. And I think that’s how it should be.”

ABOUT THE CAST

MALIN AKERMAN (Laurie Jupiter/Silk Spectre II) is fast becoming one of the industry’s busiest young actresses. Last year, she starred in the hit romantic comedy “27 Dresses,” with Katherine Heigl, James Marsden and Edward Burns, under the direction of Anne Fletcher. Akerman recently reunited with Fletcher to star with Sandra Bullock and Ryan Reynolds in the upcoming romantic comedy “The Proposal,” due out this summer. Also in 2009, she will star in the Peter Billingsley-directed comedy “Couples Retreat,” with Vince Vaughn, Jason Bateman and Jon Favreau.

In 2007, Akerman starred with Ben Stiller in the romantic comedy “The Heartbreak Kid,” directed by the Farrelly brothers. Her other film credits include the independent releases “Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle” and “The Brothers Solomon.”

Born in Stockholm, Sweden, Akerman moved to Toronto with her family at the age of two and spent her youth in both Canada and Sweden. At age five, she began modeling and acting in television commercials. When she was 17, she won the “Ford Supermodel of Canada” search and began spending her summers modeling in Europe. While enjoying success as a model, Akerman ultimately decided to attend college and to focus on her acting.

Soon after, she moved to Los Angeles and began landing roles in independent films, as well as guest roles on television series. Her breakthrough came in 2005 on the HBO series “The Comeback,” starring Lisa Kudrow. Akerman gained attention of both critics and audiences for her work in the series regular role of Juno Millken on the show. In addition, she recently had a memorable recurring role on the third season of the hit HBO series “Entourage.”

BILLY CRUDUP (Jon Osterman/Dr Manhattan) has tackled a diverse mix of roles on both the stage and screen. He most recently starred in the independent films “Pretty Bird,” which screened at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival, and “Dedication,” opposite Mandy Moore. In 2006, he was seen in Robert De Niro’s drama “The Good Shepherd,” with Matt Damon and Angelina Jolie, and in JJ. Abrams’ “Mission: Impossible III,” starring Tom Cruise. He next portrays J Edgar Hoover in the 1930s-set crime drama “Public Enemies,” directed by Michael Mann.

Crudup made his motion picture debut in Barry Levinson’s 1996 drama “Sleepers,” with Robert De Niro, Kevin Bacon and Brad Pitt. He was then featured in Woody Allen’s “Everyone Says I Love You” and starred in Pat O’Connor’s “Inventing the Abbotts.” In 1998, Crudup garnered praise for his portrayal of runner Steve Prefontaine in the biopic “Without Limits” and for his performance in Stephen Frears’ drama “The Hi-Lo Country,” winning a National Board of Review Award for Breakthrough Performance of the Year for the latter. He went on to star in the acclaimed independent film “Jesus’ Son,” for which he won the Best Actor Award at the Paris Film Festival and earned an Independent Spirit Award nomination.

In 2000, Crudup starred in Keith Gordon’s “Waking the Dead,” and in Cameron Crowe’s award-winning, semi-autobiographical film “Almost Famous,” with Kate Hudson and Frances McDormand. His additional film credits include Bart Freundlich’s “World Traveler” and “Trust the Man,” both with Julianne Moore; Gillian Armstrong’s “Charlotte Gray,” opposite Cate Blanchett; Tim Burton’s fantasy drama “Big Fish”; and Richard Eyre’s “Stage Beauty.”

An accomplished stage actor, Crudup won a Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Play for his role in the 2006 Broadway production of “The Coast of Utopia.” He has also been honored with two Tony Award nominations in the category of Best Leading Actor in a Play, the first for his performance in the 2002 revival of “The Elephant Man,” and another for his role in the 2005 production of Martin McDonagh’s “The Pillowman.”

He made his Broadway bow in 1995 in Tom Stoppard’s “Arcadia,“ directed by Trevor Nunn, for which Crudup won an Outer Critics Circle Award, a Theatre World Award and a Clarence Derwent Award for Outstanding Broadway Debut. Crudup has also appeared on Broadway in William Inge’s “Bus Stop,” and Chekhov’s “Three Sisters,” for which he earned a Drama Desk Award nomination. His stage work also includes the 2001 New York Shakespeare Festival production of “Measure for Measure,” and recent off-Broadway presentations of “Oedipus,” with Frances McDormand, and “The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui,” with Al Pacino.

Crudup graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and holds a Masters of Fine Arts from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts.

MATTHEW GOODE (Adrian Veidt/Ozymandias) follows “Watchmen” with a starring role in Tom Ford’s feature film directorial debut, “A Single Man,” based on the Christopher Isherwood novel. Last year, he starred as Charles Ryder in the 2008 feature film adaptation of Evelyn Waugh’s classic novel “Brideshead Revisited,” directed by Julian Jarrold.

Goode’s other recent film credits include Scott Frank’s crime drama “The Lookout,” with Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Jeff Daniels and Isla Fisher. He also starred in Woody Allen’s widely acclaimed crime drama “Match Point,” with Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Scarlett Johansson, Emily Mortimer and Brian Cox.

In 2003, Goode made his feature film debut in as the celebrated Spanish-speaking British writer Gerald Brenan in the biopic “South from Granada,” directed by Fernando Colomo. Among his additional film credits are “Copying Beethoven,” for director Agnieszka Holland; writer/director Ol Parker’s “Imagine Me & You”; and the romantic comedy “Chasing Liberty,” opposite Mandy Moore.

On television, Goode starred alongside Imelda Staunton in the BBC telefilm “My Family and Other Animals,’ which aired in the US. as part of PBS’ “Masterpiece Theatre.” His credits also include the English crime drama “Marple: A Murder is Announced,” the BBC miniseries “He Knew He Was Right,” and the ABC telefilm “Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister,” with Stockard Channing.

Raised in the city of Exeter, England, Goode studied drama at the University of Birmingham and, later, classical theater and stage acting at London’s Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Arts. His stage credits include the roles of Ariel in Shakespeare’s “The Tempest,” and La Luna (The Moon) in Lorca’s “Blood Wedding,” with the Mercury Theatre Company.

CARLA GUGINO (Sally Jupiter/Silk Spectre), a favorite of film and television audiences, next stars in Andy Fickman’s family adventure “Race to Witch Mountain,” opposite Dwayne Johnson. The follow-up to the classic “Escape to Witch Mountain,” the film is set to open on March 13. Her upcoming films also include the indie features “Every Day,” and “Electra Luxx,” in which she plays the title role.

Last year, Gugino shared in a Screen Actors Guild Award nomination as a member of the cast of Ridley Scott’s acclaimed 2007 drama “American Gangster,” with Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe. In 2006, she starred in the smash hit comedy “Night at the Museum,” opposite Ben Stiller. Her recent film credits also include Jon Avnet’s “Righteous Kill,” starring Robert De Niro and Al Pacino, and Scott Frank’s “The Lookout.” In addition, she starred opposite Antonio Banderas in the hugely successful “Spy Kids” film trilogy, all written and directed by Robert Rodriguez. Rodriguez also directed Gugino in the action thriller “Sin City.”

For television, Gugino recently had a recurring role on the hit HBO series “Entourage,” playing uber-agent Amanda, who proves a formidable nemesis to Jeremy Piven’s character, Ari Gold. Among her earlier television credits are regular roles on the sci-fi series “Threshold”; “Karen Sisco,” as the title character; the hospital drama “Chicago Hope”; and the sitcom “Spin City,” opposite Michael J Fox.

On the stage, Gugino is currently starring in the role of the alluring and headstrong Abbie in the Eugene O’Neil play “Desire Under the Elms,” which runs from January 17 to February 22 at Chicago’s Goodman Theatre. She made her Broadway debut as Maggie in the 2004 revival of Arthur Miller’s “After the Fall,” earning an Outer Critics Circle Award nomination and a Theatre World Award for her performance. In 2006, she starred in the off-Broadway production of Tennessee Williams’ “Suddenly Last Summer,” opposite Blythe Danner.

Gugino began her career while still in her teens, making her feature film debut in the comedy “Troop Beverly Hills.” She went on to appear in such films as “Welcome Home, Roxy Carmichael”; the drama “This Boy’s Life,” with Robert De Niro and Leonardo DiCaprio; and the comedy “Son in Law.” Her additional film credits include “Miami Rhapsody,” with Sarah Jessica Parker; Nora Ephron’s “Michael,” starring John Travolta; “Snake Eyes,” opposite Nicolas Cage under the direction of Brian De Palma; and “The Singing Detective,” with Robert Downey Jr.

JACKIE EARLE HALEY (Walter Kovacs/Rorschach) has the rare distinction of being a successful child actor who, after virtually disappearing from Hollywood for 15 years, made an almost unprecedented comeback in back-to-back feature films: Steven Zaillian’s “All the King’s Men” and Todd Field’s controversial drama “Little Children.” Haley’s courageous performance in the latter brought him numerous accolades, including an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor. He was also honored with a Screen Actors Guild Award nomination and won Best Supporting Actor awards from several critics groups, including the New York Film Critics Circle and the Chicago Film Critics Association.

He more recently appeared in the Will Ferrell basketball comedy “Semi-Pro.” This fall, Haley will be seen in the thriller “Shutter Island,” in which he co-stars with Leonardo DiCaprio and Ben Kingsley under the direction of Martin Scorsese.

Haley first came to fame in the mid-1970s with his scene-stealing performance as Kelly Leak, the cigarette-smoking, motorcycle-riding hellion, in Michael Ritchie’s comedy hit “The Bad News Bears,” reprising his role in two sequels. Haley again won praise from critics and audiences for his role as the romantic but short-tempered Moocher in Peter Yates’ Oscar-winning 1979 sleeper hit “Breaking Away.” In 1983, Haley played the sex-obsessed Dave in Curtis Hanson’s “Losin’ It,” with Tom Cruise. That same year, he made his Broadway debut, starring in John Byrne’s play “Slab Boys,” with Sean Penn, Kevin Bacon, and Val Kilmer.

Despite his early prominence, however, Haley found it difficult to successfully transition to more adult roles and turned his focus to directing. After years of struggling to make ends meet, he began directing industrial videos, which eventually led to commercial directing.

He had been off the screen for more than a decade when, in October of 2004, Steven Zaillian tracked Haley down – on his honeymoon in France – and asked him to audition for the role of Sugar Boy in “All the King’s Men.” Haley sent in a tape and won the part. Following that film, he landed the role of Ronnie McGorvey in Todd Field’s “Little Children,” resulting in his first Oscar nomination and what has been the resurgence of his acting career.

Today, Haley divides his time between acting and directing.

JEFFREY DEAN MORGAN (Edward Blake/The Comedian) has, in just the past few years, emerged as one of the industry’s most sought-after leading men. “Watchmen” is only the first of four very different motion pictures in which the busy actor stars this year. He next plays a detective who becomes emotionally involved in the case of a missing woman in the murder mystery drama “All Good Things,” directed by Andrew Jarecki and also starring Kirsten Dunst, Ryan Gosling and Frank Langella. In August, Morgan stars opposite Emile Hirsch in “Taking Woodstock,” a story surrounding the seminal 1969 music festival, directed by Ang Lee. The following month, he stars in the World War II period drama “Shanghai,” with John Cusack and Ken Watanabe under the direction of Mikael Hafstrom.

Morgan is about to start work on the suspense thriller “The Resident,” in which he stars as a seemingly charming landlord who develops a dangerous obsession with his newest tenant, played by Hilary Swank.

The new film reunites Morgan with Swank, with whom he worked when he played her prospective love interest in the romantic drama “P.S. I Love You,” under the direction of Richard LaGravenese. His film credits also include a cameo role in the holiday comedy “Fred Claus,” and the independent comedy “Kabluey,” with Lisa Kudrow.

Morgan first gained the attention of television audiences with a recurring role in ABC’s smash hit series “Grey’s Anatomy.” His dramatic arc as heart patient Denny Duquette, who wins the heart of Katherine Heigl’s Izzie Stevens in a star-crossed romance, made him a universal fan favorite. In addition, he has also had recurring roles on the hit CW series “Supernatural” and on the award-winning Showtime series “Weeds.”

PATRICK WILSON (Dan Dreiberg/Nite Owl II) is an award-winning theatre actor who has also become well-known for his work on the screen. He next stars in the title role of the independent comedy “Barry Munday,” due out later this year. In 2008, Wilson starred in three very different films: Neil LaBute’s thriller “Lakeview Terrace,” with Samuel L Jackson and Kerry Washington; the mystery drama “Passengers,” opposite Anne Hathaway; and the independent film “Life in Flight,” which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival.

Wilson previously received praise for his work in the critically acclaimed drama “Little Children,” in which he starred with Kate Winslet and Jackie Earle Haley under the direction of Todd Field. His motion picture work also includes the indie films “Evening,” with Meryl Streep, Glenn Close, Claire Danes and Vanessa Redgrave; “Purple Violets,” directed by Edward Burns; “Running with Scissors”; and “Hard Candy,” opposite Ellen Page. He also starred as Raoul in Joel Schumacher’s big-screen adaptation of “The Phantom of the Opera,” showcasing his musical talents.

On the small screen, Wilson received Emmy and Golden Globe Award nominations for his portrayal of the morally conflicted Joe Pitt in the HBO miniseries “Angels in America,” the much-honored 2003 adaptation of Tony Kushner’s award-winning plays “Angels in America: Millennium Approaches” and “Angels in America: Perestroika.”

Wilson has been honored with two consecutive Tony Award nominations for Best Actor in a Musical, the most recent coming for his performance as Curly in the successful 2002 Broadway revival of “Oklahoma!,” for which he also received a Drama Desk Award nomination. He earned his first Tony nomination for his work in the 2001 Broadway hit “The Full Monty,” for which he also garnered Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Award nominations and won a Drama League Award.

In 2006, Wilson returned to Broadway to star in the revival of the Neil Simon comedy “Barefoot in the Park,” opposite Amanda Peet. He most recently starred in the 2008/09 Broadway revival of Arthur Miller’s “All My Sons,” with John Lithgow, Dianne Wiest and Katie Holmes.

Born in Virginia and raised in St Petersburg, Florida, Wilson earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Carnegie Mellon University. Starting his career on the stage, he earned applause in the national tours of “Miss Saigon” and “Carousel.” In 1999, he starred off-Broadway in “Bright Lights, Big City,” winning a Drama League Award and receiving a Drama Desk Award nomination. That same year, he made his Broadway debut in “Gershwin’s Fascinating Rhythm,” for which he won another Drama League Award.

ABOUT THE FILMMAKERS

ZACK SNYDER (Director) is the acclaimed director and co-writer of the blockbuster action drama “300.” The film, based on the graphic novel by Frank Miller and starring Gerard Butler and Lena Headey, was a worldwide hit in 2007, and earned Snyder praise for his groundbreaking blend of live action and computer-generated imagery.

Together with his wife and producing partner, Deborah Snyder, Zack Snyder formed Cruel and Unusual Films, of which he is co-president. The production company recently signed a two-year overall production deal with Warner Bros Pictures. In addition to the upcoming adaptation of “Watchmen,” Cruel and Unusual Films’ projects include the drama “The Last Photograph,” to be directed by Sergei Bodro; the fantasy-adventure “Sucker Punch,” co-written by Snyder; and the animated film “The Guardians of Ga’Hoole.” The company is also developing a feature film adaptation of Ray Bradbury’s classic “The Illustrated Man,” which Snyder will direct, and produce alongside Denise Di Novi, Deborah Snyder and Frank Darabont, in collaboration with Di Novi Pictures. Other films in development to be produced by Cruel and Unusual Films include the zombie film “Army of the Dead” and the apocalyptic thriller “Cobalt 60″. Maintaining his dedication to groundbreaking film, Snyder provided the original stories for “Sucker Punch,” “Army of the Dead” and “Last Photograph.”

Zack Snyder made his feature film directorial debut with the 2004 horror thriller “Dawn of the Dead,” which topped the box office its opening weekend in 2004. The film brought Snyder widespread acclaim from critics and audiences, who praised his inspired re-imagining of George Romero’s cult classic. “Dawn of the Dead” was also nominated for the prestigious Camera d’Or Prize at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival.

Snyder’s feature film success follows years as an award-winning and respected director in the commercial and music video arenas. His commercials have garnered numerous awards, including two Clios, as well as a Gold Lion Award at Cannes for his Jeep “Frisbee” spot. Britain’s Communication Arts Magazine featured Snyder as one of the most talented commercial directors in that country, and the London advertising community presented him with an award for his impressive body of work.

Snyder attributes his distinctive style, in part, to his early artistic training in London, where he studied painting at the Heatherleys School. He later refined his artistic sensibilities at the prestigious Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California, where he developed the bold, cinematic style of filmmaking for which he is known today.

LAWRENCE GORDON (Producer) has been one of the entertainment industry’s most prolific and successful producers in a career spanning four decades. He has been behind such timeless films as the drama “Field of Dreams,” for which Gordon received a Best Picture Oscar nomination; the landmark action film “Die Hard”; and the ultimate buddy picture “48 Hrs.,” starring Nick Nolte and Eddie Murphy. Gordon more recently produced “Hellboy II: The Golden Army,” the sequel to the earlier hit “Hellboy,” reuniting the original cast under the direction of Guillermo del Toro.

Born in Yazoo City, Mississippi, Gordon graduated from Tulane University with a degree in business administration. Moving to Los Angeles in the early 1960s, he went to work as executive assistant to Aaron Spelling at Four Star Television and soon became a writer and associate producer of many Spelling shows. He followed with a stint as head of West Coast talent development for ABC Television and later as an executive with Bob Banner Associates. In 1968, he joined Sam Arkoff and Jim Nicholson at American International Pictures (AIP) as story editor, and rose to vice president in charge of development. He then segued to vice president at Screen Gems, the television division of Columbia Pictures, where he helped put together the classic television movie “Brian’s Song,” as well as the first “novel for television,” the adaptation of Leon Uris’ QB VII.

Accepting an offer to become the first executive in the company’s history to head worldwide production, Gordon returned to AIP. His many projects included “Coffy,” “Foxy Brown,” “Hell’s Angels ‘69,” “Wild in the Streets,” John Milius’ “Dillinger” (which Gordon also executive produced), and Ralph Bakshi’s groundbreaking and controversial animated hit “Heavy Traffic,” which was named one of The New York Times’ top-10 films of 1973.

Gordon then formed Lawrence Gordon Productions and began a long and successful association with director Walter Hill. Among the duo’s memorable titles are “Hard Times,” starring Charles Bronson; “The Driver,” with Ryan O’Neal and Isabelle Adjani; the cult classic “The Warriors”; “48 Hrs.,” teaming Nick Nolte and Eddie Murphy, in his feature film debut; the rock-and-roll fable “Streets of Fire”; “Brewster’s Millions,” with Richard Pryor and John Candy; and “Another 48 Hrs.,” which reunited the stars from the original. Gordon also produced the comedy hit “The End,” starring Burt Reynolds, and collaborated with Reynolds again on the box office smash “Hooper.” During this period, Gordon also produced the Paul Schrader-penned “Rolling Thunder,” and the now-cult movie musical “Xanadu,” starring Olivia Newton-John and Gene Kelly. In 1982, he reunited with his old boss Aaron Spelling to create and executive produce the ABC television series “Matt Houston.”

In 1984, Gordon became president and chief operating officer of 20th Century Fox, where he oversaw such successful titles as James Cameron’s “Aliens”; James L Brooks’ “Broadcast News”; “Commando,” starring Arnold Schwarzenegger; and “Jewel of the Nile,” starring Michael Douglas, Kathleen Turner and Danny DeVito. During his tenure, the television series “The Simpsons” was created by Matt Groening and James L Brooks, as were shows by Stephen Bochco and David E Kelley.

After his stint at Fox, in 1986, Gordon produced the critically acclaimed “Lucas,” marking the directorial debut of David Seltzer; and “Jumpin’ Jack Flash,” starring Whoopi Goldberg, which was Penny Marshall’s first film as a director.

During the 1980s, Gordon also produced for the stage. For Broadway, he produced the 1986 musical “Smile,” with music by Tony, Grammy and Oscar winner Marvin Hamlisch and book and lyrics by Tony and Oscar winner Howard Ashman. Off-Broadway, Gordon produced the 1982 revival of Joe Orton’s “Entertaining Mr Sloane,” which won the Drama Desk Award for Best Revival of a Play.

For the screen, Gordon produced the 1987 summer action hit “Predator,” starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, and, later, its sequel. In 1988, he produced the mega-blockbuster “Die Hard,” which introduced Bruce Willis as an action hero and forever changed the action genre. The film went on to spawn three hit sequels, in addition to becoming one of cinema’s most successful and imitated franchises.

The following year, Gordon produced another seminal hit, “Field of Dreams,” starring Kevin Costner under the direction of Phil Alden Robinson. The beloved film earned three Oscar nominations, including one for Best Picture, while the title itself and the famous line “If you build it…” became part of the cultural lexicon.

Gordon subsequently produced “Family Business,” directed by Sidney Lumet and starring Sean Connery, Dustin Hoffman and Matthew Broderick; the comedy hit “K-9,” starring James Belushi; “The Rocketeer,” directed by Joe Johnston; and “Lock Up,” starring Sylvester Stallone.

In 1989, Gordon formed Largo Entertainment with the backing of JVC Entertainment, Inc. of Japan, representing the first major Japanese investment in the entertainment industry. As the company’s chairman and chief executive officer, Gordon was responsible for the production of such films as “Point Break,” starring Patrick Swayze and Keanu Reeves; “Unlawful Entry,” starring Kurt Russell, Ray Liotta and Madeleine Stowe; “Used People,” starring Shirley MacLaine, Jessica Tandy, Kathy Bates, Marcia Gay Harden and Marcello Mastroianni; and “Timecop,” starring Jean-Claude Van Damme. Largo also co-financed and handled the foreign distribution of the acclaimed biopic “Malcolm X,” directed by Spike Lee and starring Denzel Washington in the title role.

Gordon left Largo in 1994 in favor of a long-term producing deal with Universal Pictures. There, his first production was the controversial Kevin Costner-starrer “Waterworld,” which grossed $300 million worldwide. Other Lawrence Gordon Productions films include “The Devil’s Own,” starring Harrison Ford and Brad Pitt; the critically acclaimed “Boogie Nights,” directed by Paul Thomas Anderson and starring Mark Wahlberg, Burt Reynolds, Heather Graham and Julianne Moore; and “Mystery Men,” starring Ben Stiller.

In 2001, Gordon produced two pictures that opened at number one at the box office: the summer hit “Lara Croft: Tomb Raider,” starring Angelina Jolie, and the acclaimed “K-PAX,” starring Kevin Spacey and Jeff Bridges. In summer 2003, “Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life” was released, with Jolie back as Lara Croft.

The next year, Gordon produced Guillermo del Toro’s “Hellboy,” based on the popular Mike Mignola comic book series and starring Ron Perlman and Selma Blair. In summer 2008, he scored an even bigger hit with its sequel, “Hellboy II: The Golden Army,” reuniting the original cast and filmmakers.

Gordon is a member of the Board of Directors of the Producers Guild of America (PGA). He served as a member of the Board of Governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, as well as the Board of the American Film Institute. He is a recipient of the ShoWest Lifetime Achievement Award and the PGA’s prestigious David O Selznick Lifetime Achievement Award.

LLOYD LEVIN (Producer) most recently produced “Hellboy II: The Golden Army” with Lawrence Gordon, continuing an ongoing association with Gordon that began in the mid-1980s. Directed by Guillermo del Toro, “Hellboy II” starred Ron Perlman, Selma Blair and Doug Jones, and featured the voice of Seth MacFarlane. Levin had previously teamed with Gordon to produce the first film in the franchise, 2004’s “Hellboy,” based on Mike Mignola’s Dark Horse comic book series.

In 2006, Levin produced the acclaimed real-life drama “United 93,” directed by Paul Greengrass. The film was nominated for two Academy Award nominations, including Best Director. “United 93″ also received numerous other honors, including Best Picture awards from such top critics groups as the New York Film Critics Circle and the London Film Critics Circle. Additionally, it was nominated for six BAFTA Awards, including Best British Film, winning for Best Director and Best Editing.

Levin is continuing his collaboration with Greengrass on the director’s new film “Green Zone.” Based on journalist Rajiv Chandrasekaran’s critically acclaimed book Imperial Life in the Emerald City, the film stars Matt Damon, Greg Kinnear, Amy Ryan, Khalid Abdallah, Jason Isaacs and Brendan Gleeson.

Other upcoming films Levin is producing include the thriller “Meg,” based on Steve Alten’s best-selling book, and “Concrete,” based on Paul Chadwick’s Dark Horse graphic novels. For television, Levin, together with Andrew Cosby and Nick Nunziata, is producing the series “Runoff,” based on Tom Manning’s graphic novel.

Levin gained his first producing credit in 1988, as an associate producer on the blockbuster “Die Hard,” which was based upon Roderick Thorp’s 1979 novel Nothing Lasts Forever. Levin brought the book to Lawrence Gordon’s attention and subsequently oversaw the film’s development. He then served as associate producer on 1989’s Oscar-nominated hit “Field of Dreams,” directed by Phil Alden Robinson and starring Kevin Costner, and “K-9,” starring James Belushi.

In 1990, Levin was executive producer on both “Die Hard 2: Die Harder” and “Predator 2.” The following year, he produced “The Rocketeer,” directed by Joe Johnston and starring Bill Campbell and Jennifer Connelly.

Joining Lawrence Gordon at Largo Entertainment, Levin served as president of production. He oversaw the production of such hit movies as “Point Break,” directed by Kathryn Bigelow and starring Keanu Reeves and Patrick Swayze; “Unlawful Entry,” starring Kurt Russell and Ray Liotta; and “Timecop,” starring Jean-Claude Van Damme. He also executive produced “Used People,” starring Shirley MacLaine, Kathy Bates and Marcello Mastroianni.

Departing Largo, Levin continued his partnership with Gordon as a producer. In 1997, he executive produced “The Devil’s Own,” starring Harrison Ford and Brad Pitt, and also produced “Event Horizon,” starring Laurence Fishburne and Sam Neill. The next year, he produced Paul Thomas Anderson’s breakthrough movie “Boogie Nights,” with an ensemble cast that included Mark Wahlberg, Julianne Moore, William H Macy, Philip Seymour Hoffman, John C Reilly, Heather Graham and Burt Reynolds. The film earned numerous honors, including three Oscar nominations.

In 1999, Levin produced “Mystery Men,” starring Ben Stiller, William H Macy and Geoffrey Rush, and followed it with “Lara Croft: Tomb Raider,” starring Angelina Jolie. Based on the popular video game, the film went on to gross more than $280 million at the worldwide box office, making it the most successful action movie starring a female lead of all time.

Levin’s other film credits include “K-PAX,” directed by Iain Softley and starring Kevin Spacey and Jeff Bridges, and “Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life,” with Jolie reprising the title role.

DEBORAH SNYDER (Producer) is co-president of Cruel and Unusual Films, which she formed with her husband and producing partner, Zack Snyder. The company recently signed a two-year deal with Warner Bros Pictures. Snyder made her feature film producing debut with “300,” a film based on the graphic novel by Frank Miller. The 2007 film followed the Spartan warriors’ courageous stand against the Persian Army. Directed by Zack Snyder, the blockbuster was a hit with critics and audiences, and at the worldwide box office.

In addition to the highly anticipated “Watchmen,” upcoming Cruel and Unusual Films productions include the Sergei Bodro-helmed drama “The Last Photograph,” the adventure-fantasy “Sucker Punch,” and the animated feature “Guardians of Ga’Hoole.” Cruel and Unusual Films is currently developing a number of projects, including “The Illustrated Man.” The film, based on the classic story by Ray Bradbury, will be jointly produced by Zack Snyder, Denise Di Novi, Deborah Snyder and Frank Darabont, in collaboration with Di Novi Pictures. Other films in development by Cruel and Unusual Films include the zombie film “Army of the Dead” and the apocalyptic thriller “Cobalt 60.”

Deborah Snyder graduated from Ithaca College in 1991 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Video & Film Production. She began her producing career in advertising as an assistant producer and video editor at Backer Spielvogel Bates. Promoted to producer in 1992, Snyder produced commercials for such clients as M&M/Mars, Miller Brewing Company, and Estée Lauder.

In 1998, Snyder took a senior producer position at Kirshenbaum Bond and Partners. Producing ads for clients including Tommy Hilfiger, Target and 1-800-Flowers, she shot all over the globe from Amsterdam, London, Zimbabwe, and New Zealand to Kansas City. Continuing her ascent through the advertising ranks, in 2000, Snyder became a vice president/executive producer at the renowned BBDO NY, where she produced spots for such clients as AOL, Visa, Gillette, Frito-Lay and Pizza Hut.

DAVID HAYTER (Screenwriter) has worked on films that have grossed more than a billion dollars at the worldwide box office. His credits as a screenwriter include such films as the blockbuster “X-Men” and its hit sequel, “X2: X-Men United,” both directed by Bryan Singer; and “The Scorpion King,” starring Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson. He also wrote the television movie “Lost in Oz,” on which he also served as executive producer. In addition, he produced the 1998 independent film “Burn,” with Bryan Singer, in which Hayter also starred.

Born in Santa Monica, California, Hayter spent the first 18 years of his life traveling the world with his family, learning the French and Japanese languages along the way. After graduating from high school in Kobe, Japan, Hayter went on to study theatre at the prestigious Ryerson Theatre School in Toronto, Canada.

As an actor, Hayter’s credits include the lead in the sci-fi film “Guyver: Dark Hero,” and the voice of Captain America on the “Spiderman” animated series, as well as a decade-long stint in the role of Solid Snake in the hugely popular “Metal Gear Solid” video game franchise.

ALEX TSE (Screenwriter) grew up in San Francisco and attended Emerson College in Boston. His first script to be produced was “Sucker Free City,” a 2004 Showtime movie, directed by Spike Lee.

Tse is currently working on the film adaptations of the thriller novel The Winter of Frankie Machine, to star Robert De Niro under the direction of Michael Mann, and The Illustrated Man, by legendary science fiction writer Ray Bradbury, to be produced and directed by Zack Snyder.

DAVE GIBBONS (Graphic Novel Co-Creator) has been involved in the comic book world for the last 35 years, beginning in fanzines and underground comics in his native UK. His work has been published throughout the Americas, Europe and Japan, though he is probably best known for the award-winning comic series-turned-graphic novel Watchmen, which he illustrated and co-created with writer Alan Moore.

A frequent contributor to Britain’s influential 2000AD weekly, he co-created Rogue Trooper, in addition to illustrating such renowned strips as Harlem Heroes and Dan Dare. Gibbons also worked on the popular Doctor Who strip and, in 1982, began his long association with DC Comics, drawing the Green Lantern series.

Since then, he has both drawn and written many of their major characters, including Superman and Batman. Among his other published works are World’s Finest, Aliens: Salvation, Batman vs. Predator, Captain America Lives Again, Green Lantern Corps: Recharge and The Rann-Thanagar War. He co-created the Martha Washington series with Frank Miller, and his semi-autobiographical graphic novel, The Originals, won an Eisner Award in 2005.

HERBERT W GAINS (Executive Producer) recently served as an executive producer on Neil Jordan’s psychological drama “The Brave One,” starring Jodie Foster and Terrence Howard. He had previously produced the horror thriller “The Reaping,” starring Hilary Swank, and was an executive producer on “House of Wax,” starring Elisha Cuthbert and Chad Michael Murray.

Gains also executive produced the 2004 romantic comedy “Little Black Book,” with Brittany Murphy, and was a producer on Michael Tollin’s poignant sports drama “Radio,” with Cuba Gooding, Jr. and Ed Harris. His other credits as an executive producer include “Cradle 2 The Grave,” starring Jet Li and DMX; Jake Kasdan’s comedy “Orange County”; “Hardball,” starring Keanu Reeves and Diane Lane; and “Summer Catch,” starring Freddie Prinze, Jr. and Jessica Biel. Gains counts among his co-producing credits “Varsity Blues,” with James Van Der Beek, Jon Voight and Amy Smart; “Ready to Rumble”; and Rob Cohen’s “Daylight,” starring Sylvester Stallone.

In addition, Gains was a production manager for such films as “The Negotiator” and “Mouse Hunt.” He had earlier worked as an assistant director on a variety of films, including “Natural Born Killers,” “Heaven & Earth,” “Point Break,” “Pacific Heights,” “Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story,” “Dirty Dancing” and “The Fan.”

THOMAS TULL (Executive Producer) is the Chairman and CEO of Legendary Pictures, a private equity-backed film production company with more than 1.5 billion dollars in total financing. Legendary Pictures’ current deal, through which it co-produces and co-finances films with Warner Bros Pictures, runs through 2012.

Since its inception in 2005, Legendary has joined with Warner Bros to make such successful films as “Superman Returns,” “Batman Begins,” the blockbuster “300″ and the record-breaking, award-winning film phenomenon “The Dark Knight.” Following “Watchmen,” upcoming releases in the partnership include “Observe and Report,” “The Hangover,” “Where the Wild Things Are” and “Ninja Assassin.” Legendary films about to go into production include “Clash of the Titans” and “Gears of War,” the latter with New Line.

Legendary Pictures is also developing a number of film projects in-house, including “Paradise Lost,” “Warcraft,” “Kung Fu,” “The Mountain” and “The Lost Patrol.”

Tull is a member of the Board of Trustees of the American Film Institute (AFI). He serves on the Board of the Fulfillment Fund and is a board member of the San Diego Zoo. He graduated from Hamilton College in 1992.

LARRY FONG (Director of Photography) reunites with director Zack Snyder on “Watchmen” after their collaboration on the worldwide blockbuster “300.” The two originally met in film school at Pasadena’s Art Center College of Design, and went on to shoot various music videos and TV commercials together.

In 2005, Fong was nominated by the American Society of Cinematographers for his work on the pilot episode of the hit television drama series “Lost,” directed by the show’s creator, JJ. Abrams. He also shot the 2005 telefilm “The Catch,” written and executive produced by Abrams, and most recently lensed the television pilot “Anatomy of Hope,” which Abrams directed.

Fong’s additional film credits include the independent features “Cost of Living” and “Cape of Good Hope.” Among his other television credits are the pilots “Sleepwalkers” and “Secrets of a Small Town.”

Fong’s camerawork has also garnered numerous advertising industry accolades, including the Golden Lion, the Clio and the Belding. Additionally, three music videos lensed by Fong have won MTV Awards for Best Video of the Year.

ALEX McDOWELL (Production Designer) has worked on both live action and animated features, and has also received praise for his work blending practical and digital production design in film genres ranging from period and contemporary to science fiction and fantasy. He is currently serving as the production designer for a new computer-animated feature for DreamWorks Animation.

He most recently completed work on Wes Anderson’s stop-motion animated comedy “Fantastic Mr Fox,” starring the voices of George Clooney and Cate Blanchett. McDowell is also making his producing debut as a co-producer on the upcoming indie film “Bunraku,” starring Demi Moore, Woody Harrelson, Ron Perlman and Josh Hartnett.

McDowell earned a BAFTA Award nomination and an Art Directors Guild (ADG) Award nomination for his work on Tim Burton’s 2005 fantasy film “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.” He also collaborated with Burton on the 2005 stop-motion animated film “Corpse Bride.” McDowell previously won an ADG Award for Steven Spielberg’s 2004 film “The Terminal,” for which he designed a full-size airport terminal, one of the largest architectural sets ever built for a film. The designer had earlier worked with Spielberg on 2002’s sci-fi action hit “Minority Report,” for which McDowell received his first ADG Award nomination.

His additional film credits include Anthony Minghella’s “Breaking and Entering”; “The Cat in the Hat”; “Fight Club,” for director David Fincher; Terry Gilliam’s “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas”; and “The Crow.”

A classically trained painter, McDowell attended Central School of Art in London. In 2006, he was named Royal Designer for Industry by the RSA, the UK’s most prestigious design society, and continues as a Visiting Artist at MIT’s Media Lab. He is also co-director of 5D: The Immersive Design Conference.

WILLIAM HOY (Editor) edited Zack Snyder’s worldwide hit “300,” having first worked with the director as an additional editor on “Dawn of the Dead.”

Hoy has also edited such films as Tim Story’s “Fantastic Four” and its sequel “Fantastic 4: Rise of the Silver Surfer”; Alex Proyas’ “I, Robot”; F Gary Gray’s “A Man Apart”; and Randall Wallace’s “We Were Soldiers” and “The Man in the Iron Mask.” He has collaborated with filmmaker Phillip Noyce on three films: “The Bone Collector,” “Sliver” and “Patriot Games.”

Hoy’s additional credits include editing work on “Se7en,” “Outbreak,” “Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country” and “Dances with Wolves.”

For television, he has edited “Houdini” for TNT, “Shattered Mind,” and the series “Star Trek: The Next Generation.”

Tyler Bates (Composer) previously collaborated with director Zack Snyder on the 2007 blockbuster “300″ and the 2004 thriller “Dawn of the Dead.” He recently scored the sci-fi thriller “The Day the Earth Stood Still,” as well as Rob Zombie’s hit remake of “Halloween.” All of the films opened number one at the box office.

He has worked with Rob Zombie on several projects to date, including the cult classic “The Devil’s Rejects.” Bates recently provided a string arrangement for the song “The Man Who Laughs,” on Zombie’s forthcoming CD.

His additional credits encompass more than 50 film, television, and video game projects, including Showtime’s hit television series “Californication”; Liquid Entertainment’s epic video game “Rise of the Argonauts”; Neil Marshall’s sci-fi thriller feature “Doomsday”; and the 2006 horror-comedy “Slither,” which reunited him with “Dawn of the Dead” screenwriter James Gunn.

Bates’ upcoming projects include Rob Zombie’s next Halloween installment, “H2: Halloween 2,” and Electronic Arts’ (EA) highly anticipated video game release “Army of Two.”

MICHAEL WILKINSON (Costume Designer) was nominated for a Costume Designers Guild (CDG) Award and a Saturn Award for his work on Zack Snyder’s worldwide hit “300.” The previous year, he received a CDG Award nomination for his contemporary designs in the international ensemble drama “Babel.”

Wilkinson’s work will next be seen in two highly anticipated projects, beginning with the action thriller “Terminator Salvation,” directed by McG and starring Christian Bale, due out this summer. He is currently designing the costumes for the futuristic sci-fi thriller “Tron 2.0.”

His additional film credits include “Rendition,” “The Nanny Diaries,” “Friends with Money,” “Sky High,” “Dark Water,” “Imaginary Heroes,” “Party Monster,” “American Splendor,” “Garden State” and “Milwaukee, Minnesota.”

Earlier in his career, Wilkinson worked as a design assistant for such films as The Wachowski Brothers’ “The Matrix,” and the Baz Luhrmann-directed films “Moulin Rouge!” and “Romeo + Juliet.”

Beyond film, Wilkinson’s theater work includes award-winning costume designs for the Sydney Theater Company, Opera Australia, the Australian Dance Theater, Radio City Hall and the Ensemble Theater. He also works in special events, having created hundreds of designs for the Opening and Closing Ceremonies of the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney.

Wilkinson has a degree in Dramatic Arts (Design) from the National Institute of the Dramatic Arts in his hometown of Sydney, Australia.

JOHN “DJ” DesJARDIN (Visual Effects Supervisor) has been creating visual effects for more than 20 years, and has built a body of work encompassing over 30 feature films.

He has collaborated with the Wachowski Brothers as a visual effects supervisor on the second and third films in the blockbuster “Matrix” trilogy, “The Matrix Reloaded” and “The Matrix Revolutions,” as well as on the brothers’ award-winning video game “Enter the Matrix.” His credits as visual effects supervisor also include the more recent action hit “Fantastic Four” and the Middle East-set thriller “The Kingdom,” as well as the earlier thrillers “Firestorm,” “The Astronaut’s Wife” and “End of Days.”

Desjardin’s film credits also include “X-Men: The Last Stand,” as additional visual effects supervisor; “Friday Night Lights,” on which he served as on-set visual effects supervisor; and “Mission: Impossible II,” as CG supervisor.

WESLEY COLLER (Co-Producer) is a producer at Cruel and Unusual Films Incorporated, where he works in collaboration with Zack Snyder and Deborah Snyder to create entertaining and groundbreaking feature films.

Coller previously served as an associate producer on the blockbuster hit “300,” directed by Zack Snyder. The film had a record-breaking opening weekend in March 2007, going on to gross more than $450 million worldwide. He also recently worked as a creative consultant on the book 300: The Art of the Film, collaborating with the design team at Darkhorse Publishing to establish the overall look and design for the book.

Currently, Coller is involved in the development and production of a wide range of projects for Cruel and Unusual, including “Sucker Punch,” “Guardians of Ga’Hoole,” “Army of the Dead,” “The Illustrated Man,” “The Last Photograph,” and “Cobalt 60.”

Prior to starting his career, Coller graduated from Eastern Michigan University in 1999 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Telecommunication & Film and a minor in graphic design. Immediately following graduation, he moved to Los Angeles and joined Zack Snyder’s production team, working with the director on numerous commercial projects, as well as the development of several feature films, including the remake of “Dawn of the Dead.”

 

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IMAX Corporation and Warner Bros. Pictures today announced that the box office smash hit The Dark Knight, which has grossed more than $997 million at the worldwide box office since its release on July 18th, 2008, will return to IMAX(R) theatres for an encore presentation. Starting January 23rd, the film will open in 143 IMAX screens domestically, and 29 screens internationally. Last year the film opened day and date in 94 domestic and 15 international IMAX theatres and went on to become the highest grossing live-action Hollywood IMAX release, generating $63 million as it continued to be released throughout the IMAX network.

The Dark Knight: The IMAX Experience features six sequences filmed with IMAX cameras, which marks the first time ever that a major feature film has been even partially shot using IMAX cameras.

“The Dark Knight is a crowning achievement in every sense of the word,” said Dan Fellman, President of Domestic Distribution, Warner Bros. Pictures. “We want to provide one more opportunity for moviegoers to experience it on the big screen as it was meant to be seen. We’re also very excited to give more fans in new markets an opportunity to experience the film in this special way, thanks to the continued rapid growth of the IMAX theatre network.”

“As audiences discovered over the summer, The Dark Knight is not only a phenomenal film, but an extraordinarily unique experience in IMAX,” said Veronika Kwan-Rubinek, President of International Distribution, Warner Bros. Pictures. “With the multitude of accolades it has received this season, we wanted to bring this amazing film back to theaters to give audiences another chance to see it on the big screen and in the expanded IMAX locations around the globe.”

“We are grateful to Chris Nolan and Warner Bros Pictures for incorporating IMAX into such a wonderful cinematic masterpiece, and we’re honored to bring it back to our theatres,” said Greg Foster, Chairman and President of IMAX Filmed Entertainment. “The anticipation surrounding the initial IMAX release reached beyond the markets where we had IMAX theatres and we’re delighted that moviegoers in many of those markets will now have the chance to Experience it in IMAX.”

One of the most celebrated and successful films of this or any year, The Dark Knight has been hailed by both critics and audiences since its original release last July. The film garnered widespread acclaim for its artistic and technical achievements, culminating with the film being named on more than 150 critics’ lists of the year’s top-ten films.

In addition, the filmmakers behind The Dark Knight have been honored by their peers, with Christopher Nolan receiving a Directors Guild of America Award nomination; producers Nolan, Charles Roven and Emma Thomas garnering a Producers Guild Award nomination; and a Writers Guild of America Award nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay going to Chris Nolan, Jonathan Nolan and David S. Goyer. Cast member Heath Ledger received a Screen Actors Guild Award nomination, and has also won a Golden Globe, Critics’ Choice Award and numerous other critics groups’ awards for Best Supporting Actor.

The Dark Knight also won the Critics’ Choice Award for Best Action Film, and swept the People’s Choice Awards in five categories, including Favorite Movie and Favorite Cast.

The Dark Knight: The IMAX Experience is scheduled to play at the following locations starting on January 23rd.

  UNITED STATES

  Arizona

  Mesa - Gateway 12 IMAX Theatre
  Phoenix - AMC Deer Valley 30 with IMAX
  Tempe - IMAX Theatre at Arizona Mills

  Arkansas

  Little Rock - Chenal 9 IMAX Theatre

  California

  Anaheim - The Movie Experience 14 at Anaheim Gardenwalk
  Arcadia - AMC Santa Anita 16 & IMAX
  Burbank - AMC Burbank 16 & IMAX
  Cathedral City - Desert IMAX Theatre
  Dublin - Regal Hacienda Crossings Stadium 21 & IMAX
  Emeryville - AMC Bay Street 16 & IMAX
  Fresno - Edwards Fresno Stadium 22 & IMAX
  Irvine - Edwards Irvine Spectrum IMAX
  Los Angeles - AMC Century City 15 & IMAX
  Los Angeles - AMC Universal CityWalk Stadium 19 with IMAX
  Los Angeles - IMAX Theatre at The Bridge: cinema de lux
  Monterey - Cannery Row IMAX Theatre
  Ontario - Edwards Ontario Palace 22 & IMAX
  Sacramento - Edwards Fairfield Stadium 16 & IMAX
  Sacramento - Esquire IMAX Theatre
  Sacramento - Regal Cinemas El Dorado Hills Stadium 14 & IMAX
  San Diego - Mira Mesa Stadium 18 & IMAX
  San Jose - AMC Eastridge Mall 15 & IMAX
  San Francisco - AMC Loews Metreon 16 with IMAX
  Simi Valley - Civic Center Stadium 16 & IMAX
  Stockton - Regal City Centre Stadium 16 & IMAX
  Torrance - AMC Del Amo 18 & IMAX

  Colorado

  Colorado Springs - Cinemark Carefree Circle IMAX Theatre
  Denver - UA Colorado Center Stadium 9 & IMAX
  Westminster - AMC Orchards of Westminster 12 & IMAX

  Connecticut

  Manchester - IMAX Theatre at Showcase Cinemas Buckland Hills
  Norwalk - IMAX Theatre at The Maritime Aquarium

  Florida

  Altamonte Springs - AMC Altamonte Mall 18 & IMAX
  Aventura - AMC Aventura 24 & IMAX
  Fort Lauderdale - AutoNation(R) IMAX(R) Theater at Museum of Discovery
   and Science
  Fort Myers - Regal Gulf Coast Town Center Stadium 16 & IMAX
  Jacksonville - AMC Regency 24 & IMAX
  Orange Park - AMC Orange Park 24 & IMAX
  Orlando - Pointe Orlando 20 & IMAX
  St. Augustine - World Golf Hall of Fame IMAX Theatre
  St. Petersburg - Muvico Baywalk 20 & IMAX
  Tallahassee - IMAX Theatre at the Challenger Learning Center
  Tampa - AMC Veterans 24 & IMAX
  Tampa - Channelside Cinemas IMAX
  Tampa - IMAX Dome Theatre at MOSI
  West Palm Beach - Muvico Parisian 20 & IMAX

  Georgia

  Augusta - Augusta Exchange Stadium 20 & IMAX
  Buford - Regal Mall of Georgia Stadium 20 & IMAX

  Idaho

  Boise - Edwards Boise Stadium 22 & IMAX

  Illinois

  Batavia - Randall 15 IMAX
  Chicago - Navy Pier IMAX Theatre
  Lincolnshire - Regal Lincolnshire 20 & IMAX
  Woodridge - Cinemark Seven Bridges IMAX Theatre

  Indiana

  Evansville - IMAX Theatre at Showplace Cinemas East 18
  Indianapolis - IMAX Theatre at the Indiana State Museum
  Indianapolis - Kerasotes ShowPlace 16 & IMAX
  Noblesville - Hamilton Towne Center 16 + IMAX
  Portage - Portage 16 IMAX

  Iowa

  Davenport - Putnam Museum and IMAX Theatre
  Des Moines - Science Center of Iowa & Blank IMAX Dome Theater

  Kansas

  Olathe - AMC Studio 30 & IMAX

  Kentucky

  Louisville - IMAX Cinema De Lux 20: Stonybrook

  Louisiana

  Harahan - AMC Elmwood Palace 20 & IMAX
  New Orleans - Entergy IMAX Theatre, Audubon Aquarium of the Americas

  Maryland

  Baltimore - AMC Loews White Marsh 16 & IMAX
  Columbia - AMC Columbia 14 & IMAX

  Massachusetts

  Boston - New England Aquarium's Simons IMAX Theatre
  Natick - Verizon IMAX 3D Theater at Jordan's Furniture - Natick
  Reading - Verizon IMAX 3D Theater at Jordan's Furniture - Reading

  Michigan

  Dearborn - The Henry Ford IMAX Theatre
  Grand Blanc - NGC Trillium Cinema IMAX Theatre
  Grand Rapids - Celebration! Cinema IMAX Theatre
  Lansing - Celebration! Cinema IMAX Theatre
  Sterling Heights - AMC Forum 30 & IMAX
  Ypsilanti - Showcase Cinemas Ann Arbor IMAX

  Minnesota

  Apple Valley - Great Clips IMAX Theatre

  Missouri

  Kansas City - AMC BarryWoods 24 & IMAX
  St. Louis - Wehrenberg Theatres Ronnies 20 Cine IMAX

  Nevada

  Las Vegas - Brenden Theatres and IMAX at the Palms Casino Resort
  Las Vegas - Regal Red Rock Stadium 16 & IMAX
  Las Vegas - Regal Aliante Stadium 16 & IMAX

  New Hampshire

  Hooksett - Cinemagic IMAX Theatre

  New Jersey

  Atlantic City -Tropicana Casino and Resort IMAX Theatre
  Cherry Hill - AMC Loews Cherry Hill 24 & IMAX
  Hamilton - AMC Hamilton 24 & IMAX

  New York

  Albany - Regal Crossgates Mall 18 & IMAX
  Deer Park - Regal Deer Park Stadium 16 & IMAX
  Garden City - Grumman IMAX at Cradle of Aviation
  New Rochelle - Regal New Roc City 18 & IMAX
  New York City - AMC Loews Lincoln Square 13 & IMAX
  New York City - AMC Empire 25 & IMAX
  Rochester - Cinemark IMAX Theatre at Tinseltown USA
  West Nyack - IMAX Theatre at Palisades Center
  White Plains - IMAX Theatre at City Center: Cinema De Lux 15
  Williamsville - Regal Transit Center 18 & IMAX

  North Carolina

  Raleigh - Wachovia IMAX Theatre at Marbles Kids Museum

  Ohio

  Springdale - IMAX Theatre at Springdale 18: Cinema De Lux
  Columbus - AMC Easton Town Center 30 & IMAX

  Oklahoma

  Tulsa - Cinemark IMAX Theatre at the Tulsa

  Oregon

  Tigard - Regal Bridgeport Village Stadium 18 & IMAX

  Pennsylvania

  Bensalem - AMC Neshaminy 24 & IMAX
  Harrisburg - Select Medical IMAX Theater at The Whitaker Center
  Homestead - AMC Waterfront 22 & IMAX
  King of Prussia - UA King of Prussia Stadium 16 & IMAX
  Philadelphia - Tuttleman IMAX Theatre at the Franklin Institute
  Reading - RC Reading Movies 11 & IMAX
  Tarentum - Cinemark IMAX Theatre at the Galleria Pittsburgh Mills

  Rhode Island

  Providence - Providence Place Cinemas 16 & IMAX

  Tennessee

  Knoxville - Regal Pinnacle Stadium 18 & IMAX
  Nashville - Regal Opry Mills 20 & IMAX

  Texas

  Austin - The Bob Bullock Texas State History Museum IMAX Theatre
  Colleyville - Colleyville Cinema & Grille IMAX Theatre
  Dallas - Cinemark IMAX Theatre at Cinemark 17
  Fort Worth - Fort Worth Museum Omni Theater
  Houston - AMC Gulf Pointe 30 & IMAX
  Houston - Edwards Houston Marq*E 23 & IMAX
  San Antonio - Santikos Palladium 18 IMAX Theatre
  Sugar Land - AMC First Colony 24 & IMAX
  Tomball - Santikos Silverado Station 18 IMAX

  Utah

  Sandy - Megaplex 17 IMAX at Jordan Commons

  Virginia

  Alexandria - AMC Hoffman Center 22 & IMAX
  Chantilly - Airbus IMAX Theater at Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center
  Hampton - Riverside IMAX Theater at the Virginia Air & Space Center
  Virginia Beach - AMC Lynnhaven 18 & IMAX
  Woodbridge - AMC Potomac Mills 18 & IMAX

  Washington

  Lacey - Regal Martin Village Stadium 16 & IMAX
  Seattle - Pacific Science Center Boeing IMAX Theatre
  Spokane - Riverfront Park IMAX
  Tukwila - AMC Southcenter 16 & IMAX

  Washington DC

  Washington DC - Samuel C. Johnson IMAX Theater at the National Museum of
  Nat. History

  Wisconsin

  Fitchburg - Kerasotes Star 18 & IMAX

  CANADA

  Alberta

  Calgary - Cineplex Scotiabank Theatre Chinook IMAX Theatre
  Edmonton - Cineplex Scotiabank West Edmonton Mall IMAX Theatre

  British Columbia

  Langley - Cineplex Colossus Langley IMAX Theatre
  Richmond - Cineplex SilverCity Riverport IMAX Theatre
  Vancouver - CN Theatre at Canada Place

  Manitoba

  Winnipeg - IMAX Theatre at Portage Place

  Nova Scotia

  Halifax - Empire IMAX, Bayer's Lake

  Ontario

  Mississauga - Cineplex Coliseum Mississauga IMAX Theatre
  Ottawa - Cineplex SilverCity Gloucester IMAX Theatre
  Toronto - Cineplex Scotiabank Theatre Toronto IMAX Theatre
  Woodbridge - Cineplex Colossus Woodbridge IMAX Theatre

  Quebec

  Montreal - Cineplex Scotiabank Theatre Montreal IMAX Theatre
  Quebec City - IMAX le Theatre

  INTERNATIONAL

  Argentina

  Buenos Aires - IMAX Center Norte

  Australia

  Melbourne - Hoyts Highpoint IMAX
  Melbourne - IMAX Theatre, Melbourne Museum
  Perth - Hoyts Carousel IMAX
  Sydney - Hoyts Entertainment Quarter IMAX
  Sydney - LG IMAX Theatre

  Brazil

  Sao Paolo - Unibanco IMAX Cinema

  China

  Hong Kong - UA MegaBox IMAX Theatre

  Columbia

  Bogota - IMAX Theatre Plaza de las Americas

  Ecuador

  Guayaquil - Fundacion Malecon 2000

  Guatemala

  Guatemala City - Pradera Concepcion

  Korea

  Goyangsi - CGV Ilsan
  Seoul - CGV Wangsipni
  Seoul - CGV Yongsan

  Mexico

  Guadalajara - Cinepolis Galerias Guadalajara IMAX Theatre
  Mexico City - Cinepolis Perisur IMAX Theatre
  Mexico City - Cinepolis Universidad IMAX Theatre
  Monterrey - Cinepolis Galerias Valle Oriente IMAX Theatre
  Toluca - Cinepolis Galerias Metepec IMAX Theatre

  Netherlands

  Amsterdam - Pathe Arena IMAX

  Philippines

  Manila - San Miguel Coca-Cola IMAX Theatre

  Taiwan

  Taipei - Samsung IMAX Miramar Cinemas

  United Kingdom

  Birmingham - IMAX Theatre at Millennium Point
  Bradford - IMAX National Media Museum
  Glasgow - Glasgow Science Centre IMAX Cinema
  Greenwich - Odeon Greenwich IMAX
  London - BFI London IMAX Cinema
  Manchester - Odeon IMAX Cinema Manchester at The Printworks
  Wimbledon - Odeon Wimbledon

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Smashing box office records in the US, Christopher Nolan’s second Batman film, The Dark Knight triumphed at the UK box office with an opening of GBP11,191,824.

The box office hit entered the record books in the UK with The Dark Knight IMAX release taking a breathtaking GBP307,332 from 5 IMAX cinemas.

The follow-up to “Batman Begins,” reunites Nolan with many of his renowned production team and actors including Christian Bale, Gary Oldman, Morgan Freeman and Michael Caine. Heath Ledger’s extraordinary performance has gained critical acclaim across the globe.

Josh Berger, President and Managing Director of Warner Bros UK commented:

“We knew The Dark Knight was a fantastic film, and it is wonderful that both the critics and the cinema-going public here in the UK feel the same way. This weekend’s clear number one opening which received critical and commercial box office success is testament to the outstanding filmmaking and cast of this stunning film, much of which was shot here in Britain. We look forward to a long and successful run this summer.”

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The movie’s Friday haul surpasses the previous record of $59.8 million set last year by “Spider-Man 3.” “The Dark Knight” also might break the opening weekend record of $151.1 million that also was posted by “Spider-Man 3.”

Warner Bros. head of distribution Dan Fellman says the death of co-star Heath Ledger and the buzz about his frenzied performance as the Batman villain Joker was a big part of the movie’s allure.

Batman – The Dark Knight has it’s UK premiere on Monday 21 July and then opens on general release in the UK from 24 July 2008, including at a number of IMAX venues.

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The Dark Knight opens in theatres and IMAX on July 18.

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Excitement Surrounding Film and Early Reviews Drives Record-Setting Advance IMAX Ticket Sales

IMAX Corporation and Warner Bros. Pictures today announced that the studio’s highly anticipated and technologically unprecedented summer movie, The Dark Knight, starring Christian Bale and Heath Ledger, and directed by Christopher Nolan, will open in a record 94 IMAX(R) theatres domestically on July 18th in conjunction with the film’s wide release. The film will also open in 15 IMAX theatres day-and-date internationally, with at least 23 additional international locations opening in the coming weeks.

The Dark Knight: The IMAX Experience features six sequences filmed with IMAX(R) cameras, the first time ever that a major feature film has been even partially shot using IMAX cameras, marking a revolutionary integration of the two film formats. The worldwide premiere of the film will be held at the AMC Loews Lincoln Square 13 with IMAX in New York on July 14th, the first time a Hollywood feature film has premiered in an IMAX theatre.

Advance IMAX ticket sales demonstrate the huge enthusiasm surrounding the movie:

- Advance IMAX ticket sales have already surpassed $2 million, more than a week prior to opening
- Over 100 shows are already sold out
- 93 domestic IMAX theatres have added midnight screenings
- Many IMAX theatres in the USA are adding 3am shows, and some are screening non-stop for 24 hours to meet the high moviegoer demands
- Chicago’s Navy Pier and the Palisades Center (West Nyack, NY) IMAX theatres will run shows non-stop for 72 hours

“The combination of Chris’ inimitable vision and IMAX’s groundbreaking technology produced a version of ‘The Dark Knight’ that will blow audiences away in theaters all over the world,” said Dan Fellman, President, Domestic Distribution, Warner Bros. Pictures.

Sequences shot in traditional 35mm have been digitally re-mastered into The IMAX Experience(R) with proprietary IMAX DMR(R) technology. The two formats will be seamlessly integrated and morph between IMAX and IMAX DMR. In other words, scenes shot in 35mm will appear in IMAX DMR (letterbox), while scenes shot with IMAX’s cameras on 15/70mm film will expand vertically to fill the entire IMAX screen, which can be up to eight stories tall, for an all-encompassing IMAX Experience.

“Chris Nolan’s enthusiasm for IMAX technology has taken Hollywood filmmaking to a new level, and we’re thrilled with the results on the screen and by the positive reactions to advance screenings,” said Greg Foster, Chairman and President of IMAX Filmed Entertainment. “Warner Bros. Pictures, together with Chris Nolan and the entire filmmaking team, have created an unprecedented filmmaking event that can’t be missed, and we are honored to be a part of the excitement.”

With the help of Lieutenant Jim Gordon and District Attorney Harvey Dent, Batman sets out to destroy organized crime in Gotham for good. The triumvirate proves to be effective, but they soon find themselves prey to a rising criminal mastermind known as the Joker, who thrusts Gotham into anarchy and forces the Dark Knight ever closer to crossing the fine line between hero and vigilante.

Christian Bale reprises his role as Bruce Wayne/Batman; Academy Award nominee Heath Ledger (“Brokeback Mountain”) stars as arch-villain The Joker, and Aaron Eckhart plays District Attorney Harvey Dent. Maggie Gyllenhaal joins the cast in the role of Rachel Dawes. Returning from “Batman Begins” are Gary Oldman as Lieutenant Jim Gordon; Oscar winner Michael Caine (“The Cider House Rules”) as Alfred; and Oscar winner Morgan Freeman (“Million Dollar Baby”) as Lucius Fox.

The Dark Knight: The IMAX Experience is scheduled to play day-and-date at the following IMAX(R) Theatres beginning July 18th:

    UNITED STATES

Alabama

Huntsville - Spacedome IMAX at US Space and Rocket Center

Arizona

Mesa - Gateway 12 IMAX Theatre
Phoenix - AMC Deer Valley 30 with IMAX

Arkansas

Little Rock - Promenade at Chenal

California

Anaheim - The Movie Experience at Anaheim Gardenwalk
Cathedral City - Desert IMAX Theatre
Dublin - Regal Hacienda Crossings IMAX
Fresno - Fresno Stadium Cinema & IMAX
Irvine - Edwards Irvine Spectrum IMAX
Los Angeles - Universal CityWalk IMAX Theatre
Los Angeles - IMAX Theatre at The Bridge: cinema de lux
Ontario - Edwards Ontario Palace IMAX
Sacramento - Esquire IMAX Theatre
San Diego - San Diego IMAX at Mira Mesa 18
San Francisco - AMC Loews IMAX Theatre at Metreon

Colorado

Colorado Springs - Cinemark IMAX Theatre at Cinemark Carefree Circle
Denver - UA Colorado Center IMAX

Connecticut

Manchester - IMAX Theatre at Showcase Cinemas Buckland Hills

Florida

Fort Lauderdale - AutoNation(R) IMAX(R) Theater at Museum of Discovery
and Science
Jacksonville - World Golf Hall of Fame IMAX Theatre
Orlando - Pointe Orlando 20 & IMAX
St. Petersburg - Muvico BayWalk 20 & IMAX
Tampa - Channelside Cinemas IMAX
Tampa - IMAX Dome Theatre at MOSI
West Palm Beach - Parisian 20 & IMAX

Georgia

Buford - Regal Mall of Georgia IMAX

Idaho

Boise - Edwards Boise Stadium IMAX

Illinois

Batavia - Randall 15 IMAX
Chicago - Navy Pier IMAX Theatre
Lincolnshire - Regal Lincolnshire IMAX
Woodridge - Cinemark IMAX Theatre at Seven Bridges

Indiana

Evansville - Showplace Cinemas IMAX Theatre
Indianapolis - ShowPlace 16 IMAX Theatre
Noblesville - Hamilton Towne Center 16 + IMAX
Portage - Portage 16 IMAX

Iowa

Council Bluffs - Star Cinemas Council Bluffs
Davenport - Putnam Museum and IMAX Theatre
Des Moines - Science Center of Iowa & Blank IMAX Dome Theater

Kansas

Olathe - IMAX Theatre at AMC Studio 30

Kentucky

Louisville - Cinema De Lux 20: Stonybrook IMAX Theatre

Massachusetts

Natick - Verizon IMAX 3D Theater at Jordan's Furniture - Natick
Reading - Verizon IMAX 3D Theater at Jordan's Furniture - Reading

Michigan

Dearborn - The Henry Ford IMAX Theatre
Grand Blanc - NGC Trillium IMAX Theatre
Grand Rapids - IMAX Theatre at Celebration! Cinema
Lansing - IMAX Theatre at Celebration! Cinema
Sterling Heights - IMAX Theatre at AMC Forum 30
Ypsilanti - Showcase Cinemas Ann Arbor

Minnesota

Apple Valley - Great Clips IMAX Theatre
St. Michael - CineMagic Metropolitan IMAX Theatre

Missouri

St. Louis - Ronnies 20 Cine IMAX

Nevada

Las Vegas - Brenden Theatres and IMAX at the Palms Casino Resort
Las Vegas - Red Rock Stadium 16 & IMAX

New Hampshire

Hooksett - Cinemagic IMAX Theatre

New Jersey

Atlantic City - IMAX Theatre at Tropicana Casino

New York

Garden City - Leroy R. and Rose W. Grumman IMAX Dome Theater
New York City - AMC Loews IMAX Theatre, Lincoln Square
New Rochelle - Regal New Roc City IMAX
Rochester - Cinemark IMAX Theatre at Tinseltown USA
West Nyack - IMAX Theatre at Palisades Center
White Plains - IMAX Theatre at City Center: Cinema de lux
Williamsville - Regal Transit Center IMAX

North Carolina

Charlotte - Charlotte Observer IMAX Dome Theatre, Discovery Place
Raleigh - Wachovia IMAX Theatre at Marbles Kids Museum

Ohio

Cincinnati -Cinema De Lux 18: Springdale IMAX Theatre
Columbus - IMAX Theatre at AMC Easton Town Center 30

Oklahoma

Tulsa - Cinemark IMAX Theatre at The Tulsa

Oregon

Tigard - Portland IMAX at Bridgeport Village Stadium 18

Pennsylvania

Harrisburg - Select Medical IMAX Theater at The Whitaker Center
King of Prussia - UA King of Prussia IMAX
Philadelphia - Tuttleman IMAX Theatre, Franklin Institute
Tarentum - Cinemark IMAX Theatre at the Galleria Pittsburgh Mills

Rhode Island

Providence - Feinstein IMAX Theatre Providence Place

Tennessee

Knoxville - Pinnacle 18 Complex at Turkey Creek
Nashville - Regal Opry Mills IMAX

Texas

Austin - The Bob Bullock Texas State History Museum IMAX Theatre
Dallas - Cinemark IMAX Theatre at Cinemark 17
Houston - Edwards Marq(x)E IMAX
Houston - Silverado Station 18 IMAX
San Antonio - Palladium IMAX Theatre

Utah

Sandy - Megaplex 17 IMAX at Jordan Commons

Virginia

Chantilly - Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center IMAX Theater
Hampton - Riverside 3D IMAX Theater at the Virginia Air & Space Center
Virginia Beach - The Virginia Aquarium IMAX 3D Theater

Washington

Seattle - Pacific Science Center Boeing IMAX Theater
Spokane - Riverfront Park IMAX Theatre

Wisconsin

Fitchburg - Star Cinema IMAX

CANADA

Alberta

Calgary - Scotiabank Theatre Chinook
Edmonton - Scotiabank Theatre West Edmonton Mall

British Columbia

Langley - Cineplex IMAX Theatre, Colossus Langley
Richmond - Cineplex IMAX Theatre, SilverCity Riverport

Nova Scotia

Halifax - The Empire IMAX in Bayers Lake

Ontario

Mississauga - Cineplex IMAX Theatre, Coliseum Mississauga
Ottawa - Cineplex Entertainment IMAX Theatre, SilverCity Gloucester IMAX
Theatre
Toronto - Cineplex IMAX Theatre, Scotiabank Theatre Toronto
Woodbridge - Cineplex Entertainment IMAX Theatre, Colossus Woodbridge

Quebec

Montreal - Cineplex Entertainment IMAX Theatre, Scotiabank Theatre
Montreal
Quebec City - IMAX Le Theatre

INTERNATIONAL

Argentina

Buenos Aires - IMAX Center Norte

Australia

Melbourne - IMAX Theatre, Melbourne Museum
Sydney - LG IMAX Theatre Sydney

Ecuador

Guayaquil - Fundacion Malecon 2000

France

Paris - Gaumont Disney Village IMAX

Germany

Berlin - CineStar IMAX 3D, Sony Center Berlin

Guatemala

Guatemala City - Pradera Concepcion

Hong Kong

Kowloon - UA MegaBox IMAX Theatre

India

Hyderabad - PRASAD IMAX Theatre

Israel

Haifa - IMAX Kiryon at GlobusMax Kiryon

Korea

Ilsan - CGV Ilsan
Incheon - CGV Incheon
Seoul - CGV Yongsan

Mexico

Cuernavaca - Cinemex Diana IMAX Theatre
Guadalajara - Cinepolis IMAX Theatre Galerias Guadalajara
Mexico City - Cinepolis IMAX Theatre Perisur
Mexico City - Cinepolis IMAX Theatre Universidad
Monterrey - Cinepolis IMAX Theatre Galerias Valle Oriente

Netherlands

Amsterdam - Pathe Arena

New Zealand

Auckland - SKYCITY IMAX Theatre Queen Street

Philippines

Manila - San Miguel Coca-Cola IMAX Theatre

Poland

Warsaw - Orange IMAX Warszawa

Russia

St. Petersburg - Coca-Cola IMAX Kinostar City

South Africa

Durban - Gateway IMAX Theatre
Pretoria - Menlyn IMAX Theatre

Spain

Barakaldo - Yelmo Cines Megapark
Malaga - Yelmo Cines Plaza Mayor
Oviedo - Yelmo Cines Los Prados

Taiwan

Taipei - Samsung IMAX Miramar Cinemas

Thailand

Bangkok - KrungSri IMAX Siam Paragon

Turkey

Ankara - IMAX Odeon Cineplex
Istinye - AFM IMAX Istinye Park

UAE

Dubai - Grand Megaplex 21 IMAX

UK

Birmingham - IMAX Theatre at Millennium Point
Bradford - IMAX National Media Museum
Glasgow - Glasgow Science Centre IMAX Cinema
London - BFI London IMAX Cinema
Manchester - ODEON IMAX Cinema Manchester @ The Printworks

Additional theatres will be confirmed. Please check local listings or IMAX.com for final theatre listings, launch dates and show times.

About IMAX Corporation

IMAX Corporation is one of the world’s leading digital entertainment and technology companies. The worldwide IMAX network is among the most important and successful theatrical distribution platforms for major event Hollywood films around the globe, with IMAX theatres delivering the world’s best cinematic presentations using proprietary IMAX, IMAX(R) 3D, and IMAX DMR technology. IMAX DMR is the Company’s groundbreaking digital remastering technology that allows it to digitally transform virtually any conventional motion picture into the unparalleled image and sound quality of The IMAX Experience. IMAX’s renowned projectors and new digital systems display crystal-clear images on the world’s biggest screens. The IMAX brand is recognized throughout the world for extraordinary and immersive entertainment experiences for consumers. As of March 31, 2008, there were 298 IMAX theatres operating in 40 countries.

IMAX(R), IMAX(R) 3D, IMAX DMR(R) and The IMAX Experience(R) are trademarks of IMAX Corporation. More information on the Company can be found at www.imax.com.

This press release contains forward looking statements that are based on management’s assumptions and existing information and involve certain risks and uncertainties which could cause actual results to differ materially from future results expressed or implied by such forward looking statements. Important factors that could affect these statements include ongoing discussions with the SEC and OSC relating to their ongoing inquiries and the Company’s accounting, the timing of theatre system deliveries, the mix of theatre systems shipped, the timing of the recognition of revenues and expenses on film production and distribution agreements, the performance of films, the viability of new businesses and products, risks arising from potential material weaknesses in internal control over financial reporting and fluctuations in foreign currency and in the large format and general commercial exhibition market. These factors and other risks and uncertainties are discussed in the Company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2007, as well as the Company’s Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q.

SOURCE  IMAX Corporation

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The follow-up to the action hit “Batman Begins,” “The Dark Knight” reunites director Christopher Nolan and star Christian Bale, who reprises the role of Bruce Wayne/Batman.

With the help of Lieutenant Jim Gordon and the committed new District Attorney, Harvey Dent, Batman sets out to destroy organized crime in Gotham City for good. The triumvirate initially proves to be effective, but they soon find themselves prey to a rising criminal mastermind known as The Joker, who thrusts Gotham into anarchy and forces The Dark Knight ever closer to crossing the fine line between hero and vigilante.

Academy Award nominee Heath Ledger (“Brokeback Mountain”) portrays arch-villain The Joker, and Aaron Eckhart plays District Attorney Harvey Dent. Maggie Gyllenhaal joins the cast in the role of Rachel Dawes. Returning from “Batman Begins” are Gary Oldman as Lieutenant Jim Gordon; Oscar winner Michael Caine (“The Cider House Rules”) as Alfred; and Oscar winner Morgan Freeman (“Million Dollar Baby”) as Lucius Fox.

Warner Bros. Pictures presents, in association with Legendary Pictures, a Syncopy Production, a Christopher Nolan film, “The Dark Knight.” Nolan directed the film from a screenplay written by Jonathan Nolan and Christopher Nolan, story by Christopher Nolan & David S. Goyer. Charles Roven, Emma Thomas and Christopher Nolan are the producers, with Benjamin Melniker, Michael E. Uslan, Kevin De La Noy and Thomas Tull serving as executive producers. “The Dark Knight” is based upon characters appearing in comic books published by DC Comics. Batman was created by Bob Kane.

The behind-the-scenes creative team includes two-time Oscar-nominated director of photography Wally Pfister (“The Prestige,” “Batman Begins”), Oscar-nominated production designer Nathan Crowley (“The Prestige”), Oscar-nominated editor Lee Smith (“Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World”) and Oscar-winning costume designer Lindy Hemming (“Topsy-Turvy”). The music is by Oscar winner and multiple Oscar nominee Hans Zimmer (“The Lion King,” “Gladiator”) and seven-time Oscar nominee James Newton Howard (“Michael Clayton,” “The Fugitive”), who previously collaborated on the score for “Batman Begins.”

Six sequences of “The Dark Knight” were filmed with IMAX® cameras, including the opening six minutes. This marks the first time ever that a major feature film has been even partially shot using IMAX cameras, marking a revolutionary integration of the two film formats. The IMAX Experience® will appear in IMAX DMR (letterbox), while scenes shot with IMAX cameras on 15/70mm film will expand vertically to fill the entire IMAX screen, which can be up to eight stories tall, for an all-encompassing moviegoing experience.

“The Dark Knight” will be distributed worldwide in theatres and IMAX by Warner Bros. Pictures, a Warner Bros. Entertainment Company.

www.thedarkknightmovie.co.uk

ABOUT THE PRODUCTION

“Some men aren’t looking for anything logical, like money. They can’t be bought, bullied, reasoned or negotiated with. Some men just want to watch the world burn.”

With “Batman Begins,” writer/director Christopher Nolan opened a new chapter in the Batman film franchise by taking the legendary character back to his origins, re-imagining why and how the billionaire industrialist Bruce Wayne became the enigmatic crime fighter known to the world as Batman. In “The Dark Knight” Nolan returns to the Batman saga with the character now, in the director’s words, “fully formed.”

Nolan continues, “I thought we left the world of Batman at an interesting place in the first film, and the end suggested an intriguing direction in which the story could continue.” Nolan developed the story with David S. Goyer, with whom he had collaborated on the screenplay for “Batman Begins.” Nolan and his brother, Jonathan, then partnered on the screenplay for “The Dark Knight.”

In “The Dark Knight,” Nolan says he focused more on how Batman’s very existence has changed Gotham City…and not, at least initially, for the better. “At the end of ‘Batman Begins,’ we hinted at the threat of escalation—that in going after the city’s crime cartels and attacking their interests, Batman could provoke an even greater response from the criminal community and now that has come to pass. There are some very negative consequences of his crusade brewing in Gotham City.”

Producer Charles Roven offers that the issue extends beyond Gotham’s resident criminals. “On the one hand, Batman has begun to rid Gotham of the crime and corruption that has plagued the city, but, ironically, the vacuum he created draws in an even more powerful criminal element, who see it as their chance to take over the city.”

Producer Emma Thomas notes, “In ‘Batman Begins’ we largely concentrated on the origins of the character—how Batman evolved out of Bruce Wayne’s own early trauma, his fears, his anger and, finally, his resolve to fight crime and corruption. In ‘The Dark Knight,’ Batman has become well-known to the police and citizens of Gotham City, but while some consider him a hero, others wonder if he is doing more harm than good. And the arrival of a new kind of criminal raises the stakes on that debate.

“What’s intriguing,” Thomas adds, “is that the billionaire playboy Bruce Wayne— with his fabulous cars, a beautiful woman on each arm and not a care in the world—is

not at all who this man really is. So while Bruce Wayne wears a mask to hide his identity as Batman, it is actually Batman who defines Bruce’s true identity, and the public persona of Bruce Wayne is the ‘mask’ he wears to co-exist in this world.”

It didn’t start out that way. Returning to the dual role of Bruce Wayne/Batman, Christian Bale asserts, “I believe Bruce thought it would be a finite thing, that Batman would serve as an inspiration to Gotham City and that he would eventually be able to leave this character he conceived behind. But he is coming to understand, more and more, that this is not something he can easily walk away from now…or possibly ever. There are new enemies to protect the city from.”

The most dangerous of these enemies is Batman’s most infamous nemesis—a maniacal, remorseless fiend known as The Joker. “The Joker is the ultimate screen arch-villain,” Nolan attests. “In his own way, The Joker is as much an icon as The Dark Knight is, and that presented us with both an opportunity and a challenge in terms of exploring the character’s distorted point of view. But we also wanted to create a villain who, as colorful and outrageous as he is, is still coming from a place of reality. In keeping with the tone we established in ‘Batman Begins,’ we determined he is a pretty serious guy, despite being called The Joker. So we began with the notion of The Joker as the most extreme form of anarchist—a force of chaos, a purposeless criminal who is not out for anything and, so, can’t be understood. He is not only a massively destructive force, but he also takes great delight in his murderous nature, which is a pretty terrifying spectacle.

“As the screenplay developed,” Nolan continues, “we started to explore the effect one guy could have on an entire population—the ways in which he could upset the balance for people, the ways in which he could take their rules for living, their ethics, their beliefs, their humanity and turn them on themselves. You could say we’ve seen echoes of that in our own world, which has led me to believe that anarchy and chaos— even the threat of anarchy and chaos—are among the most frightening things society faces, especially in this day and age.”

“The Joker is somebody without any rules whatsoever,” Bale states. “How do you fight somebody who is bent on destruction, even if it means self-destruction? That’s a formidable foe.” The actor goes on to say that The Joker’s total lack of morality is one of his most potent weapons in his war with Batman because, conversely, “Batman has a very strict moral code for what he will and won’t do, and The Joker can use that to his advantage. Batman still has this huge reserve of anger and pain and knows he could

easily go too far, so he must not cross that line. He has to be sure that in chasing a monster, he doesn’t become a monster himself. Chris Nolan has raised interesting ethical questions in this movie about the complications of having power versus aspiring to power.”

Bale, who counts “The Dark Knight” as his third collaboration with Nolan, adds, “I think Chris has a great talent for satisfying the need for a rollercoaster ride, for just being purely entertained, without forgoing moments of great personal conflict and the duality within the characters. He manages to do both without compromising either.”

While The Joker wreaks chaos and fear, the crusading District Attorney Harvey Dent is the new face of law and order in Gotham City. “Harvey is a man of the people. He’s an all-American hero in a very different way from Batman,” says Nolan. “So now you have the triumvirate of Batman, Harvey Dent and Lieutenant Gordon—the justice system, the police and a vigilante—forming an alliance to bring down crime. Using Batman gives them an edge over the criminals, but it is still the police who will arrest them, and then they will be tried through the justice system. But what comes up is the question of whether you can bend the rules without breaking them. And that becomes the underlying theme of the story.”

The dynamic between the three crime fighters changes abruptly when an unforeseeable turn of events destroys the steadfast DA Harvey Dent and gives rise to the vengeful villain Two-Face. Nolan comments, “The hope that Harvey represents to Gotham City and then the tragedy of what happens to him and his transformation into Two-Face…it’s a remarkable story.”

The director observes, “The Joker is the more flamboyant villain, so he commands attention. But in some ways Harvey Dent/Two Face is the more compelling character because he has such an amazing arc. Our Joker has no arc, per se; he’s just hell-bent throughout. The Joker and Harvey Dent—these are two of the most fascinating characters from the Batman comic books. They have an almost mythic quality and it was exciting to view them through the prism of the world we created.”

In a groundbreaking move, Nolan broadened the scope of that world with a filmmaking first. Nolan shot six major action sequences with IMAX cameras, becoming the first director to use the large-format cameras to film even a portion of a traditional feature film. “In continuing Batman’s story, the challenge was to make things bigger and better—to expand the world we established in the first film, both through the story and in the way we presented it,” he states. “I was thrilled with the way the IMAX photography

turned out. It throws the audience right into the action in a way no other film format could. It takes me back to when I was a kid going to the movies and experiencing the scope, the scale and the grandeur that great cinema can offer. As a filmmaker, I think you’re always trying to get back to that, and expanding the canvas of our story with IMAX seemed a great way to do it.”

The filmmakers have also made several changes to the world of Batman: Bruce Wayne’s familial home, Wayne Manor, burned to the ground at the end of “Batman Begins,” so Bruce now resides in a modern penthouse overlooking the city. Batman also has a newly designed Batsuit, which gives him more range of motion and a greater field of vision—“I can turn my head,” Bale smiles. And the agile and powerful Bat-Pod makes its much-anticipated debut as The Dark Knight weaves through Gotham City traffic in a pulse-pounding chase sequence filmed on the streets of Chicago.

Batman’s pursuit of justice also takes him on an odyssey halfway across the world to Hong Kong, marking the first time The Caped Crusader has left the confines of Gotham City on screen.

“Chris had a wonderful overall vision of what he wanted to achieve with this film, and he was able to accomplish that and more,” says Roven. “He’s one of those rare directors who, when he tells you what he’s trying to do, no matter how ambitious, you can rely on the fact that he will do it, usually even better than you imagined.”

“You either die a hero… or live long enough to see yourself become the villain.”

“The Dark Knight” reunites several members of the ensemble cast from “Batman Begins,” leading with Christian Bale in the title role. Bale says he welcomed the opportunity to once again inhabit the solitary figure, who has had to relinquish much of his personal identity for the greater good. He offers, “Bruce is certainly sacrificing, both mentally and physically, as a consequence of this character of Batman whom he has unleashed and now is unable to rein in anymore. More than a persona, he has created a symbol, and that symbol can’t have limits. He can’t show weakness ever. So you have the conflict between what is good for Bruce Wayne and what is the right thing for Batman to do, because the two of them are not always compatible.”

“Working with Christian is a joy and just a lot of fun. He is a very engaging presence to have on the set,” says Nolan. “He also has an intensity about him; he is incredibly focused on tapping into the psychological reality of whatever character he’s playing. He applies the same disciplined approach to finding the truth of that character and sticks to it. That is a great help to me as a filmmaker because I know he is prepared and has a handle on how his character is going to move through the story. In fact, he has a lot of the same qualities that Bruce Wayne brings to bear in changing himself from an ordinary man into this extraordinary crime-fighting figure.”

 

“Christian brought everything to his performance that you could want for the character—the stature, the emotional resonance, the complexity,” Roven states. “It was amazing to be on the set watching him. He took his role to another level in this film.”

Nolan adds that although Bale portrays the same character in “The Dark Knight” that he did in “Batman Begins,” the two films presented the actor with very different challenges. “On ‘Batman Begins,’ it was a lot of physical effort—he had to get himself in terrific shape and learn all kinds of skills in terms of the way Batman fights, the way he moves. On this film, I would say it required more of an internal process because Bruce is realizing the personal toll of living this double life and is questioning the choices he’s made. Christian conveys that emotional struggle very convincingly, often without saying a word.”

Nevertheless, the role of Batman has an inherent physicality, so Bale immersed himself in a refresher course on the Keysi Fighting Method (KFM) that Batman employs against his enemies. A relatively young martial arts discipline, KFM is an intuitive fighting method with a strong emphasis on mental focus, but Bale also had to be in peak physical condition. He trained with Keysi fight coordinators Andy Norman and Justo Dieguez for two to three hours every day. “In KFM, you learn to develop every part of your body as a weapon, and it’s not easy,” Norman relates. “We worked Christian extremely hard, and it was fantastic how quickly he absorbed everything. There was a definite progression in his training since the first film. He understands KFM a lot better, so he was more powerful and his movement was incredible.”

“It’s a fascinating fighting method,” says Bale, “because it uses the adrenaline that everyone feels entering into a threatening or violent situation. It really comes from the gut. Rather than the kind of Zen calm that some martial arts call on, KFM is based on animal instinct and honing those instincts to be lethal, so it’s perfect for Batman.”

But The Dark Knight is about to confront a singular criminal called The Joker, who has little regard for Keysi or any other fighting method. In a fair fight, “Batman would obliterate him,” Bale asserts, “but The Joker doesn’t fight fair. He has other tricks

up his sleeve, so it’s more of a mind game. But he finds in Batman a very worthy opponent, and I think he enjoys that.”

Heath Ledger plays the role of The Joker, the malevolent clown who is arguably the most recognizable of Batman’s arch-nemeses. In casting the part, Nolan says that the defining quality he was looking for “was fearlessness. I needed a phenomenal actor, but he also had to be someone unafraid of taking on such an iconic role. Heath created something entirely original. It’s stunning, it’s captivating…it’s going to blow people away.”

The director recalls that he first met with Ledger about the role even before there was a script. “We talked about how we saw this character and we both had exactly the same concept—that The Joker was about the threat of anarchy and revels in creating chaos and fear on a grand scale. Heath seemed to instinctively understand how to make this character different from anything that had ever been done before.”

Roven elaborates, “The Joker is one of the great villains in comic book lore— psychopathic, enigmatic, clever, diabolical, charming, funny and completely enjoyable to watch. We knew it would take an extraordinary actor to play him and Heath delivered on every front. From every physical nuance to each vocal turn of phrase, it’s just an unforgettable performance.”

In “The Dark Knight,” The Joker arrives on the scene without warning and climbs ruthlessly to the top of Gotham City’s criminal food chain. “We never wanted to do an origin story for The Joker in this film, but we wanted to show the rise of The Joker,” Nolan maintains. “In a sense, The Joker is the logical response to Batman, who has instigated this kind of extremity of behavior in Gotham.”

Bale adds, “The Joker wants to break Batman, to prove that everybody has a price and even Batman can be leveraged in such a way that he would compromise his principles. I actually think he’s delighted to find that Batman won’t do that, and it creates for The Joker an even better opponent in this game he’s playing. He’s a fascinating character, and Heath did an extraordinary job with it. I don’t think the movie would have worked as well if we hadn’t had an actor of the caliber of Heath Ledger, who was able to really up the ante, much as The Joker does in Gotham.”

“We wanted The Joker to represent pure, unadulterated evil, in the sense that he has no logical motivation for his actions. That is what we wanted to unleash on the city of Gotham. He is an absolute,” Nolan sums up simply.

Yet, Emma Thomas is quick to note, “He is very funny. I know it sounds somewhat bizarre, because how could someone so deplorable be funny? Heath’s take on the role was not campy but still hilarious, both physically and in a dry, sardonic way. With The Joker, I think you’ll find yourself being horrified and terrified, but hugely amused at the same time.”

On the other side of the law, another figure has risen to prominence in Gotham City: Harvey Dent, the newly elected District Attorney, who is on a mission to break organized crime’s stranglehold on his beleaguered city. Harvey Dent is played by Aaron Eckhart, who offers, “Harvey has charged himself with tackling organized crime and cleaning up the streets. He is the shining new hope of Gotham City, the ‘White Knight,’ as he is called. He starts out full of optimism and enthusiasm…where he ends up is somewhere completely different,” he hints. “It’s a great role and I’m a big fan of Chris Nolan’s, so when he approached me about doing the film, it was a no-brainer.”

Nolan says that while Eckhart looks every inch the part of the handsome and charismatic DA, his reasons for casting the actor ran deeper. “We were looking for somebody who could embody that All-American charm because you have to invest in him as a very attractive, heroic figure at the beginning of the movie. But he also had to have an edge; he had to suggest this undercurrent of anger and darkness that Harvey Dent needed to have, so where he goes in the story is believable. You can’t present a character like this as simply a heroic figure with no flaws, no dark side. Aaron captured all of those qualities very, very well.”

As the new Gotham City DA, Harvey Dent not only has to contend with a rise in crime, but also with a masked vigilante known as Batman. “It’s an interesting dynamic,” Eckhart remarks, “because Harvey sees Batman fighting crime in a way that he would like to but cannot. Harvey has to stay within the boundaries of the law. He has to do overtly what Batman is doing covertly. He admires Batman’s intentions, even if he can’t publicly support his methods. But what he thinks of Bruce Wayne is quite different. He sees Bruce as nothing more than a playboy about town without any real credibility.”

“Harvey thinks Bruce is a complete upper-class twit,” Nolan affirms. “It would astonish him to find out he is really the man behind the mask.”

Dent’s opinion of his public persona notwithstanding, Bruce Wayne appreciates the new DA’s efforts on behalf of the city. Nolan comments, “It seemed most logical to us that Bruce initially saw Batman as a short-term crusade, as a symbol to inspire the good people of Gotham to take their city back. In Harvey Dent, he finally sees the

response he was looking for. Harvey is the hero that Gotham needs—the hero with a face, not one wearing a mask.”

But, Thomas says, “There is a certain amount of personal opportunism going on there, as well, because if Harvey Dent can succeed, then maybe Bruce can stop being Batman. Maybe there is a world in which he can return to a normal life. There’s a big part of him that does wish he could hang up his cape. Whether Bruce would actually enjoy hanging up Batman’s cape at this point, I don’t know. I don’t think even he knows. But there is definitely a part of him that feels he has started something that has spun out of control, and Harvey Dent may be his only hope for being able to end it.”

For Bruce Wayne, a chance for a normal life also means a chance for a future with the love of his life, Rachel Dawes, who now works for Dent as an assistant district attorney. In that regard, the DA is not a hope but a hindrance, because Rachel is involved with him not only professionally but romantically, as well. “When it comes to Rachel, there is a contradiction in Bruce’s feelings about Dent. While he does respect Dent, another part of Bruce just wants to knock him out,” Bale says only half-jokingly. “So Bruce’s ideological side and his very human side are again at loggerheads with each other.”

Cast in the role of Rachel, Maggie Gyllenhaal notes, “Rachel made the heartbreaking decision that it is impossible for her to be with Bruce as long as he is Batman. Then Harvey Dent came into her life, and she is crazy about him. I think the thing she really admires about Harvey, as opposed to Batman—or, rather, what Bruce Wayne is doing as Batman—is that Harvey is not a vigilante. He is not putting himself above the law for what he believes is ultimately best for the people of Gotham City. Instead, Harvey believes in the system, even if it’s broken, and he is going to work within the system to change things that are corrupt. I think that’s why Rachel loves him and thinks he is a hero in his own way. At the same time, she still genuinely loves Bruce and she obviously knows he is still in love with her, so it’s a real predicament.

“But for me, I mean it’s Christian Bale and Aaron Eckhart and they are both pretty spectacular, so as an actress, it was easy to live with that predicament,” Gyllenhaal laughs. “My wanting to be a part of this film had almost everything to do with Chris Nolan and the rest of the cast. From the beginning, Chris was so engaging and so interested in my ideas about the role. He was clear that he wanted Rachel to be smart and capable and not the damsel in distress, although she is in distress sometimes. We

were really good for each other because that’s very much what I wanted, and we pushed each other in different ways to make Rachel who she is.”

“Maggie is just a fantastic actress,” states Nolan. “I’ve always loved her work and had wanted an opportunity to work with her, and the role of Rachel in this film seemed like the perfect match. Maggie has great intelligence and maturity and she is also very warm and, of course, lovely. You really believe her in this role. I think she beautifully conveyed the conflict in Rachel standing between these two men in her life, and you can see why both men would naturally be drawn to her. Rachel has so much history with Bruce and he will always be in her heart, but she also loves Harvey and can see a future with him.”

However, that all changes in an instant when a shocking incident transforms the once redoubtable Harvey Dent into the horribly deformed Two-Face, who is now bent on one thing: revenge. “Something terrible happens that alters everything in his life and rage takes over,” says Eckhart. “He takes strength from his grief and his pain and sets out to kill the bad guys…or those he now perceives as the bad guys. He still wants justice, but now he pursues it outside of the law he once lived by. I don’t think of him purely as a villain in the way The Joker is. But at the point that Harvey becomes Two-Face, his outlook is so twisted that he starts to see The Joker as a kindred spirit…and The Joker knows he has Harvey where he wants him. It’s a great scene, and Heath did such a wonderful job. As an actor, it was exciting to work with him. Heath’s performance made this Joker an indelible screen character. He was everything you could want in an arch-villain as infamous as The Joker, and yet he was completely original.”

Nolan says, “The Joker is terrifying because there appears no rhyme or reason for what he does. He’s just a force of nature tearing through. With Two-Face, you see his transformation and you understand where his anger and his grief come from. Aaron did an extraordinary job of portraying the tragic arc of Harvey Dent and Two-Face; he takes you on that emotional ride with him.”

Apart from the obvious example of Harvey Dent/Two-Face, the director observes, “There are a number of dualities in this film, and there are also several mirrored relationships. The relationship between Batman and The Joker is an interesting one, as is the relationship between Harvey Dent/Two-Face and Lieutenant Gordon.”

Reprising his role from “Batman Begins,” Gary Oldman plays Lieutenant Jim Gordon, the head of the Gotham City Police Major Crime Unit (MCU). “Gary is such a

remarkable actor,” Roven says. “Gordon could have been a comparatively straightforward role, especially surrounded by the more eccentric and even bizarre characters, but Gary brought so many colors to his performance.”

Nolan comments, “In the first film, Gordon was a very reserved character. It required an actor who could play an important role, but in a very subtle and restrained way. I was thrilled to be able to bring Gary back as Gordon, but in a story that challenges the character more and lets Gary show more of what he’s so great at.”

In “The Dark Knight,” Lieutenant Gordon is facing mounting pressure from all sides in the wake of the recent escalation of crime, but as a career cop, he knows his first, best option is to follow his gut instincts, which tell him to trust Batman. He understands that Batman now poses some danger to Gotham, but he believes Batman may ultimately be its salvation, especially with the arrival of The Joker. “The police have never encountered anything like The Joker,” says Oldman. “He’s not interested in money or even power, in the usual sense of the word. The Joker is all about chaos; he does what he does for the fun of it. How do you police someone like that?”

Thomas adds that in addition to being tested because of Batman’s efforts and the effect they are having on his city, “Gordon doesn’t entirely trust Harvey Dent yet because there has never been a politician in Gotham City who wasn’t corrupt in some way. He knows something must be done and decides Batman is his best bet because he knows Batman’s intentions and has faith that things will get better in the long run.”

Bruce Wayne has two other trusted allies in his life: his loyal butler, Alfred Pennyworth, who, since Bruce’s parents were murdered, has essentially been the only father Bruce has ever known; and the brilliant Lucius Fox, who is now the CEO of Wayne Enterprises, in addition to being the architect of Batman’s high-tech arsenal. Oscar-winning actors Michael Caine and Morgan Freeman return as Alfred and Lucius, respectively, having played the same roles in “Batman Begins.”

As Bruce Wayne’s closest confidants, Alfred and Lucius know Batman’s true identity, but with that knowledge comes responsibility. Each in his own way also serves as a mentor, an advocate, and sometimes as Bruce’s conscience. “The bond between them is very clear, but you see the different sides of their relationships,” Nolan says. “Lucius Fox is fully aware of what Bruce is doing as Batman and approves to a large extent. But over the course of the film, we test the limits of what Lucius finds acceptable in terms of what Bruce does as Batman.”

Freeman notes, “I see Lucius as practical-minded in doing what has to be done in order to facilitate this man’s mission. Batman has set himself up as a champion of justice, and once he’s established that idea and the world is counting on him, he has to step up to the plate and deliver. But Lucius questions if there are limits to what he will do to help Bruce meet that challenge.”

On the other hand, Nolan says, “Alfred is a firm believer in what Bruce is doing and encourages him to take it even further if necessary, because Alfred believes it’s the right thing to do. Of course, Alfred is also concerned for the human side of Bruce because Alfred raised him from a boy, but he tries not to let his own fears for Bruce’s personal safety get in the way of telling him to carry on with his quest.”

Bruce Wayne tells Alfred that, as a symbol, Batman can’t have limits, but “to Alfred, Bruce is a real person and does, in fact, have limits,” says Caine. “Bruce is like his child, and you always see your children as kids, even when they are all grown up. So, of course, Alfred worries about what he is doing. I think of Alfred as Bruce’s guardian angel, not only physically, but psychologically and morally. There are real issues there, and Alfred often has a go at him about it. Alfred’s relationship with Bruce is the most human and also, I think, the most humorous,” Caine smiles.

The director says that Alfred’s humor comes naturally. “Michael is a very funny guy; I’ve never worked with an actor who could time comedy quite so effortlessly. He knows exactly what to do with a line to get the biggest laugh.

“Working with great veterans like Michael Caine and Morgan Freeman, I benefit massively from their experience,” Nolan continues. “They have a calm presence on the set that everybody responds to, and they just inspire everyone around them to be on their best game. It was a privilege to work with them in the first film and an honor to have them back for ‘The Dark Knight.’”

The film’s main cast also includes Eric Roberts as Maroni, one of the heads of Gotham City’s crime cartel; Chin Han as Lau, an Asian business mogul, who makes Gotham’s crime syndicate an offer they can’t refuse; Nestor Carbonell as the Mayor of Gotham City; and Anthony Michael Hall as a television news reporter. Cillian Murphy also makes a return cameo appearance as Scarecrow.

Overall, Nolan states, “The cast is a terrific ensemble of some of the most extraordinarily talented actors working in movies, which made it very exciting for everyone involved. It generated a great atmosphere on the set, and it was magical to

watch actors with very different approaches come together and work so hard towards the same goals.”

“Will you be wanting the Bat-Pod, Sir?”

“In the middle of the day, Alfred? Not very subtle.”

On the screen, Lucius Fox gets credit for providing Batman with his state-of-the­art crime-fighting accoutrement, from his new and improved Batsuit to his weapons and his different modes of transportation. In real life, however, credit goes to Chris Nolan and his behind-the-scenes design teams, led by production designer Nathan Crowley and costume designer Lindy Hemming, as well as special effects supervisor Chris Corbould and his crew, who turn design into function.

Nolan remarks, “With ‘Batman Begins,’ we got to show how things like the Batmobile and the Batsuit were developed. At the same time, we didn’t fully explore all of the gadgetry, so in continuing the story, what we get to do is show how he becomes even more high-tech, but still in a credible way. What I love about Batman is that he has no super powers except for his extraordinary wealth. Looking at it from that point of view, if you had limitless financial resources, and therefore a lot of power in material ways, how could you apply that to the creation of some amazing gadgets and crime-fighting techniques, all of which are still based on real science and real-world logic?”

Nolan and Crowley had previously redesigned The Caped Crusader’s legendary Batmobile for “Batman Begins,” creating something of a cross between a Lamborghini and a Humvee. The ultimate muscle car, the Batmobile—nicknamed the Tumbler— combines the power and handling of a sports car with a structure closer to that of an armored tank. Riding on six monster truck tires, the Batmobile has no front axle, allowing it to make tighter turns. Despite weighing in at two and a half tons, it can jump as much as six feet high, and up to a distance of sixty feet, peeling off the instant it touches down. The Batmobile can also do zero to sixty in five seconds.

While the Batmobile remains a formidable presence in “The Dark Knight,” the film introduces Batman’s newest ride, the Bat-Pod, a high-powered, heavily armed two-wheeled machine. “Of course we were going to have the Batmobile back,” states Nolan, “but we wanted to give Batman something new: a fresh means of transportation, something very exotic and very powerful looking. It’s a two-wheeled vehicle, but it’s

definitively not a motorcycle. In essence, the Bat-Pod is to the world of motorcycles what the Tumbler is to the world of cars.”

Fast and maneuverable through the streets of Gotham City, the Bat-Pod is also capable of handling all terrains. It has the same monster truck tires as those found on the Batmobile and is self-standing, meaning it does not require a foot stand. Well outfitted for hostile situations, it is equipped with weapons on both sides: 40mm blast cannons, 50-caliber machine guns, and grappling hook launchers.

The original design of the Bat-Pod was the brainchild of Crowley and Nolan. With little more than the basic concept in mind, the two retreated to their favorite design headquarters—aka Nolan’s garage—to work out the details. Crowley recalls, “We figured, ‘Let’s just go for it; let’s build it full-size.’ So we did. We got some tools and put together a full-size model out of anything we could find that might fit.”

Of course, Nolan and Crowley still had no idea if their invention could actually run. That’s where the special effects team, headed up by Chris Corbould, came in. Corbould relates, “First of all, I remember when Chris Nolan first showed me his idea for the Batmobile. I had no idea how we were going to make it work even though it ended up being very successful. So when I got his call asking me to come have a look at something he called ‘the Bat-Pod,’ I thought, ‘Uh-oh, what have you dreamt up this time?’”

Corbould flew to L.A., arrived at Nolan’s garage, and the first time he looked at Nolan and Crowley’s model of the Bat-Pod, “I think he was almost in tears,” Crowley laughs. “He looked horrified that he might have to actually mechanize that thing. We kept bringing him cups of tea, and he was just sitting there staring at it, looking like, ‘Oh my God, what time is the next flight out?’ It was the usual clash of design versus engineering.”

As it turns out, Crowley was not far off in his assessment of Corbould’s state of mind. “I was flabbergasted,” Corbould admits. “I stood there silently, pretending I was mulling it over, but the thought going through my head was that they both had to be off their nut. Where was I going to put a power train? And with those massive wheels, would this thing actually steer? There were so many issues.”

Despite his concerns, Corbould returned to London, where he and his crew began brainstorming ways to bring the Bat-Pod to life. After some trial and error, they developed the final working Bat-Pod, which was surprisingly close to the rough model

that Nolan and Crowley had originally constructed. Nolan confesses, “It really shouldn’t work, but somehow Chris and his team found a way to do it.”

“The funny thing is,” Corbould says, “I don’t think Chris or Nathan had ever ridden a motorcycle in their lives, so they were completely unaware of the mechanics needed to get that thing moving. In a way it was beneficial because they weren’t steered towards a more orthodox bike, even subconsciously. The fact that they had no knowledge of the mechanics helped them create this weird, wonderful vehicle.”

Actually being able to drive it was another matter entirely. Nolan confirms, “The finished product that Chris and his team came up with was very striking, very effective and worked very well, but it’s incredibly difficult to ride and to steer.”

In order to maneuver the Bat-Pod, the driver has to lean his upper body forward, almost horizontally, and steer from his elbows, rather than his wrists. In fact, the only person who was able to master the Bat-Pod was professional stunt rider Jean-Pierre Goy. Corbould offers, “I’ve worked with Jean-Pierre a couple of times, and he is one of the best bike riders in the world, if not the best. Right away, he totally got in the mindset of learning that machine. He said, ‘I’m not riding another bike until I finish this sequence,’ because he had to concentrate on the Bat-Pod’s unique handling qualities. I’d be lying if I said it was easy for even him to ride, but it looked spectacular when he did, so it was worth the effort.”

“I need a new suit. I’m not talking fashion, Mr. Fox, so much as function.”

“You want to be able to turn your head…”

The silhouette of Batman is an indelible image, instantly recognizable to even the most casual observer. Chris Nolan and costume designer Lindy Hemming knew it was important to preserve that image in redesigning and updating the Batsuit for “The Dark Knight.”

Focusing on increased comfort and better flexibility, Hemming and her team did extensive research into the protective suits worn by motocross riders, as well as military issue protective armor. “We wanted the new Batsuit to be a more supple, more maneuverable, more breathable piece of equipment, like a modern suit of armor instead of a rubber suit,” Hemming says, referring to the neoprene material used in making the Batsuit for “Batman Begins.”

The new Batsuit is comprised of 110 separate pieces. The base layer of the suit was made of a polyester mesh material, which is employed by the military and high-tech sports manufacturers because of its moisture-wicking properties. Then individually molded pieces of flexible urethane were attached to the mesh to form the overall armor plating. For added protection, carbon fiber panels, which are light yet incredibly strong and resistant, were placed inside a select group of the urethane pieces around the legs, chest and abdomen.

To illustrate the evolution of the Batsuit from “Batman Begins” to “The Dark Knight,” costume FX supervisor Graham Churchyard points out, “There were essentially three main components to the Batsuit in ‘Batman Begins’ and on this film there were more than 100, so it was a very complicated suit. Add to that, all of those individual pieces had to be modeled and then molded and cast. Each piece also had to be replicated dozens of times for the multiple Batsuits needed for the overall production. It was an extraordinary amount of work.”

At the behest of both Nolan and Bale, Hemming’s main mission was to modify the Batsuit to allow more rotation of the head and neck. “In the past, Batman has always had to move his shoulders to turn his head, so that was a definite priority,” Bale affirms. The seemingly simple answer was to separate the cowl from the rest of the suit, but it had to appear seamless so as not to compromise The Dark Knight’s imposing silhouette.

 

The overall redesign suited Christian Bale perfectly. “It was much more comfortable and far less claustrophobic than the first suit. It was also more agile and gave me better range of motion, which helped with the action and fight sequences. But it still gave me that feeling of invincibility,” he acknowledges. “You can’t help but feel protected and more powerful when you put the Batsuit on. It just works.”

When it came to fighting and protection, the new and improved Batsuit did more than offer added flexibility. It is also outfitted with a variety of gadgets to aid Batman in his war on crime, including razor sharp fins that can be extended and then fired from the gauntlets on his forearms; and sonar-imaging lenses which flip down within Batman’s cowl, enabling him to see sonar images in 3D while masking his eyes behind glowing white shields.

The only design element of the Batsuit that remained unchanged from “Batman Begins” to “The Dark Knight” was the cape. Hemming says, “We spent a lot of time getting the cape right for the first film, and we didn’t want to change it.” The cape does

have one added feature: it can fold itself into a kind of backpack and then unfurl on command, which was accomplished through digital effects.

While Bruce Wayne’s image is not as iconic as that of his alter ego, he has his own distinctive sartorial style, dictated by his financial and social status. To clothe the man behind the mask, Hemming collaborated with legendary fashion designer Giorgio Armani. “Chris Nolan and I wanted Bruce Wayne to have an elegantly tailored appearance,” Hemming offers. “We felt that the Giorgio Armani brand was emblematic of the contemporary classic look we were going for. We chose the fabrics and then worked directly with Mr. Armani and his people to tailor an entire wardrobe of suits, custom-made for the character.” As Bruce Wayne, Bale wears Armani’s newest line, Giorgio Armani Hand Made-to-Measure. Each suit carries Armani’s traditional customized owner’s label, in this case Giorgio Armani for Bruce Wayne.

Harvey Dent obviously does not have the financial means of Bruce Wayne, but Hemming says his wardrobe still had to denote an air of authority and confidence. “We dressed him simply, but impeccably in suits by (Ermenegildo) Zegna.”

The costume designer was able to get a lot more outlandish in costuming The Joker, modifying the character’s familiar look to reflect the generation of the actor playing him. Hemming explains, “Once I knew The Joker was going to be played by Heath Ledger, I wanted the costume to have a younger, trendier style than previous versions. Basically, my research ranged from Vivienne Westwood to Johnny Rotten to Iggy Pop to Pete Doherty to Alexander McQueen. I was collecting all sorts of images.”

Hemming ultimately designed an eclectic ensemble that she says “has a somewhat foppish attitude to it, with a little grunge thrown in.” Staying with The Joker’s traditional color palette, his outfit is topped by a purple coat, worn over a green waistcoat. Changing up his look, he also wears a lighter jacket that was based on the Carnaby Street Mod look. His shirt was patterned after a shirt that Hemming found at an antique market.

The Joker’s shoes are from Milan and were selected by the costume designer because they had an upward swoop at the toe, which she thought was reminiscent of clown shoes. His tie was fashioned from a fabric that was specially woven to Hemming’s specifications by Turnbull & Asser, a London-based clothier better known for dressing British royalty and the like. “Heath wanted it to be thin, so it’s a ‘60s tie but in a Turnbull & Asser fabric. I dare say it’s the weirdest tie that Turnbull & Asser has ever

made,” Hemming laughs. “When Heath came in and we showed him all the bits and pieces of the costume, he thought it was fantastically original and just went for it.”

The Joker’s make-up was also a departure from past incarnations of the character. While he retains an allusion to his familiar white-faced, sneering visage, his make-up for “The Dark Knight” was intended to give him a more frenetic look that also lends to its shock value. The Joker’s face is covered in a white pancake that is cracked and runny in places. His eyes are thickly rimmed in black, and a sloppy red grin is painted on, extending from his mouth to his cheeks but not quite masking the terrible scars beneath. His hair is a more subtle, but still noticeable, shade of green.

Make-up and hair designer Peter Robb-King remarks, “Clearly, there was a perception in the audience’s mind of what The Joker would look like, but we wanted to get under the skin, so to speak, of what this character represents in this story. He is someone who has been damaged in every sense of the word, so it was important that we create a look that was not, forgive the pun, ‘jokey.’”

Heath Ledger’s make-up artist, John Caglione, Jr., calls the application of the actor’s make-up “a dance.” He describes, “Heath would scrunch up his face in specific expressions, raising his forehead and squinting his eyes, and I would paint on the white over his facial contortions. This technique created textures and expressions that just painting the face a flat white would not. Then I used black make-up around Heath’s eyes while he held them closed very tight, which created consistent facial textures. After the black was on, I sprayed water over his eyes, and he would squeeze his eyes and shake his head, and all that black drippy, smudgy stuff would happen.”

The Joker’s make-up also represents a revolutionary advancement in the application of prosthetics, developed and executed by prosthetic supervisor Conor O’Sullivan and prosthetic make-up artist Robert Trenton. “They used a brand new silicone-based process that enables the prosthetics to be laid on the skin in such a way that it’s seamless,” Robb-King describes. “It’s absolutely amazing because you can put a camera right up to the face—even an IMAX camera—and there are no issues.”

O’Sullivan reveals, “It took us about two years to develop the technology, but after a few glitches, we hit on it. We are now able to produce silicone pieces that are applied directly to the skin. And it blends with the skin perfectly; if you didn’t know it was there, you would have a hard time seeing anything.”

In addition, the new process cut the application time to a fraction of what was needed in the past. O’Sullivan confirms, “The Joker prosthetics would previously have

taken a good three to four hours. Instead they took about 25 minutes and looked far superior, which was great.”

The clown masks for The Joker’s gang were individually sculpted and molded and then hand-painted. Interestingly, the filmmakers learned that every clown face is registered and owned by the person who first created it, so all of the clown masks in the movie had to be cleared; none of them could be copied from existing clown faces.

The more graphic make-up effects for the character of Two-Face involved a combination of prosthetics and visual effects. Robb-King and his team worked closely with visual effect supervisor Nick Davis to depict the damage to Harvey Dent’s face, because it is so severe that it could not be achieved entirely with prosthetics. Eckhart recalls, “It was interesting for me in that, because of the technology, I didn’t have to spend hours in make-up every day. The whole process was effortless…at least for me,” he smiles.

“Using IMAX technology to shoot some of the action scenes gave us the greatest possible canvas on which to tell the story, and the result is an incredibly immersive experience.”

-Christopher Nolan

Production on “The Dark Knight” actually began several weeks ahead of the official start of principal photography. The cast and crew went on location in Chicago to shoot the opening prologue for the film: a dramatic bank heist that sets in motion the criminal rampage of The Joker. The advance scenes also marked a milestone in filmmaking as Christopher Nolan became the first director to use IMAX cameras to film sequences in a traditional feature film release. “I’ve always had an interest in shooting in IMAX,” Nolan relates. “I’ve seen IMAX presentations at museums and such and found the format to be completely overwhelming. The clarity and crispness of the images are unparalleled, so I thought if you could shoot a dramatic feature with IMAX cameras—not just blow up a 35mm film to show on an IMAX screen—it would really bring the audience into the action.”

Emma Thomas notes, “When you think about some of the IMAX films we remember: they’ve taken these cameras up Mount Everest, they’ve taken them under the ocean, astronauts have had them in space… So if they can do that, then surely we can shoot on the streets of Chicago with an IMAX camera.”

As with any “first,” Nolan and his longtime cinematographer, Wally Pfister, knew that filming on the streets of Chicago with IMAX cameras would come with its own set of challenges, beginning with the size of the cameras. “The cameras are enormous and much heavier than a 35mm camera,” Pfister confirms. “It required an entirely different approach, but like any challenge in moviemaking, you can’t be so intimidated that you shy away from it. You just bite off one piece at a time until you’ve tackled it.”

For Nolan and his crew, that first “bite” was shooting the film’s opening scenes. Pfister recalls, “The week that we spent shooting the bank heist sequence was like IMAX school for all of us.” They passed with flying colors. Filming the prologue with IMAX cameras not only met but exceeded all expectations, so the filmmakers made the decision to shoot several more scenes with IMAX cameras, including most of the major action sequences.

Pfister’s team had to find a way to rig the huge cameras to not only capture but also follow the action. They turned to the people at Ultimate Arm, the award-winning creators of the gyrostabilized remote control camera crane. The Ultimate Arm technicians were able to reinforce the head of the crane so it could handle the weight of the IMAX cameras. Pfister reveals, “We shot most of the Bat-Pod sequences with the Ultimate Arm, which allowed us to swing the camera up, down and all around the Bat-Pod and get some really stunning footage.”

Key grip Mike Lewis also crafted sturdier rigs that enabled the camera crew to mount the weighty IMAX cameras on the hood of a car, the side of a truck or anywhere else, as needed. All of the regular camera mounts had to be strengthened in order to handle the extra weight of the IMAX cameras. Nolan and Pfister also had high praise for Steadicam operator Bob Gorelick, who, Pfister says, “did a remarkable job of keeping that enormous camera in place.”

With advancements in technology on his side, the cinematographer assumed the sheer weight of the IMAX camera would preclude him from doing any handheld shots, but Nolan had other ideas. Pfister recounts, “Early in pre-production, Chris said to me, ‘You’ve got to try to handhold one of the IMAX cameras at some point just to say you did it.’ And I said, ‘No way! I am not putting that thing on my shoulder.’ But he kept nudging me and bugging me to try it, and finally I broke down and decided I had to give it a go. I actually did one handheld shot with the IMAX camera, running in front of a

S.W.A.T. team into a building. More than getting the shot, I think Chris was really proud of himself that he was able to get me to do that,” he admits.

“We were able to utilize the IMAX format without having to compromise the way in which we would have filmed with smaller cameras. It didn’t slow us down in the slightest and it was pretty exciting to see it come together,” says Nolan.

In addition to the size and heft of the cameras, however, there were other factors that had to be addressed in incorporating the larger format film. “The composition of shots is entirely different because the frame is so much bigger, so you need to center things more to pull your attention to the action. And focus is much more critical because it is a shallower depth of field,” Pfister clarifies, adding that the larger size frame also had a direct effect on the lighting. “One of the most challenging things about filming in IMAX is trying to hide the lights. With the expanded frame, you’re seeing so much more from side to side and top to bottom so you can’t place lights where you normally would. You have to put them behind objects and anywhere else you can hide them.”

The size and clarity of the IMAX footage affected other departments, as well. Nathan Crowley notes, “Filming in IMAX is a great bonus to a production designer because you notice things you ordinarily wouldn’t even see. The perspective is huge. I mean, we purposely had a lot of low ceilings and beautiful shiny floors because they stay in frame. Then again, we also had to make sure the finishes were superb because you’ll also see every speck of dust on the floor,” he laughs.

Everyone agreed the end result was more than worth the effort of mastering the learning curve. “You can absolutely see the difference,” Pfister attests. “It’s sharper; it has more resolution, more contrast and a richer color saturation. It is an overall improved image, whether you’re seeing it on an IMAX screen or on a regular screen. I think the action will jump off the screen in any theater.”

“Continuing Batman’s story, we felt it was very important to get outside and view Gotham as a major world city.”

-Christopher Nolan

With “The Dark Knight,” Christopher Nolan sought to expand the world of Batman in a literal sense by moving the action from the confines of a soundstage to the expanse of practical locations. “We were looking for ways to expand the scope of this film, so I was determined to take the location filming much further than what we did on ‘Batman Begins,’” the director says. “The real world is built on a scale you could never reproduce in the studio.”

As it had in “Batman Begins,” the city of Chicago once again became Gotham City. “I spent some time growing up in Chicago,” Nolan offers, “so it’s a city I know and love. It is famous for its architecture and it is also a very film-friendly city. We shot there for weeks on ‘Batman Begins,’ but this time we were going to be there for months and the help and encouragement we got from the city was extraordinary.”

Chuck Roven confirms, “I can’t say enough about Mayor Daley, the Chicago Film Office and, most importantly, the citizens of Chicago, who could not have been more excited or more welcoming to us. They gave us total cooperation and allowed us to do some unbelievable things on their streets, and we appreciated and always tried to respect that privilege.”

Inarguably, the most incredible thing the city allowed the production to do was unprecedented: flipping a 40-foot tractor-trailer, end over end, right in the heart of the city’s banking district on LaSalle Street. When Chris Corbould saw the truck flip described in the script, he admits, “I tried to make compromises with Chris—like maybe the whole truck doesn’t go over or maybe we could use a smaller truck—but he wasn’t having any of it.”

Nolan responds, “Finally I turned to him one day and said, ‘Chris, it really ought to be an 18-wheeler. And I know you can find a way to do this because that’s just who you are and that’s what you do.’”

The first order of business was to make sure the stunt was even possible. “After about six weeks of calculations, we were ready to do an actual test,” Corbould recalls. “We went out to an open space, got the truck up to speed and pressed the button, and it just sailed over. I had to go to Chris Nolan and tell him it worked perfectly.”

Nevertheless, the filmmakers were aware that there was a vast difference between flipping a truck in the middle of nowhere and doing it in the middle of a city street. Before they could carry out the stunt, city engineers were called in to make sure that the tons of force necessary to send the truck end over end would not damage the infrastructure of LaSalle Street, including the various utility lines that run beneath it. Once safe parameters were determined, the production was given the green light.

When the night of the stunt came, the truck flip went like clockwork, earning applause from the assembled cast and crew. “It was an impressive thing to watch this truck fly over and land precisely where Chris said it was going to land,” Nolan remarks. “At the top of its arc, it looked almost like a skyscraper standing there, and then it just continued going over very gracefully. I’ve never seen anything like it.”

The film’s most explosive sequence involved the implosion of an entire building, which was staged at the now-vacant Brach’s Candy factory building. Corbould and his crew teamed with the company Controlled Demolition, Inc., headed by Doug Loizeaux, to create the explosion. Corbould offers, “Chris didn’t want the building to go down like a deck of cards, like a conventional demolition. I worked with Doug, who came up with a system to make the building go down more like a wave, in sequence. Then we added our special effects elements to make it more spectacular.”

For the filmmakers, safety was paramount. The main concerns involved surrounding street traffic, as well as active rail lines running nearby the building. The production contacted the railroad companies and coordinated the train schedules to ensure that no trains would be coming through at the time of the explosion. Adjacent street traffic was also blocked to keep onlookers and passersby from getting anywhere near the blast. In addition, the scene called for a bus to be in proximity to the explosion, so polycarbonate sheeting was placed on the windows of the bus to ensure that even if the windows broke, no glass would fly into the bus with cast members inside.

On location in Chicago, the filmmakers also took advantage of some of the city’s defining features, including its world-renowned architecture and multi-leveled streets. Nolan made good use of the parallel upper and lower roadways for the climactic car chase between The Joker, the police and Batman. The breakneck chase sent a variety of cars, armored trucks and one ill-fated 18-wheeler hurtling down such streets as Upper and Lower Wacker Drive, Lower Lower Randolph, Lower Lower Columbus and LaSalle Street. During the chase, the Bat-Pod even takes a side route through the newly remodeled train station under Millennium Park.

“The Dark Knight” marks Nathan Crowley’s fourth film in the Windy City, and the production designer observes, “The Chicago architecture is phenomenal; all of the great architects of the last century have worked there. And it’s wonderfully cinematic.”

Crowley chose two buildings designed by famed architect Mies van der Rohe for a variety of sets. The IBM Building was the site of the Wayne Enterprises Boardroom, Harvey Dent’s office, the Mayor’s office and the Police Commissioner’s office, while the lobby of One Illinois Plaza became the main living area of Bruce Wayne’s new penthouse. Of course, utilizing the lobby level for the penthouse set meant that visual effects would be needed to create top-floor views of the city through the floor-to-ceiling windows. Bruce’s bedroom was built separately on the 39th floor of Hotel 71 on East Wacker Drive.

Bruce and Alfred have taken up residence in the penthouse because Wayne Manor is still under construction after it was destroyed in a fire. Nolan comments, “At the end of ‘Batman Begins,’ Bruce says he’s going to rebuild Wayne Manor brick by brick. That would take a long time, so it would be pretty unrealistic for him to be already moved back in. And there was also a period in the comic books where Bruce Wayne did live downtown in a penthouse, so we took that as a jumping-off point. We wanted to have him in the city because this is very much a story of a city and we felt it was important to put Bruce in the middle of that.”

The penthouse was of a decidedly more modern design than Wayne Manor. Crowley explains, “We were given access to these great modernist floors, and we felt that era of architecture was better suited for what we were trying to convey emotionally. It’s cold and it’s vacant; there’s no warmth to the environment.”

Nolan adds, “Bruce is living a very lonely existence in a way, so the stark design of the penthouse was meant to reflect his state of mind.”

Filming in Chicago also took place at such locations as the Convention Hall at McCormick Place West, which became the vast warehouse of Wayne Enterprises’ Applied Science Division; Navy Pier, which was the site of a dramatic scene involving the panicked citizens of Gotham City; and the Old Chicago Post Office, which was employed for several scenes, including the opening bank robbery. In addition, the exterior of Chicago’s Trump Tower, which was in the early construction stage at the time of production, was used for a pivotal confrontation between Batman and The Joker. The interior of the building framework was carefully re-created in England at Cardington—the converted airship hangar that is now used as a soundstage—where the fight was actually filmed.

Rising out of the Chicago skyline, the Sears Tower was the site of a soaring exterior shot, and Christian Bale was not going to be denied an opportunity to stand atop the tallest building in the United States. The actor recounts, “I overheard my stunt double, Buster Reeves, saying he was heading up to the Sears Tower to do that, and I said, ‘Sorry buddy, no way. I just have to do this one myself.’ I mean, how often do you get to be 110 stories up, looking out over all of Chicago? But it’s a funny and probably quite dangerous thing,” he laughs, “how quickly I felt very at home out there and how soon I was able move around right on the edge, looking straight down.”

Far from being worried, Nolan supported his leading man’s decision to grab that once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. “Christian likes to challenge himself and I knew we

weren’t putting him in any actual physical danger. It was perfectly safe; it just required guts to stand there. I certainly wouldn’t want to do it, but he seemed to enjoy it and it made a beautiful shot for us. And after that, standing out on a ledge on a building in Hong Kong must have been easy.”

“The Dark Knight” sends Batman to the Far East on a mission to bring down an international financial magnate, who is manipulating Gotham City’s most powerful crime cartels. The scenes were filmed on location in Hong Kong, primarily at the magnificent IFC2 Building, the tallest building in the city. “I liked the idea of sending Batman someplace more exotic,” says Nolan. “We had done that with Bruce Wayne in the first film, before he became Batman, but I really wanted to show the character of Batman outside the realm of Gotham City. I had been to Hong Kong many years ago at a film festival, and remembered it as a great location. It’s an incredibly visual place, which makes it ideal in cinematic terms.”

For some interiors, the production returned to Cardington, where one major set was constructed: the Bat-Bunker, which has temporarily replaced the Batcave while Bruce and Alfred are living in the penthouse. With its ceiling of solid fluorescent lights, the Bat-Bunker “looks like a giant light box,” describes Wally Pfister, “which obviously made it simple for me from a lighting standpoint.”

Crowley notes that as long as his home was in the city, Batman needed a new headquarters. “He can’t go to his Batcave, so we came up with the idea of a bunker that ties back to the architectural theme of the penthouse in that it’s vast but very plain. It is essentially a large concrete box where everything comes out of the walls and then goes back. But it still had to be visually interesting. It was all about proportion and perspective, which was actually great fun to do.”

Christopher Nolan reflects, “Every stage of making an enormous film like this presents its own challenges, but has its own rewards. It’s very exciting to travel the world and zoom around in helicopters and race the Batmobile around the streets of Chicago. Every now and then, I have to consciously remind myself to take a step back and realize that this is an extraordinary thing I am privileged to be a part of.”

Another critical design element of “The Dark Knight” is not seen but heard. “The sound design of the film was extremely complicated,” says Nolan. “There were an enormous number of elements encompassed in the sound mix and there are moments where it’s hard to detect what is sound design and what is music,” he asserts. “There are large segments of the film where we use little or no score. It was a major challenge

for our sound designer, Richard King, and his team to create a range of sounds that would provoke the kind of emotional response that you would usually rely on music for. Then the end of the film is very heavily scored with music, but it develops as the action progresses.”

Composers Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard, who partnered on the music for “Batman Begins,” reunited to compose the score for “The Dark Knight.” Nolan relates, “I like the score of the film to be an evolution that runs parallel to the editing of the film, and Hans and James have been amazing in accommodating that. Usually without even seeing final footage, they give me pieces of music that my editor, Lee Smith, and I take into the edit suite. It’s a very organic process that puts a lot of unusual demands on the composers, but they did a fantastic job with it.”

As they had on “Batman Begins,” Zimmer and Howard split duties on “The Dark Knight,” with Zimmer composing the theme for The Joker and Howard taking on the dual personality of Harvey Dent/Two-Face. They also made changes to the overall score, eschewing any heroic fanfares. Zimmer says, “I don’t see Batman as a typical superhero, so I wanted to avoid anything ‘super’ in the music. I kept thinking about the Bat Symbol. It is the iconic representation of Batman, but at the same time, it is dark and unadorned.”

“Batman is a very complex character,” Howard adds. “We’re still getting to know him, so to try and attach a musical theme to him that defines him in any way would be misleading.”

Nolan concludes, “For me, Batman has an enduring appeal and endless fascination because he is a relatable character. He is referred to as a superhero, but actually he is a self-invented superhero. And I think the fantasy of a man who, through sheer will and self-discipline, has turned himself into more than just a man, into a heroic figure…that’s just a very compelling myth.”

ABOUT THE CAST

CHRISTIAN BALE (Bruce Wayne/Batman) was born in Wales and grew up in England and the USA. He made his film debut in Steven Spielberg’s World War II epic “Empire of the Sun.”

Bale’s work to date also includes “Henry V,” “The Portrait of a Lady,” “The Secret Agent,” “Metroland,” “Velvet Goldmine,” “All the Little Animals,” “American Psycho,” “Shaft,” “Captain Corelli’s Mandolin,” “Reign of Fire,” “Laurel Canyon,” “The Machinist,” “Batman Begins,” “The New World,” “The Prestige,” “Harsh Times,” “Rescue Dawn” and “3:10 to Yuma.”

Bale just completed work on “Public Enemies” for director Michael Mann. He is currently filming “Terminator Salvation,” under the direction of McG.

MICHAEL CAINE (Alfred) is one of the film industry’s most esteemed actors, with a career spanning over half a century and encompassing more than 100 films and a myriad of acting honors. A two-time Academy Award winner, Caine won his first Oscar, for Best Supporting Actor, for his work in “Hannah and Her Sisters,” for which he also received Golden Globe and BAFTA Award nominations. He took home his second Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his role in “The Cider House Rules,” also winning a SAG Award and earning Golden Globe and BAFTA Award nominations.

In addition, Caine has earned four Oscar nominations for Best Actor, the first coming in 1966 for his performance in the title role in “Alfie,” which also brought him a Golden Globe nomination and a New York Film Critics Award. He received his second Oscar nod, as well as a Golden Globe nomination and an Evening Standard Award, for the part of Milo Tindle in 1972’s “Sleuth.” His role in “Educating Rita” earned him his third Oscar nomination, and Golden Globe and BAFTA Awards. He gained his latest Oscar, Golden Globe and BAFTA Award nominations for his work in 2002’s “The Quiet American,” for which he also won a London Critics Circle Award. He previously won Golden Globe and London Critics Circle Awards, as well as a BAFTA Award nomination, for Best Supporting Actor for “Little Voice.”

More recently, Caine won another London Critics Circle Award for his performance in 2006’s “The Prestige,” which reunited him with director Christopher Nolan following their collaboration on the 2005 blockbuster “Batman Begins.” Caine’s

most recent film work also includes Gore Verbinski’s “The Weather Man,” Alfonso Cuaron’s “Children of Men,” and the 2007 remake of “Sleuth,” in which he turned the tables on his 1972 role, playing Milo’s adversary, Andrew.

Caine was born Maurice Micklewhite in South London in 1933, the son of a fish market porter and a charwoman. His interest in acting began at an early age and, at 16, he left school and took odd jobs for local film companies, hoping to be discovered. When he was 18, he was called to do his National Service with the Queen’s Royal Regiment and the Royal Fusiliers. Upon his discharge in 1953, Caine began pursuing his acting career, taking his stage name from the title “The Caine Mutiny.” Starting out on the stage, he toured Britain in a variety of plays, and began appearing in increasingly better roles in British films and television shows.

In 1964, Caine landed his first major film role as Lieutenant Gonville Bromhead in “Zulu.” The following year, he starred in the hit thriller “The Ipcress File,” earning his first BAFTA Award nomination for his portrayal of secret agent Harry Palmer. However, it was his Oscar-nominated performance in the seminal sixties film “Alfie” that catapulted Caine to international stardom. In the late 1960s, he went on to star in 11 films, including “The Ipcress File” sequels, “Funeral in Berlin” and “Billion Dollar Brain”; “Gambit,” earning a Golden Globe nomination; “Hurry Sundown”; “Woman Times Seven”; “Deadfall”; “The Magus”; “The Italian Job”; and “Battle of Britain.”

Over the following two decades, Caine starred in more than 40 films, including Robert Aldrich’s “Too Late the Hero”; “X, Y and Zee,” opposite Elizabeth Taylor; “Sleuth,” with Laurence Olivier; John Huston’s “The Man Who Would Be King”; “Harry and Walter Go to New York”; Richard Attenborough’s “A Bridge Too Far”; the Neil Simon comedy “California Suite”; Woody Allen’s “Hannah and Her Sisters,” winning his first Oscar; Brian De Palma’s “Dressed to Kill”; John Huston’s “Victory”; Sidney Lumet’s “Deathtrap”; “Educating Rita”; Stanley Donen’s “Blame It on Rio”; John Frankenheimer’s “The Holcroft Covenant”; Neil Jordan’s “Mona Lisa”; and “Dirty Rotten Scoundrels,” for which he received a Golden Globe nomination.

Over the next 15 years, Caine starred in such films as the ensemble comedy “Noises Off…”; “Blood and Wine”; “Little Voice”; “Quills”; “Miss Congeniality”; “Austin Powers: Goldmember”; “The Quiet American”; and the Lasse Hallström films “Secondhand Lions” and “The Cider House Rules,” for which he won his second Oscar.

On the small screen, Caine earned both Emmy and Golden Globe nominations for the dual title role in the telefilm “Jekyll & Hyde” and for his portrayal of South African

President F.W. de Klerk in the historical drama “Mandela and de Klerk.” He also gained a Golden Globe nomination for his work in the telefilm “Jack the Ripper” and an Emmy nomination for the docudrama “World War II: When Lions Roared.”

Also an author, Caine wrote an autobiography entitled What’s It All About?, as well as Acting on Film, a book based on a series of lectures he gave on BBC Television.

In the 1992 Queen’s Birthday Honours, Caine was awarded the CBE, and eight years later received a knighthood.

HEATH LEDGER (The Joker) was honored with an Academy Award nomination for his work in Ang Lee’s drama “Brokeback Mountain.” For his performance as Ennis Del Mar, Ledger also earned Golden Globe, Independent Spirit, BAFTA and Screen Actors Guild Awards nominations, and won several critics groups’ awards.

In 2007, Ledger was seen in Todd Hayne’s “I’m Not There,” for which he shared in a Robert Altman Award at the 2008 Independent Spirit Awards.

His previous film credits include “Candy,” “Casanova,” “The Brothers Grimm,” “Lords of Dogtown,” “The Order,” “Ned Kelly,” “The Four Feathers,” “Monster’s Ball,” “A Knight’s Tale,” “The Patriot” and “10 Things I Hate About You,” which first introduced the Australian-born actor to American audiences.

GARY OLDMAN (James Gordon) first played the role of Gotham Police Lieutenant James Gordon in “Batman Begins.” He also originated the role of Sirius Black in “Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban” and reprised the part in “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire” and “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.”

Oldman began his career in 1979 on the London stage. Between 1985 and 1989 he acted exclusively at London’s Royal Court Theatre and, in 1985, was named Best Newcomer by London’s Time Out for his work in “The Pope’s Wedding.” That same year he shared the London Critic’s Circle Best Actor Award with Anthony Hopkins.

In 1986, Oldman made his major feature film debut in “Sid and Nancy,” winning the Evening Standard British Film Award for Most Promising Newcomer for his portrayal of punk rock legend Sid Vicious. The following year, he starred in Stephen Frears’ “Prick Up Your Ears,” winning the Best Actor Award from the London Film Critics Circle for his portrayal of doomed British playwright Joe Orton. He has since become one of the industry’s most respected actors, appearing in both mainstream hits and acclaimed independent films. Oldman’s early film credits also include Nicolas Roeg’s “Track 29”;

“Criminal Law”; “Chattahoochee”; Tom Stoppard’s “Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead,” for which he received an Independent Spirit Award nomination for Best Actor; “State of Grace”; “Henry & June”; Oliver Stone’s “JFK,” playing Lee Harvey Oswald; and the title role in Francis Ford Coppola’s “Dracula.”

Oldman’s subsequent film work includes memorable roles in Tony Scott’s “True Romance”; “Romeo is Bleeding”; the Luc Besson films “The Professional” and “The Fifth Element”; “Immortal Beloved”; “Murder in the First”; Roland Joffe’s “The Scarlett Letter”; Julian Schnabel’s “Basquiat”; Wolfgang Petersen’s “Air Force One”; the big screen version of “Lost in Space”; and Ridley Scott’s “Hannibal.”

In 1995 Oldman and manager/producing partner Douglas Urbanski formed the production company The SE8 Group, which produced Oldman’s directorial debut feature “Nil by Mouth,” which Oldman also wrote. The film was invited to open the 1997 50th Cannes Film Festival in the main competition, where Kathy Burke won the Best Actress Award for her role. In addition, Oldman won two BAFTA Awards for Best British Film and Best Screenplay; the Channel 4 Director’s Award at the 1997 Edinburgh International Film Festival; and the Empire Award for Best Debut Film. He also executive produced and starred in the SE8 Group film “The Contender,” which received two Oscar nominations and brought Oldman a Screen Actors Guild Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor.

On the small screen, Oldman earned an Emmy nomination for his guest appearance as an alcoholic actor on the hit comedy series “Friends.” His earlier television work includes the telefilms “Meantime,” directed by Mike Leigh, and “The Firm,” directed by Alan Clarke.

AARON ECKHART (Harvey Dent) earned Golden Globe and Independent Spirit Award nominations for his role as an unapologetic tobacco lobbyist in 2005’s “Thank You for Smoking,” which marked Jason Reitman’s directorial debut. Eckhart more recently starred in Brian De Palma’s fact-based murder mystery “The Black Dahlia”; the romantic comedy “No Reservations,” opposite Catherine Zeta-Jones; and the independent film “Meet Bill.” He next stars in Alan Ball’s “Towelhead,” which opens in limited release this fall, and “Traveling,” opposite Jennifer Aniston.

Eckhart studied theater and film at Brigham Young University, where he first met writer/director Neil LaBute and appeared in several of LaBute’s plays. In 1997, Eckhart first gained attention from film critics and audiences when he starred in LaBute’s first

feature film, “In the Company of Men.” The controversial feature earned widespread acclaim and won a number of awards, including an Independent Spirit Award for Eckhart for Best Debut Performance.

Over the next five years, he starred in three more LaBute films: “Your Friends and Neighbors,” with Ben Stiller and Catherine Keener; “Nurse Betty,” with Renée Zellweger; and “Possession,” opposite Gwyneth Paltrow. During that time, Eckhart also received praise for his memorable performance as the love interest of the title character in Steven Soderbergh’s acclaimed 2000 biopic “Erin Brockovich,” opposite Julia Roberts.

Eckhart’s additional film credits include “Conversations with Other Women,” opposite Helena Bonham Carter; John Woo’s action drama “Paycheck,” with Ben Affleck and Uma Thurman; Ron Howard’s “The Missing,” with Tommy Lee Jones and Cate Blanchett; Jon Amiel’s “The Core,” opposite Hilary Swank; Sean Penn’s “The Pledge,” joining an all-star cast, including Jack Nicholson and Vanessa Redgrave; Oliver Stone’s “Any Given Sunday”; and John Duigan’s “Molly,” opposite Elisabeth Shue.

On the stage, Eckhart theatrical credits include Michael Cristofer’s play “Amazing Grace,” opposite Marsha Mason.

MAGGIE GYLLENHAAL (Rachel Dawes) has, in just the last few years, emerged as one of the film industry’s busiest leading ladies, earning praise for her work in both major studio releases and independent features. In 2002, she starred opposite James Spader in the provocative film “Secretary,” which premiered to rave reviews at the Sundance Film Festival. Gyllenhaal’s performance in the title role brought her numerous honors, including Golden Globe and Independent Spirit Award nominations, a Boston Film Critics Award, and a National Board of Review Award. In addition, she won a Chicago Film Critics Award for Most Promising Performer, which also recognized her work in two other 2002 releases: Spike Jonze’s “Adaptation” and George Clooney’s “Confessions of a Dangerous Mind.”

Gyllenhaal received her second Golden Globe Award nomination, as well as several international film festival awards, for her starring role in the 2006 independent feature “SherryBaby.” That same year, she starred in Marc Forster’s acclaimed comedy drama “Stranger Than Fiction,” with Will Ferrell, Emma Thompson, Queen Latifah and Dustin Hoffman; Oliver Stone’s real-life drama “World Trade Center”; and a segment of the anthology film “Paris, je t’aime.” Gyllenhaal also lent her voice to the Oscar-nominated animated film “Monster House.”

Her other recent film credits include Bart Freundlich’s “Trust the Man,” with David Duchovny and Julianne Moore; Don Roos’ “Happy Endings,” with Lisa Kudrow; John Sayles’ “Casa de los Babys”; and “Mona Lisa Smile,” in which she starred with Julia Roberts, Kirsten Dunst and Julia Stiles under the direction of Mike Newell.

Also an accomplished stage actress, Gyllenhaal starred in the Tony Kushner play “Homebody/Kabul,” which ran in Los Angeles and at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. She had previously played the role of Alice in Patrick Mauber’s award-winning play “Closer,” first at the Berkeley Repertory Theatre and then at Los Angeles’ Mark Taper Forum. Her other stage credits include “Antony and Cleopatra” at the Vanborough Theatre in London.

Gyllenhaal was still in her teens when she made her feature film debut in “Waterland,” starring Jeremy Irons and Ethan Hawke. She later appeared in John Waters’ quirky Hollywood satire, “Cecil B. Demented,” which led to a co-starring role in the fantasy thriller “Donnie Darko.”

In 1999, while still pursuing her acting career, Gyllenhaal graduated from Columbia University, where she studied Literature.

MORGAN FREEMAN (Lucius Fox) won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role in Clint Eastwood’s “Million Dollar Baby,” for which he also won a Screen Actors Guild (SAG) Award and received a Golden Globe nomination. He has been honored with three additional Oscar nominations, the first coming for his chilling performance as a homicidal pimp in the 1987 drama “Street Smart,” which also brought him Los Angeles, New York, and National Society of Film Critics Awards, and an Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Actor, as well as his first Golden Globe Award nomination. He earned his second Oscar nomination and won Golden Globe and National Board of Review Awards for Best Actor for the 1989 film “Driving Miss Daisy,” in which he recreated his award-winning off-Broadway role. He gained his third Oscar nod for his performance in Frank Darabont’s 1994 drama “The Shawshank Redemption,” which also brought Freeman Golden Globe and SAG Award nominations.

In addition to “The Dark Knight,” Freeman also stars this summer in the action thriller “Wanted.” He also has a wide range of films upcoming, including “The Code”; “The Lonely Maiden,” which he is also producing; and “The Human Factor,” which he will co-produce and star in, playing Nelson Mandela, opposite Matt Damon.

Freeman’s recent film work also includes starring roles in Rob Reiner’s “The Bucket List,” opposite Jack Nicholson; Robert Benton’s “Feast of Love”; Ben Affleck’s “Gone Baby Gone”; “Lucky Number Slevin”; Lasse Hallström’s “An Unfinished Life,” with Robert Redford and Jennifer Lopez; Christopher Nolan’s “Batman Begins”; the Jet Li actioner “Unleashed,” written by Luc Besson; and the comedy “Bruce Almighty” and its sequel, “Evan Almighty.” He also lent his distinctive voice to Steven Spielberg’s “War of the Worlds” and the Oscar-winning documentary “March of the Penguins.”

His earlier film credits include “The Sum of All Fears,” “High Crimes,” “Along Came a Spider,” “Nurse Betty,” “Deep Impact,” “Hard Rain,” Steven Spielberg’s “Amistad,” “Kiss the Girls,” “Se7en,” Clint Eastwood’s “Unforgiven,” “Glory,” “Lean on Me,” “Clean and Sober,” “Marie,” “Teachers,” “Harry & Son” and “Brubaker.”

In 1993, Freeman made his film directorial debut with “Bopha!” and soon after formed Revelations Entertainment. The company’s most recent production was the Brad Silberling comedy “10 Items or Less,” in which Freeman starred with Paz Vega.

The Memphis-born actor began his career on New York stages in the early 1960s, following a stint as a mechanic in the Air Force. A decade later, he became a nationally known television personality when he created the popular character Easy Reader on the popular children’s show “The Electric Company.”

Throughout the 1970s, he continued his work on stage, winning Drama Desk and Clarence Derwent Awards and receiving a Tony Award nomination for his performance in “The Mighty Gents” in 1978. In 1980, he won Obie Awards for his portrayal of Shakespearean anti-hero Coriolanus at the New York Shakespeare Festival and for his work in “Mother Courage and Her Children.” Freeman won another Obie in 1984 for his performance as The Messenger in the acclaimed Brooklyn Academy of Music production of Lee Breuer’s “The Gospel at Colonus” and, in 1985, won the Drama-Logue Award for the same role. In 1987, Freeman created the role of Hoke Coleburn in Alfred Uhry’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play, “Driving Miss Daisy,” which brought him his fourth Obie. In 1990, Freeman starred as Petruchio in the New York Shakespeare Festival’s “The Taming of the Shrew,” opposite Tracey Ullman.

Returning to the stage, Freeman is currently starring on Broadway with Frances McDormand and Peter Gallagher in Clifford Odett’s drama “The Country Girl,” directed by Mike Nichols.

ABOUT THE FILMMAKERS

CHRISTOPHER NOLAN (Director/Screenwriter/Producer) is an award-winning filmmaker who has been recognized for his work as a director and screenwriter.

Nolan began making movies at an early age with his father’s Super-8mm camera. While studying English Literature at University College London, Nolan shot 16mm films at UCL’s film society, learning the guerrilla film techniques he would later use to make his first feature, “Following.” The “no-budget” noir thriller enjoyed great success at a number of international film festivals, including Toronto, Rotterdam, Slamdance, and Hong Kong, prior to being released theatrically in the U.S., U.K., France and various other territories.

Nolan’s second film was the low-budget independent feature “Memento,” starring Guy Pearce, Carrie-Ann Moss and Joe Pantoliano, which Nolan directed from his own screenplay, based on a short story by his brother Jonathan. The film brought Nolan numerous honors, including Academy Award and Golden Globe Award nominations for Best Original Screenplay, two Independent Spirit Awards for Best Director and Best Screenplay, and a Directors Guild of America Award nomination. In addition, he won Best Screenplay Awards from several critics groups, including the Los Angeles, London, Chicago and Broadcast Film Critics Associations, as well as the American Film Institute’s Screenwriter of the Year Award, and the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award at the 2001 Sundance Film Festival.

Nolan followed “Memento” with the critically acclaimed psychological thriller “Insomnia,” starring Academy Award winners Al Pacino, Robin Williams and Hilary Swank. For that film, Nolan won the London Critics Circle Award for Best Director of the Year.

In 2005, Nolan co-wrote and directed “Batman Begins,” starring Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Liam Neeson, Gary Oldman and Morgan Freeman. The blockbuster reimagined the Batman film franchise, pleasing critics and fans alike and paving the way for “The Dark Knight.”

Nolan more recently directed, co-wrote and produced the mystery thriller “The Prestige,” starring Hugh Jackman, Christian Bale, Scarlett Johansson and Michael Caine. Empire Magazine named Nolan the Best Director of the Year for the film, which also received Oscar nominations for its extraordinary art direction and cinematography.

Nolan currently lives in Los Angeles with his wife, producer Emma Thomas, and their children.

CHARLES ROVEN (Producer) has enjoyed success as a distinguished producer of both independent and major motion pictures in a career spanning more than two decades. He is co-founder of Atlas Entertainment, which for the last 10 years was part of Mosaic Media Group, an integrated multimedia film, television and management company, in which he was a founding principal.

“The Dark Knight” reunites Roven with the team from the acclaimed blockbuster “Batman Begins,” which he produced in 2005. Directed by Christopher Nolan and starring Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Liam Neeson, Morgan Freeman and Gary Oldman, “Batman Begins” was number one at the box office for two consecutive weeks on its way to grossing more than $370 million worldwide.

In addition to “The Dark Knight,” Roven produced the recently released action comedy “Get Smart,” directed by Peter Segal and teaming Steve Carell and Anne Hathaway as Maxwell Smart and Agent 99. The film opened at #1 at the U.S. box office. He is also a producer on the dramatic thriller “The International,” set for release in early 2009, with Clive Owen and Naomi Watts starring under the direction of Tom Tykwer.

Earlier this year, Roven produced the critically acclaimed crime thriller “The Bank Job,” directed by Roger Donaldson and starring Jason Statham and Saffron Burrows, which opened at the top of the UK box office. His recent film credits also include the musical “Idlewild,” starring Outkast’s Andre Benjamin (Andre 3000) and Antwan Patton (Big Boi); and “The Brothers Grimm,” directed by Terry Gilliam and starring Matt Damon and Heath Ledger.

Roven previously served as a producer on a broad range of films, including the $275-million-plus worldwide box office smash “Scooby-Doo,” followed by the sequel “Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed”; the highly acclaimed post-Gulf War tale “Three Kings”; the widely praised romantic fantasy hit “City of Angels,” which earned $200 million at the worldwide box office; and Terry Gilliam’s “Twelve Monkeys,” starring Bruce Willis and Brad Pitt in his Oscar-nominated and Golden Globe winning role.

Roven began his career as a talent manager, subsequently bringing an attuned sensibility for working with artists to the realm of production.

In 2008, Roven was honored with the ShoWest Producer of the Year Award for his contributions to the film industry.

EMMA THOMAS (Producer) is the producer behind such thought-provoking indie hits as “Following” and “Memento,” as well as several major motion picture releases, including the blockbuster “Batman Begins.”

Most recently, Thomas produced the critically acclaimed drama “The Prestige,” directed by Christopher Nolan. Hugh Jackman, Christian Bale, Scarlett Johansson and Michael Caine starred in the story about an intense rivalry between two magicians who become obsessed with outdoing one another, leading to self-destruction and murder. The film earned two Oscar nominations for art direction and cinematography.

Thomas and writer/director Christopher Nolan are currently developing “The Prisoner,” based on the BBC show of the 1960s, and “The Exec,” both under the banner of their company, Syncopy.

Thomas studied at the prestigious University College London before beginning her career at Working Title Films in London, where she worked in physical production for five years. While at Working Title, she gained a solid foundation in film production, which would serve her well as she segued into producing.

The independent feature “Following” was the turning point for her career, marking her first film as a producer. Shot on weekends over the course of a year, “Following” was guerrilla filmmaking at its best. The film, which was shot on a shoestring budget, went on to gain recognition at film festivals around the world and received international distribution.

Thomas next served as an associate producer on the internationally acclaimed independent hit “Memento.” The film went on to win a number of awards, including an Independent Spirit Award, a British Independent Film Award, and several critics groups’ awards for Best Film. Continuing her success, Thomas co-produced her first major studio release, the hit thriller “Insomnia,” starring Al Pacino, Robin Williams and Hilary Swank.

In 2005, Thomas produced “Batman Begins,” starring Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Liam Neeson, Gary Oldman and Morgan Freeman, under the direction of Christopher Nolan. The film earned praise from both critics and audiences for its bold reimagining of the Batman film franchise, setting the stage for “The Dark Knight.”

JONATHAN NOLAN (Screenwriter) is currently writing the screenplay for “Interstellar,” a science fiction space adventure to be directed by Steven Spielberg.

Nolan was born in London and grew up in the Chicago area. His film career began when he wrote the intriguing short story “Memento Mori,” which became the basis for the acclaimed noir drama “Memento,” starring Guy Pearce. Directed by his brother, Christopher Nolan, who also adapted the screenplay, “Memento” brought Jonathan an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Screenplay, as well as the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award at the 2001 Sundance Film Festival, both shared with Christopher.

He more recently co-wrote the screenplay for the mystery thriller “The Prestige,” about a bitter rivalry between two magicians with tragic consequences. Hugh Jackman, Christian Bale and Scarlett Johansson starred in the drama, under the direction of Christopher Nolan.

DAVID S. GOYER (Story) previously teamed with Christopher Nolan on the screenplay for “Batman Begins,” which won a Saturn Award from the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror. Goyer has earned a stellar reputation for telling character-driven stories adapted from the otherworldly realms of superheroes, fantasy and the supernatural for the big screen. He is currently working on the supernatural thriller “The Unborn,” starring Gary Oldman and Odette Yustman, which he is directing from his own screenplay.

Goyer’s breakout came in 1998 when he wrote the action hit “Blade,” starring Wesley Snipes, based on the Marvel Comics vampire hunter who is, himself, half-vampire. He then wrote 2002’s “Blade II,” on which he also served as an executive producer. He directed, wrote and produced the last of the trilogy, “Blade: Trinity.” Goyer was also an executive producer on “Blade: The Series” for Spike TV, the network’s first original scripted series.

In 2002, Goyer made a departure from action genre films with his directorial debut, “ZigZag,” a poignant comedy featuring Wesley Snipes, John Leguizamo, Oliver Platt, Natasha Lyonne and Sam Jones III. In addition to “ZigZag” and “Blade: Trinity,” Goyer directed last year’s supernatural thriller “The Invisible,” starring Justin Chatwin and Margarita Levieva.

Growing up in Ann Arbor, Michigan, Goyer wanted to write comic books from an early age, which eventually led to his bringing them to life for the big screen. He sold his first action script at the age of 22 while still at USC, which became the Jean Claude Van Damme thriller “Death Warrant.” Among his other early credits, he penned the screenplay for the critically acclaimed film “Dark City.”

Goyer’s love of comic books also led to a four-year stint actually writing one for DC Comics. He is a co-writer of The Justice Society, which was one of DC’s biggest hits.

BENJAMIN MELNIKER (Executive Producer) has had a longstanding relationship with DC Comics. Together with his producing partner, Michael E. Uslan, he has been a part of all of the Batman film and direct-to-DVD projects, most recently serving as an executive producer on Christopher Nolan’s “Batman Begins.” Earlier, he was an executive producer on the Tim Burton-directed movies “Batman,” starring Michael Keaton and Jack Nicholson, and “Batman Returns,” starring Keaton, Michelle Pfieffer and Danny DeVito, followed by Joel Schumacher’s “Batman Forever,” starring Val Kilmer, Jim Carrey and Tommy Lee Jones, and “Batman & Robin,” starring George Clooney and Arnold Schwarzenegger. He also produced the animated “Batman: Mask of Phantasm” and the Annie Award-winning “Batman Beyond: Return of The Joker.”

In addition, Melniker was a producer on Francis Lawrence’s thriller “Constantine,” based on the DC Comics/Vertigo Hellblazer graphic novels and starring Keanu Reeves. He was also an executive producer on “Catwoman” and an associate producer on “National Treasure.”

Currently, Melniker is executive producing the action thriller “The Spirit,” based on the comic book by Will Eisner. Directed by Frank Miller and starring Samuel L. Jackson, Scarlett Johansson and Eva Mendes, the film is due out this holiday season.

Melniker began his film career at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and worked with the esteemed studio for 30 years: he was Executive Vice President of the company, a member of its Board of Directors and its Executive Committee, and Chairman of its Film Selection Committee. During his tenure at MGM, he was also involved with some of the most memorable films ever made, including “Ben-Hur,” starring Charlton Heston; David Lean’s “Dr. Zhivago”; Stanley Kubrick’s “2001: A Space Odyssey”; and the musical “Gigi,” directed by Vincente Minnelli.

In 1975, Melniker executive produced his first film, the action drama “Mitchell,” followed by the 1976 thriller “Shoot,” starring Cliff Robertson and Ernest Borgnine.

Melniker has also achieved success in the world of television, with credits including the children’s series “Where on Earth is Carmen Sandiego?,” for which he won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Animated Children’s Program; “Harmful Intent,” based on the book by Robin Cook; the series “Fish Police,” “Swamp Thing” and “Dinosaucers”;

and the acclaimed PBS miniseries “Three Sovereigns for Sister Sarah,” based on the true story of the Salem Witch Trials.

MICHAEL E. USLAN (Executive Producer) has enjoyed a long association with DC Comics. Together with his longtime producing partner, Benjamin Melniker, Uslan has been involved in all of the films in the Batman franchise, as well as other film and direct-to-DVD projects based on DC Comics titles.

He was recently an executive producer on Christopher Nolan’s hit “Batman Begins” and produced the thriller “Constantine,” starring Keanu Reeves under the direction of Francis Lawrence. Prior to that, he served as an executive producer on Tim Burton’s “Batman” and “Batman Returns,” starring Michael Keaton, followed by “Batman Forever” and “Batman & Robin,” both directed by Joel Schumacher. His other credits as an executive producer include “Catwoman,” and the animated titles “Gotham Knight,” “Batman: Sub-Zero,” “Batman: Mystery of The Batwoman,” “Batman v. Dracula,” “Batman: Mask of The Phantasm,” and “Batman Beyond: Return of The Joker,” for which he won an Annie Award. Additionally, he was an associate producer on the blockbuster “National Treasure.”

Uslan is currently producing the upcoming action thriller “The Spirit,” based on the comic book by Will Eisner. Due out this holiday season, the film is directed by Frank Miller and stars Samuel L. Jackson, Scarlett Johansson and Eva Mendes.

Also a successful television producer, Uslan won an Emmy Award for the popular children’s series “Where on Earth is Carmen Sandiego?” which he executive produced. His additional television producing work includes “Harmful Intent,” based on Robin Cook’s novel, and the acclaimed PBS miniseries “Three Sovereigns for Sarah,” based on the true story of the Salem Witch Trials.

Uslan grew up on comics and actually learned to read from them. He went on to become a renowned authority on comic book history and, at Indiana University, taught the world’s first accredited college course on comic books, also writing the accompanying textbook The Comic Book in America. It was not long before he received a job offer from DC Comics, where he fulfilled his dream to write Batman comic books.

Uslan has since written for a number of comic titles, as well as dozens of books that chronicle the history of comics, including America At War – A History of War Comics, Mysteries in Space – A History of Science Fiction Comics, and The Pow! Zap! Wham! Comic Book Trivia Quiz Book. His additional writing credits include the

internationally syndicated newspaper comic strip Terry and the Pirates; the historic comic book project with Stan Lee, Just Imagine; the hardback Batman graphic novel, Detective #27; Will Eisner’s The Spirit; and Dick Clark’s The First 25 Years of Rock and Roll.

KEVIN DE LA NOY (Executive Producer) was most recently an executive producer on “Blood Diamond,” starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Jennifer Connelly and Djimon Hounsou, under the direction of Edward Zwick. He had earlier collaborated with Zwick as the unit production manager on “The Last Samurai.”

His producing credits also include Richard Donner’s sci-fi thriller “Timeline,” which he co-produced, and Steven Spielberg’s award-winning World War II drama “Saving Private Ryan,” on which he served as the associate producer.

In addition, he has been the unit production manager on such hits as “Ali,” “Titanic,” “Braveheart,” “Mission: Impossible” and “Mission: Impossible II.” His film work also includes serving as the production supervisor on “The Power of One” and as the location manager on such films as “The Ghost and the Darkness,” “Black Beauty,” “The Secret Garden” and “1492: Conquest of Paradise.” He has also worked as an assistant director on a wide range of features.

THOMAS TULL (Executive Producer) is the founder, Chairman and CEO of Legendary Pictures, a private equity-backed film production company with more than $1.5 billion in total financing. Legendary Pictures recently re-upped its five-year deal through which it will co-produce and co-finance films with Warner Bros. Pictures. Since its inception in 2005, Legendary has joined with Warner Bros. to make such successful films as “Batman Begins,” “Superman Returns” and the blockbuster “300.” Their impending projects include “Watchmen,” directed by Zack Snyder.

Tull engineered the unique private equity-backed structure of Legendary and was presented IDD Magazine’s prestigious “Deal of the Year” Award for the entertainment industry in 2005.

Tull is also a co-founder and Vice Chairman of the video game publisher Brash Entertainment, for which he secured the financing by arranging a $400 million investment. To date, the company has secured intellectual properties with five major studios and has a current collection of over 40 licenses, including several original properties.

Previously, Tull was President and served on the Board of Directors of The Convex Group, a media and entertainment holding company headquartered in Atlanta. In addition, he served on the Board of Directors of How Stuff Works, a company the Convex Group acquired during his term, which was later sold to Discovery Networks. Prior to Convex, Tull was a principal at the Southeast Interactive Technology Funds.

Tull is a member of the Board of Trustees of the American Film Institute (AFI). He is also a board member of the San Diego Zoo and serves on their Foundation Board for the Zoological Society of San Diego. He graduated from Hamilton College in 1992.

WALLY PFISTER (Director of Photography) has earned two consecutive Academy Award nominations for his work with director Christopher Nolan. The first came for 2005’s “Batman Begins,” for which he was also honored by his peers with an American Society of Cinematographers Award nomination. The following year, he was Oscar-nominated for his cinematography work on “The Prestige.” Pfister had earlier received an Independent Spirit Award for his work on Nolan’s “Memento,” which marked their first collaboration. He also served as director of photography on Nolan’s thriller “Insomnia.”

Pfister’s additional film credits include “The Italian Job,” directed by F. Gary Gray, and the independent features “Slow Burn,” “Laurel Canyon,” “Scotland, PA,” and “The Hi-Line,” for which he won the Moxie! Award for Best Cinematographer at the Santa Monica Film Festival.

For the small screen, Pfister served as the director of photographer on such telefilms as “Sanctuary,” “Sharing the Secret,” “Breakfast with Einstein,” “Rhapsody in Bloom” and “Sketch Artist.”

NATHAN CROWLEY (Production Designer) has been honored for his collaborations with director Christopher Nolan. He earned an Academy Award nomination for his design work on the period drama “The Prestige,” and previously received a BAFTA Award nomination for “Batman Begins.” In addition, Crowley garnered Art Directors Guild Award nominations for both films. He first teamed with Nolan on the director’s crime thriller “Insomnia,” starring Al Pacino, Robin Williams and Hilary Swank.

Crowley’s other film credits include the romantic drama “The Lake House”; the biopic “Veronica Guerin,” directed by Joel Schumacher; the war drama “Behind Enemy Lines”; and Barry Levinson’s Ireland-set comedy “An Everlasting Piece.”

He previously served as an art director on such films as “Mission: Impossible II,” directed by John Woo; Richard Donner’s “Assassins”; Alan J. Pakula’s “The Devil’s Own”; and “Braveheart,” directed by and starring Mel Gibson.

In addition to his film work, Crowley was the production designer on the BBC television series “The Ambassador.”

LEE SMITH (Editor) reunited with director Christopher Nolan on “The Dark Knight,” having previously edited “Batman Begins” and “The Prestige.” Smith has also enjoyed a long association with director Peter Weir, earning an Academy Award nomination for his editing work on Weir’s “Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World,” for which he also received an Eddie Award nomination from the American Cinema Editors. Smith had earlier served as editor and sound designer on Weir’s “The Truman Show,” “Fearless” and “Green Card”; an additional editor on “Dead Poets Society”; and an associate editor and sound designer on “The Year of Living Dangerously,” which began their collaboration.

Hailing from Australia, Smith won an Australian Film Institute (AFI) Award for Best Editing on Gregor Jordan’s “Two Hands,” on which he was also the sound designer. For his work as a sound designer, he also won an AFI Award and earned a BAFTA Award nomination for Jane Campion’s “The Piano,” and won an AFI Award for Phillip Noyce’s “Dead Calm.”

As an editor, Smith’s additional film credits include “The Rage in Placid Lake,” “Black and White,” “Buffalo Soldiers,” “Risk,” “Joey,” “Robocop 2,” “Communion” and “Howling III.” He was also the sound designer on Gillian Armstrong’s “Little Women.”

LINDY HEMMING (Costume Designer) won an Academy Award for her Gilbert & Sullivan-era costume designs for “Topsy-Turvy,” directed by Mike Leigh. She has also been Leigh’s costume designer of choice on the films “Naked,” “Life is Sweet” and “High Hopes.”

Hemming previously collaborated with director Christopher Nolan on “Batman Begins.” She has also served as the costume designer on the recent James Bond films, beginning in 1995 with “GoldenEye,” directed by Martin Campbell, and continuing with

Roger Spottiswoode’s “Tomorrow Never Dies,” Michael Apted’s “The World is Not Enough,” Lee Tamahori’s “Die Another Day” and Campbell’s “Casino Royale.” She is currently working with Campbell on the feature “Edge of Darkness,” starring Mel Gibson.

Hemming’s extensive film credits also include “Lara Croft: Tomb Raider” and its sequel, “Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life”; “Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets,” directed by Chris Columbus; Sally Potter’s “The Man Who Cried”; “The Trench,” starring Daniel Craig; Mark Herman’s “Little Voice” and “Blame It on the Bellboy”; “The Brave,” directed by and starring Johnny Depp; Bob Rafelson’s “Blood and Wine”; Peter Chelsom’s “Funny Bones” and “Hear My Song”; Mike Newell’s “Four Weddings and a Funeral,” for which she was nominated for a BAFTA Award; Stephen Gyllenhaal’s “Waterland”; Peter Medak’s “The Krays”; John Amiel’s “Queen of Hearts”; Stephen Frears’ “My Beautiful Laundrette”; David Hare’s “Wetherby”; Richard Eyre’s “Laughterhouse”; and Bill Forsyth’s “Comfort and Joy.”

Hemming was nominated for a BAFTA TV Award for her work on the telefilm “Porterhouse Blue.” Her television credits also include the longform projects “Running Late,” “Dancing Queen” and “All Things Bright and Beautiful.”

Prior to designing costumes for the screen, Hemming was a costume designer in the theatre. She worked with the Royal Shakespeare Company, the National Theatre of Great Britain, and on many productions in London’s West End.

HANS ZIMMER (Composer) is one of the film industry’s most influential composers, whose career spans three decades and encompasses well over 100 films.

In 1994, he won both an Academy Award and a Golden Globe Award for his score to the animated blockbuster “The Lion King,” which also spawned one of the most successful soundtrack albums ever. Zimmer’s music for “The Lion King” continues to draw applause in the award-winning stage production of the musical, which earned the 1998 Tony Award for Best Musical, as well as a Grammy Award for Best Original Cast Album. The musical has now been running on Broadway for more than 10 years, with productions also being staged around the world.

Zimmer has garnered six additional Academy Award nominations for his scores for “Gladiator,” “The Thin Red Line,” “The Prince of Egypt,” “As Good as It Gets,” “The Preacher’s Wife” and “Rain Man.” In addition, he won a Golden Globe Award and earned a Grammy nomination for “Gladiator,” and has also received Golden Globe

nominations for his composing work on “The Da Vinci Code,” “Spanglish,” “The Last Samurai,” “Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron,” “Pearl Harbor” and “The Prince of Egypt.”

Zimmer most recently created the score for the animated feature “Kung Fu Panda,” and is currently working on Ron Howard’s real-life drama “Frost/Nixon” and the animated “Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa.” Zimmer’s long list of film credits goes on to include “The Simpsons Movie,” “The Holiday,” “Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End,” “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest,” “Batman Begins,” “Madagascar,” “Matchstick Men,” “Shark Tale,” “Black Hawk Down,” “The Ring,” “Hannibal,” “Crimson Tide,” “Thelma & Louise,” “Driving Miss Daisy,” “Mission: Impossible II,” “A League of Their Own,” “Black Rain,” “Backdraft,” “True Romance” and “My Beautiful Launderette.”

In addition to his myriad composing credits, Zimmer has served as a music producer or consultant on numerous films, most recently including the blockbuster “Iron Man,” on which he was the executive music producer.

JAMES NEWTON HOWARD (Composer) is a seven-time Academy Award nominee and one of the industry’s most prolific composers, with more than 100 motion picture and television scores to his credit. His latest Oscar nomination came for his score for the critically acclaimed drama “Michael Clayton,” starring George Clooney. Howard also earned Oscar nominations for Best Original Score for M. Night Shyamalan’s “The Village,” P.J. Hogan’s “My Best Friend’s Wedding,” Andrew Davis’ “The Fugitive” and Barbra Streisand’s “The Prince of Tides.” He gained two more Oscar nods, as well as two Golden Globe nominations, in the category of Best Original Song, for “Look What Love Has Done” from the movie “Junior” and “For the First Time” in “One Fine Day.” Howard received his third Golden Globe nomination for his score for Peter Jackson’s hit remake of “King Kong.”

Howard has scored all of M. Night Shyamalan’s films, beginning with the director’s smash hit debut feature, “The Sixth Sense,” and subsequently including “Unbreakable,” “Signs,” “Lady in the Water” and, most recently, “The Happening.”

He is currently scoring several upcoming films, including Edward Zwick’s “Defiance” and P.J. Hogan’s “Confessions of a Shopaholic.” Howard’s wide range of film credits also includes Denzel Washington’s “The Great Debaters”; Mike Nichols’ “Charlie Wilson’s War”; Edward Zwick’s “Blood Diamond”; Christopher Nolan’s “Batman Begins”; Sydney Pollack’s “The Interpreter”; Michael Mann’s “Collateral”; Joe Johnston’s “Hidalgo”; P.J. Hogan’s “Peter Pan”; Joe Roth’s “America’s Sweethearts”; Garry

Marshall’s “Runaway Bride” and “Pretty Woman”; Gregory Hoblit’s “Primal Fear”; Wolfgang Petersen’s “Outbreak”; Lawrence Kasdan’s “Wyatt Earp” and “Grand Canyon”; Ivan Reitman’s “Dave”; Joel Schumacher’s “Falling Down”; and David S. Ward’s “Major League,” to name only a portion.

Also honored for his work in television, Howard won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Main Title Theme for the series “Gideon’s Crossing” and earned an Emmy nomination in the same category for the long-running series “ER.”

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With less than three weeks remaining till “The Dark Knight” opens on July 18, at 12:01 a.m., Fandango, the nation’s leading moviegoer destination, is finding that dozens of showtimes for the film are already sold out.

“The Dark Knight” tickets have been a hot commodity since they first went on sale on Friday, June 20 at Fandango.com. As of this morning, the film is outpacing “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull”, “Iron Man” and “Sex and the City” as Fandango’s fastest ticket-seller of this summer.

“We are currently seeing a surge in advance ticket sales for ‘The Dark Knight’,” says Ted Hong, vice president of marketing for Fandango. “It makes sense that there’s a rush for tickets, as it’s the perfect movie to see on the big screen, as supported by our strong ticket sales for both traditional screens and the larger format in IMAX (R). We believe the film is appealing to both comic book and action fans, as well as casual moviegoers.”

The late Heath Ledger’s potentially Oscar(R)-worthy performance as The Joker in “The Dark Knight” was cited as top reason for seeing the movie, according to 53% of respondents to Fandango’s online survey of moviegoers in June.

About Fandango

One of the Web’s top movie and entertainment destinations, Fandango sells tickets to more than 15,000 screens. Fandango entertains and informs consumers with reviews, commentary and trailers, and offers the ability to quickly select a film, plan where and when to see it, and conveniently buy tickets in advance. Fandango is available at www.fandango.com, 1-800-FANDANGO and via your wireless mobile device at mobile.fandango.com . Fandango is a unit of Comcast Interactive Media.

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“The strong opening weekend performance of Batman Begins: The IMAX Experience is a testament to what a fantastic film this is, how ideally suited it is for IMAX’s format, and the outstanding job Warner Bros. Pictures has done in promoting it,” said IMAX Co-Chairmen and Co-CEOs Richard L. Gelfond and Bradley J. Wechsler. “The strong word of mouth coming out of the first weekend leads us to believe this film will be a significant draw for the IMAX theatre network all summer. Just as The Polar Express excited audiences in IMAX(R) 3D, we feel Batman Begins in IMAX’s format will bring in incremental 2D audiences eager to pay a premium price for The IMAX Experience(R).”
“We couldn’t be more pleased with the results from the opening weekend,” said Dan Fellman, President of Domestic Distribution at Warner Bros. Pictures. “Batman Begins showed increasing momentum in both IMAX and 35mm theatres over the course of the five-day opening, and when coupled with great reviews and excellent consumer exits, we look forward to a long, successful run.”
“IMAX was heavily integrated into the marketing of Batman Begins, helping to further ‘eventize’ the movie and draw large numbers of moviegoers to IMAX heatres this past weekend,” said Greg Foster, Chairman and President of IMAX Filmed Entertainment. “Our strategy of releasing the best Hollywood films converted into The IMAX Experience – in both 2D and IMAX 3D – continues to take hold, and audiences worldwide are embracing this premium moviegoing experience. Warner Bros. Pictures has again delivered another fantastic event film in Batman Begins and we’re excited to partner with them this summer.”
The next Warner Bros. Pictures release in IMAX’s format will be the highly anticipated Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, directed by Tim Burton and starring Johnny Depp, opening domestically on July 15, 2005.

About IMAX Corporation
———————-

Founded in 1967, IMAX Corporation (NASDAQ: IMAX; TSX: IMX) is the newest distribution platform for Hollywood content and one of the world’s leading entertainment technology companies. IMAX delivers the world’s best cinematic presentations using proprietary IMAX, IMAX 3D, and IMAX DMR technology. IMAX DMR (Digital Re-mastering) makes it possible for virtually any 35mm film to be transformed into the unparalleled image and sound quality of The IMAX Experience. The IMAX brand is recognized throughout the world for extraordinary and immersive entertainment experiences. As of March 31, 2005, there were 250 IMAX theatres operating in more than 35 countries.
IMAX(R), IMAX(R) 3D, IMAX DMR(R) and The IMAX Experience(R) are trademarks of IMAX Corporation. More information on the Company can be found at http://www.imax.com.

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