Corona | Coming Attractions

Variety reports that the National Association of Theater Owners will honor Christopher Nolan as the 2008 ShoWest Director of the Year award on March 13 at the closing banquet of their annual convention.

Christopher Nolan remembers Heath Ledger: his charisma, his creativity, and his decency (like thanking each member of the crew for working late one night when he and another actor were just starting to find the core of a scene). It’s a nice, heartfelt, and sometimes funny little piece published in Newsweek.

In a very cool and decent move, Warner Bros. took down the Dark Knight site and replaced it with a white background upon which are a simple note and a photo of Heath Ledger. Good show, folks.

Warners might have to rejigger their Dark Knight marketing campaign following the tragic death of TDK star Heath Ledger yesterday. Ledger’s character, Bat nemesis The Joker, was set to be featured in the early stages of the campaign.

Heath Ledger was found unconscious today in his Manhattan apartment, and was pronounced dead a few minutes later by police. Initial speculation by police is that Ledger died of an accidental or intentional overdose of prescription and non-prescription medications.

At the time of his death, Ledger had completed his role as The Joker in The Dark Knight and was well into his next role, the lead in director Terry Gilliam's latest fantasy film, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus.

Ledger’s first Hollywood film was Ten Things I Hate About You, but he’s perhaps best known for his Oscar-nominated turn as a cowboy grappling with his sexual orientation in 2005’s Brokeback Mountain (ironically, Oscar nominations for 2007’s films were announced today, hours before Ledger’s death).

Ledger has a 27-month-old daughter, Matilda Rose, by his Brokeback co-star Michelle Williams.

MTV gets all geeky and dissects the Dark Knight trailer looking for clues about what we’ll see and think during the feature film. And we mean geeky, with timecode markers and all.

You know that seven-minute Dark Knight prologue that’s showing with the IMAX screenings of I Am Legend? It’s been pirated, and you can see it on YouTube right now. The question is, do you want your first exposure to the Joker to be through a lousy quality version? The choice is yours.

The first Dark Knight trailer is now posted at http://www.atasteforthetheatrical.com, and it is of course AMAZING. The site’s front page is a copy of the Gotham Times, then click on “Download Now”.

Check it out, and thank Warners that they let us download it as well as watch it. It seems like the WB folks really get this here intertube thing and love making it fun for fans to play around and win TDK “prizes.

The Joker is sending out cakes, and Batman on Film has got the scoop (and the pix) on it. Go here to see the cake, then here to see what was inside.

Empire Online has a fantastic cover shot of the Joker, clad in green vest and purple pants and sitting in a jail cell. Hell, it’s just a photo, but damned if Heath Ledger’s eyes don’t give us the creeps every time we look at it.

You can check out a text-free version of the photo here. And pick up their latest issue to read their interview with Ledger about playing the Clown Prince of Crime (you have to buy the mag, they don’t put their print interviews online).

Sounds like not everyone’s happy that Heath Ledger has been cast as the Joker. Case in point: Jack Nicholson, who is "furious" that he wasn’t asked to play the Clown Prince of Crime.

"Let me be the way I'm not in interviews," Nicholson tells interviewer Josh Horowitz about the Ledger casting. "I’m furious. I’m furious." The actor laughs, adding "they never asked me about a sequel with the Joker. I know how to do that! Nobody ever asked me."

Nicholson says that no one asked him if he wanted to do the sequel, repeats that he’s furious, and explains that "the Joker comes from my childhood. That’s how I got involved with it in the first place. It’s a part I always thought I should play."

Click below for more from Jack on why he might not catch The Dark Knight, his thoughts on Tim Burton (hint: "genius"), and characters he has played in the past that he would like to revisit.

Warner Bros. said that a special effects technician was killed in a truck crash during a scene’s test run on a racetrack near Chertsey, south of London, the Associated Press reports. No actors were involved in the accident, and no actual filming was taking place. Apparently a truck carrying a camera platform crashed into a tree as it followed a stunt vehicle.

Director George Miller (Happy Feet, Mad Max) has been tapped to direct the superhero team movie Justice League of America. It’s pertinent to this Dark Knight page because the JLA includes Batman, among many other DC Comics heavyhitters.

The article notes that Dark Knight writer/director Christopher Nolan would prefer that the JLA film be pushed back until he has finished "Batman projects in development." These are Variety’s words, but it makes us wonder if there are more Bat films out there than we know about… Variety goes on to say that Dark Knight star Christian Bale "has also let his uneasiness about Justice League be known."

Apparently today was not a good day to be sick in Chicago… Christopher Nolan and crew blew up an old Brachs Candy Factory building in Chicago today, with the building standing in for "Gotham General Hospital". The local Fox affiliate has pictures and video of the explosion (our favorite is angle #2).

Check out the link for these pictures and video on this and other Bat filming.

Spoiler alert: Slashfilm says they know who the big funeral is for. Want to find out?