In so many ways this isn’t what you’d expect of a $180 million Hollywood comic-book movie sequel with a zillion moving parts, a cast of thousands and sets from here to Hong Kong. Anyone else would shoot indoors, use digital effects or wait for clear skies; Mr. Nolan rolls with the weather’s punches, believing that the messiness of reality can’t be faked. Another filmmaker would leave a shot like this in the hands of a second-unit director, but Mr. Nolan doesn’t use one; if it’s on the screen, he directed it, and his longtime cinematographer, Wally Pfister, worked the camera. Stars on any other movie would have fled to their trailers to wait in comfort until needed again. Here, Gary Oldman is watching and shivering along with everybody else, cracking jokes to keep warm.

[…]

Now the question is whether Mr. Nolan’s vision of Batman can not only maintain its hold on the imaginations of comic fans and critics, but expand its reach to a wider summer moviegoing audience, even as the death of Heath Ledger, who played the Joker in “The Dark Knight,” has added unanticipated morbidity to the film’s deliberate darkness.

[…]

“As we looked through the comics, there was this fascinating idea that Batman’s presence in Gotham actually attracts criminals to Gotham, attracts lunacy,” he said. “When you’re dealing with questionable notions like people taking the law into their own hands, you have to really ask, where does that lead? That’s what makes the character so dark, because he expresses a vengeful desire.”

[…]

Will Mr. Ledger’s death cast a pall over “The Dark Knight,” whose tragic plot turns already make it much darker than “Batman Begins”? “We’ll see,” said Mr. Robinov, of Warner Brothers. Mr. Nolan, for his part, said he felt a “massive sense of responsibility” to do right by Mr. Ledger’s “terrifying, amazing” performance.

Pictures thanks to rory_bat; he is now heading back to the East Coast, whilst Batman’s filming schedule takes them to England. Filming is set to continue until November.

Want to know how that car ended up in the mess it did?

Here is the best, not really spoiler-ish, report from boatman:

The scene I saw yesterday (Friday, 8/31) had the Lambo driving side by side with the GPD SUV on that photo above. At Illinois St. (in front of Gene and Georgetti restaurant) a pickup truck comes across the intersection and hits one of them. The Lambo and SUV are going north on Franklin, and the pickup truck comes at a right angle from the cross street (Illinois). It took a couple hours to set it up, and they did about 4 or 5 practice runs. We had good views of the practice runs, and it looked like they were working on timing. The SUV was at the far side of the intersection, with the Lambo passing on the right. The pickup truck heads right at the Lambo, but it seemed like they were trying to time it so that it just misses the rear of the Lambo and then hits the SUV instead. Either that, or trying for a Lambo sandwich. However, when they did the final real take, a crowd of crew and PA’s got in front of us (where they had told us to move away from, “because we’d be in the scene”) and although we heard the crash, we couldn’t see exactly what hit what! The GPD fire truck (actual a CFD fire truck with CFD personnel) then pulled over there in case they were needed, but it totally blocked the view of the intersection so we couldn’t see the wreck that resulted.

Secondly, chgojobs had this pull right out in front of him:

He carried on to follow the action and captured this video:

Also, CNN have a new explosive video.

This was the general scene of the shoot:

Continue reading for the spoilers.

It turns out that a number of the big-wig movie characters were there, in force. First up, we have Aaron Eckhart — or Harvey Dent:

Second is Anthony Michael Hall:

Gary Oldman:

…and, rather importantly, Heath Ledger — not donned up in full Joker details, but still sporting a scar:

Patti later wrote to confirm this and give a few more interesting details:

As per usual, run the mouse over the area above to view the spoilers.

He had this to say:

Alright, I am sure you guys already know where they were shooting today: Berghoff’s (I think I spelled that right), some kind of old and classy restaurant/bar type. The crew had vehicles all on Adams and the adjoining streets. The first time I walked by early on in the day they were shooting inside. They had some screens up over the exterior and I could hear them yell “rolling”. I didn’t know who was inside at this point. Outside there was a large bus that had “Corerctions” written on the side of it. It was a GPD bus, presumably for hauling off prisoners of a sort. There were also a few GPD extras milling around. I walked further down toward State St. and saw all kinds of GPD and Gotham cars waiting to be used. I figured some exterior stuff would be happening later. I wasn’t wrong.

Around 2:30 or 3:00 I made my way back and sure enough, there was quite a bit of action. There was a whole crowd of extras dressed in suits, they seemed to be reporters or maybe just onlookers. In front of this crowd was a GPD officer holdig a shotgun (very cool). Some of the extras were pretending to shiver..don’t forgett the fall setting. It was amusing to watch. A bit further down in front of Berghoff’s was were the good stuff was happening. Nolan and co. were shooting a scene where GPD and Lt. Gordon escort Maroni and his goons into the corrections bus, busting them. I stood across the street and watched (taking pics and got video of one whole take). Eric Roberts looked great as Maroni, cuffed and all. After each take they would wipe the sweat off of Oldman, Roberts and the extras, attempting to keep the atmosphere of Fall in place (certainly tough with today’s weather).

Shots from the filming:

It was around 8:50 am Sunday 8/19 on the corner of west Monroe street and south Canal street. Block away from Union Station. Looked to be round 30 extras. Never did see any lead characters. The security exclaimed “pictures up,” and the extras began to walk around as random people on the street. I think they were filming inside the building or just on the corner. Not sure what building it is. Anyway, the people were just walking around then I heard two gunshots and extras began to run everywhere. What’s more is I did hear a loud sinister laugh, which was without a doubt in my mind, the Joker ala Heath Ledger.

And these are the pictures:

Rory was also on the scene to capture some GCN images in the pouring rain.

Alright, so I went back down to the set in the pouring rain and got some pics. Due to the rain they stopped shooting so all of the extras were sitting around the lobby of the building… which is now the GCN, which I am guessing is “Gotham City News” or “Gotham Cable News” (though I favor the first). I was able to walk right up the building and started taking photos. There were a lot of PA’s and Extras around but they didn’t seem to mind me too much. I got some courage and walked right into the lobby. Inside it was dressed as a TV station with GCN and tv screens all over the place. I didn’t stay too long and didn’t snap any pics for fear of being caught. It was cool to see though. Also saw the official set photographer who looked a bit bummed…maybe because of the pic leak.

I had a chance to watch/gawk at some filming of Batman (Sunday, Aug 12th) at the 330 North Wabash Building. They had several different vehicles out there (Gotham Police Dept, Gotham News Vans, Military vehicles, Bomb Squad truck, etc.) which was cool to see. But I’d say the best of all: I was lucky enough to be 10 feet from Christopher Nolan, Aaron Eckhart and Mr. Bruce Wayne himself … Christian Bale! They were filming some “Press Conference” stuff in the lobby of 330 earlier in the day, broke for lunch around 1:00-ish and then filmed some more “Press Conference” stuff.

Then they brought in some Army-type guys along with camouflaged Hummers and Trucks with machine-gunners to shoot some Helicopter fly-bys. They closed down a SHITLOAD of areas for this (police stopping traffic from Michigan Ave to LaSalle), not allowing anyone in the area (no foot traffic aloud during fly-bys down Chicago River towards lake) and were even heavier on the NO PICTURES crap. The choppers came pretty low as they passed over the courtyard outside of 330 North Wabash where military and Gotham press people were all around. Cameras on the ground were filming the fly-bys.

Mr. Eshoo was able to take a fair few pictures in his time amongst Rory’s First Kiss:

For more of these shots check out the X-realms report. Next up, Sterno74 managed to capture a fantastic high resolution shot of the fake National Guard fly overs, click the image for large or check out his flickr profile.

Meanwhile rolandin has got some very nice high resolution photos of the stationary Batpod. Or some more helicopters via gtrietsc’s flickr gallery.

And last, but certainly not least, a fellow by the name of Spanish39 was on location to snatch a few more images, this time of the infamous Christian Bale as Bruce Wayne — here he is with Christopher Nolan:

As regards to how Heath Ledger *seemed* as the Joker, he seemed like he WAS the Joker, and didn’t need to let anyone know it — rather contained, but ready to explode at any moment in an unexpected fashion. Menacing, but more because he seemed like he was probably crazy, and maybe violent, rather than that he was TRYING to scare you. (and by the way, all he did during the scenes I was in was sit in his holding cell, reacting and listening…so, he’s a very fine actor if I imbibed all this from just watching him sit there…) He didn’t talk a lot between takes, but he also wasn’t “Don’t approach me!” in his manner — a real pro, in other words.

In short, he seemed just like the Joker SHOULD seem.

Before more Joker — I am going to slip in this little link, be an Extra on The Dark Knight. And here is an RFK casting call. (links via our friends at BatMovieNews)

Spoilers after the jump.

Slash Film has an exclusive scoop; spoilers about the scene involving The Joker and Rachel — as seen in that well distributed promotional picture. Beware — these are storyline affecting unearthings. Read only if you must. How reliable these reports are is another issue — the source himself is not accredited as reliable.

• When The Joker (Heath Ledger) kidnaps Rachael Dawes (Maggie Gyllenhaal) from a big party, Dawes is forced to reveal Batman’s true identity, Bruce Wayne. Later, however, The Joker becomes convinced that Dawes lied to him when he encounters both Bruce Wayne and Batman in the same room together simultaneously. I have no idea how Bruce pulls this off. I would assume that if a Batman impostor exists, Joker would likely be in on that joke. This causes Joker to think that Bruce Wayne is NOT Batman and that Rachel, in fact, lied to him… His accusation of her deception doesn’t end well.
• Apparently there is an impostor posing as Batman who is running around Gotham City. The cops believe he is the real Batman and that he is on their side. How this plays into the big story is unknown. I know that this may seem very unlikely and improbable, but my source has not been wrong yet.

After the break we have some more on set images from Chicago, warning, Spoilers ahead… Firstly, from Simply Reprehensible we have some more of the burnt out Helicopter. Check out the site for a location report and another image.

Next up, Fighting the Suburbs have some interesting candid shots, see this flickr gallery for more Helicopter and Joker semi.