For his role as the Joker in “The Dark Knight“, Heath Ledger was honored with an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor at last night’s Oscars.
It was a win that some predicted may not happen, saying that his acting was good, but not Oscar-worthy. I disagreed completely, as I thought Heath was really good in upping the creepiness factor to the role.
Naysayers said that he didn’t deserve the award and that it should have been bestowed upon Josh Brolin for his role in “Milk”. While I wouldn’t disagree that Josh’s performance was outstanding, Heath really deserved the award and I’m glad he won.
Matilda is set to receive the award for her father, when she turns 18. His father, mother, and sister were on hand to accept the award on his behalf. They delivered a sentimental and emotional speech.
It was sad and as the camera panned throughout the audience, you could feel the emotion in the air.
Congratulations to Heath Ledger and his daughter, for the token of appreciation for his work from the Academy. We all wish he could’ve been there to accept it, personally.
Yahoo has debuted a brand new trailer for the upcoming video game adaptation Max Payne this afternoon, but first, some news you can use.
In an interview with MTV, Payne star Mark Wahlberg jokingly issued a challenge to the man at the center of the second highest grossing film of all-time, The Dark Knight. This from the interview:
“Take off the suit and if you want to go one-on-one, two-on-one, and put a couple of you guys together – they all like to put the comic book characters together – come at me,†Mark Wahlberg laughed, issuing a challenge to the Dark Knight to put his fighting skills where his mouth is and face off against his character, Max Payne.
“I’m not talking about financial box office, I’m talking about one-on-one with these (puts up fists).â€
Of course, while his jovial tone and obvious sarcasm may have some brushing off Wahlberg’s comments, we believe it to be important that we take all threats against our favorite superheros seriously. That said, we think Batman, or more specifically Christian Bale, would kick the shit out of Wahlberg’s Payne.
We would present some sort of scientific proof, but that won’t be necessary — Batman is just that much of a badass. As for Max Payne though, he seems to be doing alright for himself… and it was one of my favorite PC games.
Hot Toys is releasing a 1/6th scale figure of Heath Ledger as ‘The Joker’ in “Bank Robber†mode.
The figure stands 12-inches tall, features 32-points of articulation, and comes with a choice of two removable heads, one with a huge grin, the other with the slicked back hair.
Accessories include a removable clown mask, handgun, a bigger gun, duffle bag, smoke and fragmentation grenades, playing cards, gotham city money and more.
They even have little mini hand grenades — this toy is made for adults.
Robert Downey Jr. didn’t hold back when it came to the subject of The Dark Knight in a recent interview.
After telling the interviewer that Iron Man 2 will be a cool, fun movie, he let it rip when they touched on the topic of Batman.
“My whole thing is that that I saw ‘The Dark Knight’. I feel like I’m dumb because I feel like I don’t get how many things that are so smart. It’s like a Ferrari engine of storytelling and script writing and I’m like, ‘That’s not my idea of what I want to see in a movie.’ I loved ‘The Prestige’ but didn’t understand ‘The Dark Knight’. Didn’t get it, still can’t tell you what happened in the movie, what happened to the character and in the end they need him to be a bad guy. I’m like, ‘I get it. This is so high brow and so f–king smart, I clearly need a college education to understand this movie.’ You know what? F-ck DC Comics. That’s all I have to say and that’s where I’m really coming from.”
Looks like DC Comics won’t be striking up any deals with Robert Downey Jr. anytime soon.
Downey went on to say, “You know, you’re never too old to burn your bridges because I believe I have offended everyone. I think I’ve got a couple more. ‘I’ll burn that bridge when I come to it’ is my favourite phrase I’ve ever coined.”
With all the campaign talk, it’s starting to feel like an election year: Johnny Depp for the Riddler, Angelina Jolie versus Maggie Gyllenhaal returning from the dead for Catwoman.
But there’s a dark horse who wants to get his name on the ballot — a name you might not expect — Brian Austin Green wants the role of the Riddler in the next Batman film.
“I would love to be the Riddler,†Brian Austin Green told MTV News.
In case you’re thinking “WTF? David Silver?†— let us remind you that in the years since “Beverly Hills, 90210,†Green has rebooted himself as an actor. Perhaps not to the same degree as Christopher Nolan rebooted Batman, or Heath Ledger the Joker, but check out Green playing himself in “Domino†(for a much-appreciated sense of self-deprecation) or Derek Reese in “Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles†(where he’s barely recognizable), and you’ll come to see that Green has progressed significantly since the days when he competed with Tori Spelling for worst actor.
Green knows it’s a long shot, but despite his role on “Terminator,†“I’d like to be in the next ‘Batman,’ even though I am busy killing machines and people,†he said. (We hope he just means on the show).
“I hope to God that they don’t try to replace Heath and have the Joker,†Green added. “And Two-Face is gone.†So they need a new villain, and the Riddler makes sense,†he said. Not that he’s thought it so far ahead that he actually knows what he’d want to do with the Riddler, however.
“That’s impossible to answer now,†Green said. “That would take years of preparation. It’s tough. Heath set the bar at a new level, which I think is fantastic for comic book lovers and movie lovers. He changed the face of what people expect out of those films. If you watch the old ones, I mean, they were great for what they were, having Danny Elfman’s music, but this is a new level.â€
Dark Knight is about to pass Star Wars — which had two independent releases of what were arguably two different movies — to become the number two grossing movie of all time. It still has a ways to go, though, to pass Titanic:
To be sure, “unadjusted gross” is a rather silly metric. After all, ticket prices have skyrocketed in recent years.  That’s offset somewhat, however, by the fact that new movies are released to DVD within months (or available for download from various Torrent sites much sooner) and many of us chose to wait to watch them in the comfort of our own homes.
Hat tip to Jonathan Last, who has some other interesting movie ranking trivia.
It’s no surprise that, with the success of ‘The Dark Knight,’ talk of a third installment in Nolan’s ‘Batman’ series has begun.
One former Batman foe is already speaking up about which villain should appear, and who should play the iconic character.
Julie Newmar, 71, who starred as Catwoman in the original ‘Batman’ TV series with Adam West as the caped crusader, wants mother-of-six-and-counting Angelina Jolie to don the feline suit.
“Angelina would own the part. My industry friends tell me she has made inquiries about the role. I can understand how it would pique her interest.
Catwoman is Batman’s one true love. She’s tremendously popular with women because she’s both a heroine and a villainous. When you look at the staggering box office of this current film, which actress wouldn’t want to jump in?”
source: ‘Batman’ icon Julie Newmar says Angelina Jolie should play her old role [ny daily news]
In Day 11, The Dark Knight surpassed Iron Man to become 2008′s highest grossing film plus the superhero sequel cracked the all-time Top 20 in the process.
Warner Bros. generated $10.5M on Monday to raise its unbelievable cume to $324.3M which was more than enough to soar past Marvel’s metal man which has taken in $315M to date since its early May bow. Knight also climbed to number 18 on the all-time domestic blockbusters chart just ahead of Shrek the Third which banked $321M last summer.
Monday’s gross was down 57% from last Monday’s towering $24.5M haul. Given its current pace, Knight might be able to reach the $350M mark by the end of its second week of release. That would mean a jump up to number 13 on the all-time list ahead of The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers by the time the third weekend begins.
As if it hasn’t broken enough records, The Dark Knight also became the top-grossing blockbuster in Warner Bros. history surpassing the $317.6M of 2001′s Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. Ticket prices were lower back then, but the new Batman adventure will still be able to zoom past the boy wizard in admissions in the coming days.
The Joker and friends are on course to boost the cume to roughly $390M by the end of this coming weekend and then blast through the $400M mark mid-next week.
The Sun is reporting that Batman himself, Christian Bale, has been accused of assault – by his own family!
Cops allowed Bale to attend the biggest film premiere of the summer last night — despite him being accused of assault.
Bale, 34, faces questioning over the claim — made by his own mother and sister.
But he was able to attend the first European screening of new Batman blockbuster The Dark Knight in London’s West End.
He is alleged to have lashed out on Sunday night at Park Lane’s Dorchester Hotel — where he has a suite.
Mum Jenny, 61, and sister Sharon, 40, who lives in Dorset, went to a police station in Hampshire yesterday to lodge the allegation. The matter was referred to the Met Police.
Detectives, well aware of last night’s glittering bash, took the decision not to approach Bale yesterday. But they are expected to make attempts to quiz the Wales-born actor today.
A source said: “It was a very difficult situation but it would have been wrong to have wrecked the premiere over a complaint which we don’t yet know is founded in truth.
“But Mr Bale will be contacted at the earliest opportunity and be asked to provide an account of anything that happened.â€
A Met Police spokesman said: “We can confirm we have received allegation from another force in relation to an alleged incident in central London.â€
Talk about something coming out of left field! What in the world do you think happened?
UPDATE (Allie): Christian Bale has been arrested and is still being grilled on allegations of assaulting his mom and sister Sunday, the night before the London premiere of “The Dark Knight.”
The official word from Scotland Yard is that “a 34-year-old male” was taken into custody “in the late morning today” in a police precinct in Central London. (Bale is 34.) They said that the allegation emanated “another force,” but that the incident in question took place in London.
