Way-Early Dark Knight Sneak Peek: No Joke

Thu., Dec. 6, 2007 7:46 AM PST by Chris Farnsworth

Warner Bros. Entertainment

Note from Reel Girl: My brother is going to flip out. Warner Bros. showed six minutes of footage from The Dark Knight. That's six minutes closer to understanding what Heath Ledger's Joker is like. That's six minutes closer to comprehending the whole phone-in-the-cake thing. And I. Could. Not. Make. It. Bad sister, I know. And yet, good sister. Robin—er, Chris Farnsworth—zipped over there. Here's his memo:

The Report: Bat-geeks, I am your king. Oh, sure, I was once a mere, scrawny comics nerd like you, but that was before I got in to see the first six minutes of The Dark Knight, next summer's Bat-Sequel, tonight at the Bridge Cinema De Lux in Los Angeles.

In IMAX, no less, watching Heath Ledger's first scene as the Joker, while sitting close enough to touch director Christopher Nolan.

I didn't. Security, you know.

The segment will be released as a "stand-alone prologue" before IMAX showings of I Am Legend starting next week, Nolan said. But right now, at this moment, I am one of a handful who's actually seen it.

Spoilers ahead for those of you who can't wait a week, or the few hours it'll take for the grainy cell-phone video to pop up on YouTube. Here's what we saw:

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The prologue shows a group of armed thugs in clown masks executing a well-planned bank heist...Then they start executing each other, each man thinking he's increasing the take for himself. But a wrinkle develops when the bank manager (Prison Break's William Fichtner, quietly stealing the scene as always) goes for a shotgun, rather than an alarm. The clowns discover they're ripping off a mob-owned bank.

Death and destruction ensue, and before the six minutes are up, we get a good, long look at Ledger's scarred, pasty white face. And he's not laughing, or using toys like joy buzzers or acid-squirting flowers.

The segment was one of several in the film shot entirely on IMAX cameras. "This is a perfect way to show people what Heath is going to do with the character," Nolan said.

Warner Bros. Entertainment.com

Nolan chose to introduce the Joker in broad daylight "because Batman owns the night," he said at a Q&A after the preview. "Quite a bit takes place during the day, and in some ways, that makes it more threatening. One of the things I thought is interesting is you have a hero who can only come out at night, and the Joker is certainly going to take advantage of that."

Other images revealed in the trailer: the new Batsuit (which finally allows its wearer to turn his head), the Batcycle, the Joker spraying machine-gun bullets and what's got to be the money shot: Jim Gordon smashing the Bat-Signal with an ax.

If this extended tease is any indication, Batman might find himself nostalgic for the days when the Joker stuck with high-voltage joy buzzers.