US release date: 18th July 2008.
Advance Dark Knight tickets | IMAX tickets | Sold out tickets on Ebay | NYC Premiere tickets
July 3rd, 2008, posted by FofR | Digg This
A new message was posted to the mains and public forums of Citizens for Batman today,
Poster: BriDog72 - Thursday, July 3rd, 2008 at 00:12
Seems there’s been a bit of a slipup with the project me and Batfan73 have been working on. BatFan’s in jail and I need everyone’s help. He left me a voicemail, it was kinda garbled, but he said he was picked up by the cops for trespassing, so he needs some help getting everything activated. He’s not sure when he’s going to be able to extract himself from his situation.
He said he needs someone to get some sort of key off of an invoice, number 38272899 (geez, I hope I copied that down right), but he got cut off before he could tell me what this invoice is or even where to find it. We need this key to activate everything.
Can anyone figure this out? We’re going to need to fix this or the whole thing’s ruined! Anyone?
In an email to Glenn Barhyte, Jim Gordon made reference to Maroni Imports, leading us to a new viral site, www.maroniimports.com
With the invoice number from the forums post and the sruname “Craston”, which appeared in a small news update to the Gotham City Rail website:
ALERT: The STCS will undergo initial fine-tuning of its software on the evening of July 8th. This routine maintenance may result in temporary intermittent system delays. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause. - C. Craston, Sr. Elec. Engineer, GCR
With this information the aforementioned invoice can be downloaded, at the bottom of it there is a key for a signal booster, Key: 5D45C08AA6C3638D7829C0D5183FDB14B0CDBF1DCB12. With this key, the signal booster was activated and CFB was updated to show two sets of co-ordinates in New York and Chicago. Hence the two locations for the big event this July 8th are now known:
New York and Chicago
CFB has since been updated to include a new mission statement:
Sometimes, you have to take a stand. You have to fight for respect. You have to let the entire world know you’re here.
On July 8th, nobody will be able to ignore us. Gather at the above coordinates at the appointed time, and help us take a stand in support of Batman!
If you can’t join us on the ground, we’ll be providing a way for you to watch what goes down, live on this website.
Defend Gotham! Defend Batman!
Key: 5D45C08AA6C3638D7829C0D5183FDB14B0CDBF1DCB12
Signal Booster status: ON
Thanks Pierre!
July 2nd, 2008, posted by FofR | Digg This
As there is currently no major viral marketing taking place, it seems the right time to fill you in on all the smaller Dark Knight stories that have been floating about.
Advance Bookings
The Dark Knight, with the same amount of times to release as Spider-man 3, has sold over eight times as many tickets, with a majority of those being at IMAX theaters, report Movietickets.com via Film School Rejects. To put that into perspective - Spider-man 3, which was eight times behind, opened to a $150 million weekend with the record for largest opening weekend ever. This also comes from Fandango:
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. (Buy Tickets)
Batpod and Tumbler on Tour
The Bat pod and the tumbler are doing the rounds, touring a number of cities before the movies’ premiere. Heading to:
- Phoenix
- Denver
- St. Louis
- Cleveland (July 6)
- Kansas City
- Cincinnati (July 5)
- Washington, DC
- Philadelphia
- Boston
- Toronto
- Niagara Falls, NY
- New York City
- Chicago
July 5 the display will be at Kings Island in Cincinnati, Ohio from 12:00om to 2:00pm and then be transported to the Showcase Cinema de Lux & IMAX in Springdale, Ohio and be on display from 3:30pm to 5:30pm that afternoon.
For Clevelanders, the good will be on display at the Cinemark Valley View on Sunday July 6 from 8:00am to 5:00pm.
Kevin Smith Reviews TDK
On his blog, Kevin Smith posted a short review after the lucky man caught a preview screening:
Without giving anything away, this is an epic film (and trust me: based on the sheer size and scope of the visuals and storytelling, that’s not an overstatement). It’s the “Godfather II” of comic book films and three times more earnest than “Batman Begins” (and fuck, was that an earnest film). Easily the most adult comic book film ever made. Heath Ledger didn’t so much give a performance as he disappeared completely into the role; I know I’m not the first to suggest this, but he’ll likely get at least an Oscar nod (if not the win) for Best Supporting Actor. Fucking flick’s nearly three hours long and only leaves you wanting more (in a great way). I can’t imagine anyone being disappointed by it. Nolan and crew have created something close to a masterpiece.
On Set
SHH were lucky enough to visit The Dark Knight’s set during filming, with a chance to spend time with the cast for an interview:
Writer/Director Christopher Nolan
Christian Bale - Bruce Wayne/Batman
Aaron Eckhart - Harvey Dent/Two-Face
Crowley, Henning & Oldman - Production Designer, Costume Designer and Commissioner Gordon
Giveaways
IESB Giveaway
Film School Rejects Giveaway
(If I had some swag I’d give it away too, hint hint)
No Robin in Batman 3
Christian Bale has ruled out an appearance of Robin in the next and any subsequent sequals of The Dark Knight, put simply:
If Robin crops up in one of the new Batman films, I’ll be chaining myself up somewhere and refusing to go to work.
Gotham Knight (July 8th release)
TV Specials
HBO will air a first look of The Dark Knight on July 10th, 2008 at 10:45pm eastern. The History channel will also be running a program looking at the history of Batman on July 16th in an hour long special. Thanks Victor!
Heath Ledger Designed his own Makeup
Or so Screen Rant tell us (thanks Tiffany):
“he [Heath] showed up with a very basic make-up kit consisting of store bought mascara, white grease paint and lipstick and and basically designed the make-up there on the spot”
July 1st, 2008, posted by FofR | Digg This
The clues from the latest Why So Serious viral marketing campaign have led us to the stupid bats page containing a brand new Dark Knight poster made up of Joker cards and scratched Joker ramblings:
July 1st, 2008, posted by FofR | Digg This
The prize for the Operator puzzle was a new arcade game, “Punk Drop”:
The aim is to knock down the “punks”. If you hit a dummy, a light appears next to another one, if you hit that one the light moves to the next dummy, and so on. If you complete three lit dummy hits in a row a ticket comes out of the machine, linking to a new “Stupid Bats” page:
whysoserious.com/stupidbats/
July 1st, 2008, posted by FofR | Digg This
A new Viral challenge has been unveiled at whysoserious.com/operator/ through a new text from the Joker:
Wake up, clown! You have *one hour* to reply to be a part of today’s fun. /operator
Following a reply, this was sent:
Good. Do not reply again. I’ll be in touch…
After the hour deadline, participants were sent code words:
Work together, clowns. Your code-word: XXXXXXXX. Your partner: XXX-XXX-XXXX. Do NOT call until told to. Do not publicize this number.
Wait for a call - you will receive one or more code words. Relay these words to your partner.
You’re the first in the chain. Call your partner and relay your code-word NOW.
When all “relays” were completed, all five chains had dropped and five words are shown, these all have the word “house” in common, entering that into the box reveals a new game, “Punk Drop“.
Thanks Pierre!
July 1st, 2008, posted by FofR | Digg This
Why So Serious have updated their front page for the first time in what seems an age - it now covers the entire Viral marketing campaign complete with Joker checklist on tasks, a list of Gotham city web pages and assorted items that can all be clicked for part of the viral adventure. For example, bowling shoes, a personality quiz, the trailer clippings, letters from a ransom note, etc.
Three future tasks have yet to be ticked off:
12. Be good to my guests
13. Gather all my fans
14. Leave a big mark
Reports
Some of the viral links on WSS contain reports on the viral event, with date, a list of occurrences, the end result, pictures and the aftermath - providing a succinct review of how we’ve got this far:
Citizens for Batman
Where a page originally stood we now find a countdown, heading ominously towards July 8th. CFB have also been sending out their propaganda to lucky Gotham citizens,
Including the letter:
Citizens for Batman!It’s time to go public. To really defend Batman, we have to show the world how big our movement is. So check out the goodies inside and show your pride in CFB!
And get ready for a MAJOR show of force July 8th. (check out citizensforbatman.org for the latest.
Defend Gotham. Defend Batman!
Brian Douglass
Founder, Citizens for Batman
Thanks Dioz, Csam and Pierre!
