The Writers Guild, Producers Guild and Directors Guild have all nominated The Dark Knight in their respective awards:

Director’s Guild – Best Picture:

David Fincher, “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”
Christopher Nolan, “The Dark Knight”
Ron Howard, “Frost/Nixon”
Gus Van Sant, “Milk”
Danny Boyle, “Slumdog Millionaire”

Writers Guild – Best Adapted Screenplay:

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Screenplay by Eric Roth; Screen Story by Eric Roth and Robin Swicord; Based on the Short Story by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Paramount Pictures and Warner Bros. Pictures

The Dark Knight, Screenplay by Jonathan Nolan and Christopher Nolan; Story by Christopher Nolan & David S. Goyer; Based on Characters Appearing in Comic Books Published by DC Comics; Batman Created by Bob Kane, Warner Bros. Pictures

Doubt, Screenplay by John Patrick Shanley, Based on his Stage Play, Miramax Films

Frost/Nixon, Screenplay by Peter Morgan, Based on his Stage Play, Universal Pictures

Slumdog Millionaire, Screenplay by Simon Beaufoy, Based on the Novel Q and A by Vikas Swarup, Fox Searchlight Pictures

Producer’s Guild – Darryl F. Zanuck Producer of the Year Award:

Slumdog Millionaire
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Milk
Frost/Nixon
The Dark Knight

In other news, MTV recently spoke to Dark Knight producer Chuck Roven about Chris Nolan’s Batman 3, but there’s nothing new to be heard on that for now – Nolan and writer Goyer are talking, that’s the full extent of the article.

Visual Effects shortlist:

Australia
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Dark Knight
Hellboy II: The Golden Army
Iron Man
Journey to the Center of the Earth
The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor

These will be narrowed down on the 15th of January after members of the Academy’s visual effects branch have viewed 15 minute clips of these movies, presumably showcasing their effects. The members shall then vote, and then there will be three.

Makeup shorltist:

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Dark Knight
Hellboy II: The Golden Army
The Reader
Synecdoche, New York
Tropic Thunder
The Wrestler

There is only a ten minute clip for these movies, they will be voted on on 17th January, to produce the final list of 3.

The 81st Academy Awards are on EDIT: February 22nd.

Via SHH:

The Producers Guild of America has just nominated the movie for its annual Producers Guild Awards taking place Saturday, January 24 at the Hollywood Palladium. The Dark Knight is going up against The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Frost/Nixon, Milk and Slumdog Millionaire for Best Picture.

Things are looking on course for an Oscar nomination come January 22nd!

The nominations for the 15th Annual Screen Actors Guild have been announced, with Heath Ledger in the running for best male actor in a supporting role. The ceremony will take place on Sunday, Jan 25th, with a simulcast Live on TNT and TBS at 8 PM ET/PT.

Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role
JOSH BROLIN / Dan White – “MILK” (Focus Features)
ROBERT DOWNEY, JR. / Kirk Lazarus – “TROPIC THUNDER” (Paramount Pictures)
PHILIP SEYMOUR HOFFMAN / Father Brendan Flynn – “DOUBT” (Miramax Films)
HEATH LEDGER / Joker – “THE DARK KNIGHT” (Warner Bros. Pictures)
DEV PATEL / Older Jamal – “SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE” (Fox Searchlight Pictures)

Outstanding Performance by a Stunt Ensemble in a Motion Picture
THE DARK KNIGHT (Warner Bros. Pictures)
HELLBOY II: THE GOLDEN ARMY (Universal Pictures)
INDIANA JONES AND THE KINGDOM OF THE CRYSTAL SKULL (Paramount Pictures)
IRON MAN (Paramount Pictures)
WANTED (Universal Pictures)

Seems like the tabloids are at it again, this time with rumors that Rachel Weisz will be playing Cat Woman, Shia LaBoeuf to play Robin and Eddie Murphy as The Riddler – where do they get this crap? Suffice to say, it’s all made up drivel.

Time to get some real voices on the sequel to The Dark Knight; Alan Horn, president of Warner Bros. has recently spoken with Collider:

We’ve been talking to Chris Nolan and what we have to do is get him in the right place and have him tell us what he thinks the notion might be for a great story, but Chris did a great job and we’d love to have him come back and do another one.”

As far as the timing of the project, he went onto say: “The story is everything and we are very respectful of Chris. We have a wonderful relationship with him and we are going to be respectful of his timing and we want to get it right. Also, I think the fans expect that – they want us to make a terrific movie – we have to give them another great movie.“

The American Film Institute has listed its top movies of 2008, and The Dark Knight is listed in it along with some prestigious company:

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Dark Knight
Frost/Nixon
Frozen River
Gran Torino
Iron Man
Milk
WALL-E
Wendy and Lucy
The Wrestler

Can’t say we didn’t see this one coming. Nikki Finke has the scoop on the sales numbers,

I just heard that Warner Bros’ Batman Blu-ray discs alone sold 600,000 copies on Tuesday, the first day of release. By contrast, Marvel/Paramount’s Iron Man sold 250,000 Blu-ray discs when it premiered on September 30th and ended up selling 400,000 Blu-ray units in its first week. But wait til you see what The Dark Knight sold in both formats, standard def and hi-def: 3 million copies bought by customers in the U.S., Canada and the UK on its first day in stores. That’s 3x the norm.

Reuters have the latest update on the DVD and Blu-ray sales, stating that more than 10 million units have been shifted:

Sales of the DVD, starring Christian Bale as Batman and the late Heath Ledger as the villainous Joker, totaled more than 10 million units worldwide since its December 9 release and are expected to remain strong throughout the holiday season, Time Warner Inc’s Warner Bros movie studio said. Ten million units translate into an estimated $175 million in revenues, according to Home Media Magazine Market Research.

The best selling DVD of all time is “Finding Nemo” with over 60m units sold.

In a turnaround it appears that the James Newton Howard/Hans Zimmer soundtrack is once again eligible for an Academy Award nomination. It had previously been ruled out (Nov 10th) because 5 composers were named on the cue sheet; which was deemed to be too many. In response the ‘affected parties’ submitted information to the contrary, leading The Music Branch Executive Committee to conclude that Zimmer and Howard had authorship of the score, putting the music back in contention for an Oscar.

Source: Variety