“Speaking on behalf of the cast and crew of The Dark Knight Rises , I would like to express our profound sorrow at the senseless tragedy that has befallen the entire Aurora community. I would not presume to know anything about the victims of the shooting but that they were there last night to watch a movie. I believe movies are one of the great American art forms and the shared experience of watching a story unfold on screen is an important and joyful pastime. The movie theatre is my home, and the idea that someone would violate that innocent and hopeful place in such an unbearably savage way is devastating to me. Nothing any of us can say could ever adequately express our feelings for the innocent victims of this appalling crime, but our thoughts are with them and their families.” [via ABC ]
It’s hard to imagine most folks will be eager to rush into cinemas this weekend following the tragedy out of Aurora, Colorado, even those who’ve been anticipating the release of The Dark Knight Rises for months. While Matt Patches over at Hollywood.com thoughtfully wonders if audiences will return swiftly to theaters, The Wrap reports that Warner Bros. are themselves scrambling to figure out how to balance their multi-million dollar Dark Knight Rises roll-out campaign with common decency and empathy for the victims, their families, and a shaken nation. It’s not that audiences might recoil from Batman, presuming some direct link between the comics or the character somehow incited suspect James Holmes to allegedly pre-meditate his attack on the dozens of men, women, and children at Aurora’s Century 16, despite unconfirmed reports that he may have had hair dyed in the style of The Joker; violence in media doesn’t “make” people kill, though access to guns and combat paraphernalia helps sick people do terrible things. And though fanboy ire this week had reached alarming levels with the hate-speech and death threats lobbied at critics of The Dark Knight Rises , any true Bat-fan knows that the DC hero not only fights to protect lives, he’s staunchly anti-gun. (A scene in TDKR highlights this.) So let’s not even start to blame the movies for what happened in Aurora. Besides: When tragedy strikes niche communities , it reminds us that we’re not so divided after all. Fandom is what made the Aurora victims sitting ducks for the gun man, who burst through the packed theater’s emergency exit doors just minutes after the film had begun. These were people who had anticipated TDKR so much many of them likely bought tickets in advance, wanting to be among the first to see the film. The shooter seemed to be preying on fans, not representing them, though his motives have yet to be revealed. Writing in The New Yorker, Anthony Lane proposes doing away with midnight movies for fear of copycats, though his secondary reason somewhat condescendingly critiques the practice of the midnight screening altogether: “…those screenings, starting when most people are in bed, often have a crazed and hallucinated air, which is all part of the game to those who enjoy them — anyone who has driven to a theatre to fetch teen-aged Harry Potter devotees, as they wander out in costume at three o’clock in the morning, can attest to that weary delirium — but which, right now, seems volatile, ominous, and redundant. Theaters around the country will be beefing up security this weekend, with police in NYC and elsewhere promising increased presences at TDKR screenings. But whether or not more officers and metal detectors and other security measures are enacted going forward, the fact remains that this was a lone gunman who entered through an emergency door and shot dozens of people in cold blood. How much can security help, except to encourage moviegoers to head to the multiplex, to not live in fear of tragedy striking again? Variety’s Josh Dickey reports ( via Twitter ) that WB is not considering pulling screenings, and given the financial investment and massive 4,400-theater release plans it’s hard to imagine they would. Cancelling a celebratory press event in Paris is one thing; letting audiences decide if they’re ready to head into theaters, with the unshakable specter of Aurora lingering in the hearts and minds of just about everyone, is another. Just a starting point for discussion, but sound off below as we keep the families and victims of Aurora in our thoughts. Follow Jen Yamato on Twitter . Follow Movieline on Twitter .
At least one gunman opened fire at a midnight screening of The Dark Knight Rises early Friday morning in Aurora, Colorado, injuring as many as twenty people. An early report from local radio station 850 KOA cites witness reports that a shooter, possibly wearing a mask, opened fire and set off tear gas during a shoot-out scene in the film. Various reports cite at least ten people dead, although details are still emerging with at least one suspect in custody . Developing… UPDATE: NBC News ( @NBCNews ) and AP ( @AP ) report 14 people are dead, with 50 others wounded in the attack. UPDATE: Video purported to show the scene at the Aurora Century 16 following the shooting has hit YouTube (below). Be warned – it’s unverified (although at least one fan in full Batman costume can be seen) and contains footage of an apparently bloodied cinemagoer exiting the theater. UPDATE: Aurora Police Chief Dan Oates shared details of the shooting via press conference : The violence erupted about 12:30 a.m. MDT as the gunman stood at the front of one of the Century 16 theaters at the Aurora Mall. “Witnesses tell us he released some sort of canister. They heard a hissing sound and some gas emerged and the gunman opened fire,” Oates said at a news conference. One suspect is in custody and there’s no evidence of any additional shooters, Oates said. [ KOA , Reuters , MSNBC ]
In the latest installment of One-Sheet Wonder , a column going deep on the best, worst, weirdest and other milestones of contemporary movie-poster art, Movieline takes a look at the new poster for Paul Thomas Anderson’s The Master . — Ed. The Master , Paul Thomas Anderson’s enigmatic follow-up to There Will Be Blood , has been trailed by speculation and assumption for months — Is it about Scientology? Is Philip Seymour Hoffman portraying L. Ron Hubbard in a biopic capacity? — and every question has been met with denials and mystery. But each new marketing piece sheds more light on what we’ll get. After two beautiful , beguiling teaser trailers, a beautiful, beguiling one-sheet for Paul Thomas Anderson’s The Master debuted today over at Ain’t It Cool News . But like the clips before it, the poster tells us almost nothing about the movie. (Or do they?) The first trailer was peppered with Scientology-ish personality questions, and this poster seems based on an abstraction of an e-meter, the device used in Scientology auditing. The close-up of a barreled piece of silver metal seems like an unfinished soda can. But take a look at the tubes in this photo (pictured right) and it’s not a far leap to see the poster as a macro view of one of those e-meter tubes. But then what’s that dirty, flat-champagne-like liquid draining out of the poster (notice the drops at the top)? It could reference Hubbard’s Naval background and his life on a yacht, and there’s a vague nautical element to the fonts. Or it could refer to the flushing of alcohol that comes with the Scientology auditing process. Whatever the case, it creates a nice refraction in the word “MASTER,” bisecting it and putting the halves increasingly off kilter as you go from left to right, a reflection of the schism hinted at in the second trailer (” Just say something that’s true! “). This probably won’t be the only poster for The Master , but don’t expect a second one-sheet to bathe the plot in sunlight. There Will Be Blood had two domestic one-sheets, and while the teaser was far more engaging than the final art neither gave the game away. Time will tell whether The Master follows suit, but like with TWBB the mystery surrounding the film — encapsulated in this excellent first poster — makes the wait to see it interminable. Dante A. Ciampaglia is a writer, editor and photographer in New York. You can find him on Twitter , Tumblr , and, occasionally, his blog .
Good morning! By which I mean just go back to bed : “‘Bane’ is the terrorist in the new movie who drives the caped crusader out of semi-retirement in the final Batman movie . Democrats, who believe they have Romney on the ropes over the president’s assault on his leadership at Bain Capital, said the comparisons are too rich to ignore. ‘It has been observed that movies can reflect the national mood,’ said Democratic advisor and former Clinton aide Christopher Lehane. ‘Whether it is spelled Bain and being put out by the Obama campaign or Bane and being out by Hollywood, the narratives are similar: a highly intelligent villain with offshore interests and a past both are seeking to cover up who had a powerful father and is set on pillaging society,’ he added.” [ Washington Examiner via Big Hollywood ]
Just when it looked like we might dodge a movie based on Ouija (which even McG had the good taste and common sense to abandon at Paramount), along came Universal to pluck the Hasbro property out of turnaround like a dusky Goodwill relic. And now, with a release date looming, the studio has handed the project off to a new team that will get it in shape for 2013. But wait — it gets better. Variety reports that Knowing screenwriters Juliet Snowden and Stiles White will do both the scripting and directing honors for co-producers Michael Bay and Jason Blum, the latter of whose Paranormal Activity franchise will serve as the “high-concept, low-budget model” for Ouija . OK? I mean, I have difficulty envisioning anything engineered to move a board game off Wal-Mart shelves as “high-concept,” but low-budget, sure: Previous reports put the project’s budget, whose previous incarnation at the ‘Mount totaled a very, very ill-advised $150 million, at under $10 million. And even that might be too much under the circumstances — didn’t Breaking Bad already corner the market on foreboding uses of Ouija? Just bring back the Salamanca cousins! [ Variety ]
Just when it looked like we might dodge a movie based on Ouija (which even McG had the good taste and common sense to abandon at Paramount), along came Universal to pluck the Hasbro property out of turnaround like a dusky Goodwill relic. And now, with a release date looming, the studio has handed the project off to a new team that will get it in shape for 2013. But wait — it gets better. Variety reports that Knowing screenwriters Juliet Snowden and Stiles White will do both the scripting and directing honors for co-producers Michael Bay and Jason Blum, the latter of whose Paranormal Activity franchise will serve as the “high-concept, low-budget model” for Ouija . OK? I mean, I have difficulty envisioning anything engineered to move a board game off Wal-Mart shelves as “high-concept,” but low-budget, sure: Previous reports put the project’s budget, whose previous incarnation at the ‘Mount totaled a very, very ill-advised $150 million, at under $10 million. And even that might be too much under the circumstances — didn’t Breaking Bad already corner the market on foreboding uses of Ouija? Just bring back the Salamanca cousins! [ Variety ]
“A 9/11 joke didn’t go down well during a showing of new movie Ted attended by former mayor Rudy Giuliani and wife Judith in the Hamptons on Sunday night. In one scene, Ted — the misanthropic CGI teddy bear in the film — asks singer Norah Jones about her nationality, then shockingly spits back, ‘Whatever. Thanks for 9/11.’ ‘No one in the theater laughed,’ the Hamptons spy said. ‘The joke fell completely flat.’ They added the audience ‘had too much respect for the mayor’ to make light of the disaster. But Rudy and Judi were later seen enjoying the rest of their night in the Hamptons.” Whew . [ NYP via NYM ]
“A 9/11 joke didn’t go down well during a showing of new movie Ted attended by former mayor Rudy Giuliani and wife Judith in the Hamptons on Sunday night. In one scene, Ted — the misanthropic CGI teddy bear in the film — asks singer Norah Jones about her nationality, then shockingly spits back, ‘Whatever. Thanks for 9/11.’ ‘No one in the theater laughed,’ the Hamptons spy said. ‘The joke fell completely flat.’ They added the audience ‘had too much respect for the mayor’ to make light of the disaster. But Rudy and Judi were later seen enjoying the rest of their night in the Hamptons.” Whew . [ NYP via NYM ]
The Batmobile has had quite the evolution since actual volition appeared in the ’60s television version to its altogether super-suped up version heading your way in The Dark Knight Rises . Its latest incarnation includes some nifty gadgetry including a rocket launcher, the vehicle’s creator Andy Smith told Beyond The Trailer host Grace Randolph at Comic-Con where the vehicle, aka The Tumbler, is on display along with previous versions of The Batmobile. Smith has a history in race car work and worked on a car for a James Bond film and for an earlier Batmobile back in ’89. The current Tumbler is a hybrid of a Humvee and Lamborghini and it’s the only one that has ever been named something other than a ‘Batmobile.’ Smith gives a rundown of interesting factoids in the video below, including Christopher Nolan and production designer Nathan Crowley’s hand in creating The Tumbler after toying with various model kits. Of note, The Tumbler is 9 feet, 2 inches wide and 15 feet, 2 inches in length. Those stats keep it from being street-worthy at least legally speaking. It also has a top speed of 110mph, but “film makes it look much faster,” Smith notes. The video also shows previous Batmobiles including an interview with one owner and an interview with an early Batmobile designer who also designed many other famous on-screen vehicles including four-wheel stars appearing in Knight Rider , The Dukes of Hazzard and even The Monkees .
