So we considered uploading our last
episode of Things You Didn't Know a second
time for this week's episode.
Because it was about Groundhog's Day,
and we thought it would be funny to do
the whole, it's the same
thing all over again, get it?
Just like the movie, Groundhog Day.
Ha ha, we're so fun!
But after looking at
the views on that episode,
we realized the joke would be on us.
Yeah.
So instead of that idea,
here are seven things you didn't know
about The Dark Knight, probably.
(Sound)
The late Heath Ledger's take on the Joker
is easily one of the things that makes
The Dark Knight as great as it is.
They stepped away from the idea that
the Joker's skin and hair had been
permanently altered by toxic waste, a risk
that ended up being totally worth it.
But you probably didn't know that Heath
Ledger actually designed his Joker makeup
himself using stuff he
got from a drugstore.
Christopher Nolan and the other
filmmakers really liked his design, so
they tasked the makeup team with
recreating the look each day they filmed.
It was also Ledger's idea for the Joker to
have white makeup leftover on his hands to
tie in with the notion that the character
would have done his makeup himself.
Maybe it's toxic disfigurement,
maybe it's Maybelline.
(Sound)
The Dark Knight also stayed away from
giving any concrete origin for the Joker
or any explanation for his actions.
The filmmakers purposely his back
story a mystery, even to themselves.
They developed his character for
the film under a few theories,
one of which was that the Joker is
an ex-soldier suffering from PTSD.
And based on his comfort with
military grade weapons, gasses, and
explosives, I have to say that
makes the series seem pretty legit.
Plus the Joker both attempts to murder and
then successfully murders civic officials,
which some think could be evidence
of a soldier bent on anarchy,
who's angry with the government.
Yeah, maybe or it could just be evidence
that the Joker is a psycho who's just like
super into killing people.
>> (Laugh) I don't want to kill you!
>> Either way, next thing.
(Sound)
Okay, so
The Dark Knight has a few sequences
in it that were shot on IMAX cameras.
So if you got to see it
in theaters in IMAX,
you already know how awesome they look.
Unfortunately for
director Christopher Nolan,
they were not so awesome to shoot and
created a lot of headaches.
First of all there were only four IMAX
cameras in the world at the time and
they're huge and loud.
So they had to build special mounts for
them and then replace all the dialogue in
post because the cameras
themselves were so noisy.
Worse still for Christopher Nolan is that
they destroyed one of those four huge,
loud cameras during this chase scene.
Considering those things cost
$500,000 apiece, breaking one is way,
way worse than that time you
dropped your iPhone in the toilet.
(Sound) The Dark Knight was the first
Batman movie without the word Batman
in its title.
But you may not have noticed that it's
also the first Batman film without any
bats in it, no live bats, and no CGI bats.
Maybe after they destroyed that IMAX
camera, they realized they didn't have
the budget to rent a bunch of bats,
let alone pay a bat wrangler.
Those guys are divas.
(Sound)
IMAX wasn't the only upgraded technology
to grace The Dark Knight.
An all-too-important change
was the redesigned Batsuit.
We've seen a lot of iterations
of the Batsuit over the years,
including some we'd like to forget.
But the redesign in The Dark Knight
added some upgrades that made a lot
more sense than adding
nipples to the suit.
For the first time,
it allowed Batman to turn his head in it.
So we didn't have any more of this.
Finally, Batman no longer looked
like he was a victim of whiplash.
(Sound)
We all know that Bruce Wayne is pretty
much set in the money department.
He wears fancy clothes,
bangs fancy ladies, and drives fancy cars.
And I'm sure he bangs fancy ladies
in those fancy cars on occasion.
But unless you're a gearhead,
you may not know that the car Bruce
drives in The Dark Knight is
a Lamborghini Murciélago.
Despite me butchering the pronunciation
of the word, Murciélago is Spanish for
bat, which means that even when
he's driving his regular car, or
banging a fancy lady in it,
he's sort of in a Batmobile.
Can we give a slow clap for
the filmmakers on that one?
(Sound)
The Dark Knight and Batman from 1989 give
us two very different, but
both very awesome portrayals of the Joker.
When they dubbed Batman for
its Italian release,
an actor named Giancarlo Giannini
did the dubbing for Jack Nicholson.
Well, when The Dark Knight came
around almost 20 years later,
Heath Ledger's Joker was
voiced by Adriano Giannini.
Now if you're thinking it's just
a coincidence that the Adriano guy has
the same last name as the Giancarlo guy,
you'd be wrong and kind of an idiot.
Because Giancarlo is his freaking dad.
It's crazy.
Okay, it's not that crazy,
but it's pretty cool.
And as long as we're on
an international Dark Knight fun fact,
here's a bonus thing you didn't know.
There's a city in Turkey named Batman.
Okay, it's actually pronounced Botman,
but you get the point.
Back in 2008,
the Mayor of Batman or Botman or
whatever tried to sue Warner Brothers
because he claimed he wasn't
asked permission to use
the name Batman in their movie.
He even went on to say
that Warner Brothers and
Christopher Nolan were responsible for
unsolved murders and
a high suicide rate amongst women
in Batman, or Botman, or whatever.
As you can probably guess,
the case was thrown out,
which actually restores my faith in
the legal system just a little bit.
That's it for this episode, but let us
know in the comments what you'd like to
see us do on the next episode
of Things You Didn't Know.
Unless it's really stupid,
like that Batman mayor's lawsuit.
Thanks for watching, and be sure to
check out CineFix and subscribe for
more true-ish things about movies,
and sometimes Batman,
right here on Things You Didn't Know
