The Dark Knight Autopsy Report: What We Know to Date
by Tom Burns

[Disclaimer: If you DON'T WANT TO KNOW anything about The Dark Knight, catch up to the already available online information, read any STORY SPOILERS or speculation, see new theories on what might happen in the movie, or see SPOILERS OF ANY KIND concerning The Dark Knight, this article isn't for you and we urge you to TURN BACK NOW. You've been warned. Proceed at your own risk. This article isn't designed to spoil The Dark Knight for anyone, but instead aggregate all of the information to date into one place.]

CAST:

All the big players are back - Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Gary Oldman, Morgan Freeman - however, due to negotiations gone wrong or [INSERT SCIENTOLOGY JOKE HERE], Katie Holmes’ role of assistant DA Rachael Dawes was recast, bringing Maggie Gyllenhaal into the mix.

In terms of new cast members, we’re getting the late, great Heath Ledger (see our tribute) as the Joker, Aaron Eckhart as District Attorney Harvey Dent (i.e. the man who would be Two-Face), Eric Roberts and Michael Jai White as mob bosses, Nestor Carbonell (Bat-Manuel himself!) as the mayor of Gotham, and William Fichtner as a Gotham bank manager.

DIAGNOSIS: Nolan isn’t losing any fans by recasting Holmes, but he took a risk by casting handsome Mr. Ledger as the Joker - a gamble that seems to be paying off after seeing the recent imagery from the film after his death. After early images and the first trailer were released, fans went from making "Brokeback Batman" jokes to declaring that Ledger might be the coolest, darkest Clown Prince of Crime yet (and that’s with only seeing a few short minutes of the film). All of which made Ledger’s recent tragic death all the more shocking to his fans around the world. If the early word of mouth is any indication, The Dark Knight looks like it will be a memorable addition to the young actor’s already sterling legacy.

BAT-GADGETS:

While the earlier Bat-movies introduced everything from Bat-planes to Bat-skates, Batman Begins did its best to make Batman’s crime-fighting hardware as believable as possible, even introducing Morgan Freeman as Bruce Wayne’s real-world version of Q.

So, while we won’t get any Bat-zeppelins in this movie, fans will get to see some nice new Bat-gear, including a new penthouse bachelor pad and temporary downtown Bat-cave for Bruce Wayne (the old one burned down, remember?), a swanky new Bat-suit (which actually makes it look like Bale can move in it), and the "Bat-Pod," Nolan’s reinterpretation of the Bat-cycle from the designers who brought you Batman’s Lamborghini tank Batmobile in Begins.

DIAGNOSIS: The Bat-suit is a big, big improvement and, while the Bat-Pod looked kind of dorky in still photos, Batman zipping through the streets of Gotham on the Pod in the first trailer, admittedly, looked fairly bad-ass.

MARKETING:

You know we’re living in a postmodern world when people are devoting web sites to tracking a movie’s marketing materials, but let’s be honest - the viral marketing efforts for The Dark Knight have been engaging, well-designed, and totally cool.

Aside from various reports of marketers running into comic book stores throwing Joker cards around or handing out mock copies of The Gotham Times, there have been a ton of viral web sites that have slowly-but-surely been releasing more and more information about The Dark Knight.

We first got I Believe in Harvey Dent, a fake campaign site for Eckhart’s character, followed by the all-together more-menacing I Believe in Harvey Dent Too, which revealed our first glimpse of Ledger’s new Joker. Other sites like Why So Serious and Rorys Death Kiss offered up more images, secret games, and scavenger hunts, all of which gave fans enough cryptic info to keep them engaged, but not frustrated.

As well, there are several lesser-known tie-in sites like www.gpdiad.com, www.saintswithunschurch.org, and www.bettyshouseofpies.com).

And beyond the viral efforts, the beyond creepy "Why So Serious?" Joker posters are quickly becoming collector’s items and the first teaser and trailer have completely sold the public on Ledger as Joker.

DIAGNOSIS: Marketing isn’t everything - remember all of the Last Action Hero and Godzilla early merchandising? - but, for The Dark Knight, maybe more than any other release in recent memory, Warner Brothers has totally tapped into the best parts of our new viral media environment and made their summer sequel sound like a can’t-miss-for-08.

The Dark Knight Autopsy Page 3 - Story Speculation (MAJOR SPOILERS)