Review: The Dark Knight Project
Continuing our coverage of the Dark Knight and all things Batman, we stumbled upon this project earlier this week via the help of one of our readers. Released on July 14, 2008, The Dark Knight Project is a fan-made Batman film that bridges the 2 films, Batman Begins and The Dark Knight together.
According to the press release for the film:
“The Dark Knight Project” chronicles the adventures of Gotham Midtown students Heather Nolan and Mikey Bale, played by Allyssa O’Donnell and David Sanchez. Intent on being the first people in Gotham City to capture actual video of the Dark Knight in action for a school project, they set out with their video camera to interview people on the streets, witness the evacuation of a city block by police in the middle of a bomb scare, and ultimately encounter Batman in the middle of a back alley break-in where he saves both high schoolers from a menacing group of thugs working for the Joker.
I had a chance to view the film today and I must say that the originality as well as the concept is extremely good. The film also does such a great job of using the Chicago location as its backdrop and it fits in perfectly with the Nolan Bat-world. Also the films perspective is fantastic…it is always interesting to me to find out what normal people’s perspective in Gotham would be surrounding the Batman and it is always interesting to see their point of view instead of all the centric characters involved.
The film represents a new trend of user-generated videos done just as good a full-length feature film. I have the utmost respect for people willing to take on the endeavor. Is the acting superb, no but it does accomplish the goal which is believability. Ultimately this is a film that everyone should see and the real world apps surrounding it are just as nifty as all the Dark Knight viral marketing. These include MySpace page for the title characters blogging their adventure trying to capture “The Batman” on film and prove his existence.
The short film was directed by Chicago filmmaker Jerry Vasilatos, who wrote the story and also produced and directed it.
“I always wanted to shoot a Batman story since he is one of my favorite characters, and since I sincerely doubt Warner Brothers will ever ask me to direct one for them, I decided to use the resources I have available and do one myself”
Well with all the rumors of Nolan maybe not doing a sequel, maybe WB should look at this guy! Vasilatos’ crew shot 5 days in using several downtown locations, leading to a climactic alley fight between Batman (being played by Chicago actor Chris Nendick), and the Joker’s thugs filmed behind the Fine Arts building off Van Buren.
We hope to get an interview scheduled with the studio to talk more about this fan-made project. Anyway you should all check it out! Go to Dark Knight Project.com and who knows maybe we will see this on the Dark Knight DVD special features.
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