“It’s so exciting, for once I can’t complain because it has already been such a huge and unambiguous success.”
Christopher Nolan should be quite rightly feeling pretty happy with himself right about now. The Dark Knight, the magnificent sequel to Batman Begins, has already broken US box office records and with universally adoring reviews, Nolan’s epic return to Gotham was celebrated in fine style at the European Premiere in London’s Leicester Square - we’re talking fire-throwers, crazed fans, the Batmobile revving up the red carpet and the stars of the film stepping up to chat about the hotly anticipated movie.
So how did Nolan tackle the challenges of Batman’s return?
“Well, really the fresh challenge of this film was continuing the tone of the first movie and move naturally forward with the story,” he said. “We had to give the audience something new and exciting in this world and I really think we’ve done that.”
The right venerable Sir Michael Caine, aka Bruce Wayne’s trusty butler Alfred Pennyworth, fully agrees with that statement.
“This is such a wonderful movie, it’s not just the best Batman movie, which it is, it’s one of the best movies that I’ve ever seen,” he said. “I would absolutely return for a third movie but I think that this one will be such a success that it will be difficult to top it. We’ve already broken the biggest box office opening record in American movie history, how do you top that? You’ve got to break your own record, it’s hard.
“I’ve never been in a film this big before, it’s extraordinary,” Caine continues. “I’m not the star of the film but that doesn’t matter, I’m in it, my name’s on the poster if you look closely enough.”
It’s fair to say that the movie, which features a deadly duo of new nemeses for Christian Bale’s Batman to battle, is darker in tone than your average summer blockbuster. Was it a tough film to make? Bale has the answer.
“No, not really, we actually had a great deal of fun,” he said. “I mean we relaxed and messed around between takes because this is a more serious take on the character. At the end of the day when you take the make-up off, you relax and have a good time - I’ve worked with these people many times now and it was a lot of fun on set.”
It’s Bale’s second time donning the cape and cowl, how did he approach the character this time around?
“It’s more familiar,” said Bale. “We always wanted some level of reality to these movies and I think we’ve achieved a very compelling sense of realism with this comic book character. I’ve never really been a particular Batman fan or a comic book fan so I was coming at it from a really fresh perspective. Clearly Chris Nolan was after a more serious take and he got that.”
The Dark Knight is released on Friday.