Tuesday
12Aug2008
Fantastic (And Phony) 'Dark Knight Returns' Poster
Tuesday, August 12, 2008 at 11:32AM
Let me start by saying that this is, as near as I can
tell, 100% fake. I simply have no reason to believe it's real, despite the fact that it's an extremely well-made image. There are several reasons why I'm saying it's fake:
1) The website listed at the bottom isn't active.
2) We have zero confirmation that the villain in the
poster will be the villain in the movie.
3) It's highly doubtful the movie in question would use
the exact same motif for a new batch of posters.
4) Google it. You won't find much.
5) Chances are, the Zodiac Killer hasn't moved from the
Bay Area to Gotham, so the cipher (middle left, upper right) is a questionable
addition.
4) Isn't it a little early?
Now that we've established that this is almost certainly not real, let's
just applaud the great Photoshop work involved.
Big Picture reader Nick Harper sent us this phony poster for The Dark Knight Returns, with a release date of 2011. As we've established in other articles on this subject, if anyone knows what villains will be used, his name is Christopher Nolan. Neither he nor any producers nor the studio have said who Batman will battle next. Does The Riddler make sense? I guess so. I personally want the series to avoid using him, The Penguin, and Catwoman altogether (and not just for this movie), but it's not illogical to think he might pop up in the third chapter.
If you look closely, you'll see that there's a planted story in the middle of the paper about Harvey Dent. Near as we can tell, that story has been written a year after Dent's death/disappearance, and we're positive that the byline credits a reporter named Vicki Vale. That's a lovely touch. I don't know where in the hell this poster came from, but it's damn fine work. Again, I doubt they'd use the newspaper concept The Dark Knight employed, but if I were Warner Bros., I'd find out who made this poster, sue them for copyright infringement and then immediately hire them. In other wholly unsubstantiated Batman news (Holy Wholly Unsubstantiated Batman News, Batman!), Page Six reports that Angelina Jolie is so determined to play Catwoman - a role that also has not been confirmed - that she's taking sexy Catwoman lessons from Tera Patrick. Really? Tera used to be nice to look at before she had Mattel install a bunch of new parts, but does Angelina need to take classes from anyone on how to be sexy? "They are friends and keep in touch via e-mail," a 'source' tells the rag. "She and Angie have a girl-talk thing going." "After seeing reports that she'll land the lead role, Jolie asked Patrick what she thought," again, according to the 'source.' "Tera had such insights into the role that Jolie cracked, 'You should do it!'" I'm more inclined to believe the poster, frankly.
Reader Comments (34)
To me, having an article by Vicki Vale too contrived, and that's what gives it away. Not only that, she wasn't a writer. She was a photographer. It is an impressive poster though.
That's what gives it away? Not the fact that we have no idea who the villain will be? Are you sure she was a photographer? I thought in the original comic book version she was a reporter.
The Riddler has always known Batman's identity as well. That would be very untrue to the comics and Nolan hates being untrue to the comics. He's a fan himself. Duh. But very well made.
I think the poster is well done, if early. If their marketing crew would have released this closer to the actual date of the movie's "release", then it would have been a powerful advertisement, although I'm not saying it isnt. I think it's a great poster/ad and is very well made.
@ Seth
Nolan is not afraid to be untrue to the comics! Did you see The Joker in The Dark Knight? According to the comics The Joker's look wasn't makeup, it was chemicals. But the movie makes it clear that The Joker's look is completely artificial (minus the smile). I'm not complaining, it worked fine.
Awesome poster, pretty apparent it's a fake though.
I take back my comment about VV being a photographer. I thought she was in the Tim Burton original but 1)my memory is shaky at best and 2)according to that movie the Joker killed Batman's parents and Batman dropped the Joker into chemicals. So I can't really expect any consistency to that series and this one anyway.
At first glance her name in the poster just struck me as unbelievable. I don't know why.
Tell who ever made this to make more, I want one for every suggested villan for the next movie.
Some great design work here, and even well thought out. I'm very impressed.
Is it fake?
Maybeah, maybeah not.
here's the whois
<Whois info for, thedarkknightreturns.com:
Registrant:
Reason Films
315 N. 3rd St.
San Jose, CA 95112
US
Domain name: THEDARKKNIGHTRETURNS.COM
Administrative Contact:
Darnell, Chris gitnsqrly@yahoo.com
315 N. 3rd St.
San Jose, CA 95112
US
+1.4082959460
Technical Contact:
Easy CGI, Support support@easycgi.com
99 Main Street
Nyack, NY 10960
US
+1.8453487698 Fax: +1.8457277777
Registration Service Provider:
Easy CGI, support@easycgi.com
845-920-0100
800-801-8350 (fax)
http://www.easycgi.com
This company may be contacted for domain login/passwords,
DNS/Nameserver changes, and general domain support questions.
Registrar of Record: TUCOWS, INC.
Record last updated on 07-Jul-2007.
Record expires on 01-Sep-2008.
Record created on 01-Sep-2004.
Registrar Domain Name Help Center:
http://domainhelp.tucows.com
Domain servers in listed order:
NS1.EASY-CGI.COM
NS2.EASY-CGI.COM
Domain status: clientDeleteProhibited
clientTransferProhibited
clientUpdateProhibited
That's a fantastic poster! Who REALLY knows if it's fake or not...Chances are, it probably is...But still! That's really rad...It's such a beautiful piece of artwork...However, I don't really want to see The Riddler in the next Batman movie...Too..."cartoonish" for me...I mean, I thought The Joker was, too...before I saw how Heath Ledger did a take on it...Anyways, I just don't think the next Batman movie(s) would be the same without The Joker, even though Heath Ledger died...If they had to replace him, then there is only one person who could do it...James Franco...No question about it...He's perfect for it...He is just like Heath in so many ways...They are so identical in appearance and acting...I was reading that they may pick Johnny Depp to play The Riddler, Angelina Jolie to play Catwoman, and Phillip Seymour Hoffman to play The Penguin...All of which are TERRIBLE and DREADFUL ideas...Please don't ruin a good movie with so much potential!!!
Cornholio -
I'm not disputing whether or not someone owns the domain for the website listed on the poster, just that the poster promotes a website that doesn't yet exist. Very unlikely that that would be the case if the poster were real.
5) They won't make a poster with a hand that is copied and mirrored in photoshop. I think they have enough budget to show 2 different hands to seem more real and professional (see the very cheap shadows on the hands too).
I personally would want them to completely avoid using angelina Jolie for the next movie, catwoman would be utter shit, and when was the last time jolie made a good movie?
Anyone else notice the zodiac killer notes around the news paper? Now that would be a creepy/interesting way to use the Riddler.
Mr.Death.
Since the joker likes to use his face to put fear into his victims it is implied each time he is clearly lying about what happened to his face. He changes his story based on the person he is trying to break thus his face could have easily been caused by chemicals. Anyway i'm just saying that your logic is wrong.
That's cool, check out this mobility scooter I bought my mom for Christmas.
http://www.travelscoot.com
It is called a TravelScoot mobility scooter and it folds up like an umbrella and weighs just 35 lbs. She keeps it in a carrying bag in her trunk. She takes it out anywhere.
it is definetly fake.. Poster is nice, but that mosaic is not put together perfectly as it would be for such a movie.. believe me, im graphic too
Look at the knuckles of the man looking at the paper- there are what appear to be letters and question marks on them. I don't know if that means anything to anyone, but there is an awful lot of fore-shadowing in this poster. This guy must be really sure of himself, or it's not fake at all.
Fuck riddler, penguin, catwoman and any other villain that has already been done.
I want to see Scarface. how creepy would that be?! very. period. best villain ever. what a nutcase scarface is; that would be awesome.
What about Hugo Strange. He was one of Batman's first villians. He was assigned to the task force to capture The Batman by Gordon. He works at Arkham and thus we could have cameos from Scarecrow, The Joker (from behind), Harley Quinn (as Harleen Quinzel, Joker's Dr.) and others (Scarface, Riddler, Mad Hatter, possibly Two-Face if they choose to let him live.)
The Riddler is supposed to be the villain in the new movie. Look at the guys hands. I've seen Batman returns more times than I can count and the second I saw this I thought it was legit. Well I still kinda do think it is, but it's more likely a hell of a good hoax.
Oh and look at the articles in the background. I think the title says something about remembering Harvey Dent, who died in The Dark Knight. Also "Hero turned murderer" - could be referring to the fact that Batman killed Two-face.
This looks crazy legit, but it is much too soon to start the viral marketing for the last of the trilogy. The only problem that I have with it is that it seems too Jokerish. I mean the hand drawn question mark and bat logo, as well as all the little touches like the Batman drawing in the bottom right corner, all seem too similar to what they did for the last movie. However, it does look a little less chaotic, which would provide a nice counter to the crazy (awesome) that was Heath. Someone who is an intellectual equal to Batman, this looks like it would fit the bill. man this poster is all kinds of win, even if it is fake. I can't believe it but I'm already excited about seeing what Nolan and crew can do with this new movie.
Hugo Strange predates the Joker as Batman's villain by a few months in the original comics. I'm not sure they would use him...
I really like the idea of Scarface though.
rumors are that the next Dark Knight movie will feature The Riddler, and possibly The Penguin.
This poster makes sense with the former of these two villains...
Superb point, Valentijin.
The whole poster does seem to come on a little strong, but there's no denying that it's just plain awesome. :P
I think Depp could do a good job of the Riddler, but I would /die/ if Angelina Jolie got to play Catwoman. Yuck. Her campaigning for the job so much is possibly worse than potentially having Tomb Raider stamped all over it.
Oh the arrogance!