Friday
08Aug2008
New 'Dark Knight' Book Shows Warped Joker Makeup Concepts
Friday, August 8, 2008 at 5:38PM 
Kudos to Peter at
Slashfilm for flipping through the new book
The Dark Knight: Featuring Production Art and
Full Shooting Script and finding these
early makeup concepts for The Joker.
I disagree with Peter that what we see in
The Dark Knight is "a lot tamer" than these
early depictions, particularly in the shot that looks like Elijah Wood went as
the Joker for Halloween. The closely-cropped hair seems too managed, given what
we know now. Also,
Heath Ledger's clown makeup was so garish and
always in such disarray, playing into the chaos of the character much more than
what we see in these photos. The one in the suit looks more like
that punk who got arrested for ripping down
movie posters in a theater a couple weeks ago.
Still, it's interesting to see the progression, and
apparently that famous Joker smile was in
Christopher Nolan's mind all along. I wonder
which version of The Joker's story he was using for his inspiration, the wife or
the father?
One thing is clear throughout all of these pictures,
culminating in the performance we saw in the film, and that's how Nolan always
wanted to make the Joker more fearsome than comical. Mission accomplished.
Reader Comments (4)
First comment!!!
OK nobody cares, but WTF is the writer of this article writing?
I quote: "I wonder which version of The Joker's story he was using for his inspiration, the wife or the father?"
Eh... man, I don´t know if you got this, but the point with the Joker telling different origin stories in the movie is because he is a genius, and wants to misdirect anyone who wants to track down his real identity. Nolan has said in interviews that he would not be telling the Joker´s origin story, so none of the stories were true. I sincerely doubt he used ANY kind of origin story as inspiration.
The top one is the best. It's the least cartoony. I prefer it over the make-up version.
QFT, all the backstory that the Joker explained during the film was false. It's just that the joker likes to F@*& with people.
The kid in the purple suite looks dorky. I wouldnt have even thought of using that. I like Heaths makeup the best because while although the top one looks cool Its 2 perfect. Heaths makeup is cracked and dirty looking making it more realistic, u know as if there was actually someone like that out there. Agh, creepy thought. They probably wuld of had 2 change the rating of the movie if they had used the top one lol. My conclusion (opinion) is that heaths makeup was the best thing 2 use 4 that movie. Heath Rocks! r.i.p.