Thompson On Hollywood

Trailer Watch: New Dark Knight

Here's the new HD The Dark Knight trailer. Michael Caine seems to be getting most of the jokes. These quotes popped out:

"It's simple: kill the Batman." -- Heath Ledger as The Joker

"You either die a hero or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain." --Aaron Eckhart as Harvey Dent

Sequels: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Indy 4, Dark Knight

Here's a new photo from Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, due in theaters November 21.

Here's more on the final two Harry Potter movie installments and Hollywood's love affair with the sequel from CBS News:

John Hurt gives some scoop on Indiana Jones and Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.

At ShoWest, Christian Bale talks about The Dark Knight and Heath Ledger:

And the NYP looks into George Lucas's move into TV with Star Wars and Clone Wars, which is also going to be an animated movie.

ShoWest: Summer Preview

Every year ShoWest screens an honor reel of movies that grossed over $100-million the year before. Which of the 2008 ShoWest promo pics will be on next year's reel?

Based on what I saw and reactions gleaned, here's my best guess:

Movie that could pass $300 million: the sequel The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, which will likely improve on its predecessor with more action and more mature protagonists.

Movies that could go well past $200 million: sequels The Dark Knight, starring Christian Bale and Heath Ledger, Steven Spielberg's Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, starring Harrison Ford and Shia LeBeouf, Rob Cohen's China-shot Mummy 3: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor, starring Brendan Fraser, Jet Li and Michelle Yeoh, and Guillermo del Toro's epic-scale actioner Hellboy II: The Golden Army; plus non-sequels Wanted, starring Angelina Jolie and Morgan Freeman as assassins training rookie James McAvoy, the invulnerable Will Smith as a homeless hero in Hancock, Judd Apatow's dumb male comedy Step Brothers, starring Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly, Marvel's Iron Man, which boasts femme appeal via Robert Downey Jr. and co-star Gwenyth Paltrow, and animated family originals Kung Fu Panda (DreamWorks Animation) and Wall-E (Disney/Pixar).

Movies that could break $100 million: a remake of Marvel's The Incredible Hulk, starring Edward Norton as a thinking man's Bruce Banner; for the femme audience, a remake of the HBO classic Sex and the City, a remake of the boomer TV show Get Smart, starring Steve Carell and Ann Hathaway, Tina Fey and Amy Poehler's surrogate nightmare comedy Baby Mama, and a movie version of the Broadway musical Mamma Mia (also for musical fans); Judd Apatow factory comedies Forgetting Sarah Marshall and Pineapple Express; Ben Stiller's starry R-rated action comedy Tropic Thunder, starring Stiller, Downey, Jack Black and Steve Coogan; the frere Wachowski's adaptation of the anime classic Speed Racer, starring Emile Hirsch and Christina Ricci; and George Lucas's animated sequel Star Wars: The Clone Wars. (Am I the only one who feels a shock that the film is going out through Warners? Even though Lucasfilm controls and markets the movies and collects the lions' share of the take, I feel like all Star Wars movies are supposed to have the Fox fanfare in front of them.)

Shooting Resumes on The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus

As reported, Johnny Depp, Jude Law and Colin Farrell are playing different aspects of Heath Ledger's character in Terry Gilliam's The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, which has resumed filming in Vancouver. Here's the website.

Batman's Nolan Talks Dark Knight and Ledger

Summer 2008 is jam-packed with movies vying for screens every weekend from the start of May through Labor Day. Pamela McClintock lays out the stakes.

One summer tentpole has some issues to get past, due to the untimely death of its Joker, Heath Ledger. Batman Begins director Chris Nolan talks about The Dark Knight and Heath Ledger's The Joker to the NYT, which has the French trailer for Le Chevalier Noir on its site. The movie opens July 18. UPDATE: As Nolan will be accepting the director of the year prize from exhibitors at the ShoWest convention on Thursday, Variety's Anthony Kaufman examines his indie sensibility. And The Envelope raises the possibility of a posthumous Oscar nom for Ledger.

Ledger's Last Portrait

Heath Ledger sat for a portrait a few weeks before his death. It was his idea to show the different voices in his head.

Depp, Law and Farrell to Honor Ledger

AICN confirms that Johnny Depp, Jude Law and Colin Farrell will be stepping in to do homages to Heath Ledger in Terry Gilliam's The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus.

Ledger Died of Accidental Overdose

Heath Ledger died of an accidental drug overdose, says the medical examiner. As if we didn't know already, abusing--and mixing--drugs is not good.

Why whitewash what happened here? I agree with Michael Musto, who writes, "the truth can only heal." Ledger, probably depressed, exhausted and ill, mixed himself a potent cocktail--which, added to whatever was already in his system, killed him. The hazards of drug abuse are best publicized, not hidden.

Here's what he was taking, from the A.P.:

The cause of death was "acute intoxication by the combined effects of oxycodone, hydrocodone, diazepam, temazepam, alprazolam and doxylamine," spokeswoman Ellen Borakove said in a statement.

The medical examiner's office only provided generic names, so it is unknown whether he took generic or brand-name drugs. Police had said they found six types of prescription drugs, including sleeping pills and anti-anxiety medication, in Ledger's apartment.

Oxycodone is a painkiller marketed as OxyContin and used in other painkillers such as Percodan and Percocet; hydrocodone is used in a number of painkillers, including Vicodin.

Diazepam and alprazolam are the generic names for the anti-anxiety drugs Valium and Xanax, and the other two drugs are sleep aids commonly sold under the brands Restoril and Unisom.

It's a sad, sad loss.

Williams Breaks Silence on Ledger

Michelle Williams, breaking her silence on the death of Heath Ledger, says that he will live on inside their two-year-old daughter.

Warners Ponders How to Market Dark Knight and Ledger as Joker

What will Warners do to market Chris Nolan's The Dark Knight in the wake of Heath Ledger's death? After all, the studio was already rolling out the first phase of the campaign, focused on Ledger's The Joker. The studio will now have to shift focus to phase two: Aaron Eckhart as district attorney Harvey Dent/Two Face.

This tricky wicket would be daunting for any studio to confront, but it will prove especially challenging for the new WB marketing team under Jeffrey Robinov's leadership. Yes, moviegoers will want to check out Ledger's performance. But Warners has to tread very carefully in how they sell, promote and try not to exploit Ledger's role. Any misstep over the line could be very harmful. Here's Kim Master's story in Slate on this issue.

Terry Gilliam: Cursed by the Movie Gods

Director Terry Gilliam was close to Heath Ledger, who starred in his Brothers Grimm. But now he has to figure out how to finish The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus without Ledger. Has anyone been more plagued by bad-luck movie gods than Gilliam? There was the Don Quixote movie that never got made; the ill-fated Adventures of Baron Munchausen; Brothers Grimm; and Brazil (which inspired an entire book, The Battle of Brazil).

According to People, Gilliam is trying to figure out a way to keep Dr. Parnassus going, but reports of Johnny Depp (who starred in Gilliam's Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas) stepping in appear to be premature, as he is committed to filming a Michael Mann movie, Public Enemies.

Charisma as Natural as Gravity: Nolan on Ledger

Chris Nolan tributes his Dark Knight star Heath Ledger in Newsweek.

One night, as I'm standing on LaSalle Street in Chicago, trying to line up a shot for "The Dark Knight," a production assistant skateboards into my line of sight. Silently, I curse the moment that Heath first skated onto our set in full character makeup. I'd fretted about the reaction of Batman fans to a skateboarding Joker, but the actual result was a proliferation of skateboards among the younger crew members. If you'd asked those kids why they had chosen to bring their boards to work, they would have answered honestly that they didn't know. That's real charisma—as invisible and natural as gravity. That's what Heath had.

Heath was bursting with creativity. It was in his every gesture. He once told me that he liked to wait between jobs until he was creatively hungry. Until he needed it again. He brought that attitude to our set every day. There aren't many actors who can make you feel ashamed of how often you complain about doing the best job in the world. Heath was one of them.

The LAT's Reed Johnson did a nice job on Ledger as well, placing him in the context of vulnerable male actors. He's right: Ledger will inevitably be compared to James Dean. UPDATE: Here's a photo gallery in VF.

And here's Daniel Day Lewis from the SAG Awards, which made me cry:

Ledger Cause of Death Not Known

Here's an update on the Heath Ledger autopsy report. Warner Bros. is still trying to come to grips not only with his death, but how to proceed on finishing and marketing The Dark Knight (below). He was in the midst of filming Terry Gilliam's The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus (right). Ledger had starred in Gilliam's Brothers Grimm. UPDATE: Glenn Kenny's eulogy.