{"id":12554,"date":"2011-07-31T02:55:46","date_gmt":"2011-07-31T01:55:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/?p=12554"},"modified":"2011-07-31T02:55:46","modified_gmt":"2011-07-31T01:55:46","slug":"the-dark-knight-rises-starts-filming-in-pittsburgh","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/2011\/07\/31\/the-dark-knight-rises-starts-filming-in-pittsburgh\/","title":{"rendered":"The Dark Knight Rises Starts Filming in Pittsburgh"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-12556\" title=\"The Dark Knight Filming in Pittsburgh\" src=\"http:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/The-Dark-Knight-Filming-in-Pittsburgh1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"560\" height=\"280\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.thedarkknightrises.com\/\">The Dark Knight Rises<\/a><\/strong> began filming in <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Pittsburgh\">Pittsburgh<\/a> this week.<\/p>\n<p>Director Christopher Nolan, star Christian Bale and producer Emma Thomas recently spoke at a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bizjournals.com\/pittsburgh\/news\/2011\/07\/28\/batmans-nolan-bale-praise-pittsburgh.html?page=all\">press conference<\/a> hosted by the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.pghfilm.org\">Pittsburgh Film Office<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/nVVPGRxro0o\" frameborder=\"0\" width=\"560\" height=\"349\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>After words from the director of the film office and governor of Pennsylvania, Nolan mentioned that he was drawn to the &#8220;unique architecture&#8221; of the city and that it will be &#8220;somewhat disrupted&#8221; within the story of the film.<\/p>\n<p>Bale also made a joke about wearing the rubber batsuit in the hot weather despite the fake snow being used for some scenes and that they&#8217;ll be &#8220;fighting on the streets&#8221;, which suggests large outdoor action scenes.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0372784\/\">Batman Begins<\/a> (2005) and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0468569\/\">The Dark Knight<\/a> (2008) used a mixture of British and US locations, with <a href=\"http:\/\/www.chicagotribune.com\/entertainment\/chi-dark-knight-location-map,0,3631449.mapmashup\">Chicago being transformed into a memorable Gotham City<\/a>, especially in the second film.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;m not sure whether the reason for switching to Pittsburgh was financial (better tax breaks), artistic (maybe the look of the city was more suited to this film) or a mixture of both.<\/p>\n<p>In honour of the Batman crew arriving in town, the Batman logo was <a href=\"http:\/\/batman-news.com\/2011\/07\/27\/the-batsignal-shines-in-pittsburgh-for-the-dark-knight-rises\/\">projected on to the city skyline<\/a> a few nights ago.<\/p>\n<p>This news report shows that filming is going on in a residential street of the city:<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/SpdBbk4gwq4\" frameborder=\"0\" width=\"560\" height=\"349\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>They show the fake snow and the IMAX cameras that the film is being shot on: after filming <a href=\"http:\/\/www.theasc.com\/ac_magazine\/July2008\/TheDarkKnight\/page1.php\">most of the action sequences in The Dark Knight<\/a> on the <a href=\"http:\/\/entertainment.howstuffworks.com\/imax1.htm\">IMAX format<\/a>, DP <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Wally_Pfister\">Wally Pfister<\/a>\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.ropeofsilicon.com\/article\/cinematographer-wally-pfister-talks-about-the-dark-knight-rises\">has said<\/a> he wants to <a href=\"http:\/\/blog.moviefone.com\/2010\/04\/20\/wally-pfister-talks-about-shooting-batman-3-in-3-d\/\">shoot as much as possible<\/a> in the <a href=\"http:\/\/collider.com\/david-keighley-imax-interview-the-dark-knight-rises-tron-legacy\/66297\">larger, highest resolution format<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>By the way, this is what that house looks like on Google Street View:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-12557\" title=\"Google Maps Batman House\" src=\"http:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/Google-Maps-Batman-House.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"560\" height=\"496\" \/><\/p>\n<p>It seems odd that they are filming a massive blockbuster on what seems to be a small residential street, but perhaps Nolan wanted the raw feel of an actual location, rather than just duplicate buildings on a large soundstage.<\/p>\n<p>This CBS Pittsburgh report shows a bit more background, including how the production has paid for local residents to take their dogs away for a day (in case they bark during filming) and how a particular house has been completely taken over.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/oSziMVuasqA\" frameborder=\"0\" width=\"560\" height=\"450\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Footage has also surfaced of three Batmobiles, painted in the camoflage colours we saw in Batman Begins.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/hFnu_Lg0GI0\" frameborder=\"0\" width=\"560\" height=\"349\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/ndRzQDRm9QU\" frameborder=\"0\" width=\"560\" height=\"349\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>There are <a href=\"http:\/\/batman-news.com\/2011\/07\/14\/the-dark-knight-rises-to-shoot-at-heinz-field\/\">also reports<\/a> that the film is going to shoot a sequence at <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Heinz_Field\">Heinz Field<\/a>, the home of the <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Pittsburgh_Steelers\">Pittsburgh Steelers<\/a>, which holds 65,000 people.<\/p>\n<p>On the Steelers official website there is <a href=\"http:\/\/www.steelers.com\/news\/article-1\/Fans-can-be-a-part-of-The-Dark-Knight-Rises-filming\/a85c4719-2615-41a7-9aaa-021db31d069d\">this announcement<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Steelers fans can see the filming of \u201cThe Dark Knight Rises,\u201d in person as the movie will be shot in Pittsburgh and is looking for fans to be a part of a stadium crowd. The movie is looking for fans to fill a stadium in the Pittsburgh area on Saturday, August 6. The one-day filming runs from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. and is open to anyone 14-years old and up. Anyone under 18-years old must be accompanied by an adult. Fans will be asked to bring the same energy they do to Steelers games as they cheer on the Gotham Rogues in a football game against their rival the Rapid City Monuments.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>In recent movies involving large stadium crowds, such as <a href=\"http:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt1057500\/\">Invictus<\/a> (2009), the trend was to use visual effects to fill out the ground, but it seems like Nolan and his team want to create the live action atmosphere of a real game.<\/p>\n<p>One theory about the new film is that there is a strong connection with the first <a href=\"http:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0372784\/\">Nolan Batman film<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>If you&#8217;ve seen the recent teaser trailer, the scene with Gordon (Gary Oldman) in a hospital bed suggests that Bruce Wayne reneged on the deal they struck at the end of The Dark Knight.<\/p>\n<p>It doesn&#8217;t take a genius to work out that the evil that Gordon talks of is something to do with <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Bane_(comics)\">Bane<\/a> (Tom Hardy) and my guess is that for the new film Batman has to begin all over again.<\/p>\n<p>Not only does Gotham presuambly blame him for the death of <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Two-Face#Film\">Harvey Dent<\/a>, but I suspect that Nolan wants to bring things full circle with the first film so that the franchise has a neat resolution (I think he has decided that this will definitely be his last).<\/p>\n<p>We shall find out what happens when the film opens next July, but it is interesting to see that they are utilising the exterior locations of an American city.<\/p>\n<p>Part of what has made the franchise work so well is the mixture of fantastical subject matter within a believable, urban world.<\/p>\n<p>It seems that Pittsburgh is going to provide another side to Nolan&#8217;s Gotham.<\/p>\n<p>&gt; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.thedarkknightrises.com\/\">Official site for The Dark Knight Rises<\/a><br \/>\n&gt; <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Pittsburgh\">Find out more about Pittsburgh<\/a> at Wikipedia<br \/>\n&gt; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/TDKRises\">Facebook page for The Dark Knight Rises<\/a><br \/>\n&gt; <a href=\"http:\/\/batman-news.com\">Batman News<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Dark Knight Rises began filming in Pittsburgh this week at various locations around the city.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12556,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23,2],"tags":[2141,1791],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12554"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12554"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12554\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12556"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12554"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12554"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12554"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}