The biggest leak yet from the upcoming movie THE DARK KNIGHT came in the form of pictures last week.  Several sites had the pics posted only to be asked…or ordered(?) by Warner Brothers to take them down. 

Now, I’m not much of a finder.  If something leaks and I want to see it, I better be there when it first hits the net.  Otherwise, I just get to read or hear descriptions.  Fortunately, though, I have a contact who has contacts.  (Sometimes he wears glasses.)(Ugh…baaaad joke.)So, when I heard of these leaked pics, I gave him a call.  A few hours later, I checked my inbox and there they were. 

I don’t feel right posting them.  Obviously, Warner Brothers doesn’t want them out there, and I don’t want to end up being the website that only saw two months old.

However, suffice to say they look great.   The pictures are all one picture arranged filmstrip style.  There are about 18 of them on the strip of pics.  Instead of describing each on individually, I will just give the highlights.  This stuff will contain spoilers, so you are warned.

If you’ve read the description of the footage shown at Wizard World Chicago, then you will be familiar with two of the pictures. They are of Joker and Batman in an interrogation type room.  One is the Joker sitting in a chair with Batman behind him, and the next has the Joker on the ground with Batman standing over him. 

There is a shot of Batman riding the Batpod.  A shot of the Batmobile. 

There is a picture similar to the one released where the Joker has Maggie Gyllenhaal’s Rachel Dawes at knifepoint.  This particuliar picture looks to be a continuation of that scene.

There is a picture of Batman perched on Jim Gordon’s back porch, a pic of him looking over the city at night, and a couple of action shots.  One has him on the side of a van slicing through the side.   The other two are of him descending (similar to what he did in Arkham in BATMAN BEGINS) and landing on top of a car, smashing it pretty good.

There are a couple of shots of Bruce and Alfred together.  Most interesting is a shot of them in a very well lit room.  The picture of the Batmobile is in this same area and there is a shot of a pretty elaborate computer set up in the same area.  Could this be the new Batcave?  Most likely.  The question I have is, will there be a well lit area like this is the cave, or will they apply filters and stuff to darken and “dank it up” a bit?

The coup de grace for me though is the last pic in the strip.  It is a close up of the Joker. It’s interesting to note that unlike previous incarnations, apparently, his white skin is makeup.  He looks like he’s been through the ringer does Joker and his makeup is streaking and smearing a bit and the green color is coming out of his hair. 

Also of note is that in every picture, the Joker is wearing his trademark purple clothes. 

In the photos there are no pictures of Aaron Eckhart as Harvey Dent, which means no sign of the scene mentioned in the Wizard World footage description.

So there it is, not necessarily a pic by pic detailed description, but you get the gist.

A couple of weeks ago, the web was on fire about the footage of Iron Man shown at The San Diego ComiCon.   The Dark Knight was conspicuous in its absence.   Yeah, there was a little guerrilla marketing.  Yeah, the teaser was debuted.  (A teaser which could tease a little more if you ask me.)  It seemed though that Iron Man stole the show and we would be stuck waiting for months for anything else to come out of the Dark Knight camp.

Well, unbeknownst to us then (but knownst to us now!), Chris Nolan and the rest of the crew from the Dark Knight production were holding their cards close to swoop in a take the day at Wizard World Chicago.  If you’re a geek at all, you probably already know this, but there was a trailer of sorts shown at Wizard World that answered a lot of questions and got a ton of cheers.  Basically, while Iron Man was revelling in success in San Diego, The Dark Knight lit up Chicago and threw down the gauntlet for all other super hero movies to come next Summer. 

To read a recap of what was shown click here. Be warned that there are some spoilers, and one major spoiler that can only be a scene from the very end of the movie much like Batman flipping over the Joker card in “Begins.”

To read the reaction of a fan that was there and see a T-shirt I wish they’d sell, click here. Same spoilers, with a bit more about the actual experience of being there.

Basically, what I’ve learned in the past two weeks is I’m gonna have to quit my job and begin doing something that will allow me to constantly travel during the convention season. Only then will you not have heard it here last!

I’m really not sure what to make of this.  According to Superherohype.com this is the real deal.  It doesn’t match the description they posted a few day back, but the first voices are almost unmistakably those of Christian Bale and Michael Cain.  The final voice is apparently Heath Ledger as The Joker…not sure I like the sound of it.  If this IS the trailer that will be shown this Friday with the Simpsons, and is apparently being shown at San Diego ComiCon this weekend, then color me underwhelmed.  I know it’s just a teaser, but I was hoping for a bit more.  Judge for yourself….

Just by way of comparison, here is the teaser for Batman Begins.

At least with that teaser a couple of years back, we got to see a flash of Batman. Here…nothing. A bit disappointing as far as teasers go.

I realize that I’m not much on breaking movie news, but I do know where to find things.  This is a video posted my someone on Youtube.  Now, the annual mecca of geekdom, the San Dieago Comic-Con, takes place this week and we have been told that the teaser trailer for the Dark Knight (The highly anticipated sequel to Batman Begins) will be debuted there.  This video looks nothing like what I was told the teaser would be, but it DOES look like whoever was filming this  was sitting in a screening room secretly filming this bad boy.  I don’t know.  If this is real, I was hoping for something a little more out of the teaser.  However, if it IS Heath Ledgers voice as the Joker, it sounds pretty good.  Here ya go…..