Movie Review: Eagle Eye fast paced action

Eagle Eye movie review, major cast interviews and trailer for the movie.


Eagle eye is an implausible story with great camera work and directing with a good actor. Who needs a plausible story in an action film as long as their is excitement and the story moves quickly. As far as acting I thought Shia LaBeouf was `into it' at a much higher level than Michelle Monaghan or Billy Bob Thorton.

It is not the best movie ever made and pails in comparison to the Bourne Identity for an action flick. It does touch on the `big brother watching' concept, but really at the end of Eagle Eye, there's no lesson, no moral, no ethical conundrum that makes it all worthwhile. It was just, hey, stuff happened, it was a rush, let's move on with our lives. It does get extra points for filming in Chicago.

There is a lot of talk about how much of the ideas was lifted from other movies- I'll list those at the bottom of the post.

Plot via IMD :

Jerry and Rachel are two strangers thrown together by a mysterious phone call from a woman they have never met. Threatening their lives and family, she pushes Jerry and Rachel into a series of increasingly dangerous situations, using the technology of everyday life to track and control their every move

Quick details:

Steven Spielberg served as executive producer on the film.

The writer Dan McDermott previousllywrote 13 episodes for a non renewed television series series called Angele's Eyes.

Directed by D.J. Caruso

Born in Norwalk, Connecticut, Caruso came west to play tennis and study Television Production at Pepperdine University. Interned at Disney Studios in the Product Placement department and later hooked up with Director John Badham, who mentored him into a second-unit director, after Badham lost his 2nd-unit director Rob Cohen to a first-unit directing career. He hooked up with writer Scott Rosenberg, who penned a short film for him entitled, Cyclops, Baby (1997). The film helped launch Caruso's directing career.

Other movies/ shows directed:

1. Disturbia (2007)
2. "The Shield" (4 episodes, 2002-2006)
   - Kavanaugh (2006) TV episode
   - Extraction (2006) TV episode
   - Pay in Pain (2002) TV episode
   - Cherrypoppers (2002) TV episode
3. Two for the Money (2005)

Actor Shia LaBeouf was 22 when he acts in this movie. Born June 11, 1986, in Los Angeles, California, he was an only child. His parents are divorced, and he lives with his mom in Los Angeles. He started his career by doing stand-up comedy around places in his neighborhood, such as coffee clubs. He's well known for playing Louis Stevens in the popular Disney Channel series "Even Stevens" (2000) and has won a Daytime Emmy for his performance.

Recent movies he's made:

1. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008) .... Mutt Williams
2. Transformers (2007) .... Sam Witwicky
   ... aka Transformers: The IMAX Experience (USA: IMAX version)
3. Transformers: The Game (2007) (VG) (voice) .... Sam Witwicky
4. Surf's Up (2007) (voice) .... Cody Maverick
5. Surf's Up (2007) (VG) (voice) .... Cody Maverick
6. Disturbia (2007) .... Kale
   
   
7. Bobby (2006) .... Cooper
8. A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints (2006) .... Young Dito
9. The Greatest Game Ever Played (2005) .... Francis Ouimet
10. Constantine (2005) .... Chas Kramer
    ... aka Constantine (Germany)
11. I, Robot (2004) .... Farber
    ... aka I, Robot (Germany)
12. The Battle of Shaker Heights (2003) (as Shia La Beouf) .... Kelly Ernswiler
13. Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle (2003) .... Max

Chuck the Movieguy interviews Shia LaBeouf for the movie Eagle Eye. Presented in You Tube HD.




Michelle Monaghan soon to be a mother, plays the heroic female lead.

Michelle Lynn Monaghan was born on March 23, 1976,in Winthrop, Iowa.
She studied journalism for three years at Chicago's Columbia College. In order to pay for college, she took a job as a model. In 1999, she quit college and moved to New York to work full-time as a fashion model.she starred opposite Robert Downey Jr. and Val Kilmer in the black comedy Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (2005). Later in 2005, Monaghan was filming in China, Italy, and the United States on Mission: Impossible III (2006), as the female lead opposite Tom Cruise.Other recent movies she has made:Made of Honor (2008)
Other Recent Movies:

Trucker (2008) .... Diane Ford

The Heartbreak Kid (2007) .... Miranda

Gone Baby Gone (2007) .... Angie Gennaro

Mission: Impossible III (2006) .... Julia

North Country (2005) .... Sherry

Mr. & Mrs. Smith (2005) .... Gwen
... aka Mr. and Mrs. Smith (Australia)

Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (2005) .... Harmony Faith Lane

Constantine (2005) (uncredited) .... Ellie

The Bourne Supremacy (2004) .... Kim

Billy Bob Thorton. Academy Award winner Thornton is involved in several pursuits, from acting to directing and even jamming out with his hillbilly band, the Boxmasters, who just released a new album.



In his latest action thriller, "Eagle Eye," Thornton plays Thomas Morgan, an FBI agent working against the clock to thwart a plot against the government.

Other Recent movies:

1. Eagle Eye (2008) .... Agent Thomas Morgan
   ... aka Eagle Eye: The IMAX Experience (USA: IMAX version)
2. Mr. Woodcock (2007) .... Jasper Woodcock
   
   
3. The Astronaut Farmer (2006) .... Charles Farmer
   
   
4. School for Scoundrels (2006) .... Dr. P
5. The Ice Harvest (2005) .... Vic
6. Bad News Bears (2005) .... Morris Buttermaker
7. Friday Night Lights (2004) .... Coach Gary Gaines
8. The Alamo (2004) .... Davy Crockett
   ... aka The Alamo (Philippines: English title)
9. Chrystal (2004) .... Joe
10. Bad Santa (2003) .... Willie
    ... aka Badder Santa (USA: longer version)
11. Love Actually (2003) .... The US President
12. Intolerable Cruelty (2003) .... Howard D. Doyle
13. Levity (2003) .... Manuel Jordan
14. Waking Up in Reno (2002) .... Lonnie Earl Dodd
15. The Badge (2002) .... Sheriff Darl Hardwick

Unscripted "Eagle Eye" Shia Labeouf, Michelle Monaghan and D.J. Caruso




"Eagle Eye trailer"





Other Movies Eagle Eye has been compared to , as in using very similar ideas:

Emily Behrendt and Pax Whitmore wrote

Eagle Eye can be almost entirely pieced together by using clips from other, better movies, including I, Robot, Terminator, Live Free or Die Hard, Enemy of the State, The Man Who Knew Too Much, The Fugitive and War Games.

Lisa Miller Wrote:

“Eagle Eye” assembles bits from a host of better films to form a watchable collage. Though little is original, the film borrows well from classics such as “The Matrix,” “North By Northwest,” “Terminator,” and “Enemy of The State.”

James Scott however suspects it rips off Hitchcock:

"I missed Disturbia (starring Shia LaBeouf) in the theaters, and after I’d heard that it was basically a watered-down version of Hitchcock’s Rear Window, I saw no compelling need to rush out and buy or rent it. Now, LaBeouf and Disturbia director D.J. Caruso regroup for Eagle Eye, which can charitably be called a watered-down version of Hitchcock’s The Man Who Knew Too Much, replete with a shameless rip-off of the famous “Albert Hall sequence, plus a few overtones of North by Northwest."

Babylon A.D = Volence and Stupidity & Vin Diesel

Rating Advisory: for intense sequences of violence and action, language and some sexuality. Trailer at bottom of post.
Starring : Vin Diesel,Michelle Yeoh,Melanie Thierry,Girard Depardieu,Charlotte Rampling

Synopsis :
It is the not-too-distant future. Thousands of satellites scan, observe and monitor our every move. Much of the planet is a war zone; the rest, a collection of wretched way stations, teeming megalopolises, and vast wastelands punctuated by areas left radioactive from nuclear meltdowns. It is a world made for hardened warriors, one of whom, a mercenary known only as Toorop, lives by a simple survivor's code: kill or be killed. His latest assignment has him smuggling a young woman named Aurora from a convent in Kazakhstan to New York City. Toorop, his new young charge Aurora and Aurora's guardian Sister Rebeka embark on a 6,000-mile journey that takes them from Eastern Europe, through a refugee camp in "New Russia," across the Bering Straight in a pilfered submarine, then through the frozen tundra of Alaska and Canada, and finally to New York. Facing obstacles at every turn, Toorop, the killer for hire, is tested like never before, in ways he could never have imagined--as he comes to understand that he is the custodian of the only hope for the future of mankind. For the first time in his life, Toorop has to make a choice: to make a difference or walk away and save himself. Too bad it came on the day he died.



Vin Diesal

This is a Vin Diesal dominated film. If you appreciate Vin Diesal, and all his subtly, you will like this movie. If you are a critical movie watcher, however, this movie will rate low. Even the director panned it, saying the studio (Fox) destroyed what he had hoped to make.

Vin Diesel (born Mark Sinclair Vincent; July 18, 1967) is an American actor, writer, director, and producer. While he prefers to identify himself as a "multi-faceted" actor he has played a number of similar roles,this role falls into his `ussual tough guy character.'

Diesel has Italian and Black ancestry. He has described himself as "definitely a person of color" and stated that he is "of ambiguous ethnicity - Italian and a lot of other stuff". Diesel has never met his biological father, and was raised by his African-American stepfather, Irving, an acting instructor and theatre manager,

Vin Diesel has a daughter, Hania Riley, born April 2, 2008, with his girlfriend, model Paloma Jimenez.



My reaction to Babylon A.D

It opens with a gritty counterbalance between the sacred and the profane, a prayer before a meal, an execution without pity. It plays on the counter balance of technological advancement at the same time as societies decay. It puts the unholy with the holy, and plays with the ultimate meaning. That's how I felt after the first five minutes.

Much of the movie seems stolen from What do Children of Men, with little Fifth Element ( a movie the director had a small acting role in) and Minority Report, and is full of post-Matrix, follow-the-flying-projectile effects that had no payoff except a major explosion.

I especially did not like Melanie Thierry's character. As one reviewer wrote " As the plot's potential Mary (Typhoid or Virgin), she's a whiny, wounded little brat. When we're introduced to her, she's supposed to be wide-eyed and innocent. By the end, she's so smug and self-righteous we can't wait for her moment of martyrdom. In between tantrums aimed at showing how salient she is, Kassovitz treats her like a prop -- necessary for the narrative but lacking any reason for empathy or concern."

FUN pre-release trailer:
so-called official trailer to the Mathieu Kassovitz-directed/co-scripted action sci-fi has come out. Uniquely made, the video lampooned most of highlighted movies this summer from "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" to "Sex and the City" and "The Dark Knight".






The Director Slams his own film

Filmmaker Mathieu Kassovitz has blamed Twentieth Century Fox bosses for savagely editing his forthcoming film Babylon A.D., comparing the final cut to "a bad episode of 24".

The French director insists studio executives battled against him throughout the sci-fi movie's production, first slashing his budget and later cutting out 15 minutes of the film he believed to be crucial to the plot.


He says: "I'm very unhappy with the film. I never had a chance to do one scene the way it was written or the way I wanted it to be. The script wasn't respected. Bad producers, bad partners - it was a terrible experience.


"It's pure violence and stupidity... All the action scenes had a goal: They were supposed to be driven by either a metaphysical point of view or experience for the characters.

"Instead parts of the movie are like a bad episode of 24."


Now Kassovitz admits he regrets striking a deal with the corporation in the first place. He adds: "I should have chosen a studio that has guts. Fox was just trying to get a PG-13 movie. I'm ready to go to war against them, but I can't because they don't give a shit."
(Ref )

Though sending a bad vibe, the 41-year-old still noted that there are some parts of it that he likes saying, "I like the energy of it and I got some scenes I'm happy with. But I know what I had - I had something much better in my hands but I just wasn't allowed to work." He also said, "The scope of the original book was quite amazing. The author was very much into geopolitics and how the world is going to evolve. He saw that as wars evolve, it won't be just about territories any more, but money-driven politics. As a director it's something that's very attractive to do."

Adapted from Maurice Georges Dantec's French novel Babylon Babies.

http://www.aceshowbiz.com/images/events/LRS-038016.jpg = directors pic

Mathieu Kassovitz (born 3 April 1967) is a French director, screenwriter, producer and actor, and is considered one of contemporary France's top emerging film talents,

Kassovitz is most famous outside France for his role as Nino Quincampoix in Jean-Pierre Jeunet's film Amélie. Among many other credits, he also had small roles in La Haine (which he also directed), Birthday Girl, Café Au Lait and The Fifth Element. He also played one of the main roles in Amen. (2003) by Costa-Gavras. Kassovitz is also recognizable for playing a conflicted Belgian explosives expert in Steven Spielberg's controversial 2005 film Munich, alongside Eric Bana and Geoffrey Rush. He explained several times he accepted acting parts only for the experience of knowing what it is to act, to be able to be a better director of actors afterward, to meet directors he admires and learn from them by working with them, and to take part in great projects.


Kassovitz set up the film production firm MNP Entreprise in 2000 "to develop and produce feature films by Kassovitz and to represent him as a director and actor."[4] MNP Entreprise is responsible for the co-productions of a number of films including Avida (2006) in which Kassovits acts and Babylon A.D. which he directed. Kassovitz purchased the film rights for the novel Johnny Mad Dog by Congolese writer Emmanuel Dongala. The film was also co-produced by MNP Entreprise, and directed by Jean-Stéphane Sauvaire. The premiere of the film was made at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival where it was screened within the Un Certain Regard section.[5] MNP Entreprise's upcoming titles are Rebellion and MNP. Kassovitz will both star in and direct Rebellion, a war film based on a true story of French commandos who clashed with tribes in New Caledonia, the Melanesian territory of France. The film will start shooting at the end of 2008. The science fiction film MNP is named after Mir Space Station, whose writing in Cyrillic letters (Мир) look like the letters MNP, and also the production company. The film is set to start shooting in 2011. [6]

ACTUAL TRAILER

Pineapple Express: Great directing, great acting.

Trailer at the bottom of the post  

Be aware: Despite a "warning," the movie is enthusiastically pro-pot.

But really it's not a `pot film' it's a buddy flick.
This is a classic buddy film. The two buddies happen to be potheads, (but not like Cheech and Chong,) The pot smoking acts as a central prop, and allows for some deep conversations and considerations. Don't be put off though- lots of violence and a classic car chase. The directing is spot on, and the movie flows pretty quickly.


A buddy film, according to The Complete Film Dictionary, is "a film that features the friendship of two males as the major relationship". Ira Konigsberg, author of the dictionary, further defines the genre: "Such films extol the virtues of male comradeship and relegate male-female relationships to a
The definition of a buddie film subsidiary position. Male relationships have always been a significant element in our popular culture, from the Leatherstocking Tales of James Fenimore Cooper to television beer commercials."

According to the Journal of Popular Film and Television, buddy films emerged in the 1970s in response to the feminist movement. The journal reported, "To punish women for their desire for equality, the buddy film pushes them out of the center of the narrative and replaces the traditional central romantic relationship between a man and a woman with a buddy relationship between two men. By making both protagonists men, the central issue of the film becomes the growth and development of their friendship. Women as potential love interests are thus eliminated from the narrative space.

That describes this movie. I don't think women will like it as much as males.

I have been told that if you liked Superbad, chances are you'll find something in Pineapple Express to like. While Superbad
 concentrated on friendships between boys during their teen years, this new Seth Rogen movie focuses on men in their mid twenties.


Plot summary for Pineapple Express (2008)IMD

Lazy court-process clerk and stoner Dale Denton has only one reason to visit his equally lazy dealer Saul Silver: to purchase weed, specifically, a rare new strain called Pineapple Express. But when Dale becomes the only witness to a murder by a crooked cop and the city's most dangerous drug lord, he panics and dumps his roach of Pineapple Express at the scene. Dale now has another reason to visit Saul: to find out if the weed is so rare that it can be traced back to him--and it is. As Dale and Saul run for their lives, they quickly discover that they're not suffering from weed-fueled paranoia: incredibly, the bad guys really are hot on their trail and trying to figure out the fastest way to kill them both. All aboard the Pineapple Express.


Director:David Gordon Green
Writers (WGA):Seth Rogen (screenplay) &
Evan Goldberg (screenplay) ...
Release Date:6 August 2008 (USA)
Genre: Comedy | Crime | Thriller



You can stream the entire movieit live now through Amazons Streaming Video Service- CLICK HERE

Wanted - The Movie - Great Fun

Wanted:
Directed by: Timbor Bekmambetov
Written by: Michael Brandt, Derek Haas, Chris Morgan
Starring: James McAvoy, Morgan Freeman,
Angelina Jolie, Thomas Kretschmann, Common

Wanted is two thumbs up.

It is similar in ways to the Bourn Identity, Spider Man and the Matrix (especially in special effects) and more recently Iron Man. If you liked those movies you will most likely like this.

One reviewer ( at Salon.com) hit it on the head with this comment:

(Angelina Jolie), carves out a distinctly human space in the midst of the movie's outlandish, joyously depraved violence. "Wanted" is fast-moving and bloody, enjoyable even within its apologetically generic limits. But James McAvoy is its real secret weapon:


With his X-ray blue eyes and lips that look bitten with anxiety, he has the miraculous ability to fool us into thinking there's really something at stake here."

Robert Ebert warns: "“Wanted,” directed by a hot Russian actionmeister named Timur Bekmambetov, is a film entire lacking in two organs I always appreciate in a movie: a heart and a mind. It is mindless, heartless, preposterous. By the end of the film, we can’t even believe the values the plot seems to believe, since the plot is deceived right along with us. The way to enjoy this film is to put your logic on hold, along with any higher sensitivities that might be vulnerable and immerse yourself as if in a video game."

And maybe he's right, on one hand. But there is a deeper message that I took from the film- the stupidity to blindly commit violent acts( because your superiors told you too- after brainwashing you.)

The basic plot of the story is a young guy in a bad relationship and in a boring job, discovers that his father who left his mother and he when he was seven- was a member of an elite group of assassins. (With the religious reference some might suspect a little hat tip towards the Knights of the Templar as portrayed in the Di Vinci Code). Not only is he the son of one, if not the best assassin, but he has a unique skill of focused attention- something he had thought was severe anxiety, and was taking medication for.

As a reviewer, I thought McAvoy did the stand out job, followed closely by the special effect people. Jolie and and Morgan Freedman were greatly limited in capturing caricatures that meant `more' than just roles.

Another Hat Tip to the review at 353 Review whose haiku review is on target.

KILLING CREW
BOOMERANG BULLETS
MINDLESS FUN

Review by Paul Grant (Follower of Basho)

"Being a man doesn't come Easy" -Never Back Down Movie Review

"Being a man doesn't come Easy" -Never Back Down

(No Spoilers- Trailer and Xtra-Clips at the bottom:  Never Back Down Training WEpisode and Amber Heard interview)

Never Back Down is about a high school male Sean Faris (Reunion, Smallville) named Jake Tyler who has personal problems: his father, while drunk, drove into a tree and killed himself. Jake was in the car and survived. Jake knew his dad was drunk, but didn't make any attempt to stop him before he drove. (This all happens before the movie begins.)

Jake is conflicted because not only does he blame himself, but his mother (Leslie Hope, quite good) seems to hold it against him too. And as time passes he becomes a problem teen, whose problems his mother dramatically recites as a growing pattern of statistics.

The family, Jake, his mother and a younger brother (Wyatt Smith, cute) move from Ohio to Florida so that the younger brother can study tennis.



Jake discovers that at the new high school there is an under-ground fight club. The catch is that the top fighters don't just box. If they did, Jake might have had a chance. "Boxing is old school, as dead as Louis and Marciano."




The movie revolves around two major themes: Everybody has their own fight, and never back down. How do you do this? According to the movie by facing your demons and overcoming bullies.

The movie has been compared to Karate Kid and Fight Club. It is not anything like the twisted plotline of Fight Club (the movie is in a class all it's own), but there is a fight club and one of the actors Ryan (Cam Gigandet) does look and act a bit like the ripped Brad Pitt from that movie.

It is much more mature and violent than Karate kid, but it does have a mentor teaching a guy discipline. The actor Djimon Hounsou ( read more about this actor here) plays Brazilian from Senegal who teaches conditioning, restraint, doggedness, and winning the mental game. I thought he was great.

The dialogue is flip and hip, the fight scenes are well `clipped'. I have been told that they don't exhibit the best fighting- but how they are filmed I thought, made them intense. See the training the actors went through in video at bottom of post.)

Amber Heard on top of Sean Faris

There is a romance sub plot , and a `what you do for your friends' angle. There is the `now-ness' of instant communication via youtube like videos. And though the movie is predictable in it's outcome - what makes it fresh is how the character of Jake really comes to understand his need for controlling his temper and anger, even if sometimes, the only thing a bully understands is a beat-down.



You Can Watch The Entire Movie On-Line right now
for $2.99 through Amazon Streaming Videoes  Click Here
   


Never Back Down Training Webisode


Amber Heard interview

Djimon Hounsou

DJIMON HOUNSOU Date of Birth: April 24, 1964

Born in the small village of Cotenou, in Benin, Africa, Djimon Hounsou fell in love with movies when he was a boy, going to the local theater every Wednesday to watch American westerns. The youngest of five children, he was sent by his parents to live with his oldest brother in Lyons, France to attend school there when he was 13, but he ran away and lived on the streets of Paris. For several years he was homeless, sleeping under bridges, searching garbage cans for food, begging for money and washing in a public fountain near the Pompidou Centre. He doesn?t like to talk about that time, but says, "I thought I could make my dreams come true in Paris but things always seemed to work against me."

That is, until he was discovered by French fashion designer Thierry Muglar. Muglar was looking for a complete unknown to be his new model and happened to see some photos that had been taken of Hounsou. The young man not only went on to become a top male model in Paris, but wound up travelling the world for various modelling jobs. His career took a turn in 1989 when Madonna saw him modelling in Los Angeles and asked him to be in her Express Yourself video. Although he didn?t need to speak English for the shoot, Hounsou realized that it would be a good idea to master the language if he wanted to move on to films and television work. Watching The Learning Channel, A&E and The Discovery Channel helped him to expand his vocabulary.

In the meantime, Hounsou appeared in more music videos for artists such as Steve Winwood, Paula Abdul and Janet Jackson. In 1990, he landed his first television role as a nightclub doorman on the television series Beverley Hills 90210. By 1996, he had only landed a few minor roles in small budget films when he suddenly got a call from Steven Spielberg. It turned out that the director had seen Hounsou?s videos and wanted him to audition for a role in his new film, Amistad (1997). Hounsou won the role of Joseph Cinqué, the leader of a slave revolt. The part was his big breakthrough, earning him a Golden Globe nomination.

In 1999, he landed a recurring role on the hit TV series E.R., playing Mobalage Ikabo in six episodes. His next big role in a feature film came when he played Juba in Gladiator (2000), starring Russell Crowe. Hounsou had no trouble finding work after that. In 2001 his command of French came in handy when he played a supporting role in the French film Le Boulet (2002). In The Four Feathers (2002), he played Abou Fatma, who helps Heath Ledger make it through the desert to rescue his friends. He also appeared in the western-themed film Muraya (2002), starring Michael Madsen and Juliette Lewis. In 2004, his career heated up when he received an Academy Award nomination for his role as a man with AIDS who is befriended by two young girls in In America (2003).



His second nomination came just a few years later, for his critically-acclaimed performance in Blood Diamond (2006). Hounsou lives in Los Angeles.

Filmography:

Push (2008)
Never Back Down (2008)
Eragon (2006)
Blood Diamond (2006)
The Island (2005)
Beauty Shop (2005)
Constantine (2005)
Blueberry (2004)
In America (2003)
Lara Croft: Tomb Raider - The Cradle of Life (2003)
Biker Boyz (2003)
Muraya (2002)
The Four Feathers (2002)
Le Boulet (2002)
Gladiator (2000)
Deep Rising (1998)
The Small Hours (1997)
Ill Gotten Gains (1997)
Amistad (1997)
Stargate (1994)
Unlawful Entry (1992)
Without You I?m Nothing (1990)

Heath Ledger's Batman Movie Trailer

Heath Ledger's performance as Joker Makes Dramatic Entrance As "Batman: The Dark Knight" Is Unveiled.

(Trailer at bottom of post)

LAS VEGAS — This time out, there's no vat of chemicals to explain how Batman's greatest enemy came to be the twisted sociopath known as the Joker.



Heath Ledger's Joker springs full-blown in this summer's "The Dark Knight," the sequel to 2005's "Batman Begins" that was previewed for theater owners Thursday with a clip showing the new movie's opening sequence.

Unlike 1989's "Batman," in which the deranged, disfigured clown appearance of Jack Nicholson's Joker resulted from a dip in chemical goo, "The Dark Knight" starts right in with the bad guy in all his psychopathic glory.



"I believe whatever doesn't kill you simply makes you stranger," Ledger's depraved Joker cryptically tells an accomplice in the opening scenes, in which he pulls off a daring bank robbery.

In an interview at ShoWest, a theater-owners convention where distributor Warner Bros. showed off footage of "The Dark Knight" and the rest of its summer lineup, director Christopher Nolan said it was almost inevitable that the sequel would pit Christian Bale's Batman against the Joker.

"The psychopathic clown, that's an icon to stand with the guy with the ears and cape," Nolan said. "It's just a wonderful visual relationship, and it's a terrifying image."

Long before Ledger's death of an accidental prescription drug overdose in January, the marketing of the movie had focused on the villain's rise to power and his creepy appearance.

There had been speculation among critics and fans that the studio and filmmakers might take a different approach to selling the film in light of Ledger's death, but the marketing has gone on as originally planned.

"I think he'd be very pleased to see we're just moving ahead as is," Nolan said. "If you try to honor somebody, you honor them by respecting their work and putting it out there for as many people to see. He was immensely proud of the work he did on the film. I feel a great burden to present that in an undistorted form."

"The Dark Knight" is due in theaters July 18.

The last time producer Charles Roven saw Ledger was when he showed the actor the very footage that was screened at ShoWest.

Fans have been buzzing over the anarchic style Ledger brings to the role in the movie's trailer, but the actor himself was utterly taken by what he saw of himself on screen, Roven said.

"He was just blown away by his own performance," Roven said. "He said, `Can I see it again?' So he was really, really thrilled."



Bale _ reprising his role as the wealthy Bruce Wayne, who moonlights as the emotionally tormented crimefighter _ said he watched the footage Thursday with a heaviness of heart over Ledger. But Bale said he hopes the movie will serve as a testament.

"I hope that this can be seen as a celebration of his work," Bale said. "He did a phenomenal job. It was a real joy working with the man. It was a joy knowing him, as well. I liked him a great deal, and I liked also how seriously he took his work."

MIchelle Williams And Others Break Silence Over Heath Ledger



People and Us Weekly both have excerpts of an April Interview magazine piece on Heath Ledger. In it, ex-fiancee Michelle Williams breaks her silence for the first time, as does ex Naomi Watts.

Some of what Williams said:

"I think the interesting thing about Heath, which maybe people have only really fully discovered in his death, is how vulnerable he was...


"You can pick it up on it in his performances, but it's easy to overlook because he was so physical and beautiful and strong and masculine," she adds. "But there was always that underlying sensitivity. That's who he was...

"For as long as I'd known him, he had bouts with insomnia," she says. "He had too much energy. His mind was turning, turning turning -- always turning."




Williams -- who has a daughter, Matilda, 2, with Ledger -- adds, "He had a talent for everything that he put his mind to. He didn't know limits."

And others:



• Naomi Watts: "He was a huge, obsessive, chess freak - and very, very good at it."



• Ellen DeGeneres: "He didn't try to be something that he wasn't. And I appreciated that."


• Phillip Seymour Hoffman: "Whenever Heath talked about something he liked, he did it in the way that any fan would. He wasn't somebody trying to cover up his excitement about something, or someone."