Today there was an interesting thing that happened that caused some sites to look bad and others to ignore the event completely. While I want to start out by saying that what I am about to talk about has already been proved to be incorrect and fake, I feel it is important to get the word out there so fans who read something online don't get confused because of the lack of clarification.
Early this morning an email was sent to a number of entertainment sites including Collider.com and Batman-News.com, among others. The email was a press release stating it was from Warner Bros. confirming earlier reports of Marion Cotillard and Joseph Gordon-Levitt being cast in The Dark Knight Rises. Here is the "press release":
Warner Bros. Pictures announced today that Marion Cotillard and Joseph Gordon-Levitt have been cast in Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight Rises and will join an ensemble cast alongside Christian Bale who returns in the title role of Bruce Wayne/Batman. They will play Talia al Ghul and Roman Sionis respectively.
On casting Cotillard, Director Christopher Nolan stated, “I am delighted to have the opportunity to work with Marion again and have no doubt she will be a great addition to our ensemble cast and bring to life a key part of the universe we have created as we finish our story.”
On the addition of Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Nolan said, “I am thrilled to be working with Joseph again after a delightful experience working with him on Inception and am certain he will deliver another thrilling performance as one of Batman’s most popular villains.”
Nolan will direct the film from a screenplay he wrote with Jonathan Nolan, from a story by Christopher Nolan and David S. Goyer. Nolan will also produce the film with his longtime producing partner, Emma Thomas, and Charles Roven.
The Dark Knight Rises is slated for release on July 20, 2012. The film will be distributed worldwide by Warner Bros. Pictures, a Warner Bros. Entertainment Company.
You may be thinking to yourself that that press release sounds very familiar. Well, that may be because it is almost exactly similar to the January press release from Warner Bros. Now, I have to say when I originally saw this fake press release before it was proven fake, I thought this was interesting. The writer clearly made it so that Roman Sionis was mentioned instead of Black Mask. I found this interesting, but also a little concerning since that would make four villains/eventual villains in the film.
The press release was proven incorrect by some simple deduction. The email address that sent the email was warnerbrospicturesmedia@hotmail.com. I mean, really?
What concerns me more about this whole debacle is that even though this was something that was fake, there were a lot of sites that posted this up as an actual story and the internet started buzzing. When it was proven fake, they took the story down and left it out there without any explanation. Comic Book Resources and Comic Book Movie both posted a story on this and there entries were deleted. Collider.com is the only site that legitimately wrote up an article explaining the press release to be a fake. Props to them since right now there are over 400 entries about the fake press release on Google news all under the impression that this was real.
It's one thing not to report something because it was false. But it is different to completely ignore something when the internet is talking about it and can get no clarification anywhere about the authenticity of something. That's why we do this. Well, that and Bat-fans want to hear the crazy rumors.
Posted by Dustin
