Warner Bros. has updated the official site for The Dark Knight Rises again with the addition of the film's production notes. Forty-nine pages lay out the vents of the preparation of filming. Some of the highlights mentioned in the documents are as follows:
On the Batcave:
With Wayne Manor—and therefore the original Batcave—destroyed in the first film, Bruce Wayne had temporarily moved his base of operations to the Bat-Bunker. However, the mansion was rebuilt with the inclusion of a new Batcave, which echoes design elements of both earlier sets.
Nathan Crowley, who teamed with fellow production designer Kevin Kavanaugh on this film, explains, “Chris and I pondered how to mix the Batcave and the Bat-Bunker, which is incredibly geometric and modern and everything is cleanly recessed into the walls. It occurred to us that we could carry over the same idea by flooding the Batcave so everything is hidden underwater. When you enter, it’s just a cave, but you press a button and up come these perfect cubes that hold different objects, from the Batsuit to a super computer.”
Nolan offers, “It’s a terrific combination of the tactile reality of the Batcave and the functionality of the Bat-Bunker.”
On the prison seen in the trailers:
Cardington also housed an even more imposing multi-leveled set: a hellish prison, which, apart from being beneath the ground, is a far cry from Bane’s lair. The prison is a rough-hewn labyrinth of stone cells in a vast abyss. The barred doors of the cells are unlocked because there is only one escape: an impossibly high vertical shaft leading to the surface. There were actually two shafts constructed at Cardington, the taller being 120 feet high.
Exteriors above the prison were filmed in Jodhpur, India, where the forbidding landscape added to the desolation.
On some of the locations used:
In Los Angeles, a number of notable sites were used for interior sets, including the L.A. Convention Center, which was turned into the Applied Science Division of Wayne Enterprises; historic Union Station, which became a makeshift courtroom; and a building on South Spring Street, which was transformed into the trading floor of the stock exchange.
The final weeks of principal photography were spent in New York City, where locations included the Trump Tower, which served as the exterior of Wayne Enterprises, and the Queensboro Bridge, the upper span of which was closed for two days for filming, including a shot of Batman overlooking the city he was willing to sacrifice everything to protect.
To check out the entire production notes, head over here.
Posted by Dustin Fritschel
