Results tagged “batman”

Inevitably, video has surfaced of last week's altercation between the NYPD and two men in Times Square dressed as Superman and Batman. You'll recall that police approached the men to inquire whether they had permits to perform in public, and when they failed to produce permits or ID, the Bronx man dressed as Superman, Maksim Katsnelson, ran off yelling, "I'm not getting arrested!" The police routinely order buskers to disperse from popular tourist areas, although it is technically legal to perform in most public places without amplification, as long as one isn't disrupting pedestrian flow.

At long last, Gotham's police force has taken action to save the city from two reckless vigilante "superheroes" who have been terrorizing citizens with their lawless brand of street justice. Yesterday a group of doughty NYPD officers—fed up with the costly destruction unleashed upon our fair city by those masked outlaws "Batman" and "Superman"—spotted the two renegade freaks in Times Square and attempted to bring them to justice. According to The New York Post, officers tried booking the super-zeros on a charge of "performing in costume in public" without a license—but the only thing these two clowns were performing was civil disobedience.

Did you know that there's a southeastern city in Turkey named Batman? The mayor of that city, Huseyin Kalkan, is now suing Christopher Nolan and Warner Bros. for royalties to The Dark Knight! Kalkan explains: "There is only one Batman in the world. The American producers used the name of our city without informing us." Variety digs deeper into the craziness, pondering why "no one from the town of Batman has explained why it took so many years to take legal action. Batman first appeared as a comicbook character in 1939 and the TV series started in 1966. Tim Burton's first bigscreen rendition came out in 1989." Hmm, wonder if it has anything to do with the fact that the latest film is racking it up at the box office, "about to pass the $1 billion mark." But wait, it gets stranger! Kalkan's series of charges also includes placing the blame on Nolan & Co. "for a number of unsolved murders and a high female suicide rate on the psychological impact that the film's success has had on the city's inhabitants." Allegedly some former natives of Batman have had problems registering their businesses abroad.

In his first public comments since being questioned by London police on Tuesday for allegedly assaulting his mother and sister, Christian Bale today asked the press to respect his “privacy,” which – given the current Dark Knight media saturation – is respected about as much as Princess Di’s privacy in the summer of ’97. The latest tabloid take on the altercation has it that Bale’s sister Sharon, a computer programmer with three kids, was pressuring Bale for a $200,000 loan in his hotel suite the night before the London premiere.

More details (and by details we mean gossip) have emerged on the Christian Bale arrest yesterday. The tabloids and TMZ have talked to an anonymous friend and are reporting that the heated shouting match that erupted in Bale’s hotel suite Sunday night was sparked by a disparaging comment made by his mother about his wife, Sandra (Sibi) Blazic. Says the friend:

Christian was stressed, but he didn't lay a finger on anyone. Instead, he flew off the handle and cussed his mother. He just got very loud because his mother was saying some very outrageous things about him, and his wife. He has stresses in his marriage He can have a terrible temper. Instead of lashing out at his wife, he sometimes lashes out at people around him. His marriage is not perfect, but his relationship with his mother is in much more trouble.

TMZ has it that Bale’s relationship with his mother, a former circus clown named Jenny James, has been “bitter” ever since he moved to L.A. as a boy with his father after his parents’ divorce: “Christian's camp thinks this could be nothing more than a shakedown. We're told some newspapers and mags have already been throwing around ‘insane’ amounts of money for the story, so mom and sis could score big.”

While in London over the weekend to attend The Dark Knight premiere, Welsh actor Christian Bale was arrested after his 61-year-old mother and 40-year-old sister reported him to the police for assaulting them on Sunday night in his suite at London's Dorchester Hotel, on the eve of the premiere. Bale is still being held by police, but the Guardian has it that he was temporarily released from custody to attend the premiere, do interviews and other important stuff that puts movie stars above the law. It’s also unclear what sparked the alleged assault, but Bale’s mother is rumored to be a huge Michael Keaton fan.

The Dark Knight is currently clocking in with a 94% critical approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes. There are some mixed reviews, like David Denby’s in The New Yorker, but Manohla Dargis at the Times got it right: “No matter how cynical you feel about Hollywood, it is hard not to fall for a film that makes room for a shot of the Joker leaning out the window of a stolen police car and laughing into the wind, the city’s colored lights gleaming behind him like jewels. He’s just a clown in black velvet, but he’s also some kind of masterpiece.” (Gothamist review here.)

Today the little movie that could, The Dark Knight, opens on the wings of a cosmic hype that could make it the third biggest box office earner this year.

At a press/industry screening of The Dark Knight at the Lincoln Square IMAX last night, the line was already halfway down 68th Street an hour before showtime – and these are the overprivileged industry slobs. It’s going to be pandemonium Friday once the rabid fanboys take over. But you already knew that; the question of the hour is, “Does it live up to the hype?” Well, considering that the anticipation level rivals that of Evangelical zealots craving the second coming, or geeks clamoring for the iPhone 3G, it’s no small achievement that The Dark Knight does – periodically – manage to meet our insane expectations.

The black carpet was rolled out at the AMC Loews Lincoln Square cinemas for the feverishly-anticipated premiere of The Dark Knight. The film's cast and crew appeared at the premiere, but most talk, as it has been for the past since months, was about missing cast member Heath Ledger, whose sudden death in January shocked Hollywood and the public. The film's star, Christian Bale, said Ledger "steals the movie, I'm quite happy to say that he absolutely does."

It's really finally happening, isn't it? First the Bat Signal hyped up the Woolworth Building, now the Batmobile is in town for the The Dark Knight world premiere tonight. The full-size toy was spotted outside the AMC Loews Lincoln Square theater – the one with the IMAX – earlier today. Our correspondent tells us that "handlers were in the process of covering it because people taking pictures wouldn't stop photographing it. When people asked why, the handlers said: 'Because you guys won't listen!'" Fools – just try and stop us from giving your movie more free publicity!

EVENT: The Sci-Fi Screening Room showcases offbeat videos, and tonight hosts Batman Night, featuring the rare 1978 Challenge of the Superfriends cartoon "Lord of Middle Earth". There will also be Adam West screen tests, TV commercials, a live interview with Batman Strikes writer Matthew K. Manning, and an installment of the 1943 serial The Batman.

A brand new full-length trailer for The Dark Knight hit the web today; the last one circulated in December -- just one month before one of the film's stars, Heath Ledger, was found dead. This trailer was originally screened at NYC's Comic-Con late last month, and gave viewers the first glimpse of Aaron Eckhart's Two-Face character. Watch the larger version here.

Even though New York City has around 98 monikers, did you know that there is no official city nickname?