Playing a shotgun wielding bank manager who met his bitter end at the merciless hands of the Joker, Finchter's role in the billion dollar film was brief but very memorable.
The opening scene from Christopher Nolan's second outing as a Batman film director raised the proverbial bar for every other superhero movie to come after. Though the Dark Knight himself wasn't featured in it, the scene introduced audiences to Heath Ledger's version of The Joker, who not only cleaned out one of Gotham City's banks but turned against his own henchmen so that he alone escaped with bags full of laundered mob money. Shot with IMAX cameras, the brilliant scene set the tone for the rest of The Dark Knight, and hooked movie goers into the fantasy film instantly.
William Fichtner's role in the scene was was very brief, but very pleasing to film fans who like to see great actors included in even minor roles. During a webchat with Empire magazine, Fichtner was asked about his memories of the scene and how it was filmed:
It was the first two days of principal photography, and Chris Nolan, when he asked me to play the part, explained what he was doing and how he was going to shoot it with an IMAX camera. But what I'll always remember about those two days is that he had all the folks he works with, on all his movies, and the special effects guys who were all Brits, and the sound people he works with all the time, and when we rehearsed walking through the bank and firing the shotgun, the special effects guys were like, "Just tell us where you'd like to fire the gun and we'll take care of the rest." When it came time to shoot the scene, they turned on the IMAX camera - which turns out sounds like a blender crossed with a can opener, it's so loud - and then when I started to shoot the gun, it was so loud. On the first take, everywhere I pointed the gun something exploded. Obviously I knew there were no real bullets in there, but if I hadn't I'd have wondered.
"As loud as that camera was I never did any looping on that film because the sound guys were so amazing, the special effects guys were so amazing, because the filmmaking was just on the highest level of anything I've been involved with. Not to mention the fact that Chris is one of the finest filmmakers working today, and it's a pleasure to work with him."
http://www.dailyblam.com/news/2011/02/0 ... um=twitter
"All this 'good vs evil' shit's been played out. It's now time for 'BAD VS. EVIL'
-David Ayer on Suicide Squad.
-David Ayer on Suicide Squad.
