Co-writer Jonathan Nolan, the brother of director Christopher, has indicated that The Joker’s appearance in the first issue of Batman was a crucial influence.   Nolan has also given Michael Mann’s film Heat as an influence in terms of the fact that it tells the story of a city.

Co-writer Jonathan Nolan consulted Jerry Robinson, one of The Joker’s co-creators, about the character’s portrayal.

As with preparation for Batman Begins, Christian Bale studied the Keysi Fighting Method (KFM) employed by Batman.   KFM is a fighting technique which emphasises mental focus.

Production in Chicago was filmed under the fake title of Rory’s First Kiss in an attempt to keep media and public interest in the shoot to a minimum.   However, local media eventually saw through the deception.

Location shooting of the film in Chicago created thousands of jobs and boosted the city’s economy by an estimated $45 million.

 Six sequences of the film – including the opening six minutes – were shot with IMAX cameras.  It is the first time that a major feature film has ever been filmed using IMAX cameras.

Ultimate Arm, creators of the gyro-stabilised remote control camera crane reinforced the head of the crane to enable it to handle the weight of the IMAX camera, and sturdier camera mounts were designed to enable the cameras to be fixed to the bonnet of a car or the side of a truck.

 The new Batsuit for the film was comprised of 110 pieces.   The suit was made of a polyester mesh material which, because of its moisture-wicking properties, is used by the military and high-tech sports manufacturers.   Moulded sections of flexible urethane were then moulded to the mesh to form the armour plating.

The Batmobile was nicknamed the Tumbler.   To facilitate tighter turns it had no front axle and ran on six monster truck tyres.   It weighed 2 ½ tons, but could jump six feet high, and go from zero to 60 in five seconds.

The Batsuit was equipped with extendable razor-sharp fins and sonar-imaging lenses which flipped down inside the cowl.

The all-terrain Bat-Pod introduced in The Dark Knight also ran on monster truck tyres and was equipped with 40mm blast cannons, 50-calibre machine guns and grappling hook launchers.   It was also self-standing.

 The Bat-Pod was ridden by French professional stunt rider Jean-Pierre Goy whose upper body, because of the Pod’s design, was almost horizontal so that he could steer with his elbows rather than his wrists.

In order to achieve The Joker’s distinctively chilling look, make-up artist John Caglione Jr. would have Heath Ledger perform a number of different facial expressions as he applied the white make-up in order to create a texture.   Then, after applying black make-up around Ledger’s tightly-closed eyes, Caglione would spray water over them.   Ledger would then squeeze his eyes and shake his head to achieve the smudged look.

 A new silicone-based based application enabled prosthetic supervisor Conor O’Sullivan and prosthetic make-up artist Robert Trenton to lay the prosthetics directly onto Heath Ledger’s face for The Joker’s make-up in a way that it blended seamlessly with the actor’s skin.   The process also reduced application time from 3-4 hours to just 25 minutes.

As all clown faces are registered by their creators, the makers had to ensure each individually sculpted and moulded clown mask used in the film was unique.

The film is dedicated to Heath Ledger, who died from an accidental overdose shortly after shooting had wrapped, and technician Conway Wickliffe, who died in an accident during shooting.

 The film was the promoted through the internet during 2007 by a number of websites managed by 42 Entertainment.

It is the first live-action Batman film not to feature the word ‘Batman’ in the title.

 Warner Bros staged an anti-piracy campaign to prevent scenes from the film appearing on the internet before it’s theatrical release.   A record was kept of anyone who had a copy of the film at any given time; transportation and delivery schedules were staggered and random checks were carried out to ensure unauthorised copying wasn’t taking place in cinemas in the States and overseas.

A pirated copy of the film was on the internet within 38 hours of the film’s official release.

The film was distributed to 4,366 cinemas (9,200 screens) in the States and Canada, breaking the previous record number set by Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End in 2007.

 The film grossed $158,411,483 in its opening weekend in the States and Canada, an average of $17,219 per screen.

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