Chapter 847: Batwing

As the soul of the production crew, Duke intended to use IMAX cameras far more extensively than he had in The Dark Knight. In fact, The Dark Knight Rises would feature more IMAX footage than any other film in history, with the large format accounting for an estimated fifty percent of the movie.

To achieve this, the IMAX Company provided Duke with four cameras designed and built by Marty Mueller. Each of these heavy, hand-crafted machines possessed a distinct personality, though they shared a standardized format that made all their components fully interchangeable.

Every IMAX camera came with its own set of prime lenses in 40mm, 50mm, 80mm, 110mm, 150mm, and 250mm focal lengths. Many of these lenses were fitted with T2.8 apertures via 65mm adapter rings, along with medium-format Hasselblad lenses, ensuring the focus wouldn't be easily compromised.

Pulling focus on an IMAX camera was quite cumbersome. On previous shoots, John Schwartzman had encountered lenses he simply couldn't focus by hand, forcing him to rely entirely on a remote follow-focus system powered by a torque motor.

During pre-production, Duke drew on his previous technical experience to outline specific requirements for the IMAX cameras. He tasked the IMAX Company's engineers with modifying certain lenses and constructing a new viewfinder.

He specifically wanted the IMAX Company to retrofit an 80mm T2 Mamiya lens and a 50mm T2.5 medium-format lens exclusively for The Dark Knight Rises.

The IMAX engineers removed the mechanical components from the 80mm lens and replaced them with a cinema-grade Panavision converter. Per Duke's instructions, they also rebuilt the entire lens head to accommodate a mechanical iris system.

The modifications for the 50mm T2.5 lens were handled differently. The IMAX technicians transplanted most of its elements into a new barrel, transforming it into a much more stable lens converter.

In addition, they used the principles of a reverse telephoto design to construct a custom 50mm T2 lens.

These were the fundamentals of the shoot. Without excellent equipment, even the best concepts could only exist in the director's head or on paper.

Throughout pre-production, Duke didn't necessarily involve himself deeply in every single task, but the final results of any given job had to pass his review as the director.

The Dark Knight Rises required a massive amount of location shooting. Beyond the sets being built at Warner Studios and the Hughes Aircraft Plant, Duke was scouting for suitable exteriors. Ever since the project was greenlit, Chicago had been lobbying to keep the production there, while cities like New York, Pittsburgh, and Detroit had also sent Duke invitations.

He and Charles Roven toured these cities, tentatively deciding to film the primary locations in New York and Chicago.

Meanwhile, as time passed, set construction on many of the soundstages at Warner Studios entered its final stages.

Wayne Manor, which housed the original Batcave, had been burned to the ground by the Ninja Master in Batman Begins. As a result, Bruce Wayne had been forced to temporarily relocate his base of operations to the Bat Bunker in The Dark Knight.

In this installment, Duke was going to rebuild Wayne Manor, which naturally included the Batcave.

He once again chose the massive soundstage at the Hughes Aircraft Plant for the Batcave, carrying over the idea of the "flooded Batcave." Everything was hidden beneath the water. When someone first walked in, they would only see an ordinary cavern. But once they found the critical button, perfectly arranged cubes loaded with equipment would emerge, holding everything from the Batsuit to ultra-advanced computers.

The soundstage at the Hughes Aircraft Plant contained an enormous water tank capable of holding over 720,000 gallons, easily bringing Duke's requirements for the Batcave to life.

The sewage system sprawling beneath Gotham City served as Bane's base of operations in the film. Another Hughes Aircraft Hangar provided the construction site for this set. Since it was originally an airship hangar, its cavernous interior gave the crew a natural foundation to build tunnels leading to concrete and corrugated steel structures several stories high.

To illuminate the set, Duke planned to use intensely overexposed lighting during the shoot, turning the space into something resembling an arena.

This way, the ultra-bright point lights would cast a stark, washed-out glare, cultivating a deeply unsettling and uncomfortable environment.

The Hughes Aircraft Hangar set also provided the staging ground for an even more complex, spectacular, and multi-layered location: a terrifying underground prison.

Unlike Bane's subterranean lair, this prison looked like a chaotic stack of stone cages rising from a boundless abyss. It was a sprawling maze where the barred doors lacked locks since there was no fear of inmates escaping; the only way out was a towering, essentially unclimbable pillar leading to the surface.

To build this set, the crew constructed two pillars inside the hangar, the taller of which reached nearly two hundred and fifty feet. For the prison's surface exterior, Duke planned to shoot in Jodhpur, a city in northwestern India. Tina Fey had already scouted the location and brought back video footage; the treacherous terrain there would perfectly amplify the film's sense of desolation.

Standing in stark contrast to these remote locations was the majestic exterior of Wayne Manor. Duke chose Nottingham City in Britain for the setting. He had already called Aerin Lauder to arrange the continued use of her cousin's old villa for the shoot.

The manor's interior, however, was built on a soundstage at Warner Studios. Although Bruce Wayne had kept his promise to rebuild Wayne Manor brick by brick, the interior set was deliberately stark and dreary. It looked less like a lived-in home and more like a mere house.

In the first two films of the trilogy, Chicago had served as the architectural backdrop for Gotham City. The two Batman movies had significantly boosted the declining industrial city's profile, particularly in promoting tourism. A Batman Gotham parade had even become a regular event in Chicago.

Determined to secure Duke's production, Pittsburgh offered extremely generous terms. Beyond massive tax incentives, the municipal government promised unlimited cooperation with street closures for filming. These tangible benefits won Duke over, and ultimately, three cities were selected to act as "stand-ins" for Gotham City: Pittsburgh, Chicago, and New York.

In the storyboards drafted by Anna Printz and her team, the background of the unfolding plot began to incorporate the aesthetics of more than two cities. A sequence would start in one city and seamlessly transition to finish in another.

To achieve this seamless connection and maintain visual continuity, the crew would shoot across different cities during different seasons and at different times of day.

Consequently, to match the sunlight and ensure identical lighting conditions, the camera crew had to invest considerable time into planning and scheduling. It was the only way to guarantee the illusion remained intact.

John Schwartzman worked closely with Duke and the location managers to map out the logistics, ensuring they could lock down exact shooting windows and specific street locations to guarantee a smooth post-production process.

Separately, Charles Roven wrapped up another round of negotiations, officially locking in the film's scoring team.

Hans Zimmer and his team would once again handle the score, with him single-handedly overseeing the music for the entire "The Dark Knight" trilogy.

After the contracts were signed, Hans Zimmer, as a master of commercial scoring, knew exactly how to coordinate with the marketing push and gave a dedicated interview to the press.

"Scoring the Batman trilogy and collaborating with a brilliantly talented director like Duke Rosenberg is an absolute joy and my greatest honor," he said. "He's a wise director who is always willing to listen to others and welcomes different perspectives and insights."

"We all want to be shocked and surprised, but forging a powerful emotional resonance with the audience is also what we're chasing," producer Charles Roven added. "No matter how massive the production scale gets, Duke's primary focus is always the story itself, along with the intricate threads of cause and effect weaving the trilogy together. Anyone familiar with his previous two films will recognize the painstaking care he puts into his work."

Meanwhile, construction also finished on a vital prop: Batman's new ride.

With technology advancing at a blistering pace, a hero who relied on gadgets like Batman naturally had to keep up with the times. His transport had evolved from the "tank" in Batman Begins to the dual-drive motorcycle in The Dark Knight. For The Dark Knight Rises, the older model of the Batmobile simply wasn't enough to capture the audience's attention anymore, thus giving birth to the Batwing.

This massive machine, capable of both tearing down highways at high speeds and soaring through the sky, looked like a hybrid of an Autobot and a Decepticon. Staying true to Duke's philosophy of "model effects," the crew built a 1:1 scale model of the high-tech vehicle. By combining practical street footage with the necessary digital enhancements, they would bring the film's heart-pounding chases to life.

Of course, compared to Transformers, the film's grounded, realistic tone meant Duke couldn't make the vehicle too flashy or exaggerated. Still, the Batwing's in-universe specs were nothing to scoff at. Designed with the top-tier, low-altitude flight capabilities of a Harrier Jump Jet, it could effortlessly handle everything from ground-hugging street pursuits to steep vertical aerial dogfights.

Amid the grueling workload, Duke also kept an eye on the status of Battleship. The cinematic adaptation co-produced by Sky Film Studio and Walt Disney hadn't exploded at the box office like other Hasbro toy movies.

The film's production budget alone had reached a staggering $210 million, yet it grossed a dismal $25 million during its opening week in North America in early July. After a mere eleven weeks in theaters, cinema chains forcibly pulled it from their screens. It finished its North American run with less than $60 million, and its global box office still hadn't crossed the $200 million mark.

The most profitable aspect of the movie was its toy sales. However, the success of Transformers had given Hasbro immense leverage, leaving Sky Film Studio and Walt Disney with only a minuscule fraction of the merchandising revenue—guaranteeing they would never recoup their massive investment.

At the end of August, Dwayne Johnson officially joined the cast, but Duke found himself less than satisfied with the actor's physique.