Chapter 859: The Purpose of Making Movies Is for Entertainment

"It is an indisputable fact that Duke Rosenberg has a soft spot for IMAX. With the prior success of The Dark Knight, his Summer Season release this year, The Dark Knight Rises, takes on an even bolder challenge. Over an hour of the film was shot entirely with IMAX Cameras, setting the record for the longest IMAX runtime in a Hollywood movie to date!"

As the release date drew closer, Warner Brothers rolled out an increasing variety of promotional campaigns. Unsurprisingly, IMAX was one of the film's major selling points.

In early April, Warner Brothers hosted a six-minute IMAX preview screening for fans and the press, which was met with an overwhelmingly enthusiastic response.

"When the lights dimmed and the movie started playing, you could feel an explosive energy rising in the theater!"

"It felt absolutely incredible!"

Comments like these were already spreading rapidly across the internet.

Coupled with this were Duke's own remarks regarding IMAX.

"When people found out we had assembled a team to shoot a movie in Hollywood using IMAX Cameras, many told us it would be too difficult. How ironic is that? Since these cameras can be taken up to the Himalayas, down into the deep sea, and even out into space, why can't we use them to shoot a movie?"

A few days later, the cast and crew of The Dark Knight Rises held a global press conference at the Beverly Hills Hilton Hotel in Hollywood.

As the director, Duke attended the press conference with the main cast and crew—including actors Christian Bale, Gary Oldman, Gal Gadot, James Franco, Michael Caine, and Laurence Fishburne, along with composer Hans Zimmer and producer Charles Roven—to answer questions from the global media.

This was undoubtedly a heavyweight promotional event leading up to the release of The Dark Knight Rises. In addition to attracting nearly seven hundred journalists from around the world, NBC also broadcast the event live to North America and overseas.

"There is no doubt that Duke Rosenberg's Batman Begins and The Dark Knight have elevated not only the Batman films but the entire superhero movie genre to a whole new level. This is exactly why The Dark Knight Rises, as the final chapter, is so highly anticipated by fans worldwide."

Before the press conference officially began, an NBC reporter provided voiceover for the somewhat chaotic live footage.

"Regarding the ending set for Batman in this film, Duke previously mentioned that he came up with the story's conclusion first and then worked backward to outline the rest of the plot. He noted that Batman is a comic that has been serialized for over seventy years. The nature of serialization requires the story to stretch on endlessly, but he wanted this trilogy to stand as a self-contained narrative. Therefore, this third installment had to bring the entire story to a perfect close."

The press conference soon kicked off. When asked if he would direct any future Batman films, Duke made it clear that it was time to say goodbye to the character.

"I've spent almost a decade on Batman, which has been an incredibly important period in my life," he said. "It's been a fantastic journey, and now it's time for that journey to end. Leaving this franchise is a bit sad for me. I could certainly work with these cast and crew members again on other films, but as for the Batman Series, it really is time to say goodbye."

At the press conference, compared to Duke's calm eloquence, Christian Bale seemed as though he hadn't fully

"It is an indisputable fact that Duke Rosenberg has a soft spot for IMAX. With the previous success of The Dark Knight, his Summer Season release this year, The Dark Knight Rises, takes on an even bolder challenge. Over an hour of the film's footage was shot entirely with IMAX Cameras, setting the record for the longest IMAX runtime in a Hollywood movie to date!"

As the release date drew closer, Warner Brothers rolled out an increasing variety of promotional campaigns. Unsurprisingly, IMAX was one of the film's major selling points.

In early April, Warner Brothers hosted a six-minute IMAX preview screening for fans and the press, and the event was met with an overwhelmingly enthusiastic response.

"When the lights dimmed and the movie started playing, you could feel an explosive energy rising in the theater!"

"It felt absolutely incredible!"

Comments like these were already spreading rapidly across the internet.

Coupled with this were Duke's own remarks regarding IMAX.

"When people found out we had assembled a team to shoot a movie in Hollywood using IMAX Cameras, many told us it would be too difficult. How ironic is that? Since these cameras can be taken up to the Himalayas, down into the deep sea, and even out into space, why can't we use them to shoot a movie?"

A few days later, the cast and crew of The Dark Knight Rises held a global press conference at the Beverly Hills Hilton Hotel in Hollywood.

As the director, Duke led the main cast and crew in attending the press conference—including actors Christian Bale, Gary Oldman, Gal Gadot, James Franco, Michael Caine, and Laurence Fishburne, along with composer Hans Zimmer and producer Charles Roven—to answer questions from the global media.

This was undoubtedly a heavyweight promotional event leading up to the release of The Dark Knight Rises. In addition to attracting nearly 700 journalists from all over the world, NBC also broadcast the event live via television signals to North America and overseas.

"There is no doubt that Duke Rosenberg's Batman Begins and The Dark Knight have elevated not only the Batman films but the entire superhero movie genre to a whole new level. This is exactly why The Dark Knight Rises, as the final chapter, is so highly anticipated by fans worldwide."

Before the press conference officially began, an NBC reporter provided a voiceover for the somewhat chaotic live footage.

"Regarding the ending set for Batman in this film, Duke previously mentioned that he came up with the story's conclusion first and then worked backward to outline the rest of the plot. He noted that Batman is a comic that has been serialized for over seventy years. The nature of serialization requires the story to stretch on endlessly, but he wanted this trilogy to stand as a self-contained narrative. Therefore, this third installment has to bring the entire story to a perfect close."

The press conference soon kicked off. When asked if he would direct any future "Batman" films, Duke made it clear that it was time to say goodbye to "Batman".

"I've spent almost a decade on Batman, which has been an incredibly important period in my life," he said. "It's been a fantastic journey, and now it's time for that journey to end. Leaving this franchise is a bit sad for me, and I certainly might work with these cast and crew members again on other films, but as for the Batman Series, it really is time to say goodbye."

At the press conference, compared to Duke's calm and collected eloquence, Christian Bale seemed as though he hadn't fully stepped out of the Batman role yet. His gaze was distant, and he frequently drifted into deep thought.

When asked by the media "which villain in the Batman Series he would most like to play," Bale gave a somewhat surprising answer. He claimed that Batman himself had villainous traits.

"The reason I like Batman is because he's practically a bad guy," Bale explained. "He walks the line between good and evil. He has wicked thoughts in his mind, but he always manages to suppress them to ensure he remains on the side of justice. On the surface, Batman acts as a righteous vigilante, but deep down, his true motives aren't entirely pure. Fortunately, he is able to restrain himself with altruism to ensure he remains a good person."

As it was for Duke, The Dark Knight Rises was destined to be the moment Christian Bale said goodbye to the role of Batman. When talking about how it felt to bid farewell, Bale seemed overwhelmed with mixed emotions.

"As Duke said, this trilogy is also an important part of my life," he said. "However, Duke has always made the right decisions for his films. If he says it's time to say goodbye, then he can't be wrong."

After the routine interviews with the other actors, almost all the reporters locked their sights on Duke. Questions crashed over him like a tidal wave, and for the most part, he answered nearly every one of them.

A reporter from the Los Angeles Times was the first to stand up and ask a question.

"Was it tricky for you to handle the connection between the ending of the previous film, The Dark Knight, and the plot of this one? How will the ending of the last movie affect the characters in this film?"

"As the third film in the franchise, our challenge was to shoot a story worth telling, something that would make the audience feel it was necessary to return to this series, to return to Gotham City."

Settling into a comfortable posture, Duke prepared himself for a long battle with the reporters.

"From the very beginning, I didn't want to treat this film as just another simple episode in the Batman Series. Instead, the three movies had to form one complete story. Therefore, the ending of the previous film absolutely had to impact the plot of this one. The events of the last movie still hold deep significance here, and that narrative must continue to expand in this installment. That was our line of thought."

After being called on, a reporter from Entertainment Weekly took the microphone.

"Why did you insist on producing the film using IMAX technology?" he asked.

"I didn't deliberately insist on anything; it was just a choice," Duke replied. "When I shoot in IMAX and project the film onto a massive screen, I can honestly say I've never seen any other movie format rival IMAX's image quality. To me, the characters and stories in the Batman Series exist on a level that transcends reality, and the colossal imagery of IMAX perfectly captures that exact quality."

Duke understood the essentials of marketing very well. He smiled and added,

"There are only four of the IMAX Cameras we used in the world. While shooting The Dark Knight Rises, we broke one, so now there are only three left in the entire world."

A burst of laughter erupted across the press conference.

His words were completely true. While filming a car crash scene, an IMAX Camera was unfortunately destroyed. This was already the second IMAX Camera Duke had wrecked.

Waiting for the laughter to die down slightly, Duke spoke again.

"IMAX can draw audiences away from their televisions at home and bring them into the movie theater because its massive visual impact simply cannot be recreated in a living room. Nowadays, it's getting harder and harder to attract viewers out of their homes and into cinemas, but IMAX gives them a compelling reason to do exactly that."

A reporter from The Boston Globe followed up with another question.

"It's said that this movie currently holds the record for the longest runtime shot on IMAX. Director, how did you decide which scenes to shoot with IMAX Cameras and which to shoot with standard cameras?"

Thinking about it for a moment, Duke offered a rather interesting answer.

"Because IMAX Cameras are quite loud, dialogue scenes were generally shot using standard digital cameras. However, the large-scale combat and war sequences were typically shot using IMAX Cameras."

Laughter broke out at the venue once again.

Since the six-minute IMAX preview had already taken place, some of the film's plot had been revealed to the public. As a result, the next reporter, from The Times, asked a question regarding the story.

"This film seems to carry certain political allegories. The sequence in the preview where Bane leads a mob on a destructive rampage is bound to become a highly controversial scene. Did you set out from the beginning to make a strongly political film?"

"I don't think my films have ever been heavily political," Duke replied. "When The Dark Knight came out, a lot of people viewed it through a political lens..."

Compared to his earlier answers, what Duke said next bordered closer on his true feelings.

"In reality, the purpose of us making movies is for entertainment, to tell a good story. I like building plots in a fictional environment like Gotham City because it allows the film to resonate more broadly with the audience. Every viewer can project their own living environment into the movie. During that process, some audience members might interpret the film politically based on their own thoughts, which is inevitable."

A reporter from the New York Times then shifted their focus to the newcomers.

"The previous film in the franchise achieved unprecedented success. Did that put any pressure on you while shooting this one? Especially for the newly joined actors, was there any extra pressure?"

"Indeed, the success of the last movie brought us a lot of pressure. But when we sat down and began conceptualizing this film, the only thing on our minds was making this movie good. We couldn't deliberately try to replicate the previous film's success."

Duke had been the first to take the question.

"The success of the last film was unimaginable, and sometimes I can't even explain it myself, which is great. But the real pressure comes from the movie studios. They spent so much money making and promoting the film, and my movie has to make money for them. That's where the pressure lies."

The microphone was then passed to Gal Gadot.

"I was a little nervous at first, because the other actors had all worked with Duke to some extent, whereas I was a newcomer," she said. "But everyone on set was very welcoming and showed me the ropes. Duke and the leading actors treated me no differently than they treated the veteran cast members, and my initial anxiety gradually faded away."

James Franco's face was filled with a sunny smile.

"When The Dark Knight came out, I watched it twice. I absolutely loved it, but at the time, I never thought I would become part of the series. After that, I worked with Duke on Inception, which was an adventure full of surprises and thrills. And taking it a step further, I got the opportunity to act in this film. For me, this truly is a dream come true."

At the very end of the press conference, the first trailer for The Dark Knight Rises was revealed.