Lots of work for Empire around the time of The Dark Knight Rises looking back at Christopher Nolan’s entire Dark Knight trilogy. Across various features for a big special I interviewed Nolan, cinematographer Wally Pfister, production designer Nathan Crowley, costume designer Lindy Hemming, costume FX supervisor Graham Churchyard, special effects supervisor Chris Corbould and composer Hans Zimmer. This was all in the July 2012 issue, and much of it went online as soon as the magazine left the shelves.
A feature on the background to Nolan’s trilogy, and how he and his team went about reinventing the franchise following the Burton/Schumacher years. Includes quotes from all of the above.
Full interview with Cinematographer Wally Pfister
This is a much fuller version of the interview used in the ‘Rebuilding’ piece. Pfister talks about his long-standing working relationship with Nolan, their joint approach to the Batman films, hatred of 3D and love of IMAX.
A sidebar-type piece getting Lindy Hemming to go through the constituent parts of Tom Hardy’s Bane costume.
Full interview with Chris Corbould
The whole transcript of the interview I only used small quotes from in the above. The Production Special Effects Supervisor details the creation of the Batmobile, the Batpod and some of the films’ biggest set pieces.
Full interview with Hans Zimmer
Again, the full version of the interview that’s quoted in the ‘Rebuilding Batman’ feature. This is basically the raw transcript, hence the seemingly random occasional references to The Damned. To explain: I like The Damned, and Zimmer produced one of their records in the early 1980s. I mentioned that to break the ice at the start of our conversation, and he was amused and kept referring back to them. I just didn’t write that part down… Great guy anyway, and people on Twitter seemed to like this piece.
Owen Williams 