I think I was one of those folks who asked, Maggie Gyllenhaal's replacing Katie Holmes? It was plain curiosity. I thought Katie shouldn't have given up that role. Look at what's she's missing! I had no doubt that Maggie can be a perfect replacement. In fact, she made Rachel Dawes look like a totally different woman from the one in Batman Begins.


From TrendHunter Magazine: Maggie Gyllenhaal almost turned down this offer because of the paparazzi. Apparently, she just had a baby and the paps wanted to take a shot of her sweet angel. Since she didn't plan on pulling off a Brangelina, she stayed away from the shutterbugs. However, a crazy pap pushed her out of her bedroom by lying about a fire raging across the street.

“The paparazzi were just really awful to us. I mean, they called the fire department and told them there was a fire in our little, tiny building in the West Village (New York) so that we would have to come outside with a five-day-old baby,” Maggie said in an interview.

Maggie recalls seeing those photos of her breastfeeding splattered across page six. She was hurt and almost gave up her role for the latest Batman movie. Good thing she didn't because she would have missed being in the highest grossing movie of all time!

The Dark Knight fever is still hot as ice. It continues to break box-office records! As of this writing, it set a one-day box-office record of $66.4 Million on its opening day, making other superhero movies look like poor straight-to-DVD losers. It also knocked out Star Wars: Episode III -- The Revenge of the Sith for gathering $18.5 million on midnight screenings. So many people want to see this film that they're even opening seats at 3AM in some cities. That's definitely hot!

I am eager to see how people would rate this movie. I've written about how I loved the depth of the story. Perez Hilton said he 'liked it but didn't love it'. He added that the movie was 'too dark' and not 'superheroey'.

What's your take on the movie?

*Photo and box-office figures from Wall Street Journal Online

Okay, I have to say that I thought the producers of The Dark Knight were putting Heath Ledger's death from accidental drug overdose to generate buzz for the movie. For one, they were talking more about how good Heath's performance was and you almost do not hear anything about Christian Bale as Batman. The posters released earlier were also Joker's not the cape crusader.

And the verdict: I was wrong! They were completely accurate in describing this film as an epic. Heath Ledger's performance was beyond great and it gave us a whole new picture of the Joker we first knew some years ago, played by Jack Nicholson. I would say Nicholson's performance was a bit more theatrical than Ledger's.

What I love about this is the depth of the story. It wasn't just about a superhero trying to save the world. It tackles important issues in society and most importantly, terrorism. You could tell that the Joker was supposed to be back for another movie. I wonder if they would replace Ledger? Probably not in the next movie. It's time for a new villain.

Watch it BoobooStriders! It's worth every penny.

PS: Two Face's make-up was so realistic it's as if the cartoon version was brought to life.

The trailers of the 1989 Batman Movie (where Michael Keaton played the lead character) and the latest installment, The Dark Knight have very, VERY similar trailers. I don't know how much of this was edited to highlight those similarities but the timing and shots are almost identical.