Pittsburgh-made epic ready to storm theaters
The movie crept into Pittsburgh under cover of night, disguised as “Magnus Rex.” But the word soon got out: For three and a half weeks, we would all be honorary citizens of Gotham City as good and evil dueled to the death during the filming of “The Dark Knight Rises.”
Christopher Nolan's final installment in the Batman trilogy opens at regular and IMAX theaters at 12:01 a.m. Friday. The film, budgeted at an estimated $250 million, shot here in late July and August. It brought explosions, criminal mayhem and snow to Downtown, Oakland and other locations.
Nearly 11,000 extras gathered in Heinz Field for a scene that featured former Steelers receiver Hines Ward as a member of the Gotham Rogues and Pittsburgh Mayor Luke Ravenstahl as the kicker on the opposing team. The mayor was the real-life kicker for the Presidents football team at Washington & Jefferson College. Ravenstahl says he is anxious to see how much exposure the city is given in the movie.
The more screen time our city's architecture and rivers get, the greater the chance more filmmakers could be lured to shoot here. The movie could well become the top-grossing picture of all time, Ravenstahl says, which means millions of people will see it and see what Pittsburgh looks like today.
“There's no reason not to consider Pittsburgh for any movie,” Ravenstahl says. “That's the message we want to get out with the debut of the film,”
“The Dark Knight Rises” is easily the most high-profile film project ever to shoot in here, Pittsburgh Film Office director Dawn Keezer says.
The movie which stars Christian Bale as Bruce Wayne/Batman, also filmed in India, Scotland, London, Los Angeles and Manhattan.
“Most of the big action sequences took place in Pittsburgh,” Keezer says. “And of course, all the football stuff.”
The producers did not use the Pennsylvania Film Tax Credit, which extends a 25 percent tax break to companies that spend at least 60 percent of their budget in the state. Therefore, the producers were not required to fill out an economic-impact form, Keezer says. She hopes Warner Brothers will release budget numbers after the film opens.
Tony Amen of Penn Hills was one of about 90 extras, all dressed in orange jumpsuits, who played escaped prisoners in a massive jailbreak scene that was shot in the Mellon Institute in Oakland. They were directed to stampede through the streets brandishing assault rifles. He recalls director Nolan shouting, “Come on, guys, we want to see the guns!”
“We were inside when they blew the doors off,” Amen says. “We did the scene 15 to 20 times where we escape out the door at the bottom of Mellon Institute.”
Amen says he was surprised to see that one of the “escapees” was a woman. It turned out to be Anne Hathaway.
“She gets freed with us and she becomes Catwoman,” he says.
Actor Jackson Nunn of Trafford traded punches with “cops” in a scene that was filmed at Carnegie Mellon University. He was one of a gang of thugs who brawled with law enforcement in a scene that featured fake blowing snow. Some of the blood was real, he says.
“The director would say, ‘Cut! Cut!' and the guys would come out with blood dripping from their faces,” Nunn says. “They got into it because the camera was on them. They got over-excited, I guess. I looked at this one cop; I said, ‘Don't you hit me!' ”
The Batmania generated by the filming proved infectious. A South Side printing company, Commonwealth Press, created “Gotham Pennsylvania” T-shirts featuring a bat outline made of bridges. Saks Fifth Avenue dressed its mannequins in black masks. S.W. Randall Toyes & Gifts on Smithfield Street filled its display window with batman bobbleheads, action figures and vintage toys.
The cozy two-story toy emporium became a clubhouse of sorts for the crew during the two weekends they filmed on their block, owner Jack Cohen says. They became friends with the stunt doubles, locations manager and special effects experts. Their autographed photos line one wall. A sign outside their store reads “Batman Headquarters.”
“It doubled our business,” Cohen says. “People were buying anything with Batman on it. Families were coming down here just to catch a glimpse of the shooting. It's still good. We have all these different Batman shirts.”
Employees had a front row seat for a scene in which the arch-villain Bane crashes his fortified vehicle into a storefront that crews built over the Smithfield-Liberty parking garage across the street. Before Nolan yelled “Action!” crew ducked inside S.W. Randall to avoid the flying glass.
“It took 4 hours to set up for a 5-second scene,” Cohen says.
He says he was interviewed for a documentary about the history of the Batmobile. It will appear as a bonus feature on the “Dark Knight Rises” DVD.
The film left its mark on Pittsburgh in other ways. S.W. Randall manager Maclain Eardley pointed out an orange cone across the street. It covers a hole in the curb that was damaged in the crash scene.
Staff writer Bob Bauder contributed to this story. William Loeffler is a staff writer for Trib Total Media. He can be reached at wloeffler@tribweb.com or 412-320-7986.
