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Ledger frightening in final role in “Dark Knight”
He hired actor Heath Ledger to portray a frightening villain whose chaotic life threatens audiences, and Chris Nolan, director of new Batman movie “The Dark Knight,” says he got exactly what he wanted.
The film marks one of the final big-screen appearances for Oscar nominee Ledger, who died in January of an accidental drug overdose at 28, and his portrayal of the villainous Joker has wowed audiences in early screenings.
“We both saw it (the part) exactly the same way,” Nolan told Reuters in an interview on Sunday. “It had to be very frightening, very much a force of anarchy, someone completely devoted to chaos and the idea of ripping down the world around him for his own amusement.”
At a Saturday showing in Los Angeles for reporters, cast and crew, there was an audible gasp of shock from some audience members when Ledger’s evil Joker first appears on screen during a tense bank heist in the opening sequence.
With his scraggly matted hair, chalky-white scarred face, smudged raccoon eyes and drunkenly-applied blood-red lipstick — all the more disturbing when worn with a neat shirt, tie and vest — Ledger seemed to have tapped into his darkest, deepest demons, only to channel them back into a malevolent anti-hero.
In the movie based on the “Batman” comics, the Joker orchestrates a series of murders, Read more »
Hollywood heavyweights Robert De Niro and Al Pacino reunited on the red carpet in New York Wednesday night for the premiere of their new crime thriller “Righteous Kill” — their first film together since making 1995’s “Heat.”
The movie also stars
The Pakistani Army has been given orders to retaliate against any unilateral strike by the Afghanistan-based US troops inside the country.
Army Spokesman Maj Gen Athar Abbas confirmed the orders in a brief interview with Geo News on late Thursday night.
The
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev says he will not accept military action or new sanctions against Iran over its nuclear activities.
“We should not take any unilateral steps. It is not acceptable to opt for a military scenario. It would be dangerous,”
As the world marks the seventh anniversary of 9/11, some European experts say security improvements in the US have been undercut by fairly basic mistakes. Among the remedies is more trust in America’s laws and allies.
Seven years after the attacks
David Miliband has allegedly come in for a rather undiplomatic tongue-lashing from his Russian counterpart.
The Foreign Secretary was apparently given a furious dressing down by Sergei Lavrov over the telephone.
Mr Miliband’s criticism of Russia’s recent incursion into Georgia is believed
PIETERMARITZBURG, South Africa - A South African judge ruled Friday that prosecutors were wrong to charge ANC President Jacob Zuma with corruption, effectively clearing way for the 66-year-old former freedom fighter to become the country’s next president.
Judge Chris Nicholson’s ruling
Thailand’s political turmoil deepened Friday when the ruling coalition failed to turn up to parliament to reelect leader Samak Sundaravej as prime minister.
Lawmakers from the six-party coalition did not attend an emergency session of parliament called to choose a prime minister, three days after a court stripped Samak of power for accepting payments for hosting
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