The bloodthirsty filmgeek mob picketed around the gates of Warner Bros. can take their torches and pitchforks to a different wing of the WB lot and let the ‘Wild Things’ execs have a breather for the moment.
Something more pressing is afoot. A rumor from nerd ground control has fired up the air raid alarm because apparently scenes from the upcoming Chris Nolan Batman sequel, “The Dark Knight” have been cut.
Cinemablend has heard that questionable tasteful scenes involving Heath Ledger in the movie may never make the light of day because of the way they reflect his tragic and untimely death.The scene in question involves Ledger’s Joker character “pretending to be dead and being pictured in a body bag.” They write:
Apparently the aftershocks of Ledger’s unfortunate death are such that many in the screening reacted rather badly to this moment and now execs are considering excising the scene altogether.
For the geeks this is heresy. Forget his family or his daughter who one day grow up and no doubt inevitably see the scene if it does indeed makes the film, the nerd constituency will consider this an affront to humanity if the segment gets cut. Of course the overreactions fly fast and furious. “To butcher [Ledger’s final performance] for the sake of a few overly sensitive people in a screening seems like reactionary bullshit,” Cinemablend wrote.
The news spread like wildfire. Slashfilm’s surprisingly cautious post on the matter has already generated 80 comments. One sage commenter writes, “It should be kept in the film. People need to stop being sissies. Death is a part of life.”
It’s fun to watch B-movie nerdlingers get into a lather, Of course it’s just a rumor and it could all be BS and MovieHole is claiming just that.
A source close to the “The Dark Knight” told us this morning that the film remains in-tact – and nothing of Ledger’s will be cut from the movie, including the body-bag scene. ‘’I KNOW for a fact that that scene is in the film. I also know that WB has made no such mandate and that Chris [Nolan] is honest when saying that he will not change what was intended with The Joker.”
Meltdown averted, have a nice day. All’s well that ends well. Move the terror alert back down to caution. OR IS IT??