Vacation on Location

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Good Knight Chicago

By Chris Kern

Opens: July 18th, 2008
Rated: PG-13
Cast: Christian Bale, Heath Ledger, Aaron Eckhart, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Michael Caine, Morgan Freeman
Director: Christopher Nolan

Ask most Bat-fanboys (or even those with only a passing knowledge of the World’s Greatest Detective) about Gotham City and they’ll tell you that Bruce Wayne’s hometown is just a stand-in for New York City, much like Metropolis is for Superman. Not, however, according to The Dark Knight director Christopher Nolan. As he did in Batman Begins, Nolan elected to shoot much of this latest installment in his ongoing re-invention of the Batman mythos in and around Chicago, using the Windy City as his double for Gotham. Why not just use New York? “I spent some time growing up in Chicago,” Nolan offers, “so it’s a city I know and love. It is famous for its architecture and it is also a very film-friendly city. We shot there for weeks on Batman Begins, but this time we were going to be there for months, and the help and encouragement we got from the city was extraordinary.”