Merrick again...

This just came in from The Great Gonzo's Smarter Brother, who was also at the Pittsburgh shoot on Saturday. His insight clarifies some details from our post below. We appreciate his time and effort - here's his message...

I was at Heinz Field on Sat and I wanted to clarify a few points from your earlier posts. The Tumblers that were there were not filmed at all. They brought them out as a fun distraction for everyone in the stands (official word from the extras organizers in a thank-you e-mail is over 18,000 were there). Once to fire off a "shot" from the giant turret (a charge in the field exploded) and once carrying Pittsburgh Steeler Hines Ward who is playing Gotham Rouge Heinz Ward in the film (Ben Roethlisberger and former Coach Bill Cowher are also on the Rouges). We were also told that Bane has stolen the Tumblers, though no further details were given on that.



As it was explained to us, on the opening kickoff return Bane blows up a significant portion of the field killing the players (that was explicitly stated in the direction we got for our reaction shots) and creating a giant smoking crater. The raised platform in those photos is all that will remain in the final shot. Then Bane comes out with a bunch of mercenaries, a guy who was not identified and the big round thing already described. He gives a speech, and it was clear that what we heard, and what was in the video posted yesterday, was not even close to the full speech he'll give in the movie (since he's wearing that mask that obscures his mouth I'm assuming he'll be looping all of his dialogue anyway) and I imagine that's not really how he'll sound in the final product. The sequence ends with Bane breaking the guy's neck.



Now, though we got no clear idea of his motivations or goals on Saturday, some friends of mine were hired extras on Sunday and relayed that the object he brought out was a nuclear bomb, the guy whose neck he breaks is the inventor/constructor of said bomb, and that as soon as Bane gives his speech he takes the bomb and his mercenaries and leaves. The direction that they were given was that the things that Bane was saying were kinda making sense in a twisted way. So what I thought would be a pretty standard hostage situation after the events on Saturday turns out to be more like he's trying to win people over to whatever cause he has which, to me at least, is a WAAAAAY more interesting plot development!



They also filmed the explosion of a luxury box which reportedly contained Mayor Richard Alpert.



Anyway, I can't confirm this 100% since I wasn't there on Sunday, and who knows, the details given by the production team could have been misdirection, but I heard the stuff on Saturday and I trust my friends' descriptions.



Weeeeeee my first spy report!



- The Great Gonzo's Smarter Brother

Original article follows...

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Merrick here...

Larry From Hell sent in this report from THE DARK KNIGHT RISES' Pittsburgh shoot this past weekend, offering an enhanced perspective on the video we saw yesterday.

I got to be a crowd extra on August 6, and while it was boring as hell for most of the time there. It was cool just to be there for the experience. During the down time, they raffled off quite a bit of old memorabilia, along with some ipod shuffles/touches, Delta Roundtrip flights, and the Chrysler 200XL car. The Crew filmed about 4-5 scenes all together for that 12 hr stretch i was there(that I saw). I had to use my cell phone camera for the photos and I snuck shots in. I was afraid they might take my phone but it seems like i've seen other photos and really there will be a lot of film enhancements in the end I'm guessing. There was a crowd of about 15,000 I believe so they weren't letting in cameras, but cell phones were permissible.

Scenes filmed were the

1) Kick-off where the crowd was cheering and filming the football players running the field.

2) scene where players fall into holes(or off the field maybe)

3) scene where soldiers end up in the stands holding crowd at bay.

4) Bane introducing himself to Gotham and bringing out something(a large ball on a dolly - maybe replaced with CGI i don't know), and bringing out a prisoner who almost looks dead.

You can use all the pictures or none of the pictures. I figured i'd give you another perspective.

We may have some more material coming in shortly...will post if it happens. Stay tuned!

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