efore Heath Ledger died The Dark Knight was widely considered to be most anticipated movie of the summer of 2008. After his tragic and untimely death, the film has become the most anticipated cinematic event of the year. And well it should be. While it is ostensibly a comic book movie, the presence of Memento auteur Christopher Nolan elevates The Dark Knight a notch above most superhero fare. His rendition of the Batman origin in Batman Begins was so original, dark, serious, and thrilling that it rejuvenated a franchise long thought dead following the nipple-suited fiasco of Joel Schumacher’s Batman And Robin (arguably the worst movie ever made). The thought of him returning to continue the story along with a new psychotic version of The Joker portrayed by the late, great Heath Ledger is simply too good for most cinemagoers to resist.

A massive viral marketing campaign has raised excitement for the movie amongst internet fanboys (aka the primary audience) to a fever pitch.

Christopher Nolan was not originally convinced that he wanted to return to the Batman series. He had enjoyed his experience on Batman Begins and was thrilled with how it turned out, but still wasn’t sure if he wanted to command the gigantic Hollywood machine necessary to make another one. Ultimately, it was the thought of creating a realistic version of the Joker that was true to the comic books that drove Nolan to return. Other renditions of the character—like Jack Nicholson’s hilarious turn in Tim Burton’s Batman—had gotten the deathly comic tone and costuming right, but left out the sheer terrifying madness that made the Joker legendary. After his wife suggested that he model the character after Sex Pistols frontman Johnny Rotten, Nolan found the movie irresistible and brought in his brother Jonathon (with whom he co-wrote Memento and The Prestige) to hammer out a script.

After months of research the pair decided to go with a version of the character pitched somewhere between the earliest comic book version of the Joker and Alan Moore’s infamous graphic novel The Killing Joke. They also decided to incorporate Two Face into the story with the Joker possibly causing the accident that transforms respected lawyer Harvey Dent into a murderous lunatic (who will hopefully not behave as cartoonishly as Tommy Lee Jones did in Batman Forever). Nolan then got Christian Bale back on board as Batman, signed Aaron Eckhart to tackle Two Face, and of course, brought in Heath Ledger to play The Joker.