Reminder: Be Included in Hans Zimmer's Bane Chant!

Yes, I say reminder because I totally knew about it before today. Right!

Anyway if you go to the following link you could be included in a Hans Zimmer composition. It ends on the 31st, so if you were putting it off, now is the time to do it! See, the reminder is good!

www.ujam.com/campaigns/darkknightrises?u=3QWjwrCjK4yP
De-shay de-shay ba-sa-ra ba-sa-ra!

The Rundown on the Mysterious Map & Batman Nokia Lumia 800 Watch

Major (or at least, quite a bit more major than this humble blog) blogs and movie sites have been emailed a Bane strike map along with a badass "Fire Rises" t-shirt.

Essentially there does not appear to be much available here aside from a cool look at Bane's attack plan. The map itself is a composite of a real pocket maps and maps, and the Nolan Gotham City map as can be seen below.

As of now, the main characteristic to look at appears to be the markings, though there is always the possibility the street names chosen have significance.

In other news, a limited edition Nokia Lumia 800 with Batman logo has been spotted on review sites. Only 40 made, this phone has a custom box, Batman logo engraving, and batman desktop theme and sounds. With the Joker phone that popped up in the previous ARG, one can only wonder if this phone will go viral. If so, this is one blogger that will be on the hunt!

Till next time Batfans and Baniacs!

Both Trailers Up on the Official Dark Knight Rises Page!

Last night http://www.thedarkknightrises.com/ was updated with the second trailer. The day before it had launched on the Apple Trailers site, but is now available in both Windows Media and Quicktime formats in 1080P. Check it out! Lots of cool stuff to see! In my absence both posters were released there as well.

Also, the second trailer has led to the watch of the site http://www.thereisastormcoming.com/, because there is a storm coming, Mr. Wayne!

Operation Early Bird - The Numbers Station

For your listening pleasure, I bring you the numbers station from Operation Early Bird. Enjoy, Bat-Fans and Baniacs!

Edit: 22DEC2011 - Updated to fixed version of video.

Operation Early Bird - The Rundown

The Central Intelligence Agency. This agency conjures up many images, most of which can be summed up in the phrase "spy stuff." Well, movie and Batman journalists recieved CIA documents regarding a Leonid Pavel on December 7th, 2011. Who is Dr. Pavel? Well, read the documents. Go on, read them. You know you want to. =)

Still fuzzy? Well, that was the point. Unbeknownst to recipients, this was the setup for The Dark Knight Rises - Prologue, in which Dr. Pavel is handed over to the CIA along with two mysterious mercenaries.  One of which turns out to be none other than Bane, the mercenary leader with an agenda against Gotham.

@TheFireRises tweeted the above document the following day. From here http://www.operationearlybird.com/ was discovered (now redirects to thedarknightrises.com, revealing a countdown to the first exciting live event for fans of Nolan's Batman saga, along with more backstory for the first 6 minutes of the movie.

When the countdown nearly hit 0, a media player mysteriously appeared on thedarknightrises.com, revealing the numbers station  referenced in the tweeted document, similar to the kind spys use in real life! 

Then the scramble to get tickets as operation early bird went into full effect. Fans in the United States and UK rushed for tickets as a few dedicated fans entered in the numbers broadcast on the official website, unveiling each new location to get screenings to the Prologue at select IMAX theatres on GoFoBo. 

On top of getting to see the film's explosive opening, fans were treated to exclusive shirts. One of witch had Bane Fangs the other the Batman logo. The Fangs said end, and the Bat Logo said Legend. They were adamant about not giving two shirts. I am a proud member of team Legend. =)

For my review of The Dark Knight Rises - Prologue, click here. =)

New Developments and Articles to follow.

Since the Bane reveal, there has recently been more viral content to report on. Operation Early Bird led to the screening of the outstanding 6 minute prologue, and various journalist sites have obtained a cryptic map labeling Bane's targets in Gotham.

A little late to the game, but I will be catching you up soon, with a full analysis of Operation Early Bird, my thoughts on the Prologue, (Spoiler Alert: It was amazing.) and analysis of the map, as well as a few thoughts on the recent launch of the trailer.

Stay Tuned, Batfans. =)

TDKRARG - Day After Launch Speculation

Posting this to recap a few issues that have popped up over the last day in speculation over yesterday's events.

First off, there were some reports of the bane image getting brighter. Some people who are staring at the image far too long seem to be imagining this. Comparing the image with the way it was yesterday shows it has not changed at all, though.

Secondly there seems to be some concern over the various tweets from @TheFireRises in to various accounts that seem to not exist; however, when you look at Google cache, they seem to be real accounts. This appears to be a glitch with whatever script @TheFireRises is running to Tweet people and does not seem to be anything relevant to the ARG.

Then there is the chanting on The Dark Knight Rises Website. The speculation ranges from someone saying that it is a chant of "Shoot Shoot Kill Kill" in Spanish to it being part of Bane's theme from the upcoming movie. The one that strikes me the most was someone's theory that it sounds like the pumping of a human heart, which I rather agree with. It is all speculation, though. Still, this is probably the main curiosity as to where it will go from yesterday along with the phrase "The Fire Rises."

EDIT: Dec 21 - It was revealed in my absence that the chant is "deshay basara," which is apparently "he rises" in Moroccan.

Then there was one other striking bit of speculation regarding the website registration info. While this is a bit more meta game than I want to get into detail with, while we haven't seen a website that is registered in the same way some of the guerrilla websites, that seems to be on schedule with the previous one so far.

Beyond that, there was some random chattering about the lights being cats eyes and whatnot. Gotta love fans for looking so hard at something trying to see what isn't there... yet.

Later Batmaniacs and Jokerz

Bane Mosaic Complete: Can you find yourself?

The complete Hashtagart Facebook/Twitter Bane mosaic has been found! Usually we will see this briefly before it goes to the normal Tom Hardy Bane image, but it turns out that the complete mosaic is accessible in various sizes. The large is reccomended if you want to be able to see the various pictures of everyone!

Click below to get the images from the official site's links to the Mosaic:

Large (4320x2688) (Reccomended for being able to see the smaller pictures)

Regular (1440x896)

Small (720x488)

Below are mirrors in case content on the site gets replaced:
Large Mirror
Regular Mirror
Small Mirror

Enjoy the works of the many Bat-Fans out there!

The Dark Knight Rises ARG: Day 1 Thoughts

So after years of waiting, another Batman ARG is here! We are off to a great start!

It seems so far there are a few similarities between the first Batman ARG and this one. First we have the time table between the start of the ARG and the movie's launch date which is 14 months. Second we have a piece by piece picture reveal of a villain, who may or may not be the main villain of The Dark Knight Rises. It makes me wonder just how similar it will wind up being. A lot of things I would love to see return, but I certainly hope they step up their game this time instead of just putting a new coat of paint on the same tricks.

Now, one thing that is different is the sound file and twitter account. I still want to know what that sound file says. I've heard various things, and none of them are true or confirmable at this point. It also seems that if we are going to get another lead any time soon, it could very well be from the twitter account. Then, will Facebook users possibly see something unique as well? In this sense, I kinda liked their approach of collecting emails better.

Well, no need to nitpick at this point. It was really exciting and I can't wait for the next lead!

Later Bat-Fans, Tricksters, bodybuilding Mercs alike!

~Aesculapius

The Dark Knight Rises ARG: Day 1 Overview

Yesterday, http://www.thedarkknightrises.com/ was launched only revealing what sounds like the chanting of a crowd (as of now neither me or any source I have knows what is being said) and a completely dark webpage.

The audio of what sounds like chanting had a secret. Fans discovered quickly that if you put the audio into any program that will show the audio in spectrum form (such as Audacity), it contained the message "#TheFireRises," a twitter hashtag.

A new page using was then discovered through the twitter account of the name of the hashtag. This page required it's users to link to it with Facebook or Twitter which made a picture mosaic. This mosaic led to the very first picture of Tom Hardy as Bane. Exciting news, and marking the beginning of the new ARG!

Facebook/Twitter Bane Mosaic using tech from http://www.hashtagart.com/

First Pic of Tom Hardy as Bane

The Dark Knight Rises ARG: Preface

Preface

On May 11, 2007 the official website of the movie The Dark Knight opened revealing a Batman logo. This was normal of web content releases and fans were pleased. The unexpected thing was where this would lead.

On May 17, 2007 the Batman logo linked to a ibelieveinharveydent.com; a fictional campaign poster for Harvey Dent for District Atourney, featuring a picture of Aaron Ekhart as Harvey Dent for the first time, and a day later, a comic shop had defaced joker cards which said "I believe in Harvey Dent Too," which lead to ibelieveinharveydenttoo.com which let people submit their emails to reveal the first picture of Heath Ledger as the joker. This was an Augmented Reality Game, also known as an ARG. The part of the movie's prerelease marketing was to create a game in which the fans participated in, allowing them to both involve themselves with the Batman story and even be rewarded with previews and in some cases even schwag. The game lasted on and off for the year up until the movie was released, ending with the opportunity to get tickets for a preview showing of The Dark Knight, in which people who followed had the opportunity to see the movie first on July 15th 2008.

On July 18, 2008 the movie was released... ( http://batman.wikibruce.com/Timeline for more timeline info)

Yesterday, 4 years and 9 days after the first ARG started the sequel's website launched with a character revel similar to the one at the beginning of the Previous ARG. This marks the beginning of the ARG for The Dark Knight Rises, due to be released 4 years and 2 days after the original movie.

WELCOME TO THE ARG FOR THE DARK KNIGHT RISES!