'The Dark Knight Rises' shooting inspires gritty Sundance movie
www.sbs.com - Batman makes an eerie appearance in Dark Night, a new drama that is premiering at the Sundance Film Festival. The film was inspired by the 2012 Aurora, Colo., shooting that left 12 people dead at a midnight showing of The Dark Knight Rises, and it follows a deranged, lonely man on the day he decides to carry out a similar attack on his local movie theatre. In one scene, the gunman looks into the mirror, trying on different costumes, before he pulls on a Batman mask.
"I don't think this is an obscure movie," says the film's director and writer Tim Sutton. "This is a layered movie. The Batman mask is a way to say we all know what this film is about and to stare it in the face."
Dark Night was made in 16 days in Sarasota, Fla., using a cast of mostly non-professional actors. Although the world in which the film takes place isn't Aurora, there are other illusions to the real-life tragedy, which could generate controversy around Park City, Utah., and beyond. One scene shows an image of Dark Knight shooter James Holmes' trial on TV, while another character has his hair dyed orange -- which also brings to mind Holmes' likeness. "That was to plant one of the many visual motifs that are at times subliminal, that act like ghosts throughout the movie," the director explains.
