It’s all part of the plan.

Along with a slew of new posters (see also the snazzy 9/11ish one at Quiddity), The Dark Knight begins its trailer rollout today with — of course — another worldwide Joker-run scavenger hunt. (I for one am loving the confluence of my interests that is Jokerized dead-presidents.) In any case, once we budding fanboy detectives run the info through the Batcomputer and get to the bottom of it all, I’ll post the new trailer here…

Update: After the scavenger hunt and some anagram work and duck-shooting, it seems the trailer will be here…next Sunday. (Presumably, it premieres before Iron Man on Friday.) Sunday? Now, that wasn’t very nice.

Update 2: “This city deserves a better class of criminal, and I’m going to give it to them.” In pure Joker fashion, it’s been Kramerized and Youtubed regardless. Extremely poor quality, but this’ll do until the trouble gets here. (I could do without the post-title goofiness, to be honest, but Heath’s Joker still seems scarily spot-on.) Update 3: While bootlegs of the clip keep getting shut down (if you haven’t caught it yet, it’s still up here at io9), the “Jokerized” version of the trailer, handed out to raffle winners in the viral game, is nevertheless now on the tubes.

Is he toast…or just half-burnt?

“RUMOR: Dent Will Withdraw From Race Tomorrow… Developing.” With two months to go until election day, is Harvey Dent done? The Gotham cops swift-boating seems to have killed him in the polls (he’s pulling only 9% in the three-way race against Garcetti and Worthington), and now even random clowns are sticking a fork in him. At this point, I’d say Dent’s political future is at best a coin-toss.

Clowning Around (the world).

If you’ll remember, I posted last week that viral promotion for The Dark Knight would bring back the Clown Prince of Crime for April Fool’s Day. Well, whatever happens tomorrow — and word is it might be the final trailer, although, again, it’s April Fool’s, so who knows — it seems the Joker has set up shop here, at the “Clown Travel Agency.” Tune in tomorrow, folks. Same bat-time, same bat-channel.

Update: Apparently, DA candidate Harvey Dent has been swiftboated by the “Concerned Citizens for a Better Gotham” (a.k.a. some disgruntled cops), and he’ll be holding a press conference tomorrow at 3pm to address the charges made in the ad. This sounds like a prime moment for Joker/trailer-related shenanigans.

Update 2: Never mind tomorrow: The trailer seems to have leaked, and it’s a beaut. (Ok, sorry. I couldn’t help myself…just getting in the April Fool’s mood a day early.) At any rate, more Dark Knight info as it comes.

Update 3: And they’re off: Looks like Step 1 is a worldwide scavenger hunt…apparently to acquire Joker bowling balls and cellphones. The bowling balls have phone numbers and code words attached — presumably that’s Phase 2. Update 4: With all the balls doled out around the globe, the next stop is this Acme Security Systems site…where everyone’s getting “server is too busy” screens of death. April Fool’s! Update 5: For those who did manage to get through, they got a call from Commissioner Gordon, but no obvious link to a trailer or anything. (You can hear it here.) No more updates here unless something big happens (but, if you wanted to play along, this wiki overview of the growing Dark Knight ARG is a good place to start, and most of the spinoff sites have been found via The Gotham Times or the Jokerfied version.)

Update 6: Some spoilerish stills of the Joker appear at a French site. Check ’em out before they disappear.

McKellen the White. | Dent-Worthington Heats Up.

“Encouragingly, Peter and Fran Walsh have told me they couldn’t imagine The Hobbit without their original Gandalf. Their confidence hasn’t yet been confirmed by the director Guillermo del Toro but I am keeping my diary free for 2009!” Grey Havens be damned, Ian McKellen reports he’s likely returning as Gandalf for The Hobbit (well, if he and producer Peter Jackson have anything to say about it, and they probably will.) Update: More good news: Composer Howard Shore is back as well.

Also in movie news, the viral marketing campaign for The Dark Knight is picking up again. As you may remember, a slew of new Gotham-related sites appeared last December. Now, more have arrived, of a distinctly Harvey Dent bent: A new edition of The Gotham Times, Dana Worthington for DA (a.k.a. Harvey Dent’s opposition), Maiden Avenue Report (Gotham’s Drudge, it seems), Citizens for Batman, St. Swithuns Church, and Gotham Cable News are all now online, along with the Dent campaign site linked to the other day. Also, apparently the original marketing plan was always to shift from the Joker to Harvey Dent, so this rollout hasn’t necessarily been affected by the loss of Ledger. (That being said, viral text messages seem to indicate the Clown Prince of Crime will pop up yet again before April Fool’s Day.)

Run, Harvey, Run!

“Gotham City is collapsing from a runaway crime wave and Harvey Dent can save it. But he has to run for District Attorney first, and the only way he’ll run is if he sees an outpouring of public support. So, let’s all get out there and show Harvey Dent he’s got support to take back Gotham!” I know I’ve been doing a lousy job of following down-ticket races thus far this cycle. Still, in case anyone’s interested and by way of Quiddity, Harvey Dent’s campaign for Gotham DA has hit the road. (Alas, it seems I’ve already missed his NYC stops.) Also, no doubt aware of Sen. Obama’s prodigious coattails, he seems to be plugging for an endorsement: “Be creative. Harvey Dent wants to see that we want change — and that we are ready to work for change. Harvey wants to see that people are ready to throw out the old, to break out of habits, to really do something new and different! Because that’s what taking back Gotham will take.“

I’ll say this for him, he has a honest face. By the way, it should be noted: Harvey Dent also somewhat disproves the Gerry Ferraro thesis, as he’s managed to get elected the District Attorney of Gotham City as both a white and black man.

Shadows over Gotham.

“In a political context this would politely be called an ‘unintended consequence.’ (Gotham as Baghdad, anyone?) Mr. Nolan doesn’t deny the overtones. ‘As we looked through the comics, there was this fascinating idea that Batman’s presence in Gotham actually attracts criminals to Gotham, attracts lunacy,’ he said. ‘When you’re dealing with questionable notions like people taking the law into their own hands, you have to really ask, where does that lead? That’s what makes the character so dark, because he expresses a vengeful desire.‘” The NYT checks in with Chris Nolan on The Dark Knight.

You play with matches…

Some comic-book cautionary tales for the day: Rorschach sets fire to a would-be pursuer in a new still from Zack Snyder’s Watchmen, which has wrapped shooting. And Dark Horizons offers a first glimpse at how Aaron Eckhart will look as Harvey Dent…after the incident.

Can the Indy Card Trump the Joker?

“‘Harvey Dent is a tragic figure, and his story is the backbone of this film,’ says Christopher Nolan…’The Joker, he sort of cuts through the film — he’s got no story arc, he’s just a force of nature tearing through. Heath has given an amazing performance in the role, it’s really extraordinary.’” With the next Democratic debate tonight at 9pm EST on MSNBC, one that will hopefully help defuse the tone of the past few days, now seems as good a time as any to check on the big box office rivalry of the summer, Batman v. Indy. (Well, and the forgotten man, Iron Man.) Last we checked, the Jones camp had suggested Bruce Wayne was too wealthy and privileged to understand ordinary people’s concerns, while Batman surrogate Alfred told The Daily Planet‘s Clark Kent that Jones was too “pointy-headed and academic” to save anyone but upscale, overeducated professionals. (The missed rejoinder: The Batman camp is calling people pointy-headed?) Also, scurrilous rumors abound that Shia LaBoeuf was added to the Indy ticket merely to siphon the youth vote away from Batman’s running mate, Dick Grayson…Yep, it’s getting ugly, folks.

Anyway, as the quote above attests, Dark Knight director Chris Nolan recently checked in briefly with the L.A. Times about his two main villains: “Don’t expect a lot laughs in this summer’s return to the cave. ‘It’s a dark and complex story,’ Nolan said, ‘and the villains are dark and complex as well.’” Meanwhile, on the Spielberg side of things, we have this new still from Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skulls. (Note Ray Winstone lurking in the corner.)

Let’s put a smile on that face!

Update 5: Hello all. Since this is one of the more popular entries on the site: My review of The Dark Knight is here, the Batman archives are here, and the main page is here. Welcome, and good hunting.

“You’ve changed things…forever. There’s no going back. You see, to them, you’re just a freak…Like me!” Ok, between this amazing new poster (the one in the middle, although all three are grand) and this leaked, really busted version of The Dark Knight trailer (also here and here, and the real thing appears online here Sunday), I am currently geeking out like a twelve-year-old. (Berk‘s wondering why the heck I’m giggling like the Joker right now.) Honestly, this thing hits at the fanboy-gut level, and is just about the coolest darned thing I’ve seen in ages. Explosions, Batbike, and Michael Caine pep speech aside…how about that clown? I think I’m gonna watch it again.

Update: “I believe whatever doesn’t kill us…simply makes us stranger.” Also, in front of I am Legend on IMAX, the first six minutes of The Dark Knight, featuring a Joker-planned heist of a mob-run bank in downtown Gotham City. It was clever enough, and features a good slow build-up to Heath Ledger saying hello. But it’s not nearly as visceral a thrill as the trailer (which, for some reason, wasn’t shown with the IMAX prologue…ah well. Sunday, then.) Update 2: The first six minutes (in Kramervision, of course) have leaked. Get ’em while you can.

Update 3: While we all await the official trailer release this evening, yet another really creepy Joker poster appears online, in the same vein as the earlier glass one. (It’s been added above.) This might be my favorite of the lot. Update 4: And it’s up, in splendiferous hi-def.

It Takes a Carnival.

The promotional machine for Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight continues to ramp up. As you may have noticed below, I’ve been posting several additional new photos of Heath Ledger’s Joker to the entry of a few days ago. Also, the online viral marketing has continued apace: First an edition of the Gotham Times was released, and, in keeping with the Dark Detective meme, that’s led to all kinds of spinoff sister sites and more municipal tangents than The Wire (Gotham Police Dept. (and Internal Affairs), Gotham National Bank, Gotham School District, Gotham’s DA hotline, Gotham City Rail, Gotham Cab, Acme Security Systems, Gotham Victim Advocate Organization, Remembering Gina, and a Jokerized version of the paper.) Whatsmore, at the original viral Joker site, you can now take a personality profile or try to open a vault for further clues. (Set your clock for 7:38am to do so.) Finally, both the trailer and the first seven minutes of the film will be released on December 14, before the IMAX version of Will Smith’s Omega Man-update I Am Legend. To the IMAXcave, Robin! Update: Another countdown, set for noon on Tuesday. The trailer, perhaps? Update 2: Nope. After some shenanigans involving local bakeries (the NYC ones were over in Yorktown), it’s a new one-sheet.