Merrick here...

With something a little different from THE DARK KNIGHT. Specifically: a brief report (and a few pictures) from a reader who came across the film shoot while in Chicago. There's nothing Earth shattering here, but I thought you might find this a diverting little Geeky adventure.

Here's CurlyCasey, whose report pretty much speaks for itself. We'd like to thank her for taking the time to put this together for us.

Here’s what happened…

All of a sudden, we happen to come across the Chicago Theater on Lake and State Street, where a film crew was setting up a dolly rig (the thing that keeps the camera steady for a rolling shot) and other items. Two individuals, who resembled actors in the upcoming film, were standing around talking to each other as everyone passed by. Scott and I kept looking at the camera equipment, etc. to see if it said “Dark Knight” anywhere. Of course, there wasn’t anything written anywhere.

Flashback —Before making the trip to Chicago , I had read about the production crew filming “Dark Knight” scenes in Chicago and I planned our trip accordingly. We’re not celebrity stalkers by any means, but we thought it would be fun to see. Whilst I was reading through pages and pages of movie spy material about “Dark Knight,” I found out that they would be using a “code name” for the movie while they were in town. It was to be called “Rory’s First Kiss.”

Back to Lake and State St. --- Just as I informed Scott about the “code name,” a passerby asked a man working on a camera what they were shooting. To our surprise, the crew member said “Rory’s First Kiss.” Jackpot!

Scott and I weren’t going anywhere. We were just 3 ft. away from a scene they were shooting. We began to look around for any of the actors that were supposed to be in town (everyone mentioned above). They only thing we could find were the two stand-in actors (which we believed were for Maggie Gyllenhaal’s character Rachel Dawes and Aaron Eckhart’s character Harvey Dent).

Panning to the street, we saw a crew member replace a limousine’s front license plate with one that read “City of Gotham ” and a yellow taxi cab’s side panel that read “Gotham Cabs.” This is when the butterflies of excitement kicked in for us.

By this time (about an hour later), we were kicked off that side of the street and told to stand on the other side. A crowd began to gather. An annoying little woman with a walkie talkie in her hand told us we could shoot photos but that we couldn’t use our flashes for this scene to be taped for “Rory’s First Kiss.” (wink wink) Even though we questioned why there was a town called Gotham in this film, the little annoying woman stressed that it was not for the Batman movie.

Enter director Christopher Nolan, who’s directed such movies as “The Prestige,” “Memento,” and of course, “Batman Begins.” Nolan appeared on the set (which took place just outside of the theater). He then directed the stand-ins to do certain things, like sit in the cab and then walk to the front door of the theater so he could get his lighting, etc. correct.

Then, Maggie Gyllenhall (who was in “Stranger Than Fiction” “Mona Lisa Smile” and “ World Trade Center ) showed up, as well as Aaron Eckhart (who was the boyfriend in “Erin Brockovich” “Thank You For Smoking” “Any Given Sunday” and “Black Dahlia”). The two actors did exactly what the stand-ins did: sat in the cab, exited the cab to walk up to the theater door, realized the performance for the Moscow Ballet was cancelled, and then turned to leave back into the cab. There was also a green screen (which is used to add digital effects to a film) inside the theater door.

It wasn’t the most exciting scene to watch in the world, but it was pretty cool that we were there to see it happen. The whole scene took about 2 ½ hours to shoot, and who knows if it will even be in the movie.

Scott and I also ran into Aaron Eckhart again Tuesday night as we were looking for a restaurant on Rush St. He was eating at a restaurant outside of his hotel by himself. No one seemed to bug him ‘cause he’s really not that easy to pick out.

BY THE WAY: In case you somehow missed being bludgeoned by the big reveal of The Bat's new ride over the last few days, CLICK HERE to check out some hight res images.

Seems like a long damn wait until this thing comes out July 2008. But, until then, at least we have...

...TURKISH BATMAN!!!