Book description from
Amazon.com:
In 2005, director Christopher Nolan redefined the Batman legend with Batman Begins, starring Christian Bale as the Caped Crusader. A fresh, dynamic reboot of the franchise, Batman Begins explored the comic book hero’s origins and his evolution from billionaire Bruce Wayne to dark avenger who fights crime and corruption in Gotham City. A 2008 sequel, The Dark Knight, took those compelling, character-driven foundations and raised the stakes, pitting Batman against a deranged master criminal, the Joker, in an all-out war for Gotham’s soul. Now, the final film of Nolan’s trilogy, The Dark Knight Rises, is 2012’s most anticipated film release.
The Art and Making of The Dark Knight Trilogy tells the complete behind-the-scenes story of these three monumental films. Based on in-depth interviews with Nolan and all of the films’ key cast and crew—including cowriters David S. Goyer and Jonathan Nolan, cinematographer Wally Pfister, and more—the book reveals the creative process behind the epic Dark Knight Trilogy, supported by lavish art and never-before-seen photography.
Chapters (thanks to Amazon user JMM):
1. Screenplay - concept of the films, writing the scripts, taking inspiration from the comics, etc.
2. Production Design - building the sets, scouting & dressing locations, designing Batman's vehicles, concept art, etc.
3. Cast - casting the characters, the actors' process, a very strong cast (even in smaller supporting roles), focuses on Christian Bale's casting, etc.
4. Costumes & Makeup - the costumes of the film, costume sketches, detail about the evolution of Batman's suit, the Joker's makeup, Bane's mask, etc.
5. The Shoot: Batman Begins - a chronicle of the 129-day shoot, Nolan's directing style, filming on location, shooting the Tumbler chase, etc,
6. The Shoot: The Dark Knight - filming in Chicago, IMAX cameras, the hospital explosion, etc.
7. The Shoot: The Dark Knight Rises - filming in Pittsburgh and India, shooting the opening plane sequence practically, destroying a football stadium, etc.
8. Special Effects & Stunts - insight into the stunt work with effects coordinator Chris Corbould. This covers most of the big fight sequences and stunts in the three films and how they were achieved.
9. Editing, Music, and Sound - Lee Smith on editing the films, and specifically how he cut effectively between parallel story lines and action. Scoring the film, including quotes from composers Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard. Designing the film's sounds and mixing them effectively with the music (they discuss the clarity issue of Bane's voice).
10. Visual Effects - It seems like these films used every method of visual effects available, from models and miniatures to computer-generated effects. Specific topics include creating digital bats and the monorail crash in Batman Begins, the ferry boat sequence from The Dark Knight, and the stadium explosions in The Dark Knight Rises.
11. Marketing - A discussion about the promotion of the films. This includes traditional methods like posters (with over a dozen poster images in the book) to the unique "viral marketing" that emphasized social media to get the audience to participate in the marketing. Other topics include screening the IMAX prologues and San Diego Comic-Con.
Also includes a foreword by Christopher Nolan, which you can read
HERE (thanks to Josh Wilding), and an introduction by Michael Caine.
There is also a tribute to Heath Ledger written by Chris Nolan at the end of the book - titled "Charisma as Natural as Gravity" (originally published in Newsweek in 2008).
Here is a video by YouTube user JamesTalkAlot which gives us a look inside the book:
You can also check out a preview from TIME:
HERE