Dark Knight cinematographer Wally Pfister talks how Batman 3 could be shot

Cinematical recently had a chance to speak with cinematographer Wally Pfister (THE DARK KNIGHT, THE PRESTIGE, MEMENTO), and the Oscar-nominated DP had a few interesting things to say about the potential shooting formats for the upcoming third Batman film.

First up: 3D. Pfister says he and director Christopher Nolan both share a mutual “disinterest” in the format, and goes so far as to call it a “fad”. He and Nolan both declined to use it in their upcoming INCEPTION. However, that doesn’t mean that the format has entirely been ruled out, as Pfister tells Cinematical, “What Chris and I have talked about is doing something cool and something interesting… I did it for one shot of The Dark Knight because he said, you have to say you did it, and literally I had this strapped to my shoulder and I was carrying it. But I think Chris is game for doing something interesting like that, Lord knows that the 3-D fad might pass by the time that summer comes around.”

In regards to IMAX, Pfister had much more positive things to say, including what director Brad Bird (THE INCREDIBLES, THE IRON GIANT) thinks: “[Director] Brad Bird was [saying] ‘you’ve got to shoot the whole thing in IMAX!’ I was like, yeah, I’ve talked to Chris about that.” A source from Ain’t It Cool also adds that Bird’s teenage sons “thought that the IMAX used in The Dark Knight was more realistic than the 3D in these new movies.”

One thing that has been decided on is that the next Batman film will be shot using film. From Ain’t It Cool: “The image quality of film” exceeds that of the high end digital cameras like “the Genesis camera and the Red camera.” He said that he and “Chris [Nolan] are ‘devotees’ of film.”

Head on over to Cinematical and Ain’t It Cool News to read more of Wally Pfister’s comments.