11. Heath Ledger Directed The Jokers Videotaped Warnings
In his first appearance in Batman #1, The Joker brazenly announces over the radio exactly which Gotham citizens he plans to kill. In The Dark Knight, Jokers electronic messages are modernized, in the form of grainy handheld videos broadcast on city wide television. Before his tragic death, Heath Ledger had actually been hoping to make a feature directing debut, and Nolan
allowed him to basically direct the first of Jokers video statements, when he tortures an imitation Batman in a mob meat locker cinematographer Wally Pfister set the lights, microphones were set up, and then Nolan and company hid while Ledger proceeded to do the scene. Nolan was so impressed with the results that he opted not to be there when the second video, where news reporter Mike Engel is hung upside down, was shot a pretty amazing vote of confidence from a directly who famously doesnt even use a second unit.