The shooting at The Dark Knight Rises early this morning in Colorado was obviously a nightmare for a lot of people, but it had to have been particularly numbing for Christopher Nolan, the director of the film.
Christopher Nolan, who grew up in both London and Chicago, has been the director of the entire—and enormously successful—Batman trilogy, starting with Batman Begins (2005),then The Dark Knight (2008) and finally The Dark Knight Rises.
Nolan, the father of four, issued the following statement in the wake of the Aurora tragedy, where the latest figures show 12 dead and more than 50 wounded.
Speaking on behalf of the cast and crew of “The Dark Knight Rises”, I would like to express our profound sorrow at the senseless tragedy that has befallen the entire Aurora community.
I would not presume to know anything about the victims of the shooting but that they were there last night to watch a movie. I believe movies are one of the great American art forms and the shared experience of watching a story unfold on screen is an important and joyful pastime.
The movie theatre is my home, and the idea that someone would violate that innocent and hopeful place in such an unbearably savage way is devastating to me.
Nothing any of us can say could ever adequately express our feelings for the innocent victims of this appalling crime, but our thoughts are with them and their families.
Before the film’s release, Nolan said this would definitely be the end of the trilogy. He spoke then about what it meant to be bringing the entire franchise to a close:
“Without getting into specifics, the key thing that makes the third film a great possibility for us is that we want to finish our story. And in viewing it as the finishing of a story rather than infinitely blowing up the balloon and expanding the story… I’m very excited about the end of the film, the conclusion, and what we’ve done with the characters. My brother has come up with some pretty exciting stuff. Unlike the comics, these things don’t go on forever in film and viewing it as a story with an end is useful. Viewing it as an ending, that sets you very much on the right track about the appropriate conclusion and the essence of what tale we’re telling. And it hearkens back to that priority of trying to find the reality in these fantastic stories.”