Batman Returns to Chicago

So, as many of you film geeks (myself included) out there may be aware they are currently filming "The Dark Knight," the sequel to 2005's fantastic film "Batman Begins" in the city of Chicago. A lot of the filming activity has been down in the Loop area, which for those of you not familiar with the city is in the heart of downtown west of Michigan Avenue, including the financial district, Board of Trade, the Chicago Theater and the Sears Tower among other landmarks. The architecture in the financial district is well suited to double as Gotham City with a lot of stark, stone exteriors and vertical bands of windows that make you feel like you're back in Depression era Chicago. You may recognize the shot looking south toward the Board of Trade (picture below, left) from two other movies, "The Untouchables" and "The Road to Perdition," that filmed in the city.

Anyway, I was coming home from a day at the Shedd Aquarium and I saw some activity around the Board of Trade on LaSalle Street. I figured it was for the Batman movie and later found out that an action sequence was going to be filmed tonight. Unfortunately, I was told that none of the stars like Heath Ledger, Christian Bale, Gary Oldman or Morgan Freeman would be there. But I was there with my camera phone and caught a few images before: A) The security cordoned off several blocks around the shoot; and B) It got too dark to take pics. They're not the best quality, but I wanted to post them for my faithful readers to check out.

While walking around the area and checking out all the equipment and trucks and looking for movie stars, I noticed the title "Rory's First Kiss" displayed in several places. I checked on IMDb.com and apparently this is one of the working titles for the film, in this case a fake. According to Wikipedia, a working title is "the temporary name of a product or project used during its development. Although a working title may be kept as the final title, the assumption is that a working title will be changed before the actual release of the project. Working titles also allow the developing team to discuss the project in public places without letting people know exactly what it is." So there, you learned something about filmmaking today.