Holy Helicopter Blades Batman!

It’s not unusual to hear helicopters in Hong Kong – they are everywhere. But the noise level that interrupted me this afternoon was unusually loud and as I looked out, there was a helicopter, uncomfortably close to my window. It hovered there for quite a while, then turned to circle over Central. The culprit was part of the filming crew for the new Batman movie, The Dark Knight, currently being shot on location over the fragrant harbour.

Of course, the harbour’s unique aroma appeared to be too heady for the production and a rewrite was required to remove the scene that would have had Batman jumping into the harbour. Apparently salmonella, tuberculosis and the other nasties that make up the chemical cocktail in Hong Kong harbour were too much much for this masked avenger.

Further controversy was sparked when the film’s director, Christopher Nolan (of the last Batman film, Batman Begins and the very excellent The Prestige) asked Hong Kongers to keep their lights on all night to aid in the shooting of the night sequences for the film. One can understand the director wanting to get the best shots possible of what is (pollution permitting), on the most stunning night-time cityscapes in the world. However, Hong Kong is a city struggling to get the message of energy conservation and environmentalism, so the request could not have come at a worse (or more volatile) time.

That said, I did manage to get some brief snaps of the helicopter, when it returned at sunset to buzz around IFC 2, the tallest building in Hong Kong.

[tags] Batman [/tags]