Bat fans not scared of "Knight"

Heath Ledger's reinvention of the Joker had Batman fans as well as his colleagues talking. His crazy face, painted like that of a clown, was seen on the Internet by millions, and was THE image which nearly all early marketing of "The Dark Knight" depended on.

All of this, was before Ledger's sudden death on Jan. 22 of an accidental overdose of prescrition drugs. The film was already one of the years most anticipated film, now, the anticipation has reached a fever pitch.

"More people will come to see it because of his death," said Bill Ramey, founder of the fan Web site Batman-on-Film.com. "No doubt some people may be apprehensive about seeing it because there may be a little ghoulish factor about it. But I'm betting that more people now kind of look at it as a tribute to him, and the biggest tribute you could give someone is to go see it and enjoy his performance."

Ledger's role now is his next-to-last performance. "The Dark Knight" has already emerged as arguably the biggest movie featuring a posthumous role in Hollywood history.

"It was punk, it was 'A Clockwork Orange,' it was druggie. It was this kind of fantastic, anarchic look to him. This character had absolutely no rules whatsoever," said Christian Bale, who returns as Bruce Wayne and his alter ego, Batman. "That's not like any Joker I've ever seen before, what I saw Heath do."

Director Christopher Nolan, said he expected that when "The Dark Knight opens July 18, the performance would speak for itself -- that morbid thoughts of Ledger's death would not affect the way audiences views the film.

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