Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1531774
plates of the Hudson River, NY Skyline, industrial NJ, as well as the NJ Arkham location and the yard set built in Downtown LA. I stayed on in post and worked between Concept Artist Hugh Sicotte, Ivan Moran, producer Beverly Abbott and the VXF team to build Gotham City, structure by structure. The idea being that it should be very '80s NYC without being NYC at all. It also had to work with the geographical map we'd developed over both films. On Joker 1, the production team urban- planned Gotham's geography by juggling NY neighborhoods. We made an urban street map, composed of boroughs, rivers, bridges, tunnels, streets and highways. We knew where Arthur was at any point in the story, and what it took for him to get to any other place. We made a subway map replete with different train lines, as well as a detailed bus map. These informed the public transport scenes in the film. Joker 2 dusted off and enhanced those maps, adding the courthouse and Arkham Island. On the day the trial begins, we see Arthur loaded into a corrections van at Arkham (WB sets and then Belleville location) and driven across a causeway (NJ and Carstage) and through Gotham (NYC) to the courthouse (location in NY, stage at WB and location in Downtown LA). With the exception of returning to the iconic Joker stairs, this is the most world we see in the film. The rest of the story is either in the asylum, the courtroom or the fantasy. Besides the world of Arkham, which accounted for about half of our efforts, the plan called for a courtroom, where over a third of the film takes place. The Art Department did a lot of research, watched all the courtroom dramas and visited courtrooms in NYC for reference and smell. We chose a size for what was billed as the trial of the century, based on the trial of the vigilante Bernie Goetz. The courtroom had to have the stature to support the televised trial of the century. On Joker 1, we seeded Easter eggs for the fans using names of streets, building and room numbers, etc. In Joker 2's Arkham, we made Arthur's cell number (258) the same as the first comic that Joker appears in. We painted a portrait of founder Elizabeth Arkham for B Ward. The biggest homage to DC is the courtroom where we created a history of Gotham in murals. Al Hobbs helped rough in the idea for each panel as he already knew all of Gotham's history. We brought in NY artist Javier Ameijeiras, who I call for special projects. The results defined the set. History made Gotham that much more real. The courtroom was blown up as part of Arthur's escape. Todd and Larry Sher decided that all subsequent shots, until Arthur found Lee, needed to feel like they were seamlessly part of one shot. Arthur walks out of the hole in the side of the stage set and E. ARKHAM COURTROOM. SHOWING THE HISTORIC GOTHAM MURALS. PRODUCTION STILL. F. ARKHAM COURTHOUSE SET POST EXPLOSION ON STAGE AT WB. PRODUCTION STILL. F E