In The Dark Knight Batman takes a trip to the Orient*, but he won’t be doing any swimming. The production is moving to Hong Kong to get some inscrutable footage, some of which was to include Batman dropping out of a plane into Hong Kong’s harbor and then climbing out. Yeah, I have no idea why he wouldn’t just land his plane either. Anyway, that shoot had to be nixed because the harbor is just too damn filthy.
"[W]hen they checked a water sample, they found all sorts of things; salmonella and tuberculosis, so it was canceled. Now the action will cut to inside a building," a source told the South China Morning Post. I don’t really understand this bit either, since my understanding is that you get TB from someone with TB. I’m not even convinced you can get salmonella from swimming, unless the Hong Kong harbor is fucking teeming with iguanas, which is sort of terrifying and its own good reason to cancel that shot.
Anybody out there with medical expertise/the proper attention span to look this shit up feel like weighing in with an opinion?
*Sex tourism? Maybe Robin will end up being a Thai ladyboy.
UPDATE: At a press conference yesterday, Nolan claimed it was pollution in the script that led to the change, not the scum in the water. "Once you see the finished film, you will understand why. As far as the
pollution question goes, I honestly have no problem dumping movie stars
in it."