Details Surface on July 1, 2007 ‘The Dark Knight’ Shoot in Daley Center Courtroom

CHICAGO – The same anonymous reader who shot the Navy Pier boat pictures has submitted to me thorough details about “The Dark Knight” shoot on July 1, 2007.

The filming location was the Daley Center at 50 W. Washington in Chicago. This was a scene shot in a small courtroom on the 15th floor. Warning: This can be perceived as spoiler information.

The many different scenes were shot in a courtroom on Sunday. The premise was a montage of all the scum being cleaned up from Gotham City.

In one scene, all the gangsters (the Maroni gang, the Rasta gang, the Humble gang, the scarecrow and miscellaneous gangsters) were on the right side of the courthouse with their defense attorneys seated next to them.

There were regular pedestrians on the left.

In the center aisle, Gotham City Department of Correction officers seperated the gangsters from the pedestrians. Eric Roberts as Sal Maroni was with his attorneys at the front of the room at the right side of the table.

On the left, there was Aaron Eckhart as Gotham City district attorney Harvey Dent. The assistant directors (Nilo Otero and Brandon Lambdin) gave all the direction with Chris Nolan supervising from the judge’s bench.

They cramed all the gangsters into this small courtroom to give the shot. They said it was a “comical” look with so many gangsters being arraigned at one time. The gangsters would stand up staggered by a number they were assigned by Otero.

The female judge would then begin reading the outrageous charges to all the gangsters. She asked: “How do you plea?” Then the prisioners and their defense attorneys would all scream different dialogue.

There were numerous takes done with the gangsters at different angles.

10:15 p.m. update: I received this follow-up e-mail from the same scooper:

By the way, Eric Roberts was very cordial and friendly to everyone he was near on Sunday in the courtroom. He was saying “hello” and “how ya doing?” to the extras who were close to him.

He had a smile on his face the whole time. At least on this day, this was totally different than the image of a hothead that is portrayed in the media.

By ADAM FENDELMAN Editor-in-Chief HollywoodChicago.com adam@hollywoodchicago.com