Gotham General Hospital

Update: Details About Upcoming Building Implosion in ‘The Dark Knight’

HollywoodChicago.com — Fri, 24 Aug 2007 14:18:00 -0600

CHICAGO – “Secret Scoop,” who first informed me of the upcoming Brach’s Candy building implosion for “The Dark Knight,” at 1:11 p.m. on Friday submitted updated information about this historic scene.

It is scheduled to happen between 10:30 a.m. and noon on Aug. 29.

This will be two buildings. The larger building is to be filled with flammable liquids and the second smaller, four-story building will be imploded.

This is the last big stunt for the film to be shot.

By the way, [Friday night’s] filming features five SWAT guys being thrown out of a window of a high-rise to hang while Batman goes about his business.

He doesn’t want to kill them. He just wants get them out of the way.

1:27 p.m. update: In a follow-up e-mail, I asked my source about the certainty of this new information. “Secret Scoop” said:

I just got off the phone with my contact before I e-mailed you. I even asked if that could be a false date just to throw off fans. [It’s real.]

4:10 p.m. update: Several people have written in asking me the address for this site. It is 401 N. Cicero Ave. in Chicago.

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

Spoiler: Details Emerge About Use For Soon-to-Be Imploded Building in ‘The Dark Knight’

HollywoodChicago.com — Fri, 24 Aug 2007 00:58:00 -0600

CHICAGO – Following up on my Aug. 14, 2007 report announcing the upcoming building implosion sequence for “The Dark Knight,” I received on Aug. 23, 2007 at 11:09 p.m. yet another confirmation from an independent source who sheds additional light on what it’ll be used for.

Warning: This is spoiler information.

It’s true. Here’s a spoiler.

The [Brach Candy] building will be a Gotham city hospital. Crews are currently and rapidly renovating the western facade (facing Cicero) of the massive, abandoned building.

They are installing fake black windows and a very large, lit up red cross. I could vaguely make out what will surely spell “emergency”.

1:03 a.m. update on 8/24/07: I requested some additional information about these new details from this source. He has given me permission to credit him as “Sam PH”.

I only found out about the building and demolition recently. Here is a photo. Not bad considering the weather.

You can clearly make out the hospital cross. The bright white light on the right of the picture is from the work crew. The three boxes immediately above and to the left of the cross have been fitted with fake windows.

Now here’s something interesting.

On my third drive by, a male nurse or doctor crossed the street. It could have been coincidence or he could have been doing a little filming. I’m betting on the coincidence.

The whole place is much, much bigger than I had anticipated. I’m not quite sure how much they’ll be blowing up. As there aren’t any windows in the place, it could be quite extensive.

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

Scoop: Four-Story Building to Be Imploded in ‘The Dark Knight’

HollywoodChicago.com — Tue, 14 Aug 2007 16:49:23 -0600

At 4:36 p.m. on Tuesday, I received a report with loads of juicy information about upcoming “The Dark Knight” filming. This exclusive information comes from a person with the alias “Secret Scoop”.

Warning: The following can be considered spoiler information.

Hi, Adam. “Secret Scoop” here with more “The Dark Knight” filming information.

They are currently filming in the IBM building downtown, which is the HQ of Wayne Enterprises. They will be there for a week.

Production is running a little behind (so my source says) and they might be filming here a bit longer than planned.

A CTA bus crash on Wacker Drive might be re-staged.

Here is the biggest information of all. Mark Aug. 29, 2007 down on your calendars. They will implode a four-story building on the former Brach Candy factory site.

I have been told this will be a day shoot. A typical building implosion does not have any flames. This will be different.

They will load the building with large amounts of gasoline and other flammable material for a huge explosion and ultimate implosion of the building.

This explosion/implosion will then be added to a CGI building for the film.

Also, the Angelina Jolie movie (“Wanted”) will be shooting on Lower Wacker for the next several days (at least). There will be a high-speed chase scene.

As for the veracity of this information, “Secret Scoop” is the same person who I published on July 24, 2007. The scooper correctly predicted the semi truck flip.

9:29 a.m. update on 8/15/07: A reader wrote it after having done some more research. First, here is an image of the Brach Candy site as captured by Microsoft Virtual Earth:

Also, the reader found a story by ABC 7 Chicago published on Oct. 19, 2005 about the Chicago Fire Department investigating an extra-alarm fire at the plant on Chicago’s west side.

“The building was abandoned since 2001 when the Brach Co. closed after 76 years of business,” the story said.

4:06 p.m. update on 8/15/07: Jason in Chicago has submitted to me another angle of the Brach site.

4:35 p.m. update on 8/15/07: I am in conversations with FOX Chicago about this report. They plan to pool resources together to shoot professional footage when this goes down. Stay tuned.

8:56 a.m. update on 8/16/07: On Thursday, Chicago Sun-Times entertainment columnist Bill Zwecker cited this site and report. On Thursday, this also appeared on CBS 2 Chicago.