BRITS ABROAD/TAKING ON TINSEL T0WN

James Bartlett reports from Los Angeles: "Brit starrer The Dark Knight is heating up almost nuclear here. Many theatres have been overwhelmed with demand for tickets for the latest Batman blockbuster opening this weekend."

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Their solution? The cinemas have scheduled midnight AND, imagine, 6am screenings!

The result is there is much talk that Dark Knight will be the biggest superhero movie of the summer.

Certainly, what is surely the biggest cast of British actors appearing together in any studio movie this year have been out and about around town and on screen pushing the movie.

Gary Oldman was doing the rather thankless TV/morning show stuff and said that 'it was wild' to be able to play a good guy for once, instead of all his notable villains.

He also again repeated his admiration for Heath Ledger’s performance as The Joker, calling it 'truly special' and suggesting that a posthumous Oscar may not be out of the question.

As for Sir Michael Caine, the hardest working actor in showbiz, arrived last week for one of Tinsel Town’s greatest honours: having your hands and feet forever imprinted into the cement outside the legendary Grauman’s Chinese Theatre on Hollywood Boulevard.

Will the promotional efforts Goldman and Caine - along with another stand out performance from Christian Bale and the brooding touch of director Christopher Nolan's - triumph over the masses of opposition?

The answer looks to be: 'Yes!' Certainly all eyes in LA will be fixed more closely than usual on the weekend box office, with the results starting to roll in as early as Sunday lunch time."

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Postscript July 21, 2008: The Dark Knight has broken all box office records in its first weekend in the US, taking some $155m.

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James Bartlett (jbartlett2000@hotmail.com) is correspondent for the Irish Herald and the voice behind "Only In America" on JackFM 105.9 in Oxfordshire.

He has been published in over 70 magazines and newspapers worldwide, and wrote the L.A. Confidential column for the Irish Examiner USA.

Posted July 17, 2008.