BATMAN REFUSES TO JUMP INTO POLLUTED
HARBOUR
HONG KONG (AFP) - Batman might cut a superhuman figure as he fights
off evil-doers to save the world, but Hong Kong's polluted harbour
is, apparently, one death-defying stunt too far.
Producers shooting the next Batman movie have been forced to cut
one scene involving the caped crusader -- played by Christian Bale
-- jumping out of a plane into the city's famed Victoria
Harbour.
According to the South China Morning Post, producers felt the poor
water quality was just too dangerous for the action hero when
shooting for part of the film takes place here in the coming
week.
Citing two unidentified production sources, it said the stunt had
now been taken off the shooting list for "The Dark Knight," the
sequel to the 2005 hit "Batman Begins" and the latest in the
blockbuster franchise.
"There was supposed to be a scene where Batman jumps out of the
back of a Hercules C-130 and into Victoria Harbour," one source was
quoted as saying.
"The plan was for Batman to be seen jumping into the water and then
climbing up some bamboo, or something similar, onto a pier.
"But when they checked a water sample, they found all sorts of
things, salmonella and tuberculosis, so it was cancelled. Now the
action will cut to inside a building," the source added.
A spokeswoman for October Pictures, the Hong Kong production
company which is managing the shoot, would not comment on the
report.
A spokeswoman for Hong Kong's Environmental Protection Department
admitted that harbour water was not suitable for swimming due to
untreated sewage, the newspaper said.
As well as poor water, Hong Kong also suffers from air pollution
that on many days leaves the city clouded in haze, partly caused by
local power plants and emissions from factories in the neighbouring
Pearl River Delta region in southern China.
