New York hosts Dark Knight premiere

3:00pm Tuesday 15th July 2008

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Christian Bale, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Michael Caine, Gary Oldman and Morgan Freeman walked down the black carpet at the world premiere of The Dark Knight in New York.

Celebrity guests Josh Hartnett, Emile Hirsch, and Gossip Girl's Ed Westwick, Penn Badgley and Blake Lively also turned up at the AMC Lincoln Square.

Heath Ledger's family, including his dad Kim and mum Sally Bell, flew in from Australia to attend the star-studded screening to see the late actor's performance as the Joker, but they skipped the dark carpet, which tied in with the film's darker atmosphere.

Christian Bale, who reprises his role as the Caped Crusader, gushed about the film, saying: "It's great. I hope it lives up to their expectations. It's wonderful when you've worked on something so hard and it's a great cast, and a great filmmaker. I hope that it's going to be appreciated but let's not speak too soon."

Director Christopher Nolan added: "I feel very excited that there's so much anticipation around the film but obviously, that in itself is somewhat daunting.

"The film has a lot to live up to now so hopefully we've done it right."

And Aaron Eckhart added: "There's so many emotions that I'm feeling right now. I'm so happy to get this out to the public for the world to see it, I feel sad that Heath's not here to do this with us and I feel honoured to be a part of both the Batman history and part of Heath's history."

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