I’ve been getting lots of Batman info from various sources, most of which I don’t even pass on to the papers because I can’t confirm if it’s true or not. One piece of unverified info has proved to be particularly tantalising…

A source close to the production gave me what they claim is the full story about the plan to land a Hercules cargo plane on the A9, the main road through the Highlands. The story goes: Warner Brothers applied for permission from the Highland Council many months ago, and permission was granted. In order to perform the stunt safely WB wanted to carry out improvements to a stretch of road and the Council insisted that specific contractors were used. WB felt that the paperwork was going to take too long, so pulled the stunt out of the Highlands.

Now I didn’t believe any of that. It sounds sort of plausible, but for some reason it doesn’t quite ring true. But I looked in to it anyway and that’s when it got really intriguing…

  1. I contacted the Council press office to enquire about any applications for road improvements, and I was referred to their Film Development Officer. Why?
  2. The entire conversation with the Film Development Officer was evasive and made it sound like the story was true. At first she gave me a lecture about how "good journalism would be to check the story first" — that’s what I was trying to do. Then she asked me to hold the story for a week, at which time she would give me a better story — ah, the empty promise of a scoop! Finally she said she would get back to me to confirm if the story was true or not, but only if I told her who I had spoken to at Warner Brothers. Surely road improvement applications are public information? So why would the Council’s Film Development Officer need me to identify a Warner Brothers employee before she could confirm a story about road improvements?
  3. I went back to the press office and explained to a lady there that I didn’t need any info about Warner Brothers or the Batman production, I just needed info about applications for road improvements. Immediately she told me that I’d need to put in a Freedom of Information request. That gives them 20 days to respond, by which time the stunt will have happened.

Suspicious behaviour doesn’t prove that a story is true. But if this story is definitely not true then why not just deny it? And why did two people at the Highland Council both connect an enquiry about road improvements to Warner Brothers?

I’ve also been told where and when the Hercules stunt will happen. Supposedly it’s not on the A9 but it’s still in the Highlands and it’s soon. So, as always, take everything with a huge pinch of salt until you see the photos…