It was one life that Batman couldn’t save.
An extra in Christopher Nolan’s “The Dark Knight Rises” died while the movie was shooting near Wall Street last month, reps for Warner Bros. and the Screen Actors Guild confirmed to Page Six.
Sources say the unidentified male extra died from a heart attack during rehearsals. He’d wandered off during a break, and was discovered unconscious nearby.
“He was taken immediately to the hospital,” said a source. “It was during a period when the film was shooting a huge sequence with several hundred extras in the Wall Street area. But the male extra had been rehearsing in another location away from the set. While on a break, he’d walked away and died of natural causes.”
No principal cast or filmmakers were present at the time of the incident, we’re told. Both SAG and Warner denied rumors of the death of another extra during filming.
Heath Ledger died in 2008 after wrapping “The Dark Knight.” And on another Warner project, a stuntman on “Hangover 2” wound up in a medically induced coma after a head-on collision.
“The Dark Knight Rises” stars Christian Bale, Tom Hardy and Anne Hathaway. The movie, which shot near the Occupy Wall Street protests, is set for release in July. Nolan considered filming the OWS movement for some scenes, but decided against it.
“The studio can confirm that a male extra passed away while on a break during an off-set crowd rehearsal for a sequence with several hundred extras . . . in early November. Production fully cooperated with the authorities’ investigation, which established that he died of natural causes,” a Warners rep said.
SAG spokeswoman Pamela Greenwalt said, “We are aware of the death of a background actor during production of this picture and have been told that the actor died of a heart attack. The actor in question was not working under a [SAG] contract.”