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As much as I love Apple, I have to admit that the output of Steve’s other company is a lot more consistently excellent. Even more wonderfully, Wall•E is filled with references to Apple. It’s a fun bonus in an already great film.

Lots of people have remarked that Apple Design Chief Jonathan Ive was involved in designing EVE, the sleek, white, glossy robot that Wall•E falls in love with. As much as she resembles an older iPod, however, the cleverest thing about EVE is that she appears to have no seams in her surface, though they appear when she lifts her arms. There’s even one scene where Wall•E tries to find her hand while it’s in locked position, and he struggles to find the gaps — an obvious reference to the notoriously difficult-to-open iPod or iPhone.

But the Apple references run deeper. Every morning, WALL*E opens up a solar array in order to charge himself up for the workday to come. Hilariously, as soon as he reaches 100 percent power, the classic Mac booting chime goes off. And it’s definitely the older sound — it’s quite tinny. I’d bet they taped it off of a Quadra rather than a current Mac.

One last Apple reference: Wall•E ‘s favorite way to unwind is to watch an old VHS tape of the Barbra Streisand movie Hello Dolly (it’s OK; it is actually totally weird, if in a sweet way). But that tape then plays through a circa 2006 video iPod, which Wall•E then magnifies with an enormous lens into a projection screen. [cult of mac]

Where’s that sequel to New York monster movie Cloverfield already? It’s on the far back burner, says director Matt Reeves: “We’re still kind of toying with what it’s going to be and whether or not we’re going to find something that will be as exciting for us to make and, hopefully, for an audience to watch. So we’ll see. It’s really in the baby, baby stages. And right now it’s definitely on hold until we come up with what that would be.” He wouldn’t say whether or not this story was going to be a prequel but did mention that would relate to the original. [io9]

Fandango is reporting that dozens of of the midnight screenings for The Dark Knight are already sold out for the (US) opening on Thursday night/Friday morning, July 17th. That’s a full three weeks before the film hits. A few theaters have begun to add 3:00am showtimes on Friday morning to help meet the consumer demand.

As of June 27, “Dark Knight” has sold eight times as many tickets on MovieTickets.com as “Spider-Man 3″ at the same point in the sales cycle — 21 days from the film’s official release. “Spider-Man 3″ is the No. 10 film on MovieTickets.com’s Top-10 Performing Films of All-Time.

This just in from the TAG Blog:

But down on the lower levels, artists are working. A story crew has started early work in Kung Fu Panda, the Sequel, even while animators are hand-drawing new material for the DVD of Kung Fu Panda, the original.

Heath Ledger is getting a fond tribute from his collaborators on “The Dark Knight.”

The end credits of the “Batman Begins” sequel include a farewell note to Ledger, who died in January from an accidental overdose of prescription drugs; and to special-effects technician Conway Wickliffe, who was killed last September in a stunt-car accident.

“In memory of our friends Heath Ledger & Conway Wickliffe,” reads the tribute included in the credits, which went up Thursday on the Warner Bros. publicity Web site.

Ledger plays the villainous Joker in “The Dark Knight,” who begins a reign of terror on Gotham City that pits him against conflicted hero Batman (Christian Bale).

The movie reteams Bale with director Christopher Nolan and returning co-stars Michael Caine, Morgan Freeman and Gary Oldman. Joining the cast are Aaron Eckhart and Maggie Gyllenhaal.

Beginning months before Ledger’s death, his frenetic performance and demented-clown makeup have been a cornerstone of the marketing campaign for the film.

“I needed a phenomenal actor, but he also had to be someone unafraid of taking on such an iconic role,” Nolan says in the production notes for “The Dark Knight.” “Heath created something entirely original. It’s stunning, it’s captivating. … It’s going to blow people away.” [thr]

The producers of “300″ are taking another trip to an epic battlefield.

Mark Canton and Gianni Nunnari will produce “War of the Gods,” a story with a similar scope and tone to the Warners breakout, and set it up with Ryan Kavanaugh’s Relativity Media.

The production has attached Tarsem the music-video and commercial director whose globetrotting and mythical tale “The Fall” is currently in theaters. Charley and Vlas Parlapanides, the brothers who penned the script for Universal’s 50 Cent vehicle “Live Bet,” penned the “Gods” spec.

The script concerns the battles waged by Theseus, a warrior from Greek mythology. That moves it into a somewhat different historical time than “300″ — which concerned the battles of King Leonidas against the Persians — but ensures a similar vibe and young-male demo.

Despite costing less than $75 million, “300″ became a $450 million global box-office monster by using a kind of scaled-down tentpole model — that is, sophisticated effects and a large storytelling canvas but few stars.

Canton and Nunnari are teaming up for the first time since their successful collaboration. Canton recently produced Par’s child fantasy “The Spiderwick Chronicles” and is attached to produce MGM’s “Fame” update. Nunnari is producing Miramax’s upcoming ensemble pic “Everybody’s Fine.” [thr]