TDKR News - NO Discussion

[Lord]

From his Interviews

Christopher Nolan Talks About The Prologue & More!

"Our story picks up EIGHT years after The Dark Knight".
In terms of finishing our story and increasing its scope, we were trying to craft an epic"
"It's really all about finishing Batman and Bruce Wayne's story. We left him in a very precarious place. Perhaps surprisingly for some people, our story picks up quite a bit later, eight years after The Dark Knight. So he's an older Bruce Wayne; he's not in a great state. With our choice of villain and with our choice of story we are testing Batman both physically as well as mentally. Also, in terms of finishing the our story and increasing its scope, we were trying to craft epic so the physicality of the film became very important."

Nolan On Bane:
"The Prologue is basically the first six, seven minutes of the film. Its the introduction to Bane and a taste of the rest of the film. With Bane we are looking to give Batman a physical challenge that he hasn't had before. He's a great sort of movie monster, but with an incredible brain, and that was a side of him that hand't been taped before. Because the stories from the comics are very epic and very evocative---very much in the way that Bruce Wayne's origin story is epic and evocative. We were looking to really parallel that with our choice of villain. So he's a worthy adversary. I felt that if I could get somebody as talented as Tom to agree to hide himself in the character I would get something very special. What I really feel with a great actor is every movement, every hand gesture, every step, has performance in it. Tom completely got it. It's an incredible challenge to remove motion of the face so that you can't put things across in the usual way, and you just have the eyes and a bit of the scalp and the arms and legs. What I knew is that from Tom I would get something where you get a total character and everything has incredible thought applied to it. And a lot of what he's doing is very counterintuitive. He has this incredible disjunct between the expressiveness of the voice and the stillness of the movement of his body. He's found a way to play a character who is enormous and powerful with a sort of calm to it, but also is able to incredibly fast at times. Unpredictable. He just has a raw threat to him that's extraordinary. It's a very powerful thing when you see it come together, beyond what I have ever imagined. That's what you get from working with great actors."

"The Riddler was never a contender". - Hardy was Nolan's first choice!

"The world of Batman indeed the world of all graphic novels, deals with archetypes, and there's a very real sense in which the Joker is an extreme and an absolute. So when you're looking to continue the story, then you certainly don't want a watered-down version of a character you've already done. You want a different archetype. What Bane represents in the comics is the ultimate physical enemy.

The world of Batman, indeed the world of all graphic novels, deals with archetypes," he says, "And there's a very real sense in which The Joker is an extreme and an absolute and Batman is an extreme and an absolute. So whe you're looking to continue the story - in this case finish Bruce Wayne and Batman's story, as we see it - then you certainly don't want a watered-down version of a character you've already done. You want a different archetype. What Bane represents in the comics is the ultimate physical villain.

It's really all about finishing Batman's and Bruce Wayne's story. We left him in a very precarious place at the end of The Dark Knight. His reputation in tatters, on the run. And I think perhaps surprisingly for some people, out story picks up quite a bit later. He's not in great state. He's frozen in time, he's hit a brick wall. Batman Begins was very much about the explaining the logic of the suit, and how it belonged in the shadows, in a position of stealth where he's able to intimidate people with it as his new entity. And then through The Dark Knight we would him out during the magic hour and we changed the suit accordingly so he withstood that kind of exposure. But also the character himself has the reputation now, so he;s able to expose himself more and still intimidate people. And with the third film we're pushing that further...but plenty of it takes place in the dark too."



Lindy Hemming Gives Details On Bane's Mask

THE BREATHING MECHINISM: "He was injured early in his story. Hes suffering from pain and he needs gas to survive. He cannot survive the pain without the mask. The pipes from the mask go back along his jawline and feed into the thing at the back where there are two cannisters of what ever it is..the anasthetic"






UPDATE

Tom Hardy On Bane
"He's brutal. Brutal. He's a big dude who's incredibly clinical, in the fact that he has a result-based and oriented fighting style. It's not about fighting. It's about carnage. The style is heavy-handed, heavy-footed, it's nasty. Anything from small-joint manipulation to crushing skulls, crushing rib cages, stamping on shins and knees and necks and collarbones and snapping heads off and tearing his fists through chests, ripping out spinal columns. He is a terrorist in mentality as well as brutal action. He's a smashing machine. He's a wrecking ball. If we're going to shoot somebody, shoot the pregnant woman or the old lady first. Make sure everybody stands up. He's a terrorist in his mentality as well as brutal actions. He's horrible piece of work."


Christian Bale:

"I wasn't familiar with Bane. Although I vaguely remembered just a crazy "roid-looking" guy with a mask. You know what I mean? I remember him less actually on screen, and more people telling me that, and wincing just like you did. I just trust and have faith in Chris I know he wasn't gonna mess around with making poor decision on the bloody villain was!
it does harken back to that notion that this guy is originated from great pain and he has to address that--but at what point does it become indulgence? The question is how long do you allow pain to dominate your life? He has to try and answer that and move on."

[rogue_agent]

Typed up and slightly categorised almost all of the EMPIRE article thanks to the scanned images from Keyser Soze:

Here is a download link to the article (Microsoft Word Document)
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=HUH64N8E

I've attempted to highlight (in purple) the most exciting and/or relevant bits):

Spoiler!!! Click to Read!:

1. BEHIND-THE-SCENES – WALL STREET

“I’m exhausted. Every bone in my body is aching from training and now it’s the big fight scene. So it’s suck it up! Suck it up!” Tom Hardy bursts into laughter. Less than an hour later – surprising both him and Bale, who were expecting this to be a much longer day – Empire finds Hardy out of the costume and mask, and despite his professed knackeredness, in fine fettle indeed. After a friendly bear-hug welcome, he’s kindly brewed us a heady espresso, and we sit next to a half-eaten burrito and a pile of Bane publicity photos that Hardy dutifully autographs with a silver Sharpie while we talk.

“It’s a lot of business out there, isn’t it?” he says, nodding to the continuing carnage beyond the trailer wall (Nolan has plenty more to shoot with the brawling extras). With his head shaved bald and sporting a goatee, Hardy looks more like the imposing Bronson of Nicolas Winding Refn’s film than the slick Eames of Nolan’s Inception. “It’s very overwhelming,” he continues. “When you’re training in a rehearsal room you go, ‘Okay, I have a contact with seven people. This guy I chin, this one I slip and I punch, this one I pick up and suplex, this guy I kick in the face, and this one, he stops a hammer with his head. And then I meet Batman. That’s all right in a rehearsal room, but then you add 1,000 people that are all dressed the same as the seven you’re supposed to hit – ‘cause they’re all police officers – and I don’t know where my police officers are. But the stuntmaster’s like, ‘Don’t worry. They will find you.’”

2. FAMILIARITY WITH BANE

Hardy has quite a task on his hands, and it’s not just finding the right policemen to GBH. (He actually went through more than he was supposed to out there – “So, I apologise to whoever they were! I’m sure we’ll find out in the accident report…”) Not only does he have to deliver the requisite villainy to help this final chapter top all that’s gone before, he has to do it with a bad guy who arrives after Heath Ledger (figuratively) smacked gobs with his astonishing take on The Joker in The Dark Knight, and who, let’s be honest, would score a big, fat X on a Family Fortunes Batman villain poll.

Hardy himself hadn’t heard of Bane before he was offered the role – “I’m fairly incubated” – and for that matter, neither had his multi-million-dollar sparring partner.

“I wasn’t familiar with Bane,” admits Christian Bale when EMPIRE catches up with him, similarly freed from his battle-gear in his own trailer just next door. “Although I vaguely remembered just a crazy ‘roid-looking guy with a mask.” We wonder if that was from the ill-conceived and ill-received Batman & Robin, in which the character appeared as a mindless, luchador-masked megachump. “You know what? I remember him less actually on screen, and more people telling me that – and wincing just like you did,” Bale chuckles. “I just trust and have faith in Chris. I knew he wasn’t gonna mess around with making a poor decision on who the bloody villain was!”

Precisely how that villain, created by Chuck Dixon, Doug Moench and Graham Nolan (no relation) in 1995, has been reinterpreted by Christopher Nolan’s purposes is something nobody will reveal at this early stage. (Just as, for now, talk of Anne Hathaway’s Catwoman or the other supporting characters is also off-limits.) Although costume designer Lindy Hemming does drop hints when describing Bane’s look (see Section 9. Bane Clothed).

3. PROLOGUE & IMAX

More will be revealed on December 21 when, repeating a strategy that worked well with his Joker reveal almost four years earlier, Christopher Nolan releases the prologue to The Dark Knight Rises in select IMAX cinemas, 65mm being the director’s format of choice; much more of this film’s action is shot in IMAX than even The Dark Knight’s. “The prologue is basically the first six, seven minutes of the film,” explains Nolan two days later, during what must be a highly valued day off. “It’s the introduction to Bane, and a taste of the rest of the film.”

4. HINTS ON HOW BANE FITS INTO THE STORY

Until then, for the uninitiated and those Family Fortunes contestants who went for The Joker, Riddler and Penguin, we can only examine the character’s graphic-literary formation. Bane was a child raised within the walls of a harsh prison in a fictional Caribbean country (Santa Prisca), who was transformed into a fearsome, hulking man-machine via a physique-enhancing intravenous drug called Venom. Bane’s most celebrated storyline is Knightfall, in which he snaps Batman’s spine like a dry twig.

“With Bane, we are looking to give Batman a physical challenge that he hasn’t had before,” says Nolan. “With our choice of villain and with our choice of story we’re testing Batman both physically as well as mentally. Also, in terms of finishing our story and increasing its scope, we were trying to craft an epic, so the physicality of the film became very important.”

Nolan and co-writer David Goyer had settled on Bane as the main villain three-and-a-half years earlier, when they first put the story together just after The Dark Knight’s release. “What our IMAX prologue is aiming at showing is that Bane’s a very different kind of villain than the ones Batman has faced before in our films,” Nolan continues. “He’s a great sort of movie monster, but with an incredible brain, and that was a side of him that hadn’t been tapped before. Because the stories from the comics are very epic and very evocative – very much in the way that Bruce Wayne’s origin story is epic and evocative. We were looking to really parallel that with our choice of villain. So he is a worthy adversary.”

5. THE RIDDLER

Between Nolan and Goyer’s decision to cast Bane in the prime antagonist role and its announcement, the rumour mill ground out talk of The Riddler. But Nolan insists that, after Heath Ledger’s Joker, The Riddler was never a contender.

“The world of Batman, indeed the world of all graphic novels, deals with archetypes,” he says. “And there’s a very real sense in which The Joker is an extreme and an absolute and Batman is an extreme and an absolute. So when you’re looking to continue the story – in this case finish Bruce Wayne and Batman’s story, as we see it – then you certainly don’t want a watered-down version of a character you’ve already done. You want a different archetype. What Bane represents in the comics is the ultimate physical villain.”

6. BANE AND BRUTALITY

“Physical” seems a mild way to describe the mayhem on Wall Street, but it’s a word that keeps coming up. Bale, for example, confirms, “It’s the first time in Chris’ movies that we’ve had an adversary who’s physically superior [to Batman]”. And the physicality is something in which Hardy appears to revel. He won’t reveal a jot about Bane’s agenda or his motives, but he’ll talk in detail about his methods. Specifically his fighting style.

“He’s brutal,” Hardy enthuses. “Brutal. He’s expedient delivery of brutality. And you know, he’s a big dude. He’s a big dude who’s incredibly clinical, in the fact that he has a result-based and orientated fighting style. The result is clear.” He laughs boisterously. “Do you know what I mean? It’s: *beep* off and die. Quicker. Quicker. Everything is thought out way before. He’s hit you, he’s already hit somebody else. It’s not about fighting. It’s just about carnage with Bane. He’s a smashing machine. He’s a wrecking ball. The style is heavy-handed, heavy-footed, it’s nasty. Anything from small joint manipulation to crushing skulls, crushing rib cages, stamping on shins and knees and necks and collarbones and snapping heads off and tearing his fists through chests, ripping out spinal columns. It’s anything he can get away with.”

This is a 12-certificate film, isn’t it?

“Yeah, but I’m not approaching it with a 12-certificate attitude. If we’re going to shoot somebody, shoot the pregnant woman or the old lady first. Make sure everybody stands up. And listens. He is a terrorist in his mentality as well as brutal action. So he’s horrible. A really horrible piece of work.”

7. CASTING TOM HARDY

Hardy was Nolan’s first choice for the role, although it at first seemed he wouldn’t be available as, at the time, he was about to start on George Miller’s Mad Max reboot (now Hardy’s next project after The Dark Knight Rises). As soon as Nolan heard about that film’s delay, the director gave him a call. According to Hardy (who does an uncanny Nolan impression, by the way), the conversation went something like this:

Nolan: Tom. I was just considering doing a new Dark Knight and I was just wondering… There’s a character in it, which I think you would be perfect for. You might not be interested, because I appreciate… Um, I’m asking quite a bit of you as an actor to… wear a mask. For six months. It’s something I’d like to talk to you about if you’re interested and maybe you might consider, um, having a think about it. He’s a villain. I think we’re going to go big on this last one.
Hardy: Are you saying I’d have access to all the stunt coordination team that I want to play with, martial-arts wise, all the weapons I could possibly want to play with, and I get to hang out with you for six months? And all I have to do is wear a mask?
Nolan: Yeah, basically.
Hardy: *beep* sign me up, man.

The mask, it turned out, wasn’t much of a problem for Hardy. He describes any issues he has as “psychosomatic – if I panic it’s not easy [to breathe], and if I’m chilled it’s fine.” But EMPIRE wonders how Nolan dealt with his villain having to emote with the majority of his face hidden.

“I felt that if I could get somebody as talented as Tom to agree to hide himself in the character I would get something very special,” he says. “What I really feel with a great actor is every movement, every hand gesture, every step has performance in it.” This, he explains, is the reason he doesn’t hire doubles to do insert work (such as when you see a character’s hand take a gun out of a drawer). “Tom completely got that. It’s an incredible challenge to remove motion of the face so that you can’t put things across in the usual way, and you just have the eyes and a bit of the scalp and the arms and the legs. What I knew is that from Tom I would get something where you get a total character and everything has incredible thought applied to it. And a lot of what he’s doing is very counterintuitive.

“He has this incredible disjunction between the expressiveness of the voice and the stillness of the movement of his body. He’s found a way to play a character who is enormous and powerful with a sort of calm to it, but also is able to be incredibly fast at times. Unpredictable. He just has a raw threat to him that’s extraordinary. It’s a very powerful thing when you see it come together, beyond what I had ever imagined. That’s what you get from working with great actors.”

8. BRUCE WAYNE & BATMAN

But what of the Dark Knight himself? EMPIRE asks Bale, back in the batsuit for the third and final time, if this film contains even a flavour of Knightfall’s backbreaking storyline. Bale smiles apologetically. “I’m sure you’ve experienced it before, and you’re about to experience it right now,” he says. “The wall of silence where I go, ‘You’re gonna speak with Chris, aren’t you? Right. I’ll let him decide if he’s going to answer that one or not.’”

As it turns out, Nolan won’t answer that one, either, but he will reveal this: “It’s really all about finishing Batman and Bruce Wayne’s story. We left him in a very precarious place at the end of The Dark Knight. His reputation in tatters, on the run. And I think, perhaps surprisingly for some people, our story picks up quite a bit later. Eight years after The Dark Knight. So he’s an older Bruce Wayne. He’s not in a great state.” Nolan laughs. “Not that he was ever in a great state! He’s frozen in time. He’s hit a brick wall.”

Bale expands on this. “It does harken back to that notion that this guy originated from great pain and he has to address that – but at what point does it become indulgence? The question is: how long do you allow pain to dominate your life? He has to try and answer that and move on.”

The Dark Knight Rises is also notably the first of Nolan’s Batman films to show his main character operating in daylight. A bold decision; after all, this is hardly the Adam West TV show. “We felt to some degree we’d earned the right to do that with the character,” explains Nolan. “Batman Begins was very much about explaining the logic of the suit, and how it belonged in the shadows, in a position of stealth where he’s able to intimidate people with it as a new entity. And then through The Dark Knight we would bring him out during the magic hour and we changed the suit accordingly so he withstood that kind of exposure. But also the character himself has the reputation now, so he’s able to expose himself more and still intimidate people. And with the third film we’re just pushing that further…

“But,” he adds, “plenty of it takes place in the dark, too!”

If Hardy is to be believed, Batman’s move into sunlight has done nothing to diminish the power of his presence during their combat scenes. “He does look really intimidating! There’s a three-year-old in me that’s going, ‘Oh my God that’s Batman! That’s Batman and he’s going to hit me! But I love Batman!”

He shoots EMPIRE an evil grin.

“Then I look in the mirror. And I hit him back. Twice as hard.”

9. BANE CLOTHED

Costume designer Lindy Hemming talks us through the latest Bat-villain’s style

THE MASK
“I wanted it to be like an animal. I looked at things like silverback gorillas, and snarling teeth and fangs coming up and fangs coming down.”

THE BREATHING MECHANISM
“He was injured early in his story. He’s suffering from pain[ and needs gas to survive. He can’t survive the pain without the mask. The pipes from the mask go back along his jawline and feed into the thing at the back, where there are two canisters of whatever it is – the anaesthetic.”

THE ARMOUR
“Here he has nods to the straps of the wrestling suit he started with in the comics, but he’s much more of a warrior/mercenary than a wrestler.”

THE TECH
“His stuff has been made on the move over the mountains of the world. So there is a slightly clunky element to him, and that’s part of his story.”

10. WHAT IS THE STORY?

EMPIRE considers the clues we’ve detected over the last six months. The spoiler-sensitive might want to look away in case we’re right about any of it!

MARION COTILLARD AND JOSEPH GORDON-LEVITT
We know they’re in the film, and we know they play Miranda Tate (a Wayne Enterprises board member) and John Blake (a cop) respectively, but who are they really? We expect one to be a friend and one a foe. But which is which.

BATMAN FLIES!
Pap snaps have revealed the new vehicle – or at least, the practical FX-element of it – and it flies. No-one’s officially calling it the ‘Batwing’, though, and judging by how it’s been used in street scenes, we’re saying it’s more chopper-based than jet.

SCARECROW’S BACK?
Nolan regular Cillian Murphy was spotted on set in late September, which makes a Dark Knight-esque Scarecrow cameo highly likely. We’re not convinced there’s a direct link to the reports of a prison breakout scene shot in Pittsburgh (that could just as well be part of a Bane origin scene), but he must get out of Arkham somehow…

THE CAT
No secret Catwoman’s in it, and we all know she’s played by Anne Hathaway, but there are still scant details. We don’t think we’d win any prizes for suggesting she may be playing off Batman and Bane against each other. And those ‘cat ears’? They’re her night goggles, flipped up.

TUMBLERS!
Yes, there are three more tumblers in this movie, but they’re not additional Batmobiles; they’re desert camo-styled, and part of Bane’s arsenal. Has someone been sneaking schematics out of Lucius Fox’s vault…?

RA’S AL GHUL?
Josh Pence (the digitally-replaced-by-Armie-Hammer twin in The Social Network) is reported to be playing “Young Ra’s al Ghul”, while Liam Neeson was spotted on set in June. Don’t expect a resurrection, though – more likely flashbacks which could connect up with the fact that Bane’s likely leading a revitalised League of Shadows, perhaps in conjunction with Talia al Ghul, Ra’s’ daughter – another character rumoured to be appearing.

11. THE ANATOMY OF GOTHAM

The five cities that make up Nolan’s Bat-turf

CHICAGO (Batman Begins, The Dark Knight)
Most of the exterior shots of Gotham in the first two films were The Windy City.

LONDON (Batman Begins, The Dark Knight, The Dark Knight Rises)
Our own capital only makes bit-part appearances as Gotham, but is the only city to appear in all three films.

LOS ANGELES (The Dark Knight Rises)
LA makes its Nolan-Batman debut with The Dark Knight Rises.

PITTSBURGH (The Dark Knight Rises)
“We did an enormous amount here,” says Nolan – including a gigantic set-piece at Heinz Field.

NEW YORK (The Dark Knight Rises)
“We didn’t have the resources to film there on the first two movies,” says Nolan, so he was keen to get the real Gotham into his finale.

[Kane52630]

Official descriptions of The Dark Knight Rises’ prologue coming December 8th?

http://batman-news.com/2011/12/04/of...-december-8th/

Sadly the invitation above is not mine, but lucky members of the press have been invited to an early screening of The Dark Knight Rises’ prologue on Thursday, December 8th. The screening includes an introduction by Christopher Nolan and a reception immediately after. There have been a lot of descriptions of the prologue floating around the internet, but I’ve kept them off Batman-News.com because there was no way to tell how legitimate they were. Assuming that the press isn’t embargoed, we should get some official information about the first six minutes of The Dark Knight Rises in just four days. You’ll be able to see The Dark Knight Rises’ prologue for yourself in the next few weeks. Check out Warner Bros. press release with details on the official IMAX theaters and dates. We already know that the prologue will be an introduction to Bane, what do you think we’ll see? Let me know in the comments, and stay tuned to Batman-News.com next week for all the latest on The Dark Knight Rises’ prologue.

[Kane52630]

The Dark Knight Rises Initiates "Operation Early Bird"

http://batman-news.com/2011/12/08/th...on-early-bird/

http://www.comingsoon.net/news/movienews.php?id=85001

Following yesterday's report that saw two documents released that mysteriously tie-in the upcoming Batman film, The Dark Knight Rises, comes a third, this time straight from the viral Twitter feed, @thefirerises.

Teasing an event called "Operation Early Bird" that's set to occur tomorrow morning at 10am PST, the below images continues the ARG storline that involves Alon Abutbul's character, Dr. Leonid Pavel. Meanwhile, the website www.OperationEarlyBird.com bears a countdown clock that targets the same timeframe tomorrow. What it's all going to lead to, however, remains a mystery.

Set for release on July 20, 2012, the Christopher Nolan sequel stars Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Gary Oldman, Morgan Freeman, Tom Hardy, Anne Hathaway, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Marion Cotillard, Juno Temple, Josh Pence, Daniel Sunjata and Nestor Carbonell. You can catch the six-minute prologue next week at one of these IMAX theaters and be sure to check back later tonight as ComingSoon.net is attending a special preview of the IMAX footage and will have a full report.

[Kane52630]

The Dark Knight Rises IMAX Prologue Description

http://www.superherohype.com/news/ar...-imax-prologue

One of the most anticipated films of 2012, The Dark Knight Rises revealed tonight, for the first time anywhere, its six-minute prologue that can be seen before select IMAX screenings of Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol, beginning December 16th. (Click here to find a participating location near you.)

Introduced by Christopher Nolan himself, the footage was unveiled at Universal City's AMC IMAX and met with rounds of heavy applause. SuperHeroHype was on hand and, while we've been asked to keep the details of the footage relatively light, here's a taste of what you can expect to see next Friday:

Set for release on July 20, 2012, The Dark Knight Rises stars Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Gary Oldman, Morgan Freeman, Tom Hardy, Anne Hathaway, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Marion Cotillard, Juno Temple, Josh Pence, Daniel Sunjata and Nestor Carbonell.

Also, be sure to check back with SuperHeroHype early tomorrow morning for details on the film's viral event, Operation Early Bird.

From Empire:

http://www.empireonline.com/news/story.asp?NID=32646

Can we sum the footage up in a word? No. A sound? “Woooargh!” Launching with Gary Oldman’s Commissioner Gordon remembering an old friend we met in The Dark Knight it then segues into the main event. A miniature thrill-ride in and of itself, the prologue features some stunning camera work (clearly Nolan felt like applying some of the tricks and style he mastered oInception) and the opening sequence, which gives us our first look at Bane (Tom Hardy), comes off like a cross between a Bond movie and everything we’ve come to love about Nolan’s Bat-universe. Highlights include one very confused CIA agent, a truly clever attack, superb stuntwork, some threatening words from Mr Bane himself and a lot of clues about his links to the bigger story.

After the prologue came a brief sizzle reel burst of shots from later in the film, which gave us proper looks at Anne Hathaway in full costume, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and a certain wonderful toy. The major feeling we were left with is that we want to see more, and we want to see it right now.

[Kane52630]

Interview: 'Dark Knight Rises’ Director Christopher Nolan opens up about Bane choice



http://herocomplex.latimes.com/2011/...t-bane-choice/

There’s nothing sentimental or soft about Gotham City, and that seems to suit Christopher Nolan just fine. The 41-year-old filmmaker fills the screen with grim architecture, hard-luck faces and gun-metal hues; tricks of the mind are his narrative specialty, not affairs of the heart. Still, last Thursday, eating his dinner standing up in a movie theater lobby, Nolan confessed that even he got a bit misty during the final shooting days of “The Dark Knight Rises,” which is (by all appearances) his final visit to the world of Batman.

“I tend not to be too emotional on the set, I find that doesn’t help me do my job,” the writer-director said between bites. “But you definitely get a little lump in your throat thinking that, ‘OK, this is going to be the last time we’re going to be doing this.’ It’s been quite a journey. Hopefully, reflecting that journey — by all of us who made the films — in the three films together will make it so they have a real span to them, some real heft.”

Principal photography on “The Dark Knight Rises” was completed in mid-November after an intense six-month shoot that took Nolan and his veteran crew to India, Scotland and the United States as well as Cardington, England, their home base, where Gotham landmarks are set up inside a massive and moldy, old zeppelin hangar. The movie hits theaters on July 20 but, of course, Nolan is far from finished. He took a break from the editing room last week only to show seven minutes of ”Rises” footage to journalists and bloggers; it’s the same seven-minute preview that, starting this Friday, moviegoers will be able to see as a special trailer before screenings of “Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol” at select IMAX theaters.

For a vast tribe of movie fans, the taciturn Nolan is a figure of fascination and there’s a massive amount of interest in the finale of his Gotham trilogy, which so far has made $1.4 billion in worldwide box office, broke records in home video and generated hundreds of millions more in merchandise and licensing deals. Amateur and professional photographers dogged the ”Rises” production across the globe and every week brought new rumors about the film’s plot, characters, vehicles or costumes. Nolan doesn’t spend much time surfing the Internet (this is the guy who doesn’t have a cellphone or email account), but at a small reception after the Universal City press screening he said he welcomes the Bat-mania for what it represents.

“It’s terrific, to have people that interested in something. It reminds you that it is a real honor to work on something that means so much to people,” Nolan said. “I’d love to be able to claim that I invented the whole thing and that’s why they’re interested. I did not. I’ve been given a very precious thing to do my best with, to look after and not to let people down. There’s a certain amount of fear that comes with it and intimidation but it’s also a great privilege. [As for the fans], they want it to be great, they want to go enjoy it and they’re fascinated by it. You know, there’s always controversy regarding things that people will disagree with but hopefully they appreciate the effort of trying to make something good.”

That effort to be good brings back newly minted Oscar winner Christian Bale as Bruce Wayne and a supporting cast with Gary Oldman, Michael Caine, Marion Cotillard, Anne Hathaway, Morgan Freeman — all Academy Award winners or nominees. The screenplay, written by Nolan and his brother, Jonathan Nolan, is based on a story concept by the director and David S. Goyer, and it starts eight years after the final scene in 2008′s “The Dark Knight.” Bale has already confirmed that this is his last time in the cape and, because of the film’s tag line, “The legend ends,” many fans are wondering if this movie will dare the unthinkable and actually kill off the caped crusader.

The preview trailer on “Ghost Protocol” will, no doubt, mark the beginning of a larger, intensified fan conversation about the movie. Warner Bros., which has already said goodbye to Hogwarts and “Harry Potter” this year, will try to fuel that fire and all of Hollywood is worried about the seasons ahead; it’s been a blue Christmas so far for the industry – the domestic box office for all releases this past weekend was $78 million, the lowest total since September 2008 — and it’s revealing that in the eyes of many fans the biggest movie event of this holiday season is the seven-minute preamble to a film that won’t reach theaters for another six months.

Nolan thinks big and IMAX is a part of that. The filmmaker loves IMAX and views it — and not stereoscopic 3D – as today’s best approach to cinema spectacle and, as he put it last Thursday, the “grandeur of the movies.” He and his Oscar-winning cinematographer, Wally Pfister, again put up with the bulky, noisy IMAX cameras for some of the big action sequences in this third Batman film and Nolan said that if the edit of “Rises” goes as he expects, about 45 to 50 minutes of the finished film will have been shot with IMAX cameras.

Bane breaks Batman in the comics mythology (DC Comics)

That’s about twice as much IMAX footage as the last Batman film, “The Dark Knight,” the highest-grossing film of 2008. It was four years ago this month that Nolan hosted a similar preview of “The Dark Knight” and showed the opening sequence of that film, the bank heist that introduced the world to Heath Ledger’s bold and searing take on the Joker. (That opening sequence was then shown, as a trailer, to moviegoers who saw “I Am Legend” at IMAX theaters.) This new “Rises” preview footage has some of the same rhythms of that now famous robbery scene from the second movie; both play with the ideas of masks and identity, both present modern takes on the classic double-cross and, most of all, they show villains with a flair for mind-blowing exit strategies.

The “Rises” opening sequence takes place mostly in the air; it shows hooded prisoners being transported on a CIA plane and it reveals that this film’s evil mastermind, Bane, played by Tom Hardy, is not to be underestimated no matter the setting or situation. The sequence required some intense aerial work for Nolan and company and, as always, the director’s emphasis was on in-camera effects and stunt work as opposed to the pixelated painting that is the norm in today’s computer-generated Hollywood.

“We had a lot of fun on it,” Nolan said. “It was a tricky sequence to shoot but a lot of very talented people worked very hard on it. And I’m thrilled with the result. We shot it in Scotland. We braved the weather — it rains all the time there, a terrible place to do an aerial sequence, which is why no one has sort of done it before. You usually wind up in the desert or something for very practical reasons. But it really came off. We got very lucky with the weather and a lot of good planning went into it. I think it had a very unique look.”

Bane was still a new sensation in this 1993 comic book (DC Comics)

(It certainly had a unique sound — Hardy, behind his mask, was difficult to understand for many of the people at the press preview. It will be interesting to see how that changes between now and next summer’s delivery of the film. Nolan and his team can certainly play with the sound and recorded dialogue to clear up the metallic muddle.)

With Bane — a brawny, brutal genius with a fearsome masked visage — Nolan surprised many observers because in his previous films he veered toward the more time-tested end of Batman’s rogues gallery (in the pages of DC Comics, the Joker, Two-Face and Scarecrow all date to the early 1940s, as does Catwoman, who will be a supporting character and played by Hathaway in this new film). Bane, however, first appeared in the comics in 1993 as the creation of Chuck Dixon, Doug Moench and Graham Nolan (no relation to the filmmaker). The director said it was Goyer who provided him with a four-color education in Bane.

“I didn’t know him very well,” Nolan said. “David Goyer got me a bunch of stuff on him and we looked into him. I only knew him by name, I wasn’t familiar with his back story. He’s a very cool character. And getting an actor like Tom to take it on, you know you’re going to get something very special. Tom is somebody who really knows how to put character into every gesture, every aspect of his physicality in the way that great actors can. He’s a very, very physical actor. He transforms himself and it’s there in every movement. He’s not afraid to look at a character from the outside as well as the inside so there’s a deep psychological branch to the character but also a very, very specific awareness of how he’s going to use his body and his appearance to express that character too. Christian is like that too, very much.”

The big question: Will Bruce Wayne still be wearing the mask and cape of Batman at the end of the film? In the pages of DC Comics, in the landmark 1993-94 arc called “Knightfall,” the brutal and canny Bane waited for the hero to be at his weakest point in body and spirit before delivering a (literally) crippling blow. In that story, Batman’s snapped spine left him looking for a replacement; that and the fact that the new film has “Rise” in the title has stirred plenty of speculation (not unlike Alan Moore’s “V for Vendetta” epic or Lee Falk’s classic mythology for “The Phantom”) that a next-generation newcomer might inherit Wayne’s mask and the mission.

The addition of “Inception” co-star Joseph Gordon-Levitt to the Gotham City cast as a young cop named John Blake certainly opens up some possible opportunities for a Batcave inheritance. N0lan is fine with all guessing games — again, it speaks to the fan passion — but don’t expect the cryptic filmmaker to offer any hints. He does say that he was searching for a story that would deliver a true finale and close out the trilogy in a powerful and definitive way. He also said that Bane will test the bone and muscle of Wayne with unprecedented savagery.

“With Bane, the physicality is the thing,” Nolan said. “With a good villain you need an archetype, you know, you need the extreme of some type of villainy. The Joker is obviously a particular archetype of diabolical, chaotic anarchy and has a devilish sense of humor. Bane, to me, is something we haven’t dealt with in the films. We wanted to do something very different in this film. He’s a primarily physical villain, he’s a classic movie monster in a way — but with a terrific brain. I think he’s a fascinating character. I think people are going to get a kick out of what we’ve done with him.”

As for moving the action ahead eight years, Nolan said that it was a way to give true gravity to the events that were portrayed at the end of “The Dark Knight,” when Batman essentially took the blame for the crimes of Harvey Dent and became a fugitive from justice instead of a tacitly approved vigilante.

“It will make a lot more sense to people when they see the film,” Nolan said of the leap forward. “But it’s not a great mystery — it’s the jumping-off point for the film — but it’s hard for me to articulate it. I think the mood at the beginning of the film will make a lot of sense. If I had to express it thematically, I think what we’re saying is that for Batman and Commissioner Gordon, there’s a big sacrifice, a big compromise, at the end of the ‘The Dark Knight’ and for that to mean something, that sacrifice has to work and Gotham has to get better in a sense. They have to achieve something for the ending of that film — and the feeling at the end of that film — to have validity. Their sacrifice has to have meaning and it takes time to establish that and to show that, and that’s the primary reason we did that. It’s a time period that is not so far ahead that we would have to do crazy makeup or anything — which I think would be distracting — but it gave them something to get their teeth into, particularly Christian in terms of [portraying] this guy who has been frozen in this moment in time with nowhere to go. He really has done an incredible job figuring out how to characterize that and express that.”

The true mystery is what Hollywood will make of Nolan — and vice versa — after he has truly left Gotham behind. Those are questions for another day but for the time being, the filmmaker seems pleased by the rare sensation of a sentimental journey: “It was pretty emotional as we would finish these characters and say goodbye to Alfred for the last time and say goodbye to Commissioner Gordon and eventually, with Christian, fairly close to the end, saying goodbye to Batman … it was a big deal,” Nolan said. “And with these newer characters too, finishing with Anne and all these guys. It was quite touching, I must say.”

– Geoff Boucher

[Greens]

Sound Issues on Dark Knight Rises

With audience interest in The Dark Knight Rises rapidly growing, thanks in no small part to the IMAX screening before Mission: Impossible -- Ghost Protocol and the release online of the film’s trailer on Monday. This is sure to be very well received as it is to be the final part in Christopher Nolan’s trilogy; however there have been a few rumblings due to the sound of Bane’s character played by Tom Hardy. The problem is that some people are complaining that they can’t quite hear what he’s saying. Bane wears a mask throughout the movie which he breaths a chemical that gives him colossal strength, the trouble is some audience members have said his voice is rather muffled and hard to understand. “A fantastic action sequence hurt by the fact that you cannot understand the villain at all,” commented one fan on Twitter.

Others poked fun at the seven-minute prologue. “The Dark Knight Rises prologue was really great, especially when Bane spoke the soon-to-be-classic line: 'Mmrbl ffrmrff hmrbblfmm,'" wrote one.

Movie studios tend to listen to fan websites as they do have influence and are seen as key to building up anticipation and promotion. And the word is they have not been kind regarding the prologue, “We've seen the Dark Knight Rises prologue -- and yes, Bane really does sound that bad,” wrote IO9.

Sources close to the movie say Warner Bros. is very aware of the sound issue. One source working on the film says he is “scared to death” about “the Bane problem.” And with good reason. The last Batman film, 2008’s The Dark Knight, grossed more than $1 billion worldwide, and the studio doesn’t want anything to tamper with Rise’s chances for success. Nolan has informed executives that he plans only to rework the sound slightly. No one could ever doubt Nolan, his standing in the industry is deserved however, and the studio will be worried by these recent comments.

Warner Bros. has supported Nolan’s wishes in the past; moviegoer complaints about the character could create pressure to make changes. Or the studio and Nolan can do nothing and hope that fan interest in The Dark Knight Rises outweighs any issues with understanding Bane's dialogue.

[Duuude]

Others poked fun at the seven-minute prologue. “The Dark Knight Rises prologue was really great, especially when Bane spoke the soon-to-be-classic line: 'Mmrbl ffrmrff hmrbblfmm,'" wrote one.

That was legendary artist Cameron Stewart, currently drawing Batman comics, not just some guy.

I thought it was worthy of mention.

[The Caped Knight]

THE DARK KNIGHT RISES TRAILER 2

VIDEO-CLick to Watch!:

http://www.thedarkknightrises.com/

[Kane52630]

The Dark Knight Rises Trailer breaks iTunes record

BURBANK, CA, December 23, 2011 – The new trailer for Warner Bros. Pictures’ and Legendary Pictures’ “The Dark Knight Rises” smashed the record for most combined downloads through the iTunes Movie Trailers site (www.itunes.com/trailers) and the iTunes Trailers iOS app for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch. The trailer went online at 10:00 Monday morning, December 19, and was viewed more than 12.5 million times in its first 24 hours, breaking the previous record by well over two million. The trailer can be viewed in HD at http://trailers.apple.com/trailers/w...rkknightrises/.

Opening on July 20, 2012, “The Dark Knight Rises” is the much-anticipated epic conclusion to Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy. The film’s international all-star cast is led by Oscar® winner Christian Bale (“The Fighter”) in the dual role of Bruce Wayne/Batman. The film also stars Anne Hathaway, as Selina Kyle; Tom Hardy, as Bane; Oscar® winner Marion Cotillard (“La Vie en Rose”), as Miranda Tate; and Joseph Gordon-Levitt, as John Blake. Reprising their roles from both “Batman Begins” and “The Dark Knight,” Oscar® winner Michael Caine (“The Cider House Rules”) plays Alfred; Gary Oldman is Commissioner Gordon; and Oscar® winner Morgan Freeman (“Million Dollar Baby”) plays Lucius Fox.

The film is directed by Nolan from a screenplay by Jonathan Nolan and Christopher Nolan, story by Christopher Nolan & David S. Goyer. The film is produced by Emma Thomas, Christopher Nolan and Charles Roven, who previously teamed on “Batman Begins” and the record-breaking blockbuster “The Dark Knight.” Benjamin Melniker, Michael E. Uslan, Kevin De La Noy and Thomas Tull are the executive producers, with Jordan Goldberg serving as co-producer. “The Dark Knight Rises” is based upon characters appearing in comic books published by DC Comics. Batman created by Bob Kane.

A presentation of Warner Bros. Pictures, in association with Legendary Pictures, “The Dark Knight Rises” will be distributed worldwide by Warner Bros. Pictures, a Warner Bros. Entertainment Company.

[Kane52630]

‘Dark Knight Rises’ star Anne Hathaway: ‘Gotham City is full of grace’
http://herocomplex.latimes.com/2011/...full-of-grace/

Spoiler!!! Click to Read!:

Gotham City is a war zone. A ruthless madman named Bane has ripped away any sense of security and the citizens, haggard and clutching suitcases with refugee anxiety, sit behind barbed wire waiting to see what will blow up next. A hooded prisoner is dragged in – it’s Bruce Wayne, one of Gotham’s most famous faces – but the eyes of the crowd go instead to the woman in black standing at the top of the staircase.

“Sorry to spoil things, boys, but Bane needs these guys himself,” says sultry Selina Kyle, played here by actress Anne Hathaway, navigating the steps with stiletto heels that, on closer inspection, turn out to have serrated edges capable of leaving nasty claw marks in a fight. She also wears high-tech goggles that, when not in use, flip up and resemble feline ears.

Meet the new Catwoman — but don’t expect her to do any purring this time around. “I love the costume,” Hathaway said last summer on the set of “The Dark Knight Rises,” after shooting that scene for the film. “I love the costume because everything has a purpose, nothing is in place for fantasy’s sake, and that’s the case with everything in Christopher Nolan’s Gotham City.”

Nolan is the director who truly made Batman a grim creature of the night after decades of Hollywood versions that climbed into the Batmobile with a wink. On July 20, the filmmaker delivers “The Dark Knight Rises,” his third and, he says, his final Gotham City film. Christian Bale, now a newly minted Oscar winner, is back as the haunted hero and the supporting cast again includes Gary Oldman, Morgan Freeman and Michael Caine.

The newcomers this time include Hathaway and Tom Hardy (who worked with Nolan on “Inception”), who plays Bane, the hulking, masked terrorist who will test the hero physically more than any of his previous foes, Nolan says. The movie is set eight years after the events of “The Dark Knight,” the billion-dollar 2008 hit that will be a tough act to follow, especially considering the Oscar-winning performance by Heath Ledger as the Joker.

Hathaway says the new script (based on a story by Nolan and David S. Goyer and written by the director and his brother, Jonathan Nolan) is strong and that she and Hardy have Nolan on their side, which counts for a lot in a franchise that has been defined by his carefully crafted shadows and symbols.

“Gotham City is full of grace,” Hathaway said. “You look at Heath’s performance as the Joker, there was a lot of madness there but there was also a grace and he had a code there. There’s a lot of belief and codes of behavior in Gotham and my character has one, too. A lot of the way she moves and interacts with people is informed by her worldview. Chris has given us all such complex, defined, sophisticated worldviews that it’s just a matter of doing your homework and getting underneath the character’s skin.”

The character has considerable history. She first appeared in the comics in the spring of 1940 as a villain driven more by profit than madness or blood lust, and Batman’s attempts to reform her would become a staple part of her mythology – as would the sexual tension between the Bat and the Cat.

“I really got into the comics after I was cast and I like that when she made her first appearance she meets Bruce Wayne and says ‘Let go of me or I’ll claw your eyes out,’ and he says, ‘Careful, claws in or papa spank,’” Hathaway said. “So I’m glad we’ve come a long way since then. I’m not saying anything against Bob Kane, though.”

Kane, the credited creator of Batman (writer Bill Finger is now acknowledged as co-creator but wasn’t at the time), said that the movie star Hedy Lamarr was a key inspiration for Catwoman, so Hathaway did a deep dive into the Vienna native’s films.

“I know this sounds odd, but her breathing is extraordinary,” Hathaway said. “She takes these long, deep, languid breaths and exhales slowly. There’s a shot of her in [the 1933 film] ‘Ecstasy’ exhaling a cigarette and I took probably five breaths during her one exhale. So I started working on my breathing a lot.”

Hathaway began her career in tiara mode with “The Princess Diaries” films and “Ella Enchanted” but now, at 29, she has plenty of genre distance between herself and “role model for children” roles (as she called those early films) with projects as varied as “The Devil Wears Prada,” “Brokeback Mountain,” “Alice in Wonderland” and “Love and Other Drugs.”

During a break between scenes last summer on the London location shoot, while still wearing her Catwoman suit, Hathaway killed time by doing a crossword puzzle, talking about politics and, when things got too drab, launching into a Tina Turner dance routine while singing “Proud Mary.” The actress said that Nolan’s set is the most well-organized operation she had ever seen, that the pressure that comes with it is welcome, and that for cast and crew “it’s a pleasure to give your best.”

Nolan, in a later interview in Los Angeles, said that Hathaway brought a special skill set to the role.

“She had something very important we needed for this character — she’s an incredibly talented but naturalistic actress, which makes her great in film. She also has terrific theatrical skill so she can project a persona and there’s a big aspect of the character that is a persona. She’s a multi-layered character and we needed a great actress that could rise to that challenge.”

As Catwoman, she follows in the feline footsteps of Halle Berry, Michelle Pfeiffer, Julie Newmar, Eartha Kitt and Lee Meriwether as actresses who have played the character in film or television. Newmar has already given her blessing to he newest member of the club, saying Hathaway will be “marvelous,” and Hathaway appreciates it. At the same time, the new Catwoman says that for her particular character, the past is really never as important as her present.

“What’s come before doesn’t limit or even affect this new version,” Hathaway said. “It doesn’t affect me because each Catwoman – and this is true in the comics as well – she is defined by the context of the Gotham City created around her. Catwoman is so influenced by Gotham and whoever is creating Gotham at the time. Michelle Pfeiffer’s Catwoman was informed by Tim Burton’s Gotham and Eartha Kitt was informed by Adam West’s Gotham. You have to live in whatever the reality of the world is and whatever Gotham is.”

— Geoff Bouche

[Vigilante.JJ]

From Total Film

Amid the widespread excitement over last month’s double reveal of both trailer and prologue for The Dark Knight Rises, one small niggle was repeatedly mentioned by fans and critics alike: it was kind of difficult to make out what Bane was saying.

We recently reported that Nolan had no plans to tinker with Bane’s dialogue, with one Warner Brothers exec claiming, “Chris wants the audience to catch up and participate rather than push everything at them. He doesn’t dumb things down.”

However, Collider is now reporting that Nolan has performed something of an about-turn on this front, sending out a new audio mix to IMAX theatres which reportedly makes Tom Hardy’s delivery a lot easier to understand.

Instead of asking Hardy to re-record his lines, Nolan has instead tinkered with the background noise involved in some of his key scenes, most noticeably in the plane sequence which had previously made him sound nigh-on incomprehensible.

We must admit, we’re relieved by this latest development. Whilst the mask looks brilliant, and Bane’s strangulated tones are pleasingly unsettling, those positives would be redundant if the audience can’t work out head or tail of what he’s saying!

A triumph for common sense then, and one that should iron out any last lingering doubts ahead of the film's UK release on 20 July 2012. Now go and watch that trailer again!

http://www.totalfilm.com/news/chris-...ane-s-dialogue

[Kane52630]

Originally Posted by Vigilante.JJ

From Total Film

Amid the widespread excitement over last month’s double reveal of both trailer and prologue for The Dark Knight Rises, one small niggle was repeatedly mentioned by fans and critics alike: it was kind of difficult to make out what Bane was saying.

We recently reported that Nolan had no plans to tinker with Bane’s dialogue, with one Warner Brothers exec claiming, “Chris wants the audience to catch up and participate rather than push everything at them. He doesn’t dumb things down.”

However, Collider is now reporting that Nolan has performed something of an about-turn on this front, sending out a new audio mix to IMAX theatres which reportedly makes Tom Hardy’s delivery a lot easier to understand.

Instead of asking Hardy to re-record his lines, Nolan has instead tinkered with the background noise involved in some of his key scenes, most noticeably in the plane sequence which had previously made him sound nigh-on incomprehensible.

We must admit, we’re relieved by this latest development. Whilst the mask looks brilliant, and Bane’s strangulated tones are pleasingly unsettling, those positives would be redundant if the audience can’t work out head or tail of what he’s saying!

A triumph for common sense then, and one that should iron out any last lingering doubts ahead of the film's UK release on 20 July 2012. Now go and watch that trailer again!

http://www.totalfilm.com/news/chris-...ane-s-dialogue

From Collider:

http://collider.com/dark-knight-rise...leaned/135038/

UPDATE 2: Steve again. Warner Bros. has contacted me and said that our story is absolutely not true. While I’ve dealt with the source who sent me the letter before, I wanted to make sure we are always posting the truth. I’m working on getting to the bottom of this right now.

[Kane52630]

‘The Dark Knight Rises’ opening night IMAX tickets on sale now

We’re still about seven months away from the release of The Dark Knight Rises, but you can buy tickets to the opening night IMAX showing today! Movie ticket website Fandango has tickets available in San Franscisco, Los Angeles and New York for the midnight showing on July 20th. I received an email from Batman-News.com reader Evan last week, informing me that midnight showing tickets at the Lincoln Square 13 theater in NYC are already sold out!

The Dark Knight Rises certainly has a lot of momentum on its side. First, the trailer broke download records and now tickets are selling out seven months early. Do you plan on seeing The Dark Knight Rises at midnight on July 20th? I know I am! Leave your thoughts in the comments.

Read more: http://batman-news.com/2012/01/09/th...#ixzz1j0g3zKBb

[The_Raganork]

Originally Posted by Kane52630

‘The Dark Knight Rises’ opening night IMAX tickets on sale now

[Kane52630]

This Week's Cover: Our 2012 Forecast issue takes you to the set of 'The Dark Knight Rises'

http://popwatch.ew.com/2012/01/11/th...forecast-2012/

In a year crowded with some of the most anticipated movies in years (The Hunger Games, The Hobbit, The Avengers, and The Amazing Spider-Man, to name just a few), The Dark Knight Rises might be the most anticipated of them all. The third and final installment in Inception director Christopher Nolan’s trilogy of Bat-flicks — which will once again star Christian Bale as the caped crusader and introduce Thomas Hardy as the brilliant, brutish terrorist Bane and Anne Hathaway as the purrrrfectly mercurial Selina Kyle — will swing into theaters on July 20, four years after The Dark Knight ignited a cultural sensation, grossed $533 million, and earned Heath Ledger a posthumous Oscar. The new issue of Entertainment Weekly – our annual Forecast issue, which previews the pop culture year looming ahead — goes to the Rises set and offers some insight into how Team Nolan hopes to match their previous success. “I can tell you the truth because I’m done with it: I felt immense pressure,” Christian Bale tells EW. “And I think it’s a good pressure, because you owe it to the films — and the people’s expectations — to make great work.”

We know some Batman fans want to know absolutely nothing about Rises, so much so that even the smallest bit of intel requires a SPOILER ALERT! Like the fact that the new movie returns to The Batcave (M.I.A. during The Dark Knight, as Wayne Manor was still being rebuilt following the events of Batman Begins), or that Rises takes places eight years after The Dark Knight. In fact, fans may want to revisit that second film, as Nolan tells EW that the last chapter of his cinematic saga explores the ramifications of The Dark Knight’s chilling climax, in which Batman and super-cop Jim Gordon (Gary Oldman) hatch a conspiracy to cover up the sins of Gotham City’s so-called “white knight,” the late Harvey Dent, a.k.a. Two-Face (Aaron Eckhart). Nolan also discusses the potential political subtext of Rises and addresses the burning question many fans have about Bane’s mask-muffled voice: Are we going to be able to understand the guy? “I think when people see the film, things will come into focus,” says the director. “Bane is very complex and very interesting and when people see the finished film people will be very entertained by him.”

[Kane52630]

The Nolans on Bane's Voice in The Dark Knight Rises

http://www.comingsoon.net/news/movienews.php?id=85897

Did you have trouble understanding Tom Hardy's Bane in the prologue for The Dark Knight Rises that is playing in front of Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol in select IMAX theaters? You were not the only one.

However, both director Christopher Nolan and his co-writer and brother Jonathan Nolan say you have nothing to worry about. Talking to Entertainment Weekly, Chris Nolan said: "I think when people see the film, things will come into focus. Bane is very complex and very interesting and when people see the finished film people will be very entertained by him."

Jonah Nolan added the following when speaking to CraveOnline: "I gotta tell you, I think what Tom Hardy's doing with the role is spectacular. I have the benefit of seeing a little bit more than the audience has seen at this point. It's pretty spectacular."

He also talked about the prologue's action sequence in the air. "I think Chris had long wanted to do sort of the aerial spectacular. It's such a good fit for the IMAX cameras that he likes to shoot with and so that was a long time in the making."

Were you able to understand Bane? Do you worry about his voice in the full film opening on July 20?

Three New Photos From The Dark Knight Rises
http://www.comingsoon.net/news/movienews.php?id=85895

In addition to featuring Batman on this week's cover, Entertainment Weekly has debuted these three new photos from Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight Rises as well.

Coming to theaters and IMAX on July 20th, the highly-anticipated film stars Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Gary Oldman, Morgan Freeman, Tom Hardy, Anne Hathaway, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Marion Cotillard, Juno Temple, Josh Pence, Daniel Sunjata, Nestor Carbonell, Matthew Modine, Tom Conti, Joey King, Brett Cullen, Chris Ellis, Josh Stewart, Christopher Judge, Adam Rodriguez and Rob Brown.

[Kane52630]

Tom Hardy on ‘The Dark Knight Rises’: Bane mask was a challenge

http://batman-news.com/2012/01/31/to...s-a-challenge/

Tom Hardy is currently promoting his new movie This Means War, which means he’ll probably be asked about The Dark Knight Rises a lot in the coming weeks. The Press Association caught up with Hardy at the UK premiere of This Means War last night, and asked about his experience in The Dark Knight Rises and wearing the Bane mask.

SOURCE: The Press Association

[Kane52630]

Full Details of The Dark Knight Rises Toy Fair Line-Up



http://www.comingsoon.net/news/movienews.php?id=86510

Warner Bros. Consumer Products has sent us the full details for the products that will be promoted at upcoming Toy Fairs for The Dark Knight Rises. You can view all the images by clicking here and the press release below also covers several other lines like The Hobbit and TV properties:

The Bat-Signal has summoned "The Caped Crusader" to an adventurous Toy Fair season. Warner Bros. Consumer Products (WBCP) is showcasing a powerful roster of global licensees in support of the studio's unparalleled portfolio of entertainment properties, led by this summer's blockbuster film The Dark Knight Rises. The epic conclusion to filmmaker Christopher Nolan's phenomenally popular Batman trilogy, The Dark Knight Rises, hits theaters July 20, 2012, and will be accompanied by a bevy of products from DC Comics master toy licensee, Mattel, and many other toy partners.

"We are heading into this year's toy fairs with an impressive and diverse portfolio of partners converging upon a remarkably robust slate of content," said Brad Globe, president of Warner Bros. Consumer Products. "Batman is a perennial success in the toy category, but when we have a film like The Dark Knight Rises driving so much anticipation, it creates global excitement for new products, especially toys and collectibles."

"Batman is among the most iconic super heroes in popular culture, and this year's merchandise program, highlighted by The Dark Knight Rises, reflects the incredible legacy of Christopher Nolan's trilogy, as well as the longevity of the character over the course of time and across all forms of entertainment," said Karen McTier, executive vice president of Domestic Licensing and Worldwide Marketing for Warner Bros. Consumer Products.

As a master toy partner, Mattel will unveil an exciting Batman toy collection across a range of categories including action figures, vehicles, playsets and collectible figures. Mattel's broad offering incorporates their highly anticipated Movie Masters™ line for the older fans and serious collectors which captures the superior accuracy and details of the characters from The Dark Knight Rises. In addition, the authentic film-inspired toys introduce the innovative play technology QuickTek™, which offers snap-and-slide armor and accessories.

Mattel also plans to introduce the evergreen Batman Power Attack™ line that is designed to maintain the super hero's momentum this year, and beyond. Additionally, Mattel will reach the youngest of Batman fans with Fisher-Price's range of DC Super Friends Imaginext® toy line, which is already a huge hit in the U.S., U.K. and Spain, and is set to expand across Europe.

WBCP is also proud to build on its long-standing relationship and success with LEGO, the official partner in the construction category, with a myriad of new product offerings for the entire DC Universe Super Heroes line. Included within the new line are DC Universe inspired construction sets, mini-figures and buildable characters for great build-and-play adventures.

The world of DC Comics offers something for fans of all ages as WBCP and its partners gear up with a host of product lines including preschool games featuring DC Super Friends from Wonder Forge; a signature line of premium collectibles, art prints and articulated figures from Sideshow Collectibles; and a wide range of costume products from Rubie's Costume Co., based on the entire DC Comics portfolio, including The Dark Knight Rises. With additional product support for The Dark Knight Rises, Funko will introduce their fun stylized plush and vinyl collection; Mezco will unmask colorfully detailed vinyl figures; and Hornby Hobbies will rev it up with a Scalextric limited edition Batman Tumbler vehicle; among many others.

WBCP Partners with Licensees in Support of Additional Blockbuster Properties
WBCP continues to align with top licensees around the world to support an unprecedented amount of Warner Bros. entertainment content, including more upcoming blockbuster films and diverse animation fare, to bring best-in-class creative products that range from toddler toys to the world of high-end collectibles.

"While Batman leads the way for us this year, we are also excited to have one of the most diverse portfolio of toy partners that we've had in some time– and the content to support them. We have a great animated series offering including The Looney Tunes Show, Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated, ThunderCats and the new DC Nation block featuring Green Lantern: The Animated Series and Young Justice, all on Cartoon Network, as well as the highly-anticipated films The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey in December 2012 and The Hobbit: There and Back Again in December 2013," added Globe.

The Two Films Based on The Hobbit Prepare for the Journey Back to Middle-earth
Master toy partners The Bridge Direct and Vivid Group will develop product for The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (December 2012) and The Hobbit: There and Back Again (December 2013), productions of New Line Cinema and MGM. Also supporting the tent-pole, two-part adventure is LEGO with a range of fantastical build-and-play construction sets; Games Workshop with the leading tabletop hobby wargames; Ravensburger with the creation of 2D and 3D puzzles and card games; and WETA Workshop with a wide range of authentic film prop replicas and collectibles, among others.

Animated Fare, Including Looney Tunes, Scooby-Doo and ThunderCats, Continues to Delight Fans
A cornerstone property for WBCP, Looney Tunes continues to be classically familiar yet refreshingly new, thanks to The Looney Tunes Show from Warner Bros. Animation (WBA), which has introduced the beloved characters to a new generation of kids and sparked their interest in the classic animated series. The all-time favorite is supported by an exciting and ever-expanding licensing program with licensees such as Lansay with a colorful plush assortment; and Rubie's Costumes Co. with a collection of costumes based on Looney Tunes characters. As Scooby-Doo's global master toy licensee, Character Group continues to bring everyone's favorite Great Dane and his mystery-solving gang to life with a range of products including figures, plush toys, vehicles and play sets. Pressman Toy offers exciting games; NKOK debuts R/C motorized vehicles to rev-up the mysteries; and Lansay brings a cool and flashing remote control car that will light up many kids' faces. Additionally, global toy partner Bandai America Incorporated continues to support the new ThunderCats animated series, based on the iconic 1980's original, which has multiple generations of loyal fans with an action-packed toy line.

Highly Anticipated DC Nation Invasion Coming Soon
Cartoon Network's DC Nation block, a multi-platform franchise featuring programming produced by Warner Bros. Animation (WBA), including Green Lantern: The Animated Series and an all-new season of Young Justice, will also debut in 2012. Backed by the production, publishing and marketing resources of Warner Bros., DC Entertainment and Cartoon Network, DC Nation will be the home for original animated kids television programming based on DC Comics properties and will be populated with event programming, interstitials, exclusive behind-the-scenes segments from theatrical productions, and an insider look into the world of all things DC Comics. DC Nation is set to debut in the U.S. in early 2012 on Cartoon Network. The content that makes up DC Nation is expected to launch in markets around the world thereafter.

[batblogger]

http://cnn.com/video/data/2.0/video/...cript.cnn.html

[uniqueweasel]

Tom Hardy 'Not Worried' About Bane Voice Complaints

http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/167...ed-voice.jhtml

[DC Batman]

Gary Oldman talks about an emotional scene in The Dark Knight Rises
http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j...QozH6w&cad=rja

[Kane52630]

http://blogs.indiewire.com/theplayli...lincoln-center

When asked about his other blockbuster franchise, Oldman confirmed that the highly anticipated “The Dark Knight Rises” would be the final chapter for Christopher Nolan and crew.

Oldman asked the audience, “Have you seen the trailer?” to an ecstatic room full of “YES!” replies. He paused before adding, “It looks really good. I haven’t seen the movie but Nolan’s so clever. So I’m looking forward to it. I get to see it [soon]. But it’s all a very secretive thing. The initial reading of the script is all under lock and key. There’s no ending to it, some of the actors don’t get pages. It’s all kept very secretive. But I understand the paranoia with spoilers and the script getting out. But I will get to see it put together soon like I’m a movie audience. I get to just see it through, the whole thing for the first time. They’re always very exciting the screenings of the Batman movies.” The actor also confirmed this will be the end of the series for Nolan and his team. “No, this is it for Chris Nolan. I was standing on the set here in New York. This is the new Gotham now, we shot Chicago out. And we were standing on a rooftop over here and I said, ‘Wow this is it.’ And [Nolan] said facetiously, ‘Yeah. [pause] Unless you want to whore your ass out for a load of money for ‘Batman 4.’”

[venus_ice]

Whoops

[kvz5]

Zimmer interview:

Originally Posted by MagnarTheGreat

LA Times: ‘Dark Knight Rises’: Hans Zimmer explains Christopher Nolan’s secrecy

http://herocomplex.latimes.com/2012/...olans-secrecy/