Done

Just in case it wasn't obvious from the lack of updates, I'm done here. All the Dark Knight Rises news is too filled with spoilers for me to keep up with. Thanks for reading, and here's hoping we can all stand the wait until July of 2012.

Official Website Live

The official website for The Dark Knight Rises is now live. Internet detectives put together clues (io9 explains how, vaguely) to get the above picture, which seems to be Tom Hardy as Bane (and I like it).

Also, principal photography has officially started, so there's that too.

Only 14 months to go!

Evil Scientist

Alon Aboutboul will be playing an "Evil Scientist" in The Dark Knight Rises. This has people speculating it might be Hugo Strange, but there's no real reason to assume that.

You may have also seen some other news about a picture from the set in India that seems to reveal some plot details, but I'm not going to post that, since it's too much of a potential spoiler. In fact, I'm pretty close to checking out of posting entirely, since until the trailer, there won't be much worth posting that isn't a spoiler.

News & Notes

Here are some odds and ends that didn't seem important enough to post on their own:

• Above is the first picture of Tom Hardy on set. I'm sure it will be a while before we see his Bane costume.
• Add India to the list of filming locations.
• Joseph Gordon-Levitt is playing a character named John Blake, who I, and most people, had never heard of. But it turns out there is a John Blake from the comics. He's not exactly a major character, but hey, it's something.
• Batman: Year One is coming soon as a direct-to-disc animated film, with Bryan Cranston, Katee Sackhoff, Eliza Dushku and more contributing voices.
• After Year One, The Dark Knight Returns will be adapted next. Hopefully it will be as cool as this scene from the 1990s animated series.
• And a fan-made trailer combining footage from the Batman movies, Inception, The Machinist, and I think there was an American Psycho shot in there, produces something different and cool. It probably has spoilers for The Machinist, so I'd avoid it if you intend to see that (super skinny Christian Bale is impressive but unsettling). Anyway, here it is.

The Cast Grows Larger

Variety is reporting three new additions to the Dark Knight Rises cast: Daniel Sunjata (pictured) best known for Rescue Me, Diego Klattenoff best known from the short-lived NBC series Mercy, and Burn Gorman from Torchwood. Read Variety's article if you're interested in incredibly vague descriptions of who the cops might be, but there's not much there.

Young Ra's al Ghul

The Hollywood Reporter has a story that this guy, Josh Pence, has been cast in The Dark Knight Rises as a young Ra's al Ghul. This has lead them to speculate that Marion Cotillard's role in the movie will be Talia al Ghul, which would make a lot of sense (but at the time of posting, THR doesn't have Talia's name spelled right (Thalia), so that kinda makes me want to not trust them).

In site-related news, don't expect a giant Ra's al Ghul post like I had for Bane and Catwoman, because hopefully you are already familiar with Ra's from Batman Begins. I will probably do one for Talia if this rumor is confirmed.

News & Notes

Superhero Hype reports on the above Gotham police truck spotted in Chicago. Some news:

• After The Dark Knight Rises, Warner Bros. plans a Justice League movie and then a reboot of the Batman franchise.


• Christopher Nolan has let Gary Oldman read some, but not all, of the Dark Knight Rises script.


• Some site called Car Design Fetish hosted a Batmobile design competition, with some pretty cool results. Bleeding Cool has even more of the entries.

Or Maybe Not

The news that Joseph Gordon-Levitt would be playing Alberto Falcone seemed pretty legit, coming from industry paper Variety and all, but now Entertainment Weekly says it's bunk. They contend that JGL will be in The Dark Knight Rises, but in a different role (though they don't know what that might be). Confusing.

Implausible Rumor of the Day

Buried in the news about Alberto Falcone was a little item that Juno Temple was believed to be up for a part in The Dark Knight Rises. Blastr.com believes it to be a female Robin, presumably Carrie Kelly from The Dark Knight Returns. Christopher Nolan and Christian Bale have both expressed an aversion to the entire concept of Robin in their movies, so I'm quite confident Juno Temple will not be playing any kind or Robin.

Since original Juno Temple blurb used the phrase "a street-smart Gotham girl," a much more likely part from the comics would be Holly Robinson. She's a long-time friend of Catwoman who first appeared in Batman: Year One as a teenage runaway/prostitute under the protection of Selina Kyle who actually stabs Bruce Wayne in the leg. Much later, Holly would go on to briefly assume the identity of Catwoman. You can read a lot more about Holly at wikipedia.

Joseph Gordon-Levitt is Alberto Falcone

Joseph Gordon-Levitt has long been rumored to be joining the Dark Knight Rises cast, but until today we didn't know who he'd be playing. Now, everyone seems certain that he is playing Alberto Falcone, the son of Carmine Falcone from Batman Begins. Most sources for this news include plenty of spoilers for what happens to Falcone in The Long Halloween comic (like Variety's article). If you want the whole spoiler-filled background on Alberto Falcone, you can click here.

Other news:

• Michael Gough, who played Alfred Pennyworth in all the Michael Keaton/Val Kilmer/George Clooney movies has died.


• Yale University makes the case that Bruce Wayne went to law school at Yale.


• I don't know how I haven't seen this before, but a blogger has undertaken the completely insane challenge of reading/viewing all Batman comics, TV, and film in chronological order. This should take him at least a couple decades, I'd think, since he's actually writing about them all. Comicvine lists Batman as being in 6839 comics to date, and more are constantly coming out (I don't read all the current titles, but looking at what came out I'd guess Batman was in 2 this week and 4 last week, so every year it takes I'd guess he's got 150 new comics to read).


• An artist did a really nice rendition of 9 villains from Batman: The Animated Series and put them up on his wall.


• Screenjunkies lists 9 Batman villains who should never be in a film, but incorrectly includes the Ventriloquist and Scarface, who I think could be a fine addition to a movie.


• For a Batman enthusiast who is in Taiwan and needs a hotel that books hourly (and we all know what that means), this is the place for you.


• And a commenter recently mentioned that with the Batmobile destroyed in the last movie, we could be expecting a new one. Which reminded me to link to this site with just about every Batmobile design ever.

News & Notes

Some non-news rumor-y type things, plus some bookmarks I've had piling up:

• While doing press for Red Riding Hood, Gary Oldman implies there's another, as-yet-unknown villain, and that it's someone from the early days of Batman comics. The oldest of the old are Doctor Death, The Monk, and, most likely of the oldies, Hugo Strange.


• While doing press for Battle: Los Angeles, Aaron Eckhart, who had previously always made it clear that Harvey Dent died at the end of The Dark Knight, suddenly got coy about that issue. I suspect he's either sick of answering that question and decided to mess with people, or he thought changing his story around would get people to mention Battle: Los Angeles. If it's the latter, then well played, Eckhart.


• Scroll past Star Wars and Spider-Man to see Batman & friends dancing.


• According to this theory, consider investing in Warren Buffet's company in early 2012. Supposedly, whenever Anne Hathaway is in the news, automated computer traders pick that up and misinterpret it as news about Buffet's company Berkshire Hathaway, then buy it, causing the price to jump.


• Batman meets Rocky Horror


• Artist Francesco Francavilla is having some fun with the idea of a 1935 version of the Batmobile here and here.


• And finally, why make a snowman when you can make a snowBatman?

SPOILERS (if this is reliable)

We're getting to the point where I may have to quit following all the Dark Knight Rises news, because I want to be surprised by the movie. But the latest out of the rumor mill from a site called Badass Digest is pretty specific. I've never heard of the site, so I have absolutely no idea how reliable it is (which is to say, I don't think very).

Spoilers below, followed by my thoughts:

...by the end of the story Catwoman isn’t a villain but rather an ally of Batman. And who are they teaming up to take out? The League of Shadows. Headed by Talia Al’Ghul. With Bane, who is her muscle/possible love interest. And with Joseph Gordon-Levitt in tow. Is he playing Black Mask? My source didn’t know, but did know that Levitt is certainly an antagonist and involved with the League of Shadows.

I find it hard to believe that a movie would reintroduce the League of Shadows, Talia, Catwoman, Bane, and Black Mask all in the same movie. Especially when this is what Christopher Nolan considers to be the conclusion of the trilogy, so he wouldn't introduce them and leave hanging plot threads. And with all those characters, there's still the matter of Batman being the most wanted man in Gotham left over from The Dark Knight. All that said, I still do trust Christopher Nolan and company completely, and if this is what they want to do, I'm sure they will find a way.

Via Bleeding Cool.

News & Notes

Batman News grabbed video of Anne Hathaway referring to her part in The Dark Knight Rises as Catwoman, while everyone else connected with the production had always referred to the part as Selina Kyle. So everyone with theories about Selina being just some normal girl is pretty much guaranteed to be wrong at this point.



Also, MTV's Splash Page talked to Christopher Nolan about The Dark Knight Rises at the Oscars, and he basically said nothing. But you can follow the link and watch the video if you want.

News & Notes

No idea who made the above image (click for a larger version), but it's pretty amusing. As is this, from the How It Should Have Ended people:



And this story talks about the upcoming slate of DC animated features. Expect a version of Batman: Year One accompanied by a Catwoman short. All-Star Superman just came out, and Green Lanern: Emerald Knights is next in July, so maybe we'll see Year One near the end of this year or in early 2012.

News & Notes

No idea who made the poster above, but it's the best Bane one yet by far. Two bits of news:

• Tom Hardy is going to bulk up to play Bane. For those like me who don't know what a stone is, his current weight of 12 stone is 168lbs/76kg, his goal of 14 stone is 196lbs/89kg.
• E Online has five things we think we know about The Dark Knight Rises.

News & Notes

I got sick this week and now I'm behind on a bunch of news that happened:

• Above might be the first shot from the production of The Dark Knight Rises.
• Marion Cotillard looks like she will be in this too, though nobody seems to have any idea what part she will be playing. If she and Tom Hardy are joined by Joseph Gordon-Levitt, it may turn out that The Dark Knight Rises is actually in an Inception dream world.
• Liam Neeson made it clear that he is not reprising Ra's al-Ghul, but he would be open to coming back to the role some time in the future.
• And composer Hans Zimmer seems to be confident he can deliver another quality score.

Fake Rumor of the Day

There was a rumor today that Joseph Gordon-Levitt would be playing Alberto Falcone (a major character in The Long Halloween) in The Dark Knight Rises, but the rumor was started by someone at IGN speculating at a role JGL could play, which people then took to mean that he had inside info (the article at slashfilm has this tidbit as an "update" buried in the middle for some reason).

Early Shooting Starting?

According to Batman on Film, the first film for The Dark Knight Rises will be taken in New York this week, shot from a helicopter to get snowy city footage.

Two Doubtful Rumors

I don't really buy into either of these, but here goes:

• Ain't It Cool News points to this Michigan news report that claims locations are being scouted in the area for "a hideout for Batman sidekick Robin." I have to doubt this, since we've previously heard that the folks involved don't like the idea of Robin in these movies.
• There's also a rumor that Robin Williams is being considered to play Hugo Strange. Considering how well the Bane and Catwoman casting was kept under wraps, I'm pretty much going to doubt everything at this point.

Robin image from here

News & Notes

A few random things:

• As suggested by a commenter, I've watched Bronson, a movie starring soon-to-be-Bane Tom Hardy as a notorious British prisoner. I did not care for it, but Hardy is excellent in it. He's also bulked up and pretty terrifying, so having seen this it's much easier to imagine him as Bane. But he'll have to lose the mustache.
• Someone got married with a Joker from The Dark Knight themed wedding cake. It's a cool cake, but I wonder how it reflects on the couple psychologically.
• MTV's Splash Page is having some fun with the Joseph Gordon-Levitt rumors by making a gallery of photoshops with him in different roles.