Finally lifting his famous shroud of secrecy, Christopher Nolan (the writer, and director of both Batman Begins and The Dark Knight) has now gone on record (via an official press release from Warner Brothers) and confirmed the identities of the villains in his next Batman movie; The Dark Knight Rises.
While we correctly predicted that the role of the next female lead in the series may have very well turned out to be the temptress Catwoman, it hadn’t officially been confirmed until today; when the announcement came that Anne Hathaway (Alice in Wonderland) had outshone competition from Keira Knightly (Never Let Me Go), Rachel Weisz (The Mummy), Blake Lively (The Town), and Natalie Portman (No Strings Attached) to land the role; although the official release lists her character as Selina Kyle (Catwoman’s everyday persona), and makes no mention of her Catty side.
We’d also known for some time that Tom Hardy (who previously worked with Nolan on Inception) had signed on to play an unconfirmed part, which has now been revealed to be none other than Bane; an amped up escaped prisoner with superhuman strength, who’s also known as ‘The Man Who Broke the Bat’ (since he snapped Batman’s spinal cord in the comics).
Nolan unsurprisingly stated that his version of Bane will be a “new interpretation of one of Batman’s most formidable enemies”, that he’s “delighted” to be working with Tom hardy again, and is “thrilled to have the opportunity to work with Anne Hathaway”, and that she “will be a fantastic addition to our ensemble, as we complete our story.”
And it appears as The Dark Knight Rises will be the conclusion to the story; as Nolan has previously stated that it will be the end of his time with the Batman (suggesting that despite the omission from the press statement we will get to see Selina Kyle transform into Catwoman during the movie, and not have to wait for a sequel), and more than likely the end of the series as it is; as Christian Bale (The Fighter actor who will be reprising his role as Bruce Wayne/The Dark Knight) has suggested that his return post-Rises would be down to Nolan’s return and script ideas.
The script for Rises has once again been written by Christopher Nolan, and his brother Jonathan, from a story crafted by Chris, and David S. Goyer (who was instrumental in the beginning of the series, and has worked on other successful comic adaptations such as Blade and Ghost Rider), and will in all likely-hood bring another hotly-anticipated, Box-Office-smash, when it’s released on July 20th, 2012.
