This past weekend, Britain’s Empire magazine had been flexing their viral marketing muscles by asking fans to vote on the cover reveal for their latest Batman-themed issue, which has since proven to be packed to the brim with details on next year’s conclusion to Christopher Nolan’s trilogy, The Dark Knight Rises. While the initial cover reveal gave us new shots of Christian Bale’s Batman and Tom Hardy’s Bane, both were overshadowed by the special subscriber only cover, which presented what in my opinion is the first great shot of Hardy’s villain. Soon the internet was abuzz with Empire’s exclusive pictures – including single shots of Bane (complete with Harvey Dent poster) and Batman and another showcasing the two enemies as they prepare to square off in what appears to be the Batcave. Accompanying the new images is a whole stack of information on the upcoming sequel straight from the mouth of its director, with Nolan explaining that the prologue – which is to be attached to 70mm IMAX prints of Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol – “is basically the first six, seven minutes of the film. It’s the introduction to Bane and a taste of the rest of the film,” before taking the opportunity to provide us with an insight into the ‘epic’ story: “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.”
Of course, the task of ‘testing’ Batman will fall to Bane, and Tom Hardy also had a few words about his character, whose look has come in for some heavy criticism from fans for deviating too far from its comic book origins: “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 a horrible piece of work.”
Despite all of the spy photos and videos that have plagued the filming of The Dark Knight Rises these past few months, the decision to set the film eight years after the events of The Dark Knight comes out of left field, and you have to wonder what other surprises Nolan and company have up their sleeve. Could Batman be out of action during the intervening years, and if so, does that mean the rumours about him suffering a KnightFall-esque injury during the prologue are true? And if Batman and Bane duke it out in the Batcave, where does that leave poor Alfred??? So many questions..!
Along with Christian Bale and Tom Hardy, The Dark Knight Rises features an all-star cast that includes Anne Hathaway as Selina Kyle, Gary Oldman as Commissioner Gordon, Joseph-Gordon Levitt as John Blake, Marion Cotillard as Miranda Tate, Morgan Freeman as Lucius Fox and Michael Caine as Alfred Pennyworth. In addition to the upcoming prologue, a new trailer is expected to be attached to Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows and the hugely-anticipated film is due to hit cinemas on July 20th, 2012. Be sure to check out the new issue of Empire magazine for more.
Gary Collinson
Holy Franchise, Batman! - Coming 2012.
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