The Dark Knight Rises Story Clues, Tom Hardy likely Villain

Christopher Nolan’s latest chapter of the Batman series is set to begin shooting next May, and whilst details of the new story are being kept under wraps, speculation continues to grow surrounding the plot and which of the comics will serve as its inspiration.

Batman Begins and The Dark Knight were each based on certain comics of the Batman mythos, the first used elements from Frank Millar’s Year One and the second borrowed from The Long Halloween. Now the rumor mill is claiming that the third is said to be basing it’s story on the comic Prey featured in volumes 11-15 of Legends of the Dark Knight series.

Dr. Hugo Strange / Tom Hardy

With the announcement of Tom Hardy signing on last month and casting calls going out for two actresses, it’s thought that they will likely portray specific characters from the Prey source material.

Whilst the scripts by David S. Goyer and the Nolan brothers have drawn loosely from the comics, Prey ties in well to the aftermath of the events of The Dark Knight.

Whilst its hasn’t been confirmed, the word is that Hardy is set to play the villain of the piece, as an actor of his caliber would likely take center stage opposite Christian Bale. The Prey story features an over-zealous police official hellbent on capturing Batman, but  it’s thought Hardy will be playing a much darker character.

Written by Doug Moench, Prey was an unofficial follow-up to Year One and the story focused prominently on Gotham City’s celebrity psychiatrist Dr. Hugo Strange who not only manipulates the task force into hunting down the ‘vigilante’, but also stumbles upon his true identity. Things get decidedly worse when he perpetrates crimes posing as the caped crusader and kidnaps the mayor’s daughter to lure Batman to his doom.

As for the other components of the story, the search for two women began this month with one role specified as a love interest and the other as a villain. This narrows the playing field considerably and the interesting piece of information is that Aussie bombshell Teresa Palmer has said she’s vying for the role she was once slated to play in the failed Justice League movie.

It seems the role of significant villain or dual love interest could be for Talia al Ghul, the daughter of super-villain Ra’s al Ghul, played by Liam Neeson in the first. This would make for an interesting story tie-in, as well as complicating things considerably for Batman.

With the script expected to be finalized in January, further casting and production announcements will follow. We’ll keep you informed of any more news and story hints as they come to light.

For now here’s a recent interview with Christian Bale discussing the movie’s casting and production as well as the possibility of another Batman sequel further down the road.

The Dark Knight Rises is slated to hit cinemas July 20, 2012.

via: Collider