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 Nolan shaping the story as a trilogy, he seems to be focusing on the key junctures of Batman and Bruce Wayne’s life. ‘Batman Begins’ saw him as a youngster, through to his twenties and his emergence as the masked vigilante; ‘The Dark Knight’ picked up a few years later with his Batman alter ego fully realized – however he faced a considerably devious nemesis in The Joker – played to Oscar winning perfection by the late and great Heath Ledger.
‘The Dark Knight Rises’ would therefore put Christian Bale (37) around the same age his character Bruce Wayne, however it doesn’t rule out the story taking some twists and turns along the timeline. While we know that Josh Pence was cast to play a younger Ra’s al Ghul, it came to light back in June that Liam Neeson had also shot some scenes for the flick reprising his role. It’s anybody’s guess if his appearance is prior to the events of ‘Batman Begins’ or whether he escaped death, or has somehow been resurrected. Gary Oldman, who plays Commissioner Gordon has described this installment as ‘epic’ which implies the story covers large portions of time, utilizing flash back’s and dare we say – flash forwards.
Actress Marion Cotillard is listed as playing Wayne Enterprises board member Miranda Tate – though this has long thought to be misdirection with the actress rumored to be playing Ra’s’ daughter, Talia al Ghul. New snaps of her on set show her climbing aboard one of the military style bat mobiles in ethnic style garb, this all seems more suited to the vengeful daughter than a corporate high flyer.In the comics Talia al Ghul’s cohort is the character Bane – who’s also Batman’s greatest challenge and at one point cripple’s the super hero. Tom Hardy plays Bane and can be seen here in some of Empire‘s featured images holding a picture of Harvey Dent / Two Face up to the crowd; whether actor Aaron Eckhart reprises his role in some capacity is still unknown.
Check out the images and set snaps here:
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Director Nolan talked about Bane’s character who in many ways is physically superior to Batman:
With Bane, we’re looking to give Batman a challenge he hasn’t had before. With our choice of villain and with our choice of story we’re testing Batman both physically as well as mentally.
As for why he cast Tom Hardy in the role:
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 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.
Nolan went on to tell Empire:
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.
Empire also spoke to Hardy who had this to say about the hulking yet intelligent villain that in the comics ends up breaking Batman’s back:
He’s brutal – 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. 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.
As for Batman himself, Christian Bale recently spoke about the upcoming film and how Bruce Wayne will finally explore the pain he’s been running from:
How long will you let the pain and loss define your life? Walking around chasing bad guys is very heroic and attracts attention, but at the end it all accounts for, as a means to deal with the pain of a huge loss.
Bale went on to explain how the new film will delve into Bruce Wayne’s motivations:
We agreed that Bruce Wayne is absolutely sincere as Bruce Wayne, and as Batman utterly sincere. But Bruce Wayne, the playboy, is a pure facade, it’s a lie he has, somehow, to control one side of your soul that’s not really under control. In fact, only Alfred knows who he is. It’s time for Bruce Wayne to face the pain that has always stirred his life.
The Dark Knight Rises starring Christian Bale, Tom Hardy, Anne Hathaway and Joseph-Gordon-Levitt, opens July 20th, 2012.
via: Deadline Hitfix Ace Showbiz
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