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Christian Bale Talks Playing Batman For The Last Time In ‘The Dark Knight Rises’

traviswoods — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 18:21:26 +0000

As the countdown to the July premiere of the final Christopher Nolan Batman film, The Dark Knight Rises, continues to loom over us, we here at ScreenCrave get more and more excited with each passing day, consuming every bit of Batty news that we can find. Today’s news bit? Christian Bale talking about letting go of the character of Batman/Bruce Wayne after eight years.

Bale recently sat down with NY Daily News, and spoke of how he’s no longer interested in franchise projects, noting that “we need different rhythms in our life, don’t we, and to me it would be the wrong rhythm to jump into a franchise at this point.” He went on to add that “For now, no, I’d be looking for new experiences.”

The notoriously intense actor also discussed his lack of grounding in the world of comic books when he took the role of Bruce Wayne, and it wasn’t until doing research for the role that he discovered a handful of classic graphic novels, as well as rich depth to a character like Bruce Wayne, and his alter ego of Batman:

“I wasn’t a 12-year-old that gave a damn about comics,” he says. “I had never been someone into comic books, it just didn’t interest me. It wasn’t my thing.” It wasn’t until reading Frank Miller’s “Batman: Year One,” writer Frank Miller and artist David Mazzucchelli’s seminal 1987 comic book miniseries, while prepping for the role that he really got the character. Before that he kind of thought Batman was a spoiled rich kid in tights.

“Suddenly, I found Batman has so many issues, he’s not a healthy individual, this is somebody that is doing good, but he’s right on the verge of doing bad,” says Bale. ”He’s got that killer within him that he’s desperately not trying to let off his leash. And that’s what I always return to.”

So, no, you probably can’t expect him to take an Aquaman role any time soon.

What do you think of Bale’s comments?

Source: Batman News

New ‘Dark Knight Rises’ Villain Revealed (Spoilers!)

traviswoods — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 18:34:57 +0000

Anyone who regularly reads ScreenCrave knows that we’re chomping at the bit for the massively anticipated new Batman film, The Dark Knight Rises, which is not only the final film in Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy, but is also poised to be one of the biggest blockbusters in recent memory. So far, we know the film takes place eight years after The Dark Knight, and features Bane and Catwoman as the primary villains. Well, now we know something else: one of the performers in the film let it slip who his/her/it’s (trying to avoid spoilers above the jump!) character was, and it’s a doozy of a villain from the classic Batman comics. Curious who it is? Dig in after the jump.

There has been a lot of speculation that Marion Cotillard, who is officially signed on to play a woman named “Miranda Tate,” would actually be playing Talia al Ghul, the daughter of Ra’s al Ghul, the villain portrayed by Liam Neeson in Batman Begins. Cotillard, however, has consistently denied this.

Well, just this week, 12 year old actress Joey King (who bears a remarkable resemblance to Cotillard), slipped and admitted the following to My Entertainment World:

I play young Talia al Ghul. I can’t give too much away because I promised Mr. Nolan I wouldn’t say anything. There are too many secrets about the character and the movie.

Well, there you have it—Talia al Ghul, classic villainess from the Batman comics, is now confirmed to be in The Dark Knight Rises. That brings the villain count to three—will that be enough for the final Batman film from Nolan and co.?

Source: Batman News

‘The Dark Knight Rises’ Screenwriter Jonathan Nolan Talks About The Opening Scene And Bane’s Dialogue

traviswoods — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 16:38:35 +0000

Unless you’ve been living in a cave lately (maybe in a…Batcave? Oh, I’ll be here all week, ladies and gentlemen. Take my wife, please), you’ve seen, either in an IMAX theater or on YouTube, the now infamous opening scene (a mid-air airplane heist/kidnapping) to Christopher Nolan’s wildly anticipated final Batman film, The Dark Knight Rises. Curious how it came into being, or what in the hell was it that the Bane character mumbled behind that breathing apparatus of his? Christopher’s younger brother, The Dark Knight Rises screenwriter Jonathan Nolan, has a few answers.

Jonathan Nolan recently spoke with the press at a Television Critics Association party, and when asked as to how he came up with The Dark Knight Rises’ breathtaking opening scene, had this to say:

It’s an amazing team with my brother, David Goyer and myself. Those are two great guys to work with and brainstorm with. I think Chris had long wanted to do the aerial spectacular. It’s such a good fit for the IMAX cameras that he likes to shoot with, and so that was a long time in the making.

Further, he was asked if it was “bittersweet” to have written “fabulous dialogue” for the film’s villain, Bane, only to hear it be muffled and mumbled in the released footage. Unlike a few internet trolls who nearly had aneurysms in their frustration at early clips of Tom Hardy’s performance, Nolan seems to have very few qualms about it:

I’ve gotta tell you, I think what Tom Hardy is doing with the role is spectacular. I’ve had the benefit of seeing a little bit more than the audience has seen, at this point, and it’s pretty spectacular.

So there you have it, a few more Batman morsels to feed on while we wait for the film to be released on July 20, 2012.

What do you think of the Batman news?

Source: Batman News

The Dark Knight Rises Teases More Photos and Info

Damon Houx — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 19:11:07 +0000

As we wait impatiently for the new Batman film The Dark Knight Rises, Entertainment Weekly has a cover story on the film – which is still deep in post-production – and Christopher Nolan is repeating what has been the modus operandi with the movie since day one: This is his last Batman film no if’s, and’s or huge paychecks. Check out a quote from Christopher Nolan and the new pictures of Christian Bale, Gary Oldman and Tom Hardy…

Here’s Nolan’s non-response to the Bane controversy:

“I think when people see the film, things will come into focus,”

Ha. Entertainment Weekly has a number of stories already online, but this is definitely meant to sell to the collectors who still buy comic books etc. Nolan also speaks to his possible use of the Occupy Wall Street protests and the film’s return to the Bat-cave in their interviews. Here’s the latest pictures from the magazine:

The Dark Knight Rises hits theaters July 20, 2012, and that’s a ways away, but Warner Brothers is obviously giving the film the full court press in terms of awareness and hype. At this point there’s really only two films that can claim the mantle for the most anticipated of the year: this and The Hobbit. But where Peter Jackson‘s return to the Shire has some interesting question marks attached (two films out of the shortest book of the series?), the only worry here is that Nolan sticks the landing.

What’s your favorite of the new photos?

The Dark Knight Rises Full Trailer

Damon Houx — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 19:07:02 +0000

This weekend, Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol premiered the opening sequence of Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight Rises, and offered the film’s theatrical trailer. Currently the opening sequence is still only in certain Imax theaters, but the trailer is now online, and offers glimpses at new cast members Anne Hathaway, Tom Hardy, and Joseph Gordon-Levitt, along with returning cast members Gary Oldman, Christian Bale and Michael Caine. Check it out…

The main thing to take away from this trailer is that if the marketing department is saying “the legend ends” then this is the end of ride for Nolan and Bale in their take on the material. Of course that could all change five years from now, but I wouldn’t count on it.

You can also find the trailer on Apple, though there’s been some issues with getting the right trailer to play on certain computers. There is definitely scale, but the outside fighting and sports game stuff is a little weird for the universe. Though Nolan has improved dramatically with action scenes since taking on Batman, large scale fighting is still the weakest elements of these films. But if you saw the Imax footage, there’s no doubt that Nolan is using the Imax camera and scale to his advantage. We’ll see how it all shakes out July 20, 2012.

Is there a question that TDKR is the most anticipated film of the year?

Christopher Nolan Releases ‘The Dark Knight Rises’ Opening Scene

traviswoods — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 18:28:59 +0000

Well, this should whip the fanboys into a frenzy—last night in Los Angeles, Warner Bros. and Christopher Nolan screened the first eight minutes of the wildly anticipated The Dark Knight Rises to an audience of entertainment press. I’ll keep the spoilers at bay until after the jump, but suffice to say, the character of Bane is given a highly memorable entrance. UPDATE: Nolan will be screening the intro in various locations around the world next week; find the screening dates/locations here!

The opening 7-8 minutes of the film apparently begin with the funeral of Harvey Dent, and then leap forward show the CIA capturing Bane, followed by the villain’s insane mid-air escape from an airplane. Most reports from attendees state that the intro is brilliant save for one small detail—apparently it is impossible to understand what Tom Hardy is saying as Bane. Between his English accent and facemask, he’s all but unintelligible. Check out a full synopsis of the intro from a viewer below:

WB logo

Ice. Cold. Crystalized imagery and a very familiar logo of a Bat.
Jim Gordon at Harvey Dents funeral gives a eulogy, a few words about
inspiring others…
CUT—
An unnamed mountainous region.
A jeep rides along the landscape. Hooded men in the back of a jeep are
driven to a small plane… the jeep is met by an armed CIA agent who
takes into custody a political VIP, who is traveling with these hooded
men… or is he? The CIA Douche learns that one of the hooded men is
BANE?!
The hooded men, along with the political VIP are loaded onto the plane.
The plane takes to the air as the CIA douchebag interrogates those
taken on board. One of the hooded men is dangled outside the plane and
questioned/threatened and when the CIA agent doesn’t get what he
wants, he fires his weapon (next to the hooded man’s ear, he is not
killed) and then begins to question the other hooded man. That hooded
man is unmasked and revealed to be… Bane!
CIA DOUCHE: Was it your plan all along to be captured?
Suddenly, a much larger plane overtakes the smaller plane occupied by
CIA Douche, Bane and hostages. Operatives from the larger plane
descend onto the smaller one–
Bane in all his Ventilator glory is revealed….CIA DOUCHE: If I take
this off, will you die?BANE: No. But I will be in a lot of pain.
BAM!
Operatives from the larger plane fire upon the interior of the plane
interrupting the interrogation.
The larger plane has ahold of the smaller one as it pulls it by wires
throwing all the passengers downward in a disorienting fashion.
After quickly overtaking the plane, Bane’s operatives bring in a man
with inside a body bag. This man is dead or looks barely alive. Bane
then takes the VIP political prisoner and inserts a tube and transfers
blood from the body bag man. (It’s confusing as to why this is
important.)
AND THEN… in a scene that no words will be able to do justice, a
hole is cut from the smaller plane and a wire takes Bane and the VIP
politico through the rear of the plane as the smaller plane is ripped
apart and is destroyed while members of Bane’s team sacrifice their
lives going down with the small plane. (Again, it should be stressed,
this description pales to what you will actually see, it’s a true
spectacle.)
The chant can be heard at the end… Deh-Shay! Bah-Sah-Ra!
The scene is followed by a montage that includes many images we’ve
seen, the most striking includes the Bat-copter chasing down fatigued
Batmobiles down the streets of Gotham, and a final shocking image of
Bane tossing away a shattered and torn Batman mask into rubble…
The only complaint about the 7 minute prologue was echoed by all in
attendace: Bane’s dialog is very difficult to understand. Imagine
Darth Vader with a very thick accent. Hopefully this will be fixed in
the final film.
Overall this opening scene is confusing, epic, and will leave
audiences speechless. All in a good way.

So there you have it, spoiler fans: the confirmed 7-8 minute intro of The Dark Knight Rises. Now all you have to do is wait about 7-8 months to see the rest of the actual film! Happy waiting…

What do you think of The Dark Knight Rises intro?

Source: Batman News

The Dark Knight Rises’ Christian Bale Reveals Catwoman And Bane Info

traviswoods — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 20:52:59 +0000

Shaping up to be the most anticipated film of 2012, The Dark Knight Rises has been shrouded in secrecy (that is, until last week, when Christopher Nolan finally let slip a few details about the film). What do we know about the film? Well, it takes place eight years after The Dark Knight, and features Bane and Catwoman at odds with Batman. Recently, Christian Bale slipped a few details about the villainous characters in an interview.

Talking to the Phillippine Daily Inquirer about his costars Anne Hathaway (Catwoman) and Tom Hardy (Bane), Bale let a few things slip—just enough for us fanboys to lose sleep trying to piece together into a cohesive plot summary (that probably won’t resemble the finished film at all—but hey, what are we supposed to do? Actually be patient until next summer? Ha!).

On Anne Hathaway’s Catwoman:

“I’m terrible at auditions, so I’m very impressed when somebody really seems to acquire an ownership of a character without having worked on it or prepared for some amount of time. I saw that in Anne…in many ways, she has the hardest job. There are a number of people who feel that the Catwoman role has been defined previously. So, I always saw Anne’s role as being the toughest job of any of us.”

On Tom Hardy’s Bane:

[Tom Hardy] “is a phenomenal actor. I like working with him a great deal. He goes the whole hog. I know that Bane has been seen in movies before. But, in my eyes, Tom is essentially creating Bane for the first time so there’s great freedom for him to be able to do so.”

There you have it—it’s not much, but it should be enough to keep those fanboy juices flowing until next summer… or at least until the trailer leaks.

What do you think of The Dark Knight Rises information?

Source: Coming Soon

‘The Dark Knight Rises’ To Take Place Eight Years After ‘The Dark Knight’ [Major Spoilers Ahead!]

traviswoods — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 19:21:49 +0000

After months and months of secrecy, Christopher Nolan is finally releasing some Dark Knight Rises spoilers, all of which went to Empire Magazine. Most of them are character details about Batman and his new villain, Bane, but one detail seems to loom larger than the rest—The Dark Knight Rises will take place eight years after the previous film, The Dark Knight.

Warning: Spoilers ahead!

If you recall, The Dark Knight ended with Batman allowing Gotham to believe that he was a murderous villain, in order to protect the legacy of Harvey Dent (who had become Two-Face and gone on a killing spree), and fleeing the Gotham Police Department. And, instead of picking up immediately after this, The Dark Knight Rises takes place eight years later, and finds “an older Bruce Wayne; he’s not in a great state,” according to Nolan.

Our story picks up eight years after The Dark Knight. In terms of finishing our story and increasing its scope, we were trying to craft an epic. 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. Also, in terms of finishing the our story and increasing its scope, we were trying to craft epic so the physicality of the film became very important.

Further, we get more insight into Bane (the enormous villain who wears an inhaler mask over his face) who, in the Batman comics, snapped Bruce Wayne’s spine and crippled him:

He was injured early in his story. Hes suffering from pain and he needs gas to survive. He cannot survive the pain without the mask. The pipes from the mask go back along his jawline and feed into the thing at the back where there are two cannisters of what ever it is…the anesthetic.

Moreover, Tom Hardy, who portrays Bane, gave a little insight into his character’s psychology:

He’s brutal. Brutal. 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 horrible piece of work.

So there you have it, gang. As if the wait for The Dark Knight Rises wasn’t going to be long enough, the above spoilers have just made it 100 times harder to wait until this summer to see how Christopher Nolan completes his Batman trilogy. So here’s to spending the next six months watching Batman Begins and The Dark Knight on a constant loop, at least until The Dark Knight Rises footage leaks online.

What do you think of the Batman news?

Source: Batman News

The Dark Knight Rises Could Interact With Occupy Wall Street

Damon Houx — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 18:28:41 +0000

The L.A. Times is reporting that Christopher Nolan‘s The Dark Knight Rises, which is currently shooting in Los Angeles, will be moving its shoot to New York on October 29, and may have the cast interact with the current Occupy Wall Street protestors. What’s interesting about this is how those protestors will be used. It’s is unknown which cast members (a cast that includes Christian Bale, Anne Hathaway, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and Tom Hardy to name a few) will be doing the interacting.

We’ve seen some staged fighting involving what looks to be protests and large groups, so perhaps this footage is meant to integrate with that. Though the film surely has a massive budget ($250 would be on the lower side of things), human people – real human people – aren’t cheap and that could give some scenes scale.

It’s very likely that they’ll be well integrated into the whole of the story and will not be serving the same purpose, but it’s also fair to say that The Dark Knight was inspired by modern politics. Bale’s Batman was using warrant-less wiretapping to better defeat his enemy, and it’s not hard to read the Joker as a representation of modern terrorism. It’s hard to know how long and what impact the Occupy Wall Street protests will eventually have, and also how they will be used in the movie. This much is sure: There’s no way it’ll be used as themselves.

Is The Dark Knight Rises your most anticipated film of 2012?

Video: Catwoman Stunt Actor Destroys IMAX Camera On ‘The Dark Knight Rises’ Set

traviswoods — Wed, 10 Aug 2011 17:30:00 +0000

So, last week, we were privy to the new Catwoman, as featured in Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight Rises and portrayed by Anne Hathaway. Also of note was the fact that, in the promo picture, Catwoman was riding Batman’s Bat-Pod (a.k.a., that motorcycle thing that pops out of the Batmobile/ Tumbler in The Dark Knight). And now, according to a video that leaked from The Dark Knight Rises’ set, not only does Catwoman steal the Bat-Pod, but the stuntdriver portraying her loses control of the vehicle—with disastrous results, as far as the IMAX cameras used to film the new movie are concerned.

Dig the video below, via Batman-News, in which a stuntwoman accidentally takes out one of the ludicrously expensive IMAX cameras used to film an action sequence for the new film:

Ouch—at least no one was hurt. Luckily, the film has a whopping $250 million budget, so one camera is probably expendable, especially since, with a budget like that, the film could probably light half of Philadelphia on fire and still have enough money left to buy about 70 IMAX cameras to film it.

What do you think about Catwoman stealing the Bat-Pod in The Dark Knight Rises?

Environmentally Friendly The Dark Knight Rises Teaser Recycles Footage

Damon Houx — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 17:24:47 +0000

with Harry Potter’s conclusion out of the way, is there another film more highly anticipated than The Dark Knight Rises? Even Peter Jackson‘s Hobbit films don’t have the same heat on them. The Dark Knight Rises is due July 20112, and perhaps with Comic-con drawing close, we finally have a teaser for what appears to be Christopher Nolan‘s last Batman movie. But it’s just a tease. Take a look.

So there’s a little Christian Bale and Tom Hardy, a lot more Gary Oldman, and – mostly – shots from the first two films. As they are still shooting, it says very little, but it is effective. And don’t be surprised if some of this new footage didn’t end up in the film. The clear shot of Bane looks like it may just be something to tide fans over- it’s worth noting the teaser was made more than a year before the film is due out.

The most important detail is that this is the end. This is a farewell tour, and Nolan is not coming back until his career is so destroyed that that would be the only thing to get him out of director jail – even then he’d probably switch to teaching math over making more Batman. It’s hard to know what that means for the character’s fates, but it definitely raises the stakes – and we haven’t even met Anne Hathaway‘s Catwoman yet.

Does this get you stoked for more Batman?

Ra’s Al Ghul Returns for The Dark Knight Rises

Damon Houx — Fri, 08 Apr 2011 23:07:09 +0000

Josh Pence played one of the Winklevosses in The Social Network, but his twin was the one who had his head digitally erased and swapped out with Armie Hammer. Pence has said he did it to work with David Fincher, and it appears that exposure has paid off as he’s now been cast in The Dark Knight Rises as a young Ra’s Al Ghul – the character played by Liam Neeson in the first film. This comes straight from The Hollywood Report. How much this character is in the film is unknown – it appears to be a flashback – but the casting announcement does put some cards into place about the film’s plot.

Marion Cotillard has long been rumored to be playing Ra’s daughter, and this pretty much confirms it, if the Pence casting holds true. Historically, her character is more of an anti-hero than villain, in that she’s often been his love interest and had a child who eventually became Robin. Of course, with Christopher Nolan being Nolan it’s quite possible he’s going to do what he wants with the character. But with Anne Hathaway cast as Catwoman, perhaps many are thinking she’ll be along the line of Michelle Pfieffer’s cinematic variation on the character.

More than likely if Cotillard’s character follows the comic books, than my hunch is that Catwoman’s going to a straight villain. Perhaps then Cotillard is there to have a woman who can fight with another woman as cinema is often politically correct when it comes to who can beat up each other.

What do you want to see in the new Batman?

ScreenCrave.com » Batman

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