Following all of the recent images of the upcoming LEGO renditions of The Lord of the Rings films, we’ve now got another great set of images for toy-ified versions of the characters from the Nolan brothers’ conclusion to their Batman trilogy with The Dark Knight Rises.

*Potential spoiler warning* I don’t know whether these toys directly relate to what happens in the film, so if you want to fly fairly blind when it hits cinemas this summer, look away now.

A handful of terrific images have surfaced for the new toys over at Hero Complex, via Collider, in which we get a look at the adorable little figures for Bane and Catwoman, both with super-large, adorable eyes that you just can’t help but fall in love with. The Batman toy seems to come from a different set to the Bane and Catwoman figures, with Mattel making the former, and Funko making the vinyl POP! Heroes figures of the latter.

Directed by Christopher Nolan from a script by Nolan and his brother Jonathan, from a story by the director and David S. Goyer, The Dark Knight Rises of course brings back the familiar faces of Christian Bale, Morgan Freeman, Gary Oldman, and Michael Caine, with a terrific set of actors joining the cast for the final film, including Tom Hardy, Anne Hathaway, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Marion Cotillard, Juno Temple, Josh Pence, and Joey King

The Dark Knight Rises will be with us in cinemas on 20^th July, and is naturally set to be one of the summer’s biggest blockbusters, if not the biggest film of the year. You can catch up on all the rest of our coverage for the film here, including the latest and first full-length trailer that dropped at the end of last year. As usual with these new images for the ridiculously cute toys, you can click to enlarge. How much do you want Bane and Catwoman to just be stood on your desk?

The most romantic story of recent times is set to break hearts all over again this Valentine’s Day as David Nicholls’ beloved tale, One Day, is released on Blu-ray and DVD on February 6, 2012.

To celebrate the release of the nation’s favourite love story, we are giving you the chance to win one of three copies on Blu-ray Triple play, together with a copy of the book.

Following the story of Emma (Hathaway) and Dexter (Sturgess), who meet on the day of their university graduation, July 15^th 1988, the film catches up with the pair on the same day for the next 20 years as they experience the highs and lows of adulthood both together and apart.  As their lives go separate ways, Emma and Dex strive to live their dreams, experiencing hardship, success and compromise along the way. The bonds of their friendship are frequently tested yet their stories remain intertwined. Will they realise the power of their unique connection in time to share a life together?

A tale of best friends, regret, missed opportunities and ultimately love – One Day will make the perfect Valentine’s gift.

Click next to be taken to the question and entry form:

As much as I’m looking forward to the 20th of July (it’s my birthday) I fully expect every cinema in the land to be packed to the veritable rafters with eager Batfans taking their final dance with the Nolanesque caped crusader.

The slow drip of info and images continues today as three new pictures from The Dark Knight Rises have come to light. Taken from EW.com, the standout image is of Gary Oldman’s Commissioner Gordon in the Batcave (?) but there’s Bane enough in the other two pics for fans of Mr. Hardy.

Dave posted another new image from the film earlier today, of Christian Bale’s Batman breaking down in huge peals of laughter. See that one here.

Rather liking this new image of Christian Bale in his Batman suit as the times draws closer to the day that The Dark Knight Rises hits our screens. It’s potentially the most anticipated movie of 2012 and the hype will continue to build from now until it’s released on July 18th.

The new image sits on the cover of Entertainment Weekly which also has interviews with Bale on his role and Director Christopher Nolan and SlashFilm have snippets of the interviews which I’ve placed below:

Bale:

I can tell you the truth because I’m done with it: I felt immense pressure. And I think it’s a good pressure, because you owe it to the films — and the people’s expectations — to make great work.

Nolan:

I think when people see the film, things will come into focus. Bane is very complex and very interesting and when people see the finished film people will be very entertained by him.

Have to say, I’m very excited for this movie. The trailer was pretty epic and I can’t wait for the second theatrical to be released ahead of the movie.

The Dark Knight Rises stars Christian Bale, Anne Hathaway, Tom Hardy, Marion Cotillard, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Michael Caine, Gary Oldman and Morgan Freeman.

Synopsis: Warner Bros. Pictures’ and Legendary Pictures’ “The Dark Knight Rises” is the epic conclusion to filmmaker Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy, Leading an all-star international cast, Oscar(R) winner Christian Bale (“The Fighter”) again plays the dual role of Bruce Wayne/Batman. The film also stars Anne Hathaway, as Selina Kyle; Tom Hardy, as Bane; Oscar(R) winner Marion Cotillard (“La Vie en Rose”), as Miranda Tate; and Joseph Gordon-Levitt, as John Blake. Returning to the main cast, Oscar(R) winner Michael Caine (“The Cider House Rules”) plays Alfred; Gary Oldman is Commissioner Gordon; and Oscar(R) winner Morgan Freeman (“Million Dollar Baby”) reprises the role of Lucius Fox. The screenplay is written by Christopher Nolan and Jonathan Nolan, story by Christopher Nolan & David S. Goyer. The film is produced by Emma Thomas, Christopher Nolan and Charles Roven, who previously teamed on “Batman Begins” and the record-breaking blockbuster “The Dark Knight.” The executive producers are Benjamin Melniker, Michael E. Uslan, Kevin De La Noy and Thomas Tull, with Jordan Goldberg serving as co-producer. The film is based upon characters appearing in comic books published by DC Comics. Batman was created by Bob Kane.

Source: EW via SlashFilm

Everything about Tom Hooper’s upcoming film adaptation of Victor Hugo’s renowned novel, and the subsequent stage musical, Les Misérables, sounds perfect so far.

Russell Crowe will be playing the male co-lead of Jean Valjean, with Hugh Jackman joining him as Inspector Javert, and Anne Hathaway will be bringing to life the female lead, Fantine.

When Hooper announced last month that he wouldn’t be using 3D for the film, he also said that we should expect to soon hear casting news about the roles of Éponine and Cosette, and it looks as though we could well be getting confirmation soon now.

Twitch are reporting, via The Playlist, that Taylor Swift and Amanda Seyfried have been offered the roles of Éponine and Cosette, respectively, after Hooper’s search in the past few months, with Swift beating the likes of Scarlett Johansson, Evan Rachel Wood, and Lea Michele for the role.

It was also announced last month that the cast of the film is expected to sing live on set, in front of the cameras, rather than pre-recording their vocals in a studio, which sounds like such a novel approach to me. Naturally, this means that the actors and actresses will need to be able to sing themselves, rather than use voice doubles. Swift of course has a background in music, but I hadn’t realised that Seyfried has been trained in opera singing herself, so both should come in handy for the hopeful pair.

The rest of the casting so far announced includes Sacha Baron Cohen and Eddie Redmayne, and the production is set to begin this spring. This could potentially cause a scheduling conflict with Swift, who has a tour lined up forAustraliaandNew Zealand, but hopefully this is something they can work around.

Les Misérables is set to make its US debut on 7^th December this year, perfectly lining it up for the Oscars in 2013. With a bit of luck, we’ll be getting it here in theUK at the same time to enjoy it before the end of the year too. I can’t wait. More news as we get it.

*Spoiler Warning* If you want to stay spoiler-free for the Nolan brothers’ epic conclusion to their Batman trilogy, you may want to look away now.

This month, we’ve seen some terrific new things from next year’s The Dark Knight Rises, one of the most highly anticipated films of 2012, including the awesome first character poster of Bane, and of course, the first trailer that was really quite good. And by that, I of course mean it was incredible.

The plot of Christopher and Jonathan Nolan’s conclusion to their trilogy is being kept under wraps, and there’s very little that we know about it for sure. There now comes a new description for a scene from the film, via Hero Complex and Collider, and here is your spoiler warning once again.

I’m personally all for the secrecy, and so whilst I did watch the trailer, I’m steering clear of this scene description below (and so will just paste it below without reading it myself), but I’m sure there will be plenty of people who will relish the chance to read it. Given that I’ve not read it, I can only relay that it’s meant to be spoiler-ful, and so if you want to stay relatively the dark too, look away now.

“Gotham City is a war zone. A ruthless madman named Bane has ripped away any sense of security and the citizens, haggard and clutching suitcases with refugee anxiety, sit behind barbed wire waiting to see what will blow up next. A hooded prisoner is dragged in – it’s Bruce Wayne, one of Gotham’s most famous faces – but the eyes of the crowd go instead to the woman in black standing at the top of the staircase.

“Sorry to spoil things, boys, but Bane needs these guys himself,” says sultry Selina Kyle, played here by actress Anne Hathaway, navigating the steps with stiletto heels that, on closer inspection, turn out to have serrated edges capable of leaving nasty claw marks in a fight. She also wears high-tech goggles that, when not in use, flip up and resemble feline ears.”

Christian Bale will of course be reprising his role as the Dark Knight, alongside Gary Oldman, Morgan Freeman, and Michael Caine, with Tom Hardy joining the cast as the notorious Bane, along with Nolan’s Inception stars Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Marion Cotillard, Anne Hathaway as Selina Kyle/Catwoman, Juno Temple, and Josh Pence.

The Dark Knight Rises will be coming to the big screen next summer on 20^th July, and judging by what we’ve seen so far, it’s going to be incredible. I could naturally be proven wrong, but I have a feeling that everything we have seen so far (all of which you can catch up on here) hardly scratches the surface with what we can look forward to next year. I think the Nolan brothers will be keeping plenty secret right up until the film reaches cinemas, and I can’t wait to see how it turns out.

Already pencilled in as an Oscar contender with a release at the end of next year, news surrounding Tom Hooper’s follow-up to The King’s Speech with Les Misérables has just been getting better and better.

Russell Crowe and Hugh Jackman will be taking the roles of the male co-leads Jean Valjean and Inspector Javert respectively, and Anne Hathaway will be gracing the big screen adaptation in the role of Fantine, the female lead. And joining them will be Eddie Redmayne and Sacha Baron Cohen, who’s really been mixing up his career in the past few years.

We heard back at the start of the month that Hooper had decided against using 3D for the big screen production of the world-renowned novel by Victor Hugo, which of course spawned the musical that has become world-famous in itself.

We now have the very interesting news, courtesy of The Sun via Collider, that the film’s cast will be doing something beyond what is ordinarily asked of film musicals’ casts. Rather than recording their vocals in a studio, and miming the words in front of the cameras, they will instead have their vocals recorded live before the cameras, which sounds like it should definitely bring a sense of immediacy, not to mention authenticity, to the film.

“Unlike most film musicals, the cast will record their vocals live on camera rather than go into a studio first then mime on film to the pre-recorded vocal… First they have to learn the complex songs, then they’ll have to get it right on set in front of the other stars and crew.”

Hooper clearly isn’t making things easy on himself or the cast, but it sounds like a thoroughly interesting path to take with the film, and I’m loving everything that we’ve heard about the project so far. I’ve never seen a musical that’s been made like this, and can’t wait to see how it translates on screen.

Les Misérables will be released in the USon 7^th December next year, and though theUK is yet to have a release date announced, I’d imagine that we’ll be getting it around the same time too. The date really does set it up to be an Oscar contender in the following year’s awards, and it’s not too far a stretch to imagine that Hooper’s production might well see a similar success to his last film.

Just to add a little context/random information, the last weekend of November and the first two weekends of December this year saw Hugo, The Muppets, The Artist, A Dangerous Method, My Week With Marilyn, Shame, Young Adult, and Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy all released in the States, and pretty much all of them are being talked about as potential Oscar candidates for the Academy Awards next February. So with a little bit of luck, we’ll be saying the same thing about Les Misérables by this time next year. I can’t wait.

Well, it is Christmas time and all I want for Christmas is a Dark Knight trailer, a Hobbit trailer and a Prometheus trailer… oh and some new images from The Dark Knight Rises!

Well, we can source most of these for you and in a few hours, we’ll also have a nice shiny new trailer for Ridley Scott’s Prometheus but to tide us over (it’s now here!) while we wait, here’s some nice new images from The Dark Knight Rises. We’ve seen most of them before but they’ve always been obscured by a magazine cover or been low res. Now they are nice and high, especially the one of Christian ‘Christmas’ Bale shooting his taser!

The Dark Knight Rises will be with us summer 2012, is directed by Christopher Nolan and stars Christian Bale, Anne Hathaway, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Gary Oldman, Tom Hardy, Michael Caine, Morgan Freeman, Josh Pence, Marion Cotillard, Juno Temple, Liam Neeson, Cillian Murphy.

Click them below to enlarge:

Batfans rejoice, there’s a new trailer for Christopher Nolan’s final Batman film, The Dark Knight Rises, out today.

Those people who are joining Tom Cruise for another Mission Impossible in certain IMAX screens will have their chance to see the short prologue for the film, which is rumoured to divulge the origins of Batman’s latest nemesis Bane, played by Tom Hardy and glimpsed in a thousand set pictures.

The viral winds have already started to kick up around this film, and as it’s Christopher Nolan and Warner Bros. you can bet that there will be all sorts of information hunts and wild goose chases until the film is out, you can see the opening salvo in the campaign here and here, so it’s nice that there’s something substantial following from the teaser we saw a few months ago.

Source: Apple – Click to view in HD

In the past week, we’ve seen the ad campaign for Christopher and Jonathan Nolan’s final instalment in their Batman trilogy take an interesting new turn with the release of three documents regarding a man by the name of Dr. Leonid Pavel.

We’ve also been granted our first, ridiculously incredible Bane character poster for the film, and are expecting the film’s first full-length trailer to come any day now – with any luck, tomorrow.

The folk over at SuperHeroHype, via ComingSoon.net, have been treated to an awesome package adding to the film’s advertising campaign, and they’ve been nice enough to upload a few photos of what arrived for them in the mail: an awesome Bane t-shirt (which we should all be jealous of), and a cylindrical map of Gotham City upon which is written five strike zones. Whether we can take the zones on the map to be true to the film itself is of course a different question entirely, and one we’ll probably be debating until the film’s release next summer. In case you don’t want to take a look, I won’t spoil it for you, but some of the locations targeted sound like they’d make for epic battle scenes if they are true to the film.

The Nolan brothers look to be going all out for this final instalment and are sure to be bringing us something absolutely immense with The Dark Knight Rises. The tagline on the Bane poster we saw just a few days ago, ‘The Legend Ends’, is just so damn perfect; this really is going to be an epic conclusion.

Christian Bale​ will be reprising his role as the Dark Knight, alongside Gary Oldman​, Morgan Freeman​, and Michael Caine​, with Tom Hardy​ joining the cast as the notorious Bane, along with Nolan’s Inception stars Joseph Gordon-Levitt​ and Marion Cotillard​, Anne Hathaway as Selina Kyle/Catwoman, Juno Temple​, and Josh Pence.

The film’s six-minute prologue has had a few select screenings here and across the Atlantic, and you can read our review of those first six minutes here, and catch up with everyone else Batman-related right here. Without further ado, here are those all-important shots of the Bane t-shirt and the Bane Strike Map. As usual, click to enlarge. Can you imagine waking up to something so cool in your mail?

If ever there were a poster to guarantee itself as deserving a spot on your wall, this is the one. Christopher and Jonathan Nolan’s conclusion to their Batman trilogy, The Dark Knight Rises, is sure to be one of 2012’s biggest films – and it wouldn’t be too much of a stretch to predict it making the Top 10 list of all-time highest grossing films, a list in which its predecessor, 2008’s The Dark Knight, currently sits – and everything that we’ve seen from the film so far points to an immense finale.

In the past few days, we’ve seen the film’s advertising campaign move into a new direction with the release first of two documents, followed yesterday by a third, with rumours surfacing that the release of the full-length trailer was imminent.

Sadly, that wasn’t to be last night, but we’ve now got an utterly epic poster to share with you for the film now instead, via ComingSoon.net, with the perfect tagline, ‘The Legend Ends’. We got the film’s absolutely brilliant first poster back in July, followed swiftly by the first teaser trailer, which was every bit as awesome as the poster. This new poster definitely maintains that high level of brilliance, and given the amazing posters that Nolan put out for his last film, Inception, I’d be willing to bet that we’ve got more incredible posters to look forward to in the campaign to promote The Dark Knight Rises.

Christian Bale will be reprising his role as the Dark Knight, alongside Gary Oldman, Morgan Freeman, and Michael Caine, with Tom Hardy joining the cast as the notorious Bane, along with Nolan’s Inception stars Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Marion Cotillard, Anne Hathaway as Selina Kyle/Catwoman, Juno Temple, and Josh Pence.

Plot details are being kept under wraps, and this new poster will almost certainly set off a huge spark among fans as to what we can expect from it – we see Bane walking away in the pouring rain from a shattered Batman mask. Oh wow.

The Dark Knight Rises will be hitting cinemas on 20th July next summer, and I think we can all agree that we should all agree right now to clear our calendars for that day to make sure we see it at the first possible opportunity, because it’s going to be incredible. Without further ado, feast your eyes upon this amazing first poster of Bane. As usual, click to enlarge, and give yourself even more awesomeness to soak up.

[Updated] Just two days ago, we saw The Dark Knight Rises’ promotional campaign take a turn in a new direction with the release of two documents related to the film, regarding an unknown character, Dr. Leonid Pavel, which is already sparking much discussion on the Internet as to what the documents mean.

A third document has surfaced over at @thefirerises, with thanks to Empire for the tip-off, that continues the information that we saw from the first two documents, talking now about the exfiltration of Dr. Pavel, under the code name, Operation Early Bird, which in turn points us to this website. As the document notes, the exfiltration is set to take place at 1000 hours PST, which is 6pm on our time here in the UK. The Operation Early Bird site has a countdown that will run down at exactly 6pm tonight, so be sure to check back here to see what happens when the clock reaches zero!

It’s thought that we’ll be treated to the film’s first full-length trailer when it does, which is definitely an exciting possibility. We got the film’s first teaser back in July, and it was absolutely brilliant, and you just know that getting a full-length look at Christopher Nolan’s conclusion to his Batman trilogy is going to be immense. The film itself is going to be nothing short of incredible, no doubt about that.

Christian Bale will of course be reprising his role as the Dark Knight, alongside Gary Oldman, Morgan Freeman, and Michael Caine, with Tom Hardy joining the cast as the notorious Bane, along with Nolan’s Inception stars Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Marion Cotillard, Anne Hathaway as Selina Kyle/Catwoman, Juno Temple, and Josh Pence.

The Dark Knight Rises will be hitting the big screen on 20^th July, and is naturally expected to be one of the biggest and best films of the year, and I can’t wait for the trailer to hit when the clock reaches 6 tonight. Be sure to check back in then. Without further ado, here’s the third document released as part of the new campaign. As usual, click to enlarge. And if you want a re-cap of everything we’ve seen so far, just click right here.

[Update:] Alas, we sadly weren’t treated to our first look at the trailer last night, as we were all hoping we would be. Instead, the Operation Early Bird site listed free screenings of the six-minute prologue for the film, which they’ll be playing in Manchester, Glasgow, Bradford, and London, on 14th December, ahead of the film’s release next summer. With any luck, we’ll be treated to that highly anticipated trailer very soon, and you can be sure we’ll be bringing it to you as soon as it hits.

It was bound to happen sooner or later and it appear that it’s right now as Wired and Empire have released what appears to be the first piece of viral marketing for The Dark Knight Rises on their website. Wired have a confidential ‘CIA Bulletin’ that gives us info on “Dr. Leonid Pavel” and an image of Alon Abutbul with some blocked out text while Empire have released a document communication with much of the document blocked out with a CIA stamp on it.

That’s all we know so far but I’m sure this isn’t the last of it. Keep your eyes peeled for more and make sure you add in the comments your initial thoughts and if you know what it means, feel free to share with the rest of us!

For the rest of our Dark Knight Rises coverage including the teaser trailer, poster and images, click here.

In the past year, director Tom Hooper (The King’s Speech) has seen himself become almost overnight a huge success, with The King’s Speech topping many critics’ and individuals’ Films of the Year lists last year, along with earning himself the Best Director award at the Oscars earlier this year.

His next project, a film adaptation of Victor Hugo’s novel, Les Misérables, is lining up to be pretty damn brilliant, with a cast that currently includes Hugh Jackman, Russell Crowe, Anne Hathaway, Eddie Redmayne, and rumours of Geoffrey Rush and Helena Bonham Carter to boot.

Talking to the BBC, Hooper has now put to bed the possibility of the project being released in 3D, saying,

“I can definitely announce it’s good old-fashioned 2D.”

He confirmed that he had been doing some testing with shooting it in 3D, but ultimately decided against it, which I think is a good move for him. Justifying the decision, he said that he wanted to make a film that everyone could connect with:

“One of the things I’m most proud of with The King’s Speech is how it managed to do that, whether you’re eight or 80 years old.

“So I slightly worry with 3D that some people will physically struggle with it. If you have a certain type of eyesight it can be more demanding than watching a normal movie.

“With a two-and-a-half hour film, I didn’t want to make something that anyone might think ‘That’s not for me, because I don’t like the medium’.

“I wanted to make a film that would touch everyone. I believe the story is so strong, 3D is not essential.”

Personally, I’m not a huge fan of the 3D medium, in part because the 3D glasses on top of my regular glasses just doesn’t feel comfortable and often ends up giving me a bit of a headache, so I can definitely appreciate Hooper’s reasoning here. Granted, I definitely would’ve still gone to see the film however it was released, but I’m glad that he’ll be sticking to 2D, and it’s that much better for ticket prices on our end.

Hooper also added that we should be getting some more casting news soon for the roles of Cosette and Éponine, both of which I believe are child roles, and hopefully we’ll get confirmation of Rush and Bonham Carter’s involvement with those announcements too.

“I’ve never done a film where big star actors are as obsessed with being in it as this!”

The cast is already fantastic, and I can’t wait to see how it turns out when it arrives on the big screen next year. Shooting is scheduled to begin in March, with a release date currently set for December of next year, perfectly lining it up for consideration for the Oscars at the start of 2013. As always, more news as we get it.

We’d heard it was coming but now Warner Bros. have released the information that we all want to hear about the six minute prologue that will come to the UK 21st December at only 5 IMAX locations. Those locations include:

• UK – BFI London – London
• UK – National Media Museum IMAX Bradford – Bradford
• UK – Glasgow Science Centre IMAX Cinema – Glasgow
• UK – Odeon Manchester IMAX @ The Printworks – Manchester

Scroll down for the full press release with all the information that you need to know about the prologue.

The Dark Knight Rises is released in the UK July 20th, 2012, just in time for my birthday! Anyone excited?!

OPENING SEQUENCE OF “THE DARK KNIGHT RISES” WILL BE UNWRAPPED JUST IN TIME FOR THE HOLIDAYS

The film’s prologue will be released exclusively in select IMAX® 70mm film theatres.

Warner Bros. Pictures’ “The Dark Knight Rises”—the epic conclusion to filmmaker Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy—is one of the most anticipated films of 2012, but moviegoers won’t have to wait until next year to see the six-minute opening sequence of the film.  The film’s prologue will be unveiled exclusively in select 70mm IMAX® theatres worldwide.  The announcement was made today by Dan Fellman, President of Domestic Distribution, and Veronika Kwan-Rubinek, President of International Distribution, Warner Bros. Pictures.

The Prologue will be released in North America on December 16, and in the UK on December 21, 2011.  Additional international dates vary by territory and will be announced soon.

In making the 2008 blockbuster “The Dark Knight,” Nolan was the first to use IMAX® cameras in a major motion picture release, and, as now, audiences were given an advance look at that film’s prologue months prior to the Summer 2008 opening.  Nolan employed the extremely high-resolution cameras even more extensively on “The Dark Knight Rises”—including the film’s prologue—to achieve unprecedented crispness and clarity and a truly immersive experience for the moviegoers.

Christopher Nolan stated, “Our experience on ‘The Dark Knight’ shooting and projecting IMAX 15 perf 65mm/70mm film was inspiring.  The immersive quality of the image goes beyond any other filmmaking tool available, and in revisiting Gotham, we were determined to shoot even more of the movie in this unique format.  Giving the fans an early look at an IMAX sequence is a great way to draw attention to what I believe will be an incredible way to experience our story when it comes out next summer.”

Below is a list of the theatres in the UK in which the Prologue of “The Dark Knight Rises” will be revealed on December 21th:

• UK – BFI London – London
• UK – National Media Museum IMAX Bradford – Bradford
• UK – Glasgow Science Centre IMAX Cinema – Glasgow
• UK – Odeon Manchester IMAX @ The Printworks – Manchester

Opening on July 20, 2012, “The Dark Knight Rises” features an international all-star cast, led by Oscar® winner Christian Bale (“The Fighter”) in the dual role of Bruce Wayne/Batman.  The film also stars Anne Hathaway, as Selina Kyle; Tom Hardy, as Bane; Oscar® winner Marion Cotillard (“La Vie en Rose”), as Miranda Tate; and Joseph Gordon-Levitt, as John Blake.  Reprising their roles from both “Batman Begins” and “The Dark Knight,” Oscar® winner Michael Caine (“The Cider House Rules”) plays Alfred; Gary Oldman is Commissioner Gordon; and Oscar® winner Morgan Freeman (“Million Dollar Baby”) plays Lucius Fox.

Nolan directed “The Dark Knight Rises” from a screenplay by Jonathan Nolan and Christopher Nolan, story by Christopher Nolan & David S. Goyer.  The film is produced by Emma Thomas, Christopher Nolan and Charles Roven, who previously teamed on “Batman Begins” and the record-breaking blockbuster “The Dark Knight.”  Benjamin Melniker, Michael E. Uslan, Kevin De La Noy and Thomas Tull are the executive producers, with Jordan Goldberg serving as co-producer.  “The Dark Knight Rises” is based upon characters appearing in comic books published by DC Comics.  Batman created by Bob Kane.

“The Dark Knight Rises” will be distributed worldwide by Warner Bros. Pictures, a Warner Bros. Entertainment Company.   www.thedarkknightrises.com

Empire Magazine have now released their interview with Director Christopher Nolan and Tom Hardy where they talked to the duo about Hardy’s character of bane from The Dark Knight Rises and if you’re a fan of the latest Batman franchise then you’re going to love this! In the interview they talk about the traits of the villain from the latest movie due out next year and why Nolan cast Hardy in the role.

The transcription comes from Deadline but make sure you buy the latest copy of Empire which is out now and has some amazing Dark Knight Rises covers in your local news agents NOW!

Tom Hardy
On Bane: “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. The result is clear. “Do you know what I mean? It’s: f**k off and die. Quicker. Quicker. Everything is thought out way before. He’s hit you, he’s already hit somebody else. It’s not about fighting. 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. 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. It’s anything he can get away with. He is a terrorist in his mentality as well as brutal action. So he’s horrible. A really horrible piece of work.”

About filming the fight scenes: “It’s very overwhelming. When you’re training in a rehearsal room you go, ‘Okay, I have a contact with seven people. This guy I chin, this one I slip and I punch, this one I pick up and suplex, this guy I kick in the face, and this one, he stops a hammer with his head. And then I meet Batman.’ That’s all alright in a rehearsal room, but then you add 1,000 people that are all dressed the same as the seven you’re supposed to hit — ’cause they’re all police officers — and I don’t know where my police officers are. But the stuntmaster’s like, ‘Don’t worry. They will find you.’”

About Christian Bale’s Batman: “He looks really intimidating! There’s a three-year-old in me that’s going, ‘Oh my God that’s Batman! That’s Batman and he’s going to hit me! But I love Batman!’ Then I look in the mirror. And I hit him back. Twice as hard.”

Christopher Nolan
On Bane: “With Bane, we are looking to give Batman a physical challenge that he hasn’t had before,” says the film’s director, Christopher Nolan. “With our choice of villain and with our choice of story we’re testing Batman both physically as well as mentally. Also, in terms of finishing our story and increasing its scope, we were trying to craft an epic, so the physicality of the film became very important. Bane’s a very different kind of villain than Batman has faced before in our films. 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. What Bane represents in the comics is the ultimate physical villain.”

About casting 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.”

Hot on the heels of last night’s release of two new The Dark Knight Rises covers from next month’s Empire, subscribers to the magazine today received a treat through their letterboxes – namely the issue itself, in all its glossy, papery splendour! Complete with a ‘Limited Edition Subscriber Only’ cover image of Tom Hardy in Bane regalia, the magazine boasts a behind the scenes feature on the film, including some of the first official images and fresh interview snippets from the cast and crew.

Though it can be fun to play guessing games a with movie that carries such high anticipation levels, the authorised nature of the pictures and quotes is a welcome breather from the constant flow of candid snapshots and rumour that has followed the film’s production.

Indeed, though it may seem like news about Christopher Nolan’s upcoming sequel to The Dark Knight breaks almost every week, official releases from the set have numbered only a handful: an early preview of Tom Hardy as Bane, a poster for the film that was quickly followed by a teaser trailer, and, back in August, our first official look at Anne Hathaway as that feline lady of mystery, Selina Kyle. Believe it or not – that’s all. Yes, it’s been over two months since we had our last sanctioned newscast from Gotham and now – finally – we can a bit more of what Mr Nolan and his crew have finalised for release, not just the eager fans.

So, what have we got? Well, if you’re hungry for some picture fuelled goodness then scroll to the bottom of the page (and click to enlarge), but first we’d like to pick out a few of the Empire article’s best little nuggets of plot and character info. The first surprise offered by Nolan is not one of ‘what’, but of ‘when’, with the director revealing that The Dark Knight Rises is set “eight years after” Batman’s last outing.

“It’s really all about finishing Batman and Bruce Wayne’s story, ” Nolan states, “we left him in a very precarious place.” The film, he continues, will see “an older Bruce Wayne…not in a great state” being challenged by a villain and a story that will “[test] Batman both physically as well as mentally.” This may just mean that the Caped Crusader’s confrontations with Bane will involve more fist fights than they did with Ra’s Al Ghul or The Joker, but with one of Bane’s most famous comic storylines seeing him break an exhausted Bruce Wayne’s back, it’s a quote that will no doubt leave fans desperate to find out more.

And, speaking of Bane, thanks to the film’s costume department we can finally find out a little more about what makes him tick. With the character known in the comics for having superhuman strength bestowed by an experimental toxin named ‘Venom’ (taken every 12 hours to avoid adverse side-effects), it was always likely Bane would see slight alterations in the more grounded Nolanverse. However, as costume designer Lindy Hemming explains, Nolan’s Bane will keep his drug dependence, albeit with a slightly different origin. “He was injured early in his story. He’s suffering from pain and needs gas to survive. He can’t survive the pain without the mask. The pipes from the mask go back along his jawline and feed into the thing at his back, where there are two canisters.”

But a lack ‘strength serum’ does not mean that the Bane of The Dark Knight Rises will be by any means soft. Describing the character as both “brutal” and “clinical”, actor Tom Hardy tells Empire of a Bane whose assaults are based on results; “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.” Sounds like this film is really going to push the PG-13 rating! Yet this is villain with brains as well as brawn, Hardy concludes – “a terrorist in mentality as well as brutal action.”

And then there’s the pictures (see below; click to enlarge). With Batman surrounded by the bodies of collapsed soldiers in one shot and Bane rallying support whilst clutching a picture of Aaron Eckhart’s Harvey Dent in another, they probably offer more questions than they do answers. In fact, Empire’s whole feature is a bit of a tease, but – crucially – it’s a tease Christopher Nolan wants us to see; not something dug out from impatience, but a wonderful allusion as to how much (or how little) he’s willing to show us before the release date.

So, without further ado, scroll down and have a look! With our next official glimpse of the film likely to be either a trailer attached to screenings of Sherlock Holmes: Game of Shadows, or a six minute prologue attached to IMAX screenings of Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol (one that Nolan promises will provide “introduction to Bane, and a taste of the rest of the film”), we can only hope  these satisfy your current appetite.

The Dark Knight Rises will be out in July 2012 and stars franchise regulars Christian Bale, Gary Oldman, Morgan Freeman, Michael Caine alongside newcomers Hardy, Anne Hathaway, Marion Cotillard, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Juno Temple, and Josh Pence.

Source: Empire Magazine, with scans by ComingSoon.

Unless you’ve been in hibernation for the past several months, you’ll be fully aware that Christopher and Jonathan Nolan will be bringing us the conclusion to their Batman films next year with The Dark Knight Rises, and there’s every reason to expect that it is going to be nothing short of being utterly immense.

Photos and footage from the set have been unusually frequent through the filming stages of The Dark Knight Rises, with plenty of unofficial set photos and videos surfacing for quite some time.

What we’ve seen officially has been few and far between, but it’s all been brilliant. We first got a look at Tom Hardy as Bane back in May. Then came an awesome first poster for the film in July, followed swiftly by the first teaser trailer, which was just a little bit epic. And most recently, we got our official first look at Anne Hathaway as Selina Kyle/Catwoman, and needless to say, it was ridiculously cool.

We’ve now got two more great official photos to share with you, which are gracing the January 2012 edition of Empire magazine. The issue will be coming in two forms, one with Batman on the cover, and one with Bane, so choose wisely (or choose both, if you can’t choose between them).

The covers boast more official set photos inside the issue, so we can no doubt look forward to more excellent images surfacing soon. As much as I love the first two of Nolan’s films, I have to admit that my knowledge of Batman isn’t extensive beyond them, and so I can’t say whether what Batman’s holding in his cover is something entirely new or something that ties into his comic book history. I can say that it looks ridiculously awesome, whatever it is; judging by the way Christian Bale is looking down the top of it, as if taking aim, I’d guess it is some sort of weapon, but naturally only time will tell.

Christian Bale, Gary Oldman, Michael Caine, and Morgan Freeman will all be reprising their roles – and Cillian Murphy has reportedly been seen on the set – and they are joined by a further fantastic cast, including Hathaway, Hardy, Marion Cotillard, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Juno Temple, and Josh Pence.

Despite the numerous unofficial images and videos from the set, I think Nolan still has so much about the film being kept under wraps – not least of which being the plot – and I think we’ve got a lot of surprises to look forward to next summer. The Dark Knight Rises will be hitting the big screen on 20th July next year, and by all accounts, it looks like it’s going to be incredible. Without further ado, here are the great new images. As usual, click to enlarge.

It appears those working on Wall Street have had quite an exciting time recently. Christopher Nolan has chosen that iconic location to film an immense fight scene between Batman, Bane and Gothom Police – and we can watch it too thanks to modern technology.

The businessmen and women of New York have filmed the scenes from their phones and we can see in detail the enormity of this set, along with the huge amount of action it involves.

There are a few of these videos roaming around on Youtube, but here’s some of the best:

Batman and Bane fighting:

Tumblers being driven:

Huge amount of extras:

A closer view of the fight:

An even closer view

The film comes out in July 2012.

Back in April the animated comedy Rio hit UK cinemas and is the story about a blue macaw, appropriately called Blu and voiced by Jesse Eisenberg, who is taken from the rainforest by poachers but accidentally marooned in snowy Minnesota and raised by Linda (Leslie Mann) as she grows from small girl to small town bookshop owner. After many years of mutual admiration their cosy life is disrupted when Brazilian bird expert Tulio arrives and persuades Linda to take Blu to Brazil to meet Jewel (Anne Hathaway) as he believes them to be the last female and male blue macaws on earth. As you might expect it doesn’t go to plan and the rest of the film follows the adventures of Blu and Jewel as they battle smugglers, an evil cannibal parrot called Nigel and the twists and turns of both circumstance and adventure in equal measure.

If you haven’t seen the film I can’t do better than to point you to our original review here by Vicki which goes into greater detail about the plot and throws in the odd spoiler or two, and means that I can spare you my attempts to reinvent the wheel.

I missed the film in the cinema when it came out, though my family saw it and loved it, so they were happy to get the chance to see it again which means that I’d say that it does have repeat viewing value unlike some I could mention. In a crowded market of computerised animal animations it’s bound to draw comparisons with Madagascar but it really does create its own space, reminding me in parts of Disney classics, such as 101 Dalmatians with its bumbling baddies, plus more recent films such as Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs for its geeky heroes. Nigel the evil parrot is definitely a star turn as the evil bird cooperating with the poachers and a source of perfectly voiced malevolence.

To whet your appetite we’ve been given an exclusive clip for you to enjoy

Now the chances are that you’ll be getting the DVD because you saw the film when it originally came out though if you missed it the first time around like me then I’d really recommend it.

As is customary with these things the DVD does have a selection of extras

• Deleted scene – Fruit Stand
• Taio Cruz- Telling The World music video….
• Bring The Party – UK families videoed dancing with the Rio birds

The final points to make are that you get the code for a free copy of the Angry Birds Rio game with it and that it also includes a digital copy to enjoy on your  iPhone, iPad or tablet.

Rio is available on DVD and Blu-ray in shops now or available to rent on LOVEFiLM

@ColinHartUK