With a career that began back in 1969, Terrence Malick has become one of the best known directors in film, despite having directed just six films in the past fifty years, well known for the gaps between his films.

More recently, however, the writer-director has been beyond prolific, winning the Palme d’Or at last year’s Cannes with The Tree of Life, and having an untitled film starring Ben Affleck, Rachel McAdams, Jessica Chastain, Rachel Weisz, and Javier Bardem currently in post-production, due out this year.

And to add to all of that, he’s also announced, and begun preliminary filming on, Lawless, which will star Ryan Gosling in the lead, alongside Christian Bale, Cate Blanchett, Rooney Mara, and Haley Bennett, which will shoot in the autumn. And before that, he’ll be filming Knight of Cups this summer, which will also star Bale and Blanchett, as well as Isabel Lucas.

We’ve now got some more brilliant casting news to add to both Lawless and Knight of Cups, with Deadline reporting that the ever-talented Natalie Portman is joining the already impressive casts of the two films, which means that she, Bale, and Blanchett will all be starring in them both.

The films are set to be sold at the European Film Market in Berlin tomorrow, with FilmNation selling the international territories and CAA dealing the US rights. With such an established man like Malick writing and directing, and with two sets of wonderfully talented casts, hopefully they shouldn’t have too much trouble getting picked up.

On top of winning the Palme d’Or at Cannes last year, Malick’s last film, The Tree of Life, has three Oscar nominations to its name in the Best Picture, Best Directing, and Best Cinematography categories, and I can’t wait to see how that plays out at the end of the month when the Academy Awards are held on 26^th February.

Portman, herself, is of course no stranger to the Oscars, having won Best Actress for her outstanding performance in Black Swan last year, and earning a nomination for Best Supporting Actress for 2004’s Closer, and these two projects will mark her first films since taking maternity leave after the birth of her first child last summer.

We’ve had the cuddly Bane, the cuddly Cat Woman and the cuddly Batman but I know all of you were disappointed that no one had brought out a Mr. Potato Head Batman character! Well, fear not as BigBadStore.com are selling this rather fetching version of the everyone’s favourite potato character known as ‘The Dark Knight Spud’!

Mr. Potato Head was a main character in the Toy Story franchise and with the possibility of a fourth movie, I am desperate for Disney to get talking to Warner Bros. to get The Dark Knight Spud to feature in the new movie! Get those lawyers chatting studio people!

He’s due to arrive June 2012 so get your pre-orders in!

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?

There’s a new clip from The Flowers of War for you today and it’s a far less explosive affair than the trailers we’ve seen, but is no less dramatic and gives us a good idea of what to expect from the film’s leading man.

Christian Bale leads the film from director Zhang Yimou, perhaps best known for Hero and House of Flying Daggers and has this for a synopsis,

The film, set during the Japanese invasion of China, is told from a young girl’s point of view, not as a history lesson, but as an intimate, elemental and paradoxically universal celebration of the human spirit.   Bale stars as a dissolute Westerner who seeks refuge in a Catholic Church.  There he meets a beautiful Chinese courtesan who helps him rescue a group of schoolgirls from a terrible fate at the hands of the Japanese.

Here’s the clip, all the way from Collider,

And a special bonus, here’s Zhang Yimou’s wonderfully irreverent contriubtion to the film Lumiere and Company.

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

*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.

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:

Yesterday Warner Brothers released a new trailer for The Dark Knight Rises; the internet went mental and collectively spewed opinion over message boards everywhere.

Responses ranged from the bad to the rabidly stark raving good but one solid piece of criticism that could be distilled from all of the fawning chaos was that people were just not happy with Bane’s voice.

Firstly with the six-minute prologue that was shown to but a few and now with the universally available trailer, Tom Hardy’s villain has been adjudged to be a bit incomprehensible. Be it the muffle from his mask or the Englishness of his enunciation, people just aren’t loving it. Or more importantly understanding it.

One would think therefore that with such a fuss about so little director Christopher Nolan would just listen to the Warner executives and fix the sound mix. But never one to concede easily Nolan is digging his cinematically accomplished heels in and has stated that he will only concede “to alter the sound slightly, not to rework it completely.”

You could just say (as I think I did at the start of the article, silly me) that it’s just some Batfans kicking up a fuss about the English voices again. We could shake our fists at them and say “you can just bally well get on with it!” but it’s not the 50’s and I’ve got to say that I didn’t get on that well with Bane’s voice either. While Heath Ledger’s Joker was eminently quotable and readily meme-worthy I can’t see Bane’s repeated invocations of “murrrmuhaaa beffffuhu” catching on.

Regarding Nolan’s decision a ‘high level studio exec’ told The Hollywood Reporter “Chris wants the audience to catch up and participate rather than push everything at them. He doesn’t dumb things down,” and that “You’ve got to pedal faster to keep up.” But there’s pedalling faster and then there is not being able to pedal at all. If Bane does turn out to be as incomprehensible as everyone seems to think it’s just going to harm the film. A case of David’s unintelligible voice taking down Goliath if you will.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter

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

It is not as if American Psycho is hallowed ground, like Casablanca or Gone With The Wind. It is just that a remake is so very unnecessary. Although the original came out over a decade ago, it was set in the 1980′s and so it can’t really be argued to be dated. It looks as though the planned remake will be set in a more contemporary New York, possibly addressing how the city has changed since the milieu of the book and original film. That is all well and good, though it could be argued that the milieu of the original was part of its distinctive quality and that to take the story out of that environment does more than a little violence to Bret Easton Ellis’s work.

Matters are not helped by news that the writer Lionsgate have employed to rework the script, Noble Jones, has written one short film five years ago and since then has worked as a cinematographer and second unit director. That is not to cast aspersions at his ability as a writer, he may well be extremely talented, but it doesn’t look good when a seeming novice is attached to such a high profile project. Jones has apparently finished the script and wants to shoot it as well, as a “down and dirty low budget” film. Hmm. We will see.

Source: Variety and Deadline.

Batman trilogy filmmaker Christopher Nolan made his mark on the 70mm IMAX screen in London on Wednesday with studio Warner Bros showing the first six minutes of the new Batman film, The Dark Knight Rises, out in July 2012.

Next year’s highly anticipated epic conclusion to The Caped Crusader saga sees terrorist leader Bane (Tom Hardy) arriving in Gotham City, set to push its hero Batman (Christian Bale) to breaking point and cause mayhem in the process.

Producer Emma Thomas was on hand to introduce the clip, saying Nolan’s vision was to make the latest experience as “immersive an experience” as possible, harking back to the days of the filmmaker’s childhood memories of large-screen epics.

True to Nolan’s style of introducing some of his films with a flashback and reference to Batman’s previous escapade, the six-minute clip opens with embattled law man Jim Gordon (Gary Oldman) speaking at a fallen city hero’s memorial. Nolan adopts his hard cut method to instantly project us to a far away, war-torn land to be confronted by a trio of captured hooded men – presumably mercenaries – bundled by special forces onto a military plane. It’s clear that one of this faceless cargo is top priority, but what happens next is straight out of any daring action film, with some courageous aerial acrobatics and mid-flight toppling of power that use the 70mm IMAX screen to its best ability.

Uncovering the mask, we get to meet Batman’s main arch nemesis in this film, Bane, a psychotic, muzzled beefcake of madman hell-bent on grabbing glory and power in Gotham. Bane’s prominent face-piece looks menacingly like something out of Predator. The trouble is if these first few minutes are anything to go by, understanding Hardy’s muffled, gravely tones as Bane are going to prove pretty tricky. Still, with a pedigree of playing psychopaths, from his Cape Wrath TV days to Bronson, steely-looking Hardy’s actions speak louder than his garbled words.

These first few minutes flew by, but Nolan certainly sets the scene for some jaw-dropping stunts in the 2012 instalment, combined with each of his tormented characters’ determination to seek their own form of justice or some sort of vengeance over a death. July 2012 never seemed so far away…

In the past few days, we’ve seen a beautiful set of posters and dozens of great images for this year’s Oscar entry from China, The Flowers of War, previously titled Nanjing Heroes and 13 Flowers of Nanjing.

The film, which is led by Christian Bale, has renowned director Zhang Yimou (Hero, House of Flying Daggers) at the helm, and we got our first look at it back in October with an incredibly powerful first trailer.

We’ve now got the first US trailer for the film to share with you, via Collider, and it is every bit as powerful as the first. A few of the shots we get in this new look are things we saw in the first trailer, but the vast majority is new here, and it all looks incredibly well done, not to mention incredibly moving.

“Internationally acclaimed filmmaker Zhang Yimou (Raise the Red Lantern, Ju Dou, Hero, House of the Flying Daggers) tells an epic story of love and sacrifice in THE FLOWERS OF WAR, starring Christian Bale and introducing Ni Ni.

The film, set during the Japanese invasion of China, is told from a young girl’s point of view, not as a history lesson, but as an intimate, elemental and paradoxically universal celebration of the human spirit.   Bale stars as a dissolute Westerner who seeks refuge in a Catholic Church.  There he meets a beautiful Chinese courtesan who helps him rescue a group of schoolgirls from a terrible fate at the hands of the Japanese.

The film represents one of China’s most ambitious productions, involving the recreation of 1937 Nanking built from scratch over a one-year period and the collaboration of one of Hollywood’s most sought after leading men (Christian Bale).”

The Flowers of War is due out on Friday in China, and will be getting an Oscar-qualifying limited release in the States before the end of the year. Still no word yet on a UK release date, but I’m hoping it won’t be long into 2012 before we get to see it in our cinemas. It looks so good. Without further ado, here’s the powerful new trailer; I dare you not to be moved by it.

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.

Following on from the three new posters we saw last night for Christian Bale’s next film, The Flowers of War, China’s anticipated entry into the Best Foreign Language Film category for the 2012 Academy Awards, we’ve now got another terrific new poster from the film and dozens of great images to share with you, courtesy of MTime, via The Playlist.

Directed by the renowned Chinese director Zhang Yimou, whose credits include Hero and House of Flying Daggers, The Flowers of War will be getting its Oscar-qualifying run in a limited release in the States at the end of the month. And this should, if my rough knowledge of the rules, mean that it will be eligible for other categories alongside the Best Foreign Language Film.

We first saw the film’s trailer back in October, and it was an absolutely powerful first trailer at that, so my expectations for the film are already set high, and I think we’ve got every reason to believe that our high expectations are going to be met and then some. Bale is a fantastic actor, and this looks like an incredibly interesting and brilliant follow-up to his Oscar-winning performance in David O. Russell’s The Fighter last year.

Previously titled Nanjing Heroes and 13 Flowers of Nanjing, the film’s synopsis, via Collider, looks a little something like this:

“In 1937, Nanking stands at the forefront of a war between China and Japan. As the invading Japanese Imperial Army overruns China’s capital city, desperate civilians seek refuge behind the nominally protective walls of a western cathedral. Here, John Miller (CHRISTIAN BALE), an American trapped amidst the chaos of battle and the ensuing occupation takes shelter, joined by a group of innocent schoolgirls and thirteen courtesans, equally determined to escape the horrors taking place outside the church walls.  Struggling to survive the violence and persecution wrought by the Japanese army, it is an act of heroism which eventually leads the seemingly disparate group to fight back, risking their lives for the sake of everyone. Through treacherous surroundings and facing unimaginable evil, THE FLOWERS OF WAR, inspired by true life events, manages to tell a genuine story of hope, love and sacrifice. With nowhere to run and nowhere to hide, fate always has a way of bringing the most unlikely heroes together.”

Still no word yet on a UK release, but I’m hoping we’ll have a bit of luck on our side and get it sometime in the new year. Maybe not before the Oscars roll around in February, but hopefully not long after that, because this looks like it’s going to be pretty damn amazing. Without further ado, here’s the striking new poster for the film, with its butterfly of blood, followed up by a selection of great images from the forthcoming film. If you’d like to see all the rest, and they’re certainly worth your time, then you can head over to MTime here. (I saved my personal favourite ’til last, so be sure to scroll all the way to the end to take a look; it’s a really beautiful image.)

After his last performance earned him a very much well-deserved and long-awaited Oscar in last year’s The Fighter, it came as a bit of a surprise to discover that Christian Bale’s follow-up film would become China’s entry into next year’s Oscars, The Flowers of War.

Previously titled Nanjing Heroes and 13 Flowers of Nanjing, The Flowers of War comes from renowned director Zhang Yimou, whose credits include Hero and House of Daggers, and whose films have twice won the coveted Golden Lion award at the Venice Film Festival.

We got the incredibly powerful first trailer for the film back in October, which is definitely worth your attention, and we’ve now got three brilliant new international posters for the film to share with you, courtesy of IMP Awards.

The film is set in 1937 during the Nanking Massacre​, in the Second Sino-Japanese War​. Based on the novel The 13 Women of Nanjing, by Geling Yan, the film is based upon the life of John Magee (Bale), an American priest who helps a group of Chinese women escape their deaths during the six weeks following the Imperial Japanese Army’s invasion of the city of Nanking. (The city itself is known both as ‘Nanking’ and ‘Nanjing’.)

The UK is yet to get a release date scheduled for the film, but it is set to be released in China on 16^th December, as well as getting an Oscar-qualifying run in the States before the end of the year, making it eligible for categories beyond the Best Foreign Language Film category too. With any luck, we’ll get to see it in our cinemas soon too, because it looks to be pretty immense. Without further ado, here are the great new photos for the film. As usual, click to enlarge. (Without meaning to belittle the image, which is brilliant, is it just me or does the third poster almost seem reminiscent of Indiana Jones?)

News first came back at the start of June that Darren Aronofsky had settled on his next film to follow up from the Oscar-winning Black Swan, and it would be a biblical epic, Noah. Swiftly after that, we heard that Christian Bale was in talks for the lead, which sounded like a brilliant match.

With no less than two Terrence Malick pictures currently in his schedule, however, Variety report that Bale has had to exit talks to star in Aronofsky’s Noah, and in his place, the excellent rising star Michael Fassbender is being eyed for the eponymous role.

No official offer has been made yet, but Fassbender is thought to have been talking with Aronofsky about the part, and his casting would be another terrific choice. He’s had such a great year this year, with leading roles in X-Men: First Class and Jane Eyre, and next year is looking even better for him, with A Dangerous Method, Steve McQueen’s anticipated Shame, Soderbergh’s Haywire, and Ridley Scott’s Prometheus all due out in the next six months.

The film is being co-financed by New Regency and Paramount, the latter of whom have worked with Aronofsky on his last three films, with Aronofsky’s budget estimated at about $130m. The original script comes from Aronofsky himself and collaborator Ari Handel, with John Logan (The Last Samurai, Gladiator) doing a rewrite.

Essentially, this is going to be awesome, with production set to begin early next year. As much as I would have loved to see Bale in the role, getting another Fassbender leading role is great in my books too, so hopefully the talks will continue to go well, and there’ll be an official offer to report on soon. 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