Done

Just in case it wasn't obvious from the lack of updates, I'm done here. All the Dark Knight Rises news is too filled with spoilers for me to keep up with. Thanks for reading, and here's hoping we can all stand the wait until July of 2012.

Official Website Live

The official website for The Dark Knight Rises is now live. Internet detectives put together clues (io9 explains how, vaguely) to get the above picture, which seems to be Tom Hardy as Bane (and I like it).

Also, principal photography has officially started, so there's that too.

Only 14 months to go!

Evil Scientist

Alon Aboutboul will be playing an "Evil Scientist" in The Dark Knight Rises. This has people speculating it might be Hugo Strange, but there's no real reason to assume that.

You may have also seen some other news about a picture from the set in India that seems to reveal some plot details, but I'm not going to post that, since it's too much of a potential spoiler. In fact, I'm pretty close to checking out of posting entirely, since until the trailer, there won't be much worth posting that isn't a spoiler.

News & Notes

Here are some odds and ends that didn't seem important enough to post on their own:

• Above is the first picture of Tom Hardy on set. I'm sure it will be a while before we see his Bane costume.
• Add India to the list of filming locations.
• Joseph Gordon-Levitt is playing a character named John Blake, who I, and most people, had never heard of. But it turns out there is a John Blake from the comics. He's not exactly a major character, but hey, it's something.
• Batman: Year One is coming soon as a direct-to-disc animated film, with Bryan Cranston, Katee Sackhoff, Eliza Dushku and more contributing voices.
• After Year One, The Dark Knight Returns will be adapted next. Hopefully it will be as cool as this scene from the 1990s animated series.
• And a fan-made trailer combining footage from the Batman movies, Inception, The Machinist, and I think there was an American Psycho shot in there, produces something different and cool. It probably has spoilers for The Machinist, so I'd avoid it if you intend to see that (super skinny Christian Bale is impressive but unsettling). Anyway, here it is.

The Entire Cast of Inception, Eventually

The casting of Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Marion Cotillard in The Dark Knight Rises was made official, with the roles announced as names we've never seen before:

Cotillard will appear as Miranda Tate, a Wayne Enterprises board member eager to help a still-grieving Bruce Wayne resume his father’s philanthropic endeavors for Gotham. Gordon-Levitt will play John Blake, a Gotham City beat cop assigned to special duty under the command of Commissioner Gordon.

But remember that going into Batman Begins, we all thought Ken Watanabe was playing Ra's al Ghul and Liam Neeson was Henri Ducard, so the door is still open for Black Mask or Talia al Ghul.

The Cast Grows Larger

Variety is reporting three new additions to the Dark Knight Rises cast: Daniel Sunjata (pictured) best known for Rescue Me, Diego Klattenoff best known from the short-lived NBC series Mercy, and Burn Gorman from Torchwood. Read Variety's article if you're interested in incredibly vague descriptions of who the cops might be, but there's not much there.

Young Ra's al Ghul

The Hollywood Reporter has a story that this guy, Josh Pence, has been cast in The Dark Knight Rises as a young Ra's al Ghul. This has lead them to speculate that Marion Cotillard's role in the movie will be Talia al Ghul, which would make a lot of sense (but at the time of posting, THR doesn't have Talia's name spelled right (Thalia), so that kinda makes me want to not trust them).

In site-related news, don't expect a giant Ra's al Ghul post like I had for Bane and Catwoman, because hopefully you are already familiar with Ra's from Batman Begins. I will probably do one for Talia if this rumor is confirmed.