The Dark Knight Rises - BACKGROUNDER

The Dark Knight Rises
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The Dark Knight Rises is the title planned for a yet to be produced American superhero film under the development of Christopher Nolan, David S. Goyer, and Jonathan Nolan.Based on the DC Comics character Batman, the film will be the third and final installment in Nolan's Batman film series. The film is scheduled for release in the United States and Canada on July 20, 2012 by Warner Bros.

Development
Warner Bros. president of production Jeff Robinov had hoped a third film would be released in 2011 or 2012.Nolan wanted the story for the third installment to keep him emotionally invested. "On a more superficial level, I have to ask the question," he reasoned, "how many good third movies in a franchise can people name?"He returned out of finding a necessary way to continue the story, but feared midway through filming he would find a sequel redundant. By December 2008, Nolan completed a rough story outline, before he committed himself to Inception. Later in December, Alan F. Horn confirmed that while discussions with Nolan about a third film were ongoing, no casting had been done, and Horn denied all such rumors.

Before Nolan confirmed his involvement, Gary Oldman had said he was confident Nolan would return.Nolan explained that as long as he is directing, Robin will not be appearing in the franchise because Christian Bale is still portraying a "young Batman," which meant "Robin's not for a few films."In addition, Nolan considers the Penguin difficult to portray on film, explaining, "There are certain characters that are easier to mesh with the more real take on Batman we're doing. The Penguin would be tricky."

Oldman, while taking questions from an audience at the 2009 San Diego Comic Con, was asked about a third film, to which he replied, "We start shooting next year. You didn't hear that from me." He subsequently clarified his comment, saying, "... well, I'm sure they want to do another one... it might [be] 2 or 3 years."However, in 2009, Michael Caine had told MTV News that the film was not being worked on and he did not know any details.On February 9, 2010, it was announced that Nolan has "cracked" the story of a sequel to The Dark Knight and has committed to return to that project.In February 2010, work on the screenplay was commencing with David S. Goyer and Jonathan Nolan.

Pre-production
When Goyer left to work on The Man of Steel, Jonathan was writing the script based on the story by his brother and Goyer.On March 10, 2010, Nolan confirmed his involvement in the project and said it will be his last Batman movie and a conclusion to the story: "Without getting into specifics, the key thing that makes the third film a great possibility for us is that we want to finish our story. And in viewing it as the finishing of a story rather than infinitely blowing up the balloon and expanding the story... I'm very excited about the end of the film, the conclusion, and what we’ve done with the characters. My brother has come up with some pretty exciting stuff. Unlike the comics, these things don’t go on forever in film and viewing it as a story with an end is useful. Viewing it as an ending, that sets you very much on the right track about the appropriate conclusion and the essence of what tale we're telling. And it hearkens back to that priority of trying to find the reality in these fantastic stories." Nolan confirmed his brother Jonathan is writing the script and that the villain of the film "won't be Mr. Freeze"and "won't be the Riddler."

In April 2010, Warner Bros. announced the film is scheduled to be released July 20, 2012.Nolan said on June 30, 2010 that Jonathan Nolan's script was finished.Nolan confirmed in September 2010 that he will be directing the film, and that he was then polishing his brother's screenplay,which he expected to have finished in January 2011.On October 27, 2010, Nolan confirmed that the title of the film will be The Dark Knight Rises.He confirmed the Joker will not return in the third film, and dismissed rumors that he considered using unused footage of Heath Ledger from The Dark Knight.

Planned cast

Bale said he would return if Nolan did. Aaron Eckhart had expressed his enthusiasm to return for a sequel if asked, although he later stated Nolan verified that his character, Harvey Dent, is dead.Nolan confirmed that the ensemble cast from the first two films will be returning.Tom Hardy and Anne Hathaway have been cast as Bane and Selina Kyle.Juno Temple has been cast in a role described as a "street-smart Gotham girl".Josh Pence was cast as a young Ra's al Ghul, with his scenes to take place thirty years before the events of Batman Begins.Nestor Carbonell is in negotiations to reprise his role as Mayor Anthony Garcia.Joseph Gordon-Levitt has been cast as John Blake, "a Gotham City beat cop," along with Marion Cotillard, who will be portraying Miranda Tate, "a board member at Wayne Enterprises who is allied with Bruce Wayne."

Filming

Filming is scheduled to begin in May 2011 and conclude in November,[19] spending four to six weeks in Pittsburgh.Nolan has chosen not to film in 3-D but, by focusing on improving image quality and scale using the IMAX format, hopes to push technological boundaries while nevertheless making the style of the film consistent with the previous two.Nolan has had several meetings with IMAX Vice-President David Keighley to work on the logistics of projecting films in digital IMAX venues.The Dark Knight Rises will feature more scenes shot in IMAX than The Dark Knight.Cinematographer Wally Pfister had expressed interest in shooting the film entirely in IMAX, but because of the considerable noise made by IMAX cameras, 70mm cameras may have to be used for shooting the film's dialogue scenes.