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Geek News: Villains Cast for The Dark Knight Rises

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The third and apparently final Batman film to be directed by Christopher Nolan, The Dark Knight Rises, has been the subject of casting rumors for years now, but only this week did we start to get news that was actually true. A press release this week announced the casting of two well-known actors as villains in the upcoming film. Anne Hathaway will play Catwoman and Tom Hardy will play Bane. The overall storyline of the film is unknown, but at least the rampant speculation will now have some additional fodder.

Ms. Hathaway takes on the role of Selina Kyle/Catwoman, a character first introduced in the comics way back in 1940. Most versions have her as as a thief, often as a sort of femme fatale. She has in fact become one of Batman’s most well-known love interests over the years, and in modern comics is often seen as more of an antihero than an out-and-out villain. She has figured in most media adaptations of Batman over the years and has been played in various media by Julie Newmar, Lee Meriwether, Eartha Kitt and Michelle Pfieffer. Halle Berry also portrayed a version of the character (basically only the name was kept) in a disaster of a stand alone movie in 2004. Nolan has a history of using well-known characters in a somewhat different form, so it remains to be seen if this portrayal will include all or indeed any of the well-known Catwoman plot points.

Bane

One of the most famous panels of 1990s comics features Bane breaking Batman's back. Tom Hardy will portray the character in the upcoming "The Dark Knight Rises"

Anne Hathaway began her career as the teenage star of various family films such as The Princess Diaries and Ella Enchanted. However, she later took on a series of more serious roles in an attempt to break out of that box, and in 2008 was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress for Rachel Getting Married. More recently, she was nominated this year for Best Actress at the Golden Globes for her role in Love and Other Drugs.

Somewhat more “out there” is the casting of Tom Hardy as Bane, a character not introduced in the comics until 1993. Bane is portrayed in the comics as a large, muscle-bound man whose costume includes a wrestling mask. He uses a serum to give himself enhanced physical abilities. While a brutish version of the character appeared in Joel Schumacher’s Batman & Robin, in the comic books he is very intelligent. His best known comics storyline was the “Knightfall” arc, in which, in an attempt to gain control over Gotham City’s criminal underworld, he deduces Batman’s identity as Bruce Wayne and breaks Wayne’s back (he eventually got better). Because of this story Bane is sometimes known as “The Man Who Broke the Bat”. He has been less used in recent comics, possibly because he seems like such a product of the Nineties.

Tom Hardy is an English actor who has had a long and varied career over the past decade, first gaining international exposure portraying Shinzon, the main villain of Star Trek: Nemesis. He gained a great deal of critical acclaim for his portrayal of a real-life musclebound serial killer in 2009’s Bronson. He is just coming off a successful collaboration with Christopher Nolan in Inception, and has had several big casting announcements as of late, among them taking over the Mel Gibson role in an upcoming Mad Max sequel.

I have been saying (0nly half-seriously) ever since Batman Begins that I wanted to see the Christopher Nolan version of Catwoman, and now it looks like I’m only going to get my wish. While some might tend to see Hathaway as a tilting a little young for the part, I have been impressed with her acting abilities in other roles and when I heard the announcement I could somehow picture her in the part right away. Hardy and Bane are lesser known quantities, but if Nolan uses some version of the character from the comics (as opposed to the ghastliness of Batman & Robin), it could lead to some interesting new challenges for his Batman. For those wishing to check out the current comics version of the character, he’s co-starring in Gail Simone’s Secret Six at the moment.

So, time for speculation. Will we see some version of the “Knightfall” storyline? Will Selina Kyle be a new love interest for Bruce Wayne? And what do you think of these casting choices? Let us know in the comments.


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