During filming of
The Dark Knight Rises last year, a mysterious new vehicle was spotted on set, and while we've since had a decent look at it in action in the trailers and TV spots, we've never heard any concrete details as such. Until now that is.
"It is called The Bat," the director tells
Empire Magazine in the latest issue.
"I spent a long time trying to figure out clever names for 'bat-something-that-would-fly', then you go: 'Oh, it's a bat.' It's very much based on a doubt-bladed helicopter idea, once again a realistic approach to military hardware. We had Corbould and his guys build it full scale and come up with this great driving rig for it so we could photograph it in real streets, and there's a big computer graphics component to it as well. It's fun to take Batman to the next level in terms of his transportation and weaponry - in terms of his ability to fight people."
Up until the release of
Marvel's The Avengers earlier this month,
The Dark Knight was the most financially successful comic book movie all time and still holds the honour of being the most critically acclaimed according to review aggregator
Rotten Tomatoes. However, the release of the film in 2008 was marred by tragedy following the shocking death of Heath Ledger several months before it came out. While some fans were hoping another actor would be cast as The Joker or that there would be at least some sort of reference to his fate, Nolan is understandably adamant that there will be no mention of him in the threequel.
"We're not addressing The Joker at all. That is something I felt very strongly about in terms of my relationship with Heath and the experience I went through with him on The Dark Knight. I didn't want to in any way try and account for a real-life tragedy. That seemed inappropriate to me. We just have a new set of characters and a continuation of Bruce Wayne's story. Not involving The Joker." Sound off with your thoughts on these comments in the usual place.
STARRING:
Christian Bale as Bruce Wayne/Batman
Michael Caine as Alfred
Gary Oldman as Commissioner Jim Gordon
Morgan Freeman as Lucius Fox
Tom Hardy as Bane
Anne Hathaway as Selina Kyle/Catwoman
Joseph Gordon-Levitt as John Blake
Marion Cotillard as Miranda Tate
Josh Pence as Ra's Al Ghul
RELEASE DATE: July 20th, 2012