"Catwoman is a very iconic figure in the Batman pantheon," Christopher Nolan tells
Empire Magazine, while also confirming that she isn't once referred to by that name in the script. Remain calm though fanboys, because it sounds as if Nolan has a very good grasp on what makes the femme fatale tick.
"I was nervous about how she would fit into our world. But Jonah was very much convinced that there would be a great way to do it and eventually turned me around. Once I got my head around the idea of looking at that character through the prism of our films, saying, 'Who could that person be in real-life?' we figured it out. She's a bit of a con-woman, something of a grifter. A hard-edged kind of criminal."
As Christopher mentions above, it was Jonathan Nolan (who worked on the screenplay alongside his brother and David Goyer) who pushed to include Catwoman in the film, and this is what he had to say about her importance and involvement in the finale.
"Chris often comes from a position of, 'Why should we do this?' You know, presumed guilty. But I said, 'What we're endeavouring to do here is tell a complete take on the Batman mythos'. And a complete take of the Batman mythos without the character for me was sacrilegious. You've gotta gave her, because she has a delicious greyness to her that helps define who Batman is. She keeps wavering on this line of, 'Is she a good guy or a bad guy?' Well, she's kind of neither. And that's why, to me, that relationship and that character only enhances the universe - and the Batman character."
"It's Zack's movie so it'd be a bit rude of me to turn up and say I've got a few ideas now," laughs the director when talk turned to his involvement with
Man of Steel.
"My big point of responsibility was helping shepard David's script. When I'm finished with this I'll be there for whatever Zack wants from me, but it's very much his movie." As for his time working with the Caped Crusader, he adds,
"It's an incredibly fun arena to work in and incredibly rewarding, so I will look back on it very fondly. But I'm done with it." Be sure to pick up the latest issue of
Empire Magazine to read much more from those working on
The Dark Knight Rises.
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