Like many people on this website and others, I have my ideas on how things should go down in TDKR, but I instead wanted to share how I feel 2 characters will be portrayed.
1. Bane is a tough character to crack. In the comics, he is known for being the villain who caught Batman off guard and broke his back. That automatiacally makes him very important, reguardless of how well known he is. For this movie, the character needs to not only be interesting for the plot of this film. Tom Hardy's portrayal must wipe the slate clean and erase the mindless brute version of the character that Joel Schumacher gave us in Batman and Robin. The reason why I think Bane could be tough to portray is because of how much larger than life he is. This is a character who in the comics has a tube extending from his arm( or back sometimes) feeding a drug called Venom into the back of his head. Visually, that probably wont jive with Nolan. Instead, Bane's appearance in the movie should some elements from the comics and tweak them a bit. Like a lot of people have suggested, I think Bane will somehow be linked to the league of shadows possibly in some sort of leadership role. This means that his costume could have some kind of ninja vibe going on. What I would like to see is black armor and some interpertation of the mask that he wears in the comics. As strong as Bane will be, I suspect the character might be something of physical perfectionist and in that aspect is where we will see him using Venom. I suspect that he will also be using Venom at the request of Talia Al Ghul who will have assumed the role of main leader of the group. Rather than having a tube going in to the back of his head though, I think we are more than likely to see Bane instead shooting up wih a syringe or poping a pill. As for his back story, I think he will be handled like the Joker in that his backround will be left up to our imaginations. If we do get an origin, it will be something that we are told about, and not something that we see. And I would'nt expect to see him break Batman's back in this movie because that would be too much of an injury for Batamn to come back from in one movie. I do think though that Bane will inflict some kind of injury on Batman though.
2. Catwoman is the other character who will be appearing TDKR, and I'm quite interested to see how she is played by Anne Hathaway because I don't think anyone has ever really done the character justice on film yet not even Michelle Pfeifer's portrayal directed by Tim Burton in Batman Returns. And Halle Berry's movie was just awful. Like my prediction with Bane, I do not thint that Chris Nolan will show us the character's backstory. It's a complex backstory after all with Selina Kyle being an orphan and possibly the daughter of Carmine Falcone. Frank Miller also had her as beginnings as a prostitute in Batman: Year One before she became a cat burgalr. The best way to portray her in my mind is to pull from Ed Brubaker's run on the character where she is the protector of the East End of Gotham, but will still steal when it suites her needs or she thinks it can help others. As for her look, well Darwyne Cooke did a pretty good redesign of the costume when he teamed with Brubaker to relaunch her series. The leather(other fabrics can be used as well) suit and night vision goggles will come in very handy for her activities in TDKR. I must say thhough that one aspect of Catwoman being in the film has me dismayed, and that is that she is appearing so late in the game. I can only hope that Nolan leaves some room for someone to come along and play with these characters, because Catwoman would be a fascinating character to move the series forward.
So that is how I feel these characters will be played. how their story arcs play out is anyone's guess really. Leave your thoughts below and if any of you guys find some cool renderings of how you tinks the costumes should look like, post them below as well.