Corona | Coming Attractions

Sources inform the news website Collider that Eva Green (Casino Royale) and Naomi Watts (Fair Game) have been cast in the sequel. That's not a maybe, but a definate that Collider's mole is telling them. The spy goes on to say that, while they don't know for sure what the two actresses' characters are, they believe Green to be playing the daughter of Ra's al Ghul, Talia, and Watts to be photojournalist Vicki Vale.

The site also reports, via a different source, that a new Batmobile and new look for the Batcave will be revealed in Rises. That seems like a no brainer since the cave got wrecked in Batman Begins and the Tumbler bought the farm in Dark Knight.

But according to The Hollywood Reporter, Collider's casting rumors are incorrect. The trade states five actresses have, or will shortly, test for parts in the movie. These ladies are Keira Knightley (Pirates of the Caribbean), Anne Hathaway (Love and Other Drugs), Jessica Biel (Blade: Trinity), Kate Mara (127 Hours) and Charlotte Riley (DCI Banks: Aftermath). Borys Kit, the reporter for the Batman piece, then shoots down Collider's casting rumors by stating that no casting has been done yet and Green and Watts are not locked for roles in the movie. Kit does add that he's also heard that there are two female roles in The Dark Knight Rises, and one is Talia al Ghul.

Last but not least there's the photo of a shaved Tom Hardy that's caused more fan speculation to erupt. Hardy was spotted by paparazzi with a clean-shaven head and the start of a beard growing. Naturally, that photo ignited talk that Hardy could be preparing for the part of Hugo Strange, the bald and bearded antagonist that's rumored to be a villain in the movie.

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Batman on Film, the leading Batman movie news and rumors website online, reports that they know through a source that Tom Hardy will not be playing Hugo Strange in the film. The site hopes to find out the identity of Hardy's character shortly into the beginning of 2011.

A Batman fan website is spreading a rumor that Tom Hardy is playing the character of Dr. Hugo Strange in The Dark Knight Rises. According to the site in question, this news comes from a source that they believe has access to insider news about the production.

Strange is another member of Batman's rogues gallery whose modus operanti fits within the hard noir believability of Christopher Nolan's Batman film universe. [Full story]

Christopher Nolan is rumored to have met with at least six actresses, to be considered for two different female roles in The Dark Knight Rises. Deadline states that the parts are for a new love interest for Bruce Wayne and the other is a villainess.

The list of actresses that have allegedly met Nolan include Rachel Weisz, Naomi Watts, Blake Lively, Natalie Portman, Anne Hathaway and Keira Knightley.

The next Batman movie now has a title: The Dark Knight Rises. Director Christopher Nolan revealed the name during an interview with Hero Complex and also added another answer to a highly debated question: who the villain of the three-quel will be.

Ending a whole internet full of debate, Nolan said that it won't be The Riddler.

"We'll use many of the same characters as we have all along, and we'll be introducing some new ones," was just about anything else Nolan would say about which characters will appear in his next film.

If this one is legit then he'll be the first new actor added to Nolan's Batman ensemble for the third picture. He's Tom Hardy, one of the stars seen in Inception, and he was supposed to be busy next year playing the new Mad Max in Fury Road. Now that George Miller's sequel has hit a year-long delay Hardy's schedule has opened up -- and that's enough for Nolan to cast him in the third Bats film.

What role Hardy could be playing is anyone's guess, but wouldn't it be interesting if he's to play one of Batman's rogues gallery of bad guys?

There now exists the possibility that you may be watching the next Batman movie in IMAX -- for the film's complete running time. "I can't say until I read the script, but it would certainly be my preferred, amazing goal to shoot the whole movie in IMAX," The Dark Knight cinematographer Wally Pfister told MTV. "I must say I'm a huge IMAX fan. I like IMAX more than I like 3-D," Pfister continued. "Chris' films are so densely layered and have so much going on visually in every way that IMAX helps enhance that because of the scope and the scale of it — it becomes a much larger canvas to paint on. That's what we found on Dark Knight."

Pfister also admitted that he wasn't "a big fan of 3-D. I liken it to my View-Master I had 40 years ago. Are you really getting more out of the story with 3-D? When you separate those different planes and you're creating artificial depth, it looks phony to me."

Do we have a date? While walking the red carpert at the London premiere of Inception, Michael Caine was stopped by Digital Spy and asked if he knew anything about when the next Batman movie will roll. Caine remarked that the plan is for filming to begin in April 2011.

Speaking exclusively with Empire magazine, Batman director Christopher Nolan finally gives the world an update on where the sequel to The Dark Knight is right now, and his involvement with it.

"My brother is working on the screenplay. We came up with a story that we are very excited about," said the filmmaker. "We particularly like where we are taking the characters and what the ending is... There are things for me to be very excited about in addressing the characters again. But ultimately it always comes down to the script, and can we make a great film from this? That's something I will firmly be turning my attention to figuring out fairly soon." Nolan also went on to hint that his third Batman film will be an ending of sorts, "the finishing of a story rather than infinitely blowing up the balloon and expanding the story."

The mag also asked if The Joker would be returning in the new Batman movie, which would mean recasting the role in the wake of Heath Ledger's passing. "No," said Nolan, "I just don't feel comfortable about it."

He also hasn't officially signed on to create the next movie either, refusing to commit to Batman 3 until his duties finishing Inception are complete. "There is a point where you're just being precious about it and people get annoyed, but the God's honest truth is I work on one movie at a time. I'm only capable of doing that, so my head will continue to be firmly in [Inception] for another few months.

An official release date for the next Batman movie has finally been confirmed by the studio, and it's July 20, 2012. That will make it four years and two days since the theatrical release of The Dark Knight.

The IMAX Corporation have reaffirmed its commitment to release up to 20 new Warner Bros. films over the next three years. One of the films announced is the still untitled sequel to The Dark Knight. [Full story]

Wally Pfister is a longtime collaborator with Christopher Nolan, serving as the director of photography on nearly all of his films. When Pfister went to Dallas to receive the Star Award from the city's film society, Cinematical interviewed him and asked if the stereoscopic 3D fad that has seemingly enveloped Hollywood is in the future for him. While Pfister shot the bank heist scene for The Dark Knight using IMAX cameras, he doesn't see too much of an appeal to film the next Batman movie using 3D.

"I did [IMAX] for one shot of The Dark Knight because he said, you have to say you did it, and literally I had this strapped to my shoulder and I was carrying it," Pfister said to the site. "But I think Chris is game for doing something interesting like that, Lord knows that the 3-D fad might pass by the time that summer comes around."

A rumor floated by Ain't It Cool News suggests that The Powers That Be are considering whether to film the next Batman movie completely in the IMAX format. As you may know, a small number of scenes in The Dark Knight were filmed in IMAX by Christopher Nolan and shown in this format in the corresponding theaters. The cost of filming a whole movie using IMAX has been cost prohibitive and time consuming so the major studios haven't taken a gamble yet on such an endeavor, but would a sequel to the second-highest grossing film of all time be tempting enough to entice them? It should be noted that the site stresses that this rumor comes from a source that isn't known and could very well be false.

From Screencrave's YouTube channel comes the video showing Gary Oldman at yesterday's Book of Eli panel saying what he said about when fans can expect the next Batman movie:

During the Warner Bros. panel promoting his upcoming movie The Book of Eli held this morning at Comic-Con 2009, cast member Gary Oldman told the crowd that the next Batman movie would begin filming next year. Needless to say, Oldman's comment just set the Twitterverse on fire as everyone that heard his words repeated them across blogs, websites and IMs around the globe. The question to ask now is, does Oldman know something we don't about the Batman movie plan or is he going on rumor? Remember, there's been no official news about when the next Batman movie will be in production from Warner Bros., Legendary Pictures or anyone in Christopher Nolan's creative camp so far.