In this weeks episode of The Nolan Batman Rewatch, Cory and Nathan fight the pain within as they discuss “The Dark Knight Rises.”

Trailer:

Our Favourite Trivia:

Christopher Nolan said that this film’s theme deals with “Pain”. For Batman Begins (2005), it was “Fear”, while The Dark Knight (2008) deals with “Chaos”.

According to Gary Oldman, Christopher Nolan told the actors the ending of the film verbally to avoid any leaks.

The film’s storyline has been compared with the Batman comic book series’ story arc “Knightfall” (1993), which showcased Bane; the mini-series The Dark Knight Returns (1986), in which Batman returns to Gotham City after a ten-year absence; and the story arc “No Man’s Land” (1999), which depicts a Gotham cut off from the rest of the world and overrun by gangs.

About a year before the film’s release, Christopher Nolan mentioned he was considering using a mixture of CGI and deleted scenes from The Dark Knight (2008) to have the Joker appear briefly. He ultimately decided it was disrespectful to Heath Ledger.

Out of respect for Heath Ledger, the Joker is never once mentioned for the whole film.

Following the success of the Joker in The Dark Knight, studio executives wished for the Riddler to be included as the primary villain as he was considered a similar character and encouraged the casting of Leonardo DiCaprio. However, Nolan wanted the antagonist to be vastly different from the previous incarnations and committed to using Bane instead

Tom Hardy accepted the role of Bane without reading the script. He was verbally told that he would have unprecedented access to extensive stunt training and equipment that he could enjoy knocking around.

Tom Hardy, standing at 5’9″, had to wear three-inch lifts to make his character Bane appear as tall, or taller than co-stars Christian Bale, Morgan Freeman, and Sir Michael Caine.

Tom Hardy is the second actor to play Bane in the Batman film franchises. The role was previously played by Jeep Swenson in Batman & Robin (1997).

While doing promotional interviews for the film, Tom Hardy stated that the most difficult parts of the movie to shoot were the fight scenes. Not because of the physicality of them, but because he was such a huge Batman fan growing up, that he said “it felt like I was beating up my childhood hero”. However, he also said that despite his worship of the character, the moment Christopher Nolan yelled “Action”!, Hardy just started throwing punches as hard as he could.

Anne Hathaway has said that she desperately coveted the role of Catwoman, and was a complete nervous wreck after her audition. The first time her agent phoned after her screen test, he said he had good news and asked if Hathaway was sitting down. Hathaway immediately screamed “I’m Catwoman!” and ran around the room in a frenzy. Unfortunately, her agent had to calm the actress down–he had called to let her know that she’d been invited to host the Academy Awards. Hathaway has said she was so shocked she went numb at the offer. Fortunately, shortly thereafter, her agent phoned again to let her know that she had been offered the part of Catwoman as well.

Christopher Nolan wanted Marion Cotillard so much for the role of Miranda Tate, that he modified the filming schedule to accommodate her pregnancy. When Nolan invited Cotillard for the film in 2010, she told him that she was pregnant, and didn’t know if she would be able to do it, but Nolan decided to keep her in the film. Cotillard started filming just one month after giving birth, and Nolan also made room on-set for her family. In the last months of filming, Cotillard also shot another film at the same time in France, Rust and Bone (2012). She was flying back and forth between the U.S. and France to shoot both movies. During an interview for Vogue in August 2012, Nolan marveled at Cotillard’s ability to do her job so soon after giving birth, calling it “amazing to see” and describing her as “Superwoman”.

The actual plane used in the movie by the CIA operative to transport Dr. Pavel later crashed almost a year later after the film was released. The aircraft, a Embraer EMB-110 Bandeirante registered ZS-NVB, crashed on June 29th, 2013 in Botswana. Both the pilot and co-pilot died in the crash.

On July 20, 2012, during a midnight screening in Aurora, Colorado, James Holmes entered the theater and opened fire, killing 12 people and injuring 58. He was arrested outside the theater a few minutes after the shooting, and charged with 24 counts of murder and 116 counts of attempted murder. In August 2015, Holmes was sentenced in life in prison without parole. After the incident, several cast and crew members, including Christopher Nolan, Christian Bale, Anne Hathaway, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and Gary Oldman, released statements expressing their sorrow over the attack. Their publicity appearances, including a lavish premiere in France, were canceled. Warner Brothers decided not to release opening weekend grosses until the following Monday, out of consideration for the victims. Bale visited the survivors at the hospital several days later. Composer Hans Zimmer, who found out about the shooting after a phone call, composed a choral piece, “Aurora”, which he dedicated to those who lost their lives and their loved ones.

Shortly before Christmas of 2011, Christopher Nolan invited several prominent directors, including Edgar Wright, Michael Bay, Bryan Singer, Jon Favreau, Eli Roth, Duncan Jones and Stephen Daldry, to Universal CityWalk’s IMAX theatre for a private screening of the first six minutes of The Dark Knight Rises, which had been shot on IMAX film and edited from the original camera negative. Nolan, feeling that the use of film stock in cinema is currently being phased out due to the introduction of digital cinematography and projection, used this screening to make a case for the continued use of film, which he asserts still offers superior image quality to any digital format, and warned the filmmakers that unless they continued to assert their choice to use film in their productions, they may eventually lose it as an option.

What’s Up Next?:

Our next film series rewatch is “Child’s Play”. We’ll be watching all seven films and ending with the new reboot in theatres soon!

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