The extraordinary director behind the Bat’s blockbuster comeback tour has revealed, via a Warner Bros. press release, that Catwoman will be one of the new faces showing up in troublesome Gotham City. It was also reveaedl that Princess Diaries sweetheart, Anne Hathaway, will be sporting the leather suit as she takes Batman’s place during a temporary absence. It’ll be nice to see Hathaway venturing into something different, but it also gives way to risk that people will find it difficult to believe that she is a legitimate cog in Nolan’s dark on-screen world. To top it off, charismatic Tom Hardy has been confirmed to play Bane. We already knew of Hardy’s involvement, and he’s swiftly working his way up Nolan’s Christmas card list, but is Bane the way to go? There was speculation he had been cast as Hugo Strange, a character which would seem right at home in the gritty streets of Gotham, and it is easy to see Hardy stepping into Strange’s shoes. Bane, on the other hand, is slightly less believable and although the characters have been extravagant they didn’t involve being pumped full of a ‘venom’ that turns them into a brutish combo of Arnie and Hurley from Lost. There has been no word of how closely Hardy’s Bane will translate to that depicted in the comics, but at this point (2 Bats in and one of the biggest films of 2010) I think it’s safe to say Nolan knows what he’s doing. Then again, we thought that about George Lucas and Steven Spielberg and then they went and put a massive spaceship in Indiana Jones, so it just goes to show how even the most seasoned professionals can kill a good thing. Personally, I think that Tom Hardy is a fantastic actor, his performances in both Bronson and Inception encapsulated the character and made them, not just appealing, but thoroughly entertaining to watch. If anyone can handle Bane it’s Mr Hardy, and if anyone can do it right, it’s Mr Nolan. The Dark Knight Rising info is few and fat between, but needless to say, every trickle of this nerd fuel only excites me more for the 2012 release.
