THE DARK KNIGHT RISES (Empire Exclusive)

• EMPIRE HAS THE EXCLUSIVE ON THE DARK KNIGHT RISES

Empire Subscribers BANE cover

The new issue of Empire magazine has been sent tosubscribers and it gives fans something to get excited for as subscribers willget an exclusive BANE magazine cover.

In the article, Nolan reveals that the story picks up eightyears after The Dark Knight. "It's really all about finishing Batman andBruce Wayne's story. We left him in a very precarious place. Perhapssurprisingly for some people, our story picks up quite a bit later, eight yearsafter 'The Dark Knight.' So he's an older Bruce Wayne; he's not in a greatstate. With Bane, we're looking to give Batman a challenge he hasn't hadbefore. With our choice of villain and with our choice of story we're testingBatman both physically as well as mentally."

Bane

Tom Hardy said that Bane is "brutal. He's a big dudewho's incredibly clinical, in the fact that he has a result-based and orientedfighting style. It's not about fighting. It's about carnage. The style isheavy-handed, heavy-footed, it's nasty. Anything from small-joint manipulationto crushing skulls, crushing rib cages, stamping on shins and knees and necksand collarbones and snapping heads off and tearing his fists through chests,ripping out spinal columns. He is a terrorist in mentality as well as brutalaction."

Costume designer Lindy Hemming also talked about Bane's maskin the film. "He was injured early in his story. He's suffering from painand needs gas to survive. He can't survive the pain without the mask. The pipesfrom the mask go back along his jawline and feed into the thing at his back,where there are two cannisters."

Christian Bale spoke to AceShowbiz, about his character:"How long will you let the pain and loss define your life? Walking aroundchasing bad guys is very heroic and attracts attention, but at the end it allaccounts for, as a means to deal with the pain of a huge loss."

Batman is Leaving us

Bale added, "It's time for Bruce Wayne to face thepain, that has always stirred his life."

The actor already sounds a bit nostalgic about hanging upthe cowl, saying, "It's like saying goodbye to an old friend."

So this is definitely the last Batman film and with thathuge gap in the story, this just might lead in to a Comic Book tie-in, thatexpands on these 8 lost years to us fans. That’s just us hoping…