THE DARK KNIGHT RISES (Interview - Producer & Director)

• THE DARK KNIGHT RISES

After a screening The Dark Knight Rises prologue footage,Chrostopher Nolan and Emma Thoms (Producer), spoke to IGN about the upcomingfilm and shared a few details about it, here is what they had to say:

IGN: Did youalways want to introduce Bane sort of physically in the middle of an actionsequence? I would imagine the first thought would be, "We'll introduce himin prison because that's what people associate him with." Can you talkabout the genesis of how you wanted to introduce this character?

Christopher Nolan:Well, when you're thinking about opening a film you want to lead in a strikingway and with a very striking number of character-driven views. So you'relooking for a sequence that showcases this -- in the case of Bane -- hisphysicality and his aggression and devotion to his prize and this kind ofthing. Those are all things that get wrapped up in there.

IGN: We know youselected Bane as the villain of this film because you wanted him to be aphysical challenge for Batman. But he's a character that, frankly, I didn'treally read up on until I heard that he was going to be in the movie. I knewthat he was the guy who broke Batman's back, and that's kind of all I knewabout him. But the more I read about him, the more I became kind of fascinatedby him, that this is a guy who was raised in prison and all that. How much ofthat backstory, the elements that made him who he was, do you retain in thefilm? And if you don't, were you worried at all that that would be like gettingrid of Bruce Wayne seeing his parents shot, that impetus for why he is who heis?

Bane Vs Batman

Nolan: Well, theliberating thing about dealing with a lesser known villain is you feel morecreative freedom to embrace the elements of that character you feel can serveyour story and ignore those that won't. But at the same time, we chose Banebecause he has some very unique elements to who he is. As far as the emphasisto it in the film, I'm actually editing some right now, so you never quite knowuntil it's done. But we certainly intend to do justice to it, to the characterI've written and to the comics. And I think the significance of Bane, in oureyes, is his strength as an antagonist to Batman. Everything must serve that,including the nature of his past and how that will play into the story.

IGN: Gary Oldmansaid the other day something about the Harvey Dent Act. Is there a "HarveyDent Act," an actual piece of legislation, and what can you tell us aboutsort of the shape that Gotham is in when we pick up the story eight yearslater?

Nolan: Well,that's funny, I didn't read that. But there is a piece of legislation, and weare dealing with a Gotham that's moved on. In the last eight years, it has cometo revere Harvey Dent in the way that Batman intended at the end of the lastfilm.

IGN: In DarkKnight, Gordon and Batman make this spur-of-the-moment pact to lie and sayabout Dent, "He wasn't that guy (Two-Face)." Will we see therepercussion of that pact play out in this film?

Nolan: (smiles) Idon't think I want to answer that question.

And that was the end of the interview with Nolan, beforethey turned their attention to Emma Thomas.

IGN: Can you talkabout the idea to start with Bane already being Bane. We don't know how he gotthere, but --

Emma Thomas: AndI think in some ways it's kind of fun. In The Dark Knight we did the same thingwhen we introduced the Joker, and he was in mid-heist. And it very much, if youremember, it very much gave you the sense of who the Joker was. And I think thesame thing goes for this prologue. Bane is already doing his thing, and you cansee that he's a brute. He's a smart brute, but some things -- there's a realgrandeur.

Anne Hathaway as Catwoman

IGN: I know youguys have worked with Tom on Inception so were you already thinking about DarkKnight Rises and Bane when you were doing Inception? Were you looking at Tomlike, "Oh yeah. That's our guy." At what point in the process did yousay, "Tom should be Bane"?

Thomas: Wealready knew that Bane was the villain when we were shooting Inception. Andactually as we were shooting, we did talk about how, wow, Tom would be perfectfor Bane. We talked about that pretty early on. The issue that we had was thatTom was going to be doing another movie. He was committed to be in Fury Road,and we knew he wasn't available. So every conversation that we had about howTom was perfect to be Bane was sort of tinged with regret because we knew hecouldn't be. So as soon as we found out that that movie had pushed weapproached him.

IGN: We saw alittle bit of the sizzle reel there at the end of the prologue. Are thosehighlights from the upcoming trailer, or is that just stuff that only peopleare going to see if they come to this IMAX prologue?

 

Thomas: I'mtrying to think. We have a great trailer coming out, and there are a couple ofthings in the prologue that are in the trailer. But there's a lot of thetrailer that isn't in the prologue.

IGN: At whatpoint did you realize that you also wanted Catwoman to be in it? And were thereany villains that you guys considered and cast aside? There was alwaysspeculation about Riddler.

Thomas: That'sreally a question for Chris in terms of who they thought of and tossed aside.In terms of the way the process works, even before went to start Inception,Chris and David Goyer had sat down and mapped out what the plot for what thestory of this movie was going to be. And while we were shooting Inception,Jonah [Nolan], Chris's brother, was writing the script. So while we wereshooting Inception, we knew exactly who the characters were. As for how theycame up with who those characters were, that's a question for them.