The Dark Knight Rises' Images + Quotes from Christian Bale

Nothing like a little Bane, Catwoman—oh and Batman defending Gotham—to brighten this Thanksgiving weekend. Our friends at ComingSoon have posted a few higher res scans from the Empire issue focusing on The Dark Knight Rises, that last week we revealed two cover shots for, as well as some shoddy internal scans and, more importantly, exciting quotes. The newer scans of the photos from the mag are definitely worth seeing, and in addition to those, Christian Bale also spoke with Inquirer about working with both Tom Hardy as Bane and Anne Hathaway as Catwoman in the film, praising both for their acting skills.
"We always maintained from the beginning that if you wanted to break it down, there are three personas – Batman is sincere, the private Bruce Wayne is sincere. The public version of Bruce Wayne, the playboy, is a completely fabricated performance," Bale says. "I've stopped referencing outside sources. I now reference Chris' own world of Batman as a guide to what I will continue doing." That certainly makes sense, especially considering this is the completion of Nolan's Batman saga. "I believe that the whole production wrapped yesterday, so it's all done. Everything's finished. It's me and Chris – that will be the end of that Batman era."

The more interesting quotes from Bale are about his co-stars in The Dark Knight Rises, mainly actors like Anne Hathaway, Tom Hardy and even a quick bit about Joseph Gordon-Levitt, whose role in this is still unknown besides a Gotham beat cop. "I would see Joseph's performances in other films while we were filming. He's somebody who truly seems to love acting. He's a good, smart guy. He did a very good job in the movie." I'm definitely looking forward to seeing him in this, but of course everyone is much more excited for Bane, and even Catwoman who hasn't been seen much besides in that very first photo (and isn't even in any of Empire's photos). Bale spoke about working with Anne Hathaway and how talented she truly is:

"I had plenty of scenes with Anne," Christian began. "And I was there when we did the screen test for her. The thing that I said to Chris [Nolan] that day was that there were many very accomplished actresses who had read for the role. I'm terrible at auditions, so I'm very impressed when somebody really seems to acquire an ownership of a character without having worked on it or prepared for some amount of time."
"I saw that in Anne," he added. "When Chris watched the screen test, he agreed that Anne did a wonderful job. In many ways, she has the hardest job. There are a number of people who feel that the Catwoman role has been defined previously. So, I always saw Anne's role as being the toughest job of any of us."

Very interesting to hear, especially considering none of us actually know what he's talking about because we haven't seen much besides a few photos of Hathaway in a tight leather outfit with some dark glasses. That said, I'm expecting to be as impressed with her performance as I was with everyone in The Dark Knight, even Heath Ledger. The same goes for Tom Hardy, who is the last one that Bale has glowing things to say.

In the original quotes from Empire, Nolan commented about Bane: "He's brutal. Brutal. He's a big dude who's incredibly clinical, in the fact that he has a result-based and oriented fighting style. It's not about fighting. It's about carnage. The style is heavy-handed, heavy-footed, it's nasty." In the Inquirer update, Bale says what we all already know, calling Tom Hardy "a phenomenal actor. I like working with him a great deal. He goes the whole hog. I know that Bane has been seen in movies before. But, in my eyes, Tom is essentially creating Bane for the first time so there's great freedom for him to be able to do so." Wow I guess I didn't think about it, but he's right, Bane was indeed in Joel Schumacher's travesty Batman & Robin.

That's all the updates we have for now, along with that final badass Bane photo above, but it's always great to hear some quotes and see more official photos. By the end of the year we'll have the second official trailer as well as the IMAX prologue to watch, and I'm sure additional posters and more photos. We'll keep you updated, as always, as The Dark Knight Rises is unquestionably one of our most anticipated in 2012. Directed by Christopher Nolan from a story by David S. Goyer & Nolan, and screenplay by Jonathan Nolan & Christopher Nolan, Warner Bros has TDKR set for IMAX release starting on July 20th, 2012 next summer.