The Dark Knight Rises: New Images & More Story Details

Over the weekend Empire Magazine released two covers of there upcoming issue, the covers feature Batman and Bane. Today we have some more images from Empire. They also had an opportunity to interview Nolan and some of the cast. The interview reveals a lot about what type of Batman film we can expect. Check out the images and some of the excerpt from the interview below.

It's really all about finishing Batman and Bruce Wayne's story. We left him in a very precarious place. Perhaps surprisingly for some people, our story picks up quite a bit later, eight years after 'The Dark Knight.' So he's an older Bruce Wayne; he's not in a great state. With Bane, we're looking to give Batman a challenge he hasn't had before. With our choice of villain and with our choice of story we're testing Batman both physically as well as mentally.

Tom Hardy talking about Bane:

...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. Anything from small-joint manipulation to crushing skulls, crushing rib cages, stamping on shins and knees and necks and collarbones and snapping heads off and tearing his fists through chests, ripping out spinal columns. He is a terrorist in mentality as well as brutal action.

 Costume designer Lindy Hemming on Banes mask design:

He was injured early in his story. He's suffering from pain and needs gas to survive. He can't survive the pain without the mask. The pipes from the mask go back along his jawline and feed into the thing at his back, where there are two cannisters.

Nolan on the Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol prologue:

...is basically the first six, seven minutes of the film. It's an introduction to Bane, and a taste of the rest of the film.

   

Project X Gets A Movie Poster

The first movie poster for the Todd Phillips (Old School, The Hangover) produced, found footage style R rated comedy is now online. 

Here is the films synopsis:

3 high school seniors throw a birthday party to make a name for themselves. As the night progresses, things spiral out of control as word of the party spreads.

Daniel Radcliffe in Trailer 'The Woman in Black

"If we open the door to superstition, where does that lead?" Now that everyone has the final installment of the Harry Potter franchise on Blu-Ray and DVD, it's officially time to allow The Boy Who Lived himself, Daniel Radcliffe, move on to new horizons. His first endeavor to follow the fantasy franchise is taking him to a dark place in the form of James Watkins' horror The Woman in Black. While the February release and PG-13 rating aren't thrilling elements of the film's release, this new trailer continues to make the film look pretty creepy, and Hammer Films came through with Let Me In, so I'll give it a chance. Watch below!

Here's the new trailer for The Woman in Black starring Daniel Radcliffe:

A young lawyer (Daniel Radcliffe) travels to a remote village to organize a recently deceased client's papers, where he uncovers tragic secrets and encounters the ghost of a scorned woman set on vengeance.
The Woman In Black is directed by British filmmaker James Watkins, of the horror Eden Lake previously. The screenplay was written by Jane Goldman, of Stardust, Kick-Ass, The Debt, X-Men: First Class, adapted from Susan Hill's classic novel, published in 1983. CBS Films will be distributing The Woman In Black in the US, and has already set a February 3rd, 2012 release date early next year. Visit their official website.

Jeremy Renner Reveals Brief Details on 'The Bourne Legacy' Spin-Off

Though it isn't exactly a hard mystery to figure out, plenty have been wondering just how Universal's franchise spin-off The Bourne Legacy would tie-in to the original franchise starring Matt Damon. Well, Empire recently sat down with the film's star Jeremy Renner and asked him to clear things up, and while he doesn't give away too much, he does reveal the key bit of information that should quell anyone's fears about Damon being replaced in the series.  Renner says, "My character is called Aaron Cross, but he ends up having a bunch of different names" Basically, Renner is taking on a new character in the same universe."

Renner continued, "For fans of the franchise, [The Bourne Legacy] has that same ticking clock, but it's a new program and new characters. It's that same deal, it's just a new set of agents with a different leash. It's the same tempo and pace but more expansive and bigger. The differences are pretty vast but you'll know it's a Bourne movie." In addition, there's been rumblings that the film will actually take place while the events of the Bourne franchise with Matt Damon are happening concurrently, and there might even be a sneaky way of tying Renner's character and his actions into the plots of the original series, which would be pretty cool. My favorite moment in the original series is how The Bourne Ultimatum ties the end of the second film into being the middle of the third film, and I'm betting there will be some connections like that with The Bourne Legacy. Sound good?

Assassin Creed: Revelations

The Assassin’s Creed games always look like they might be quite enjoyable, all backstabbing and historical intrigue, like a Dan Brown novel for the hard of thinking.

In reality though, despite the lush settings, dramatic music and variety of hooded garments, they always come across as a bit, what’s the word... boring? Go there, endure some earnest exposition, kill somebody for reasons you’re not entirely clear about, repeat to fade. And when you’re not doing that, you’re bowling around pushing people out of the way like in some medieval Verve video, or prancing around on rooftops and leaping into conveniently placed haystacks.
Revelation is the fourth Assassin’s Creed game in five years, and the strain is arguably beginning to show, with a Splinter Cell level of franchise milking. All of the above features are present and correct, but there’s also a "shark-jumping" attempt to liven things up early doors, in the form of a Ben Hur style chariot race. Which doesn’t comfortably fit into what is traditionally perceived as a stealth game.

We need to talk about Desmond

For those who care about the story, it’s mainly set in Constantinople, and you play Ezio Auditore, who is now knocking on a bit, since he appeared - as a baby - in Assassin’s Creed II. Except of course you don’t really play Ezio; you play a bartender called Desmond Miles, one of gaming’s most contentious characters. As anyone who has ever picked up an Assassin’s Creed game will confirm - possibly through gritted teeth - all of the action takes place in the head of Desmond, who is strapped into something called an Animus machine, reliving so-called genetic memories, while in the ‘real’ world an improbable war rages between modern day Templars and Assassins.

It is of course poppycock of the highest order. There’s always a lot of talk about immersion in gaming, and it’s one thing to believe that you’re sat on your sofa controlling a renaissance assassin, another to make the leap that it’s all going on inside someone else’s fevered mind. If anything, Desmond has an even bigger role than usual in Revelations, able to access a place called Animus Island where he has his own collection of sub-Portal platform-oriented levels, accompanied by an unconvincing voiceover where he reveals his origins as a proto-hippie. The man is a tool.

Doctor Hook

Ignore him. Back to the "real" action, it’s familiar fare, with the core mechanics honed if not quite to perfection, then at least to a level of resigned functionality. The big hook is that Ezio has a big hook, which he slips out of his right sleeve in order to make clambering up buildings some 30 per cent quicker.

It can also be used to slide down conveniently placed - and slightly anachronistic - telegraph cables, as well as garrotte passers-by. It doesn’t stop him occasionally throwing himself to his death in a fit of pique however, something that almost makes you yearn for the "press X to continue" simplicity of Uncharted 3. With that game and the new Batman, we’ve spent a lot of time on rooftops of late, but Revelations arguably trumps them both, with the cities seemingly consisting of more roof than street.

Missions are doled-out in an open world fashion and generally involve walking somewhere to be told what to do and then going there and doing that thing. It might be killing someone, spying on someone, retrieving some kind of artefact, or buying a carpet. By and large, it’s massively po-faced, although there is a brief moment of levity when you disguise yourself as a bard in order to gatecrash a party, and tear someone’s throat out with a lute.
The whole thing hinges around finding some lost keys, which unfortunately aren’t in your other jacket. Those keys enable you to play flashback (or flashforward?) missions as the series’ other big cheese, Altair, otherwise known as a man in a hood. Something of a running theme, even the berk Desmond wears a hoodie.

Bombs Away

Beyond the action, there’s an entire meta-game going on involving buying properties, recruiting Assassins, and even sending them away to foreign shores to perform missions. There’s also an incongruous attempt at strategy involving an irksome tower defence mode that requires you to place soldiers on rooftops and build barricades to protect your den.
And the game is all but obsessed with bombs, inviting you to craft bombs, buy bombs, throw bombs at people, carry bombs around in a variety of pouches for a rainy day, none of which appears entirely essential. As for the combat, it’s so easy as to be pointless, and even if you do get into bother you can call in a few assassins to help you out. In fact, there’s no great challenge in the game at all - you either do something or don’t do it.
Weirdly, nobody really talks about the multiplayer in Assassin’s Creed but it’s actually highly original, involving pursuers and targets playing cat-and-mouse over a series of tight maps. A neat idea, identifying yourself as different to the AI characters gives away your position, hence it’s one of the few games where walking around casually minding your own business is a viable tactic.

Verdict

As an exercise in tying up loose ends for those who have managed to follow the story, Revelations does its job in sold but unspectacular style. We’ve seen it all before, and we certainly don’t want to see any more of Desmond. If they do make another game, they should make it Assassin’s Creed Unplugged, free of DNA sequences, memory fragments, and the rest of the preposterous twaddle that blights the series. Just say no to Desmond.

Cinelli Mash Bolt 2012 - Down Under

Frame / Size / Year:
Cinelli Mash Bolt 53 / 2012

Handlebars / Stem:
Cinelli pista / Cinelli Vai

Fork / Headset:
Cinelli / Colombus

Front Wheel / Hub / Rim / Tire:
Campy Shamal / Campy / Vittoria Rubino

Rear Wheel / Hub / Rim / Tire:
Campy Shamal / Miche 16H / Vittoria Randonneur

Crankset / Bottom Bracket:
Campy Pista Record / Phil Wood

Saddle / Seat Post:
Fizik Arione / Deda RS01

Pedals / Chain:
MKS / Izumi

Gearing / Chainring / Misc.:
Campy 48T / Halo 17T  

Buy Five Ferraris, Join the Exclusive Prancing Horse Club

It seems like some Ferrari owners are more equal than the others. At least that’s what the company’s chairman, Luca di Montezemolo, implied when he told Autonews Europe about Ferrari's plans to create a collectors’ club with the purpose of giving loyal customers some extra privileges.

Di Montezemolo conceived this idea after the roadster version of the Ferrari 599 GTB Fiorano, the SA Aperta, which had a limited production run of only 80 cars, caused friction between Ferrari and some of its customers.

"I don't want our faithful collectors to miss the opportunity to buy one of our special series”, said di Montezemolo, who apparently thinks that loyal customers should have first rights to any special model Ferrari rolls out.

Although it isn’t official yet, it’s speculated that one or two cars are not enough; to make the cut you have to own at least five Ferraris. According to the company, there are nearly 300 collectors around the globe who own five or more Ferrari models.

We guess Jay Kay and Pink Floyd’s Nick Mason will probably be among the first to be invited.

Jaguar Creates Short Film Charting the XF Diesel

We could be wrong, but it looks increasingly possible that Jaguar may be testing the waters to see if there's any interest in its new diesel-powered version of the XF premium saloon in the States.

Following the completion of the 2,884-miles coast-to-coast trip in a standard, UK-registered, right-hand drive XF 2.2D, the British automaker has now released a short film recording bits and pieces from the journey made by independent testers, David and Alexander Madgwick, mixed with facts about the car.

Too bad Jaguar's marketing team didn't create a time-lapse video charting the entire trip from New York City to Los Angeles in a few minutes – now, that would have been something.

In its North American release, Jaguar also clarified that the XF 2.2D recorded an average fuel economy of 52 MPG US and a peak economy of 55.7 MPG that was achieved on the penultimate day of the trip in the southwest US.

New Nissan Juke-R Video Highlights Super Crossover

You didn't think that Nissan was done with the Juke-R project just because it released pictures and videos of the completed prototype, did you?

And sure enough, after last week's revelation, the Japanese carmaker published the eighth installment of the Juke-R's ongoing video series.

The latest clip charts the changes that took place under the body in order to make the Juke-R handle like the GT-R. Aside from the all-wheel drive system, the small crossover also borrows 2011 GT-R's brake package while featuring a bespoke suspension set up and a purpose-built roll cage.

"The Juke R is something you can take down to Tesco's [Britain's equivalent of Walmart], you can drive it, you can take your kids to school and then go and beat a [Porsche] 911 on the Nordschleife," says Darren Cox, General Manager, crossover and sports for Nissan Europe.