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In 2005, Batman Begins kicked off the series and wound up taking $205 million at the US box-office. Three years later, The Dark Knight was even more of a juggernaut, racking up more than $500 million and earning the late Heath Ledger an Oscar. So, what's in store for the ‘threequel’? Set eight years after the conclusion of the second instalment, The Dark Knight Rises begins with most of the citizens of Gotham living in a bubble of prosperity. Batman, meanwhile, has gone into hiding follow his draining battles with the Joker (Ledger) and crooked District Attorney Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart). Supreme chaos Batman's retirement doesn't last long, though, thanks to two new foes: high- society con artist Selina Kyle, also known as Catwoman (Anne Hathaway) and muzzle-wearing terrorist Bane (Tom Hardy). Expect lots of big action set pieces featuring skyjackings, explosions and riots. In fact, as the film goes on, chaos reigns supreme. "All the [Batman] films have threatened to turn Gotham inside out and pull it apart and none of them really have actually achieved that until this film," notes scriptwriter Jonathan Nolan, who penned the movie with his brother Christopher Nolan. The filmmakers began work on The Dark Knight Rises in early 2008 before the stock market crash, the recession and the Occupy Wall Street movement. Even though elements of the movie feel like they were ripped from the headlines, Jonathan insists the writers took as much inspiration from A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens as from current events. "To me, A Tale of Two Cities was the most harrowing portrait of a relatable, recognisable civilisation that had completely fallen to pieces," says Jonathan Nolan. "It's not hard to imagine that things could go that wrong again." As Bale sees it, Batman has always been a reflection of the times he lives in. "It's my understanding that Bob Kane created this character in 1939 at the beginning of WorldWar II," says the actor. "It was an answer to the uselessness that individuals felt against this humongous tragedy. So, it was topical in its inception. That's how Batman began. There's been wonderful spoofs with AdamWest, but Batman began as a very topical character. And I think Chris returned it to that." Reinventing Catwoman While The Dark Knight Rises features newbies Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Marion Cotillard as well as returning veterans Morgan Freeman, Gary Oldman and Michael Caine, it's arguably Hathaway and her re-invention of Catwoman that is the film's most anticipated element. The actress is the fourth woman to try and ‘purr-fect’ the role on the big screen following Lee Meriwether (in the 1966 Batman), Michelle Pfeiffer (Tim Burton's 1992 Batman Returns) and Halle Berry (Pitof’s 2004 Catwoman).” "I would have played a footstool in this movie," says Hathaway, who prepared for Catwoman by reading vintage comic books and watching movies starring Hedy Lamarr and Jean Harlow, Bob Kane's original inspirations. "What I loved about the movie was that the focus was on Selina and there wasn't a schism within her. She didn't change when she put on her suit. It was just kind of her uniform that she had to wear for her job." On Nolan's recommendation, Hathaway, 29, hired a trainer months before filming began. "Chris told me that [Joseph Gordon-Levitt] went to the gym so he could do all of his own fight sequences in Inception. I really liked that," says Hathaway. "I went, ‘Got you.' And I hit the gym. "It was a complete transformation. I've never done anything like that before. It's not just about looking a certain way. I had to learn to fight. I had to become strong enough to be able to fight for many days at a time." To make her job even tougher, Hathaway often had to do battle in nose-bleed heels. "You just do it," she says. "It's part of being a woman. You just figure it out. Devil Wears Prada was really good training. I ran up and downManhattan in that movie. So, I just ran up and down Gotham for this one." Great actor Meanwhile, Hardy's interpretation of Bane has proven to be a bit more controversial than Hathaway's work. When trailers were first unveiled, the actor was criticised for mumbling his lines. But Nolan says the unique delivery is part of Hardy's idiosyncratic take on the no-nonsense villain. "What Tom did, which I completely love but it takes audiences time to get used to, is to have an incredible disconnect between what he's doing with his voice and what he's doing with his eyes," says Nolan, 41. "His eyes have this extremely threatening stillness to them. But his voice has this extremely expressive and different [tone.] "I've never really seen anything like it. The first time I saw him perform a scene with Christian, I was shocked by it. That's what you get from a great actor like Tom Hardy – a total characterisation." Bale says he enjoyed the physical nature of his battles with Hardy's Bane. "Everybody punching each other? That really invigorated myself and Tom, who is a bit of a phenomenon. He's a formidable opponent and obviously the first adversary of Batman's that could probably whip his butt, which we've never seen before. "But the thing that I like so much about the fight sequences with Batman and Bane is they're never just knockdown fight sequences. You learn something more about each character throughout each fight." Realisation Bale is clearly pleased with the work he's done in the Batman flicks. In fact, parting with his most famous character on the final day of shooting was a little tougher than he imagined. "My final scene as the Bat was with Anne as Catwoman on a roof in Manhattan," he says. "I was wrapped and I just went down and sat in a room and realised, ‘this is it: I'm not going to be taking this suit off again’. "I said, ‘Can you please leave me alone for 20 minutes?’ and I just sat there. I had this realisation of everything we've done and a real sense of pride of having achieved what we set out to do. "It's been a very important character for me. This is the only time I played a character three times. And the movies themselves have changed my life and my career. So, I wanted a little time alone to appreciate that." Copyright Amy Longsdorf/Featurewell.com 2 6 5 S I M P LY A B U DH A B I