More preliminary thoughts on The Dark Knight Rises

So since my last article a few more bits of information have appeared. First we have Aaron Eckhart again denying that Harvey Dent may appear in TDKR although with quite an odd laugh People have taken this to mean he may appear in a flashback sequence or something, which would be interesting, but it seems like a weak excuse to bring back the character. Part of what makes Two-Face interesting is how quickly garnered a large criminal empire after his disfigurement. Killing of the character denies him the chance to do that. Additionally Harvey and Bruce/Batman never had the strong friendship they did in the comics, so it doesn’t seem like it would serve much of a purpose to have Batman hallucinate him, unless it is to deal with his guilt for killing him and actually face that fact.

Then earlier today Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s role was announced as Alberto Falcone. This is the most interesting news to date, second only to the casting of Bane. Alberto was a key character in The Long Halloween and it seems now that more elements of that story will make their way into TDKR. The only issue I have is where Bane fit’s in. Bane really deserves his own story, and trying to shoehorn him into an adaptation of The Long Halloween just won’t do the character justice. I can’t help but wonder how the story will go….I can’t see Alberto or Catwoman being the main villain of the films as with Ra’s or Joker, which leaves Bane. Which leaves the opportunity for the core elements of Knightfall to be adapted. Or, perhaps the will do something more interesting and have Batman actually do some detecting and solve mysteries, ala the holiday killer.

The last bit of interesting news was that Juno Temple is being eyed for a part as a “street smart Gotham girl”. It would be interesting if this turns out to be Holly Robinson, Selina Kyle’s friend from Year One. It would perhaps imply they may be going with the prostitute origin story, or at the least mixing elements of Year One with The Long Halloween. This has to be the most confusing Batman film to date. With the odd mix of characters and being familiar with Nolan’s take on the character, it’s very difficult to speculate what direction TDKR will take. It’s certainly interesting to follow and see where it ends up however.