'The Dark Knight Rises' 101

Over the past month, a lot of news has come out regarding the third installment in director Christoper Nolan's highly successful Batman series.  First off, in early October, news came out that actor Tom Hardy, who had a supporting role in Nolan's recent summer hit, Inception, had been cast in an unspecified leading role in the film.  Speculation has been that Hardy will be playing some kind of villian character in the film.  Then, later in the month, the title was finally announced  (The Dark Knight Rises) by Nolan himself, along with confirming a certain villian won't appear in the film (The Riddler).  Finally just last week, word leaked over the net that 6-9 notable actresses (Keira Knightley, Natalie Portman, Rachel Weisz, Anne Hathaway, Blake Lively, Naomi Watts, Marion Cottilard, Piper Perabo, and Tanit Phoenix) were meeting with Nolan for not one but two female leads in the movie, one being a love interest, the other being a villian.  Along with this, news came out that Nolan plans on shooting the entire film in IMAX while cinematographer Wally Pfister went on record stating that would not be the case.  With all that said, I decided to write up a sort of "101" regarding Batman 3 in case anyone needed to be brought up to date with everything that's occured over the past month along with facts we already knew.  Here it is:

Title: The Dark Knight Rises

Release Date: July 20th, 2012

Director: Christoper Nolan

Screenwriter(s): Christoper Nolan & Jonathan Nolan

Story by: David Goyer & Jonathan Nolan

Cinematopgrapher: Wally Pfister

Remaining Crew: Everyone else who worked on The Dark Knight

Cast

Bruce Wayne/Batman - Christian Bale

Alfred Pennyworth - Michael Caine

Commisioner Jim Gordon - Gary Oldman

Lucius Fox - Morgan Freeman

Unknown role - Tom Hardy

Facts

• Harvey Dent will NOT return, at least alive, possibly in flashbacks
• Villian won't be Riddler or Mr. Freeze
• Will NOT shoot in New Orleans
• Will shoot primarily in U.K. as well as secondary shooting in Chicago

A few more things to add.  I believe this film will be shot entirely in IMAX, as Nolan has gone on record stating he wants to accomplish something with this film that has never been done before.  In regards to the villians in the film and casting, first off, I'm under the belief that Tom Hardy will either be playing Black Mask or Hush.  Secondly, I am also under the strong belief that Catwoman will be in the film (thank you BOF).  Finally, in case anyone missed this, Rachel Weisz recently had to drop out of a yet to be titled independent film that was set to start filming in the coming months.  Wonder why...