A mere five years ago, during the production of ‘The Dark Knight’, director Christopher Nolan’s previous entry into his Batman trilogy, he had his movie on total lockdown. Information was held on secretive sets, high security surrounded what sets there were, and none of the stars were talking. Nolan and Warner Brothers, through a completely brilliant viral marketing campaign, were feeding very specific tidbits of information to rabid fans and left them drooling for more.
Cut to 2011 where we’ve been given what seems to be a virtual all-access pass to the filming and sets of ‘The Dark Knight Rises’. We’ve had photos of the villains, Catwoman and Bane. We’ve seen all sorts of action sequences, set pieces, and vehicles. Just a few days ago, we got a look at the Batwing battling Bane’s armored truck.
Stars of the film are apparently just as open as the set. After fan backlash over the Catwoman images, actress Anne Hathaway spoke out about her part in the film. Now today, ‘Dark Knight Rises’ stars Gary Oldman, who plays Commissioner Gordon, and Joseph Gordon-Levitt, who plays… someone, have both spoken out about the film, albeit a little more secretively.
Oldman told Contact Music that Christopher Nolan is keeping the ‘Dark Knight Rises’ script under lock and key and has gone so far as to avoid even writing the ending down on paper to further keep his secrets. In an interview with MTV, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, was asked again who exactly he would be playing in the film. Levitt just smiled and said, “You know I can’t have this conversation, man”. Until this point, Levitt has been rumored to be playing John Blake, a Gotham City detective. However, other rumors say that Levitt is playing bat-villain Hugo Strange or even the Dark Knight’s sidekick Robin.
So what’s with the sudden secrecy? Are parts of the movie to be public and others kept under Nolan’s trademark lockdown? I suspect that only Nolan knows the answer for sure. There are some more conspiratorial fans online that suspect that the set pieces we’ve seen over the past few months have all been an elaborate ruse by Nolan and Warner Brothers to keep paparazzi away from the real filming of ‘The Dark Knight Rises’. If that’s the case and fans walk into a film expecting one thing and get something completely different, I will bow down before Nolan for pulling a stunt worthy of the Batman himself.
