Although ‘The Dark Knight Rises’ won’t be released until next year, the buzz about the movie continues to grow. Director Christopher Nolan likes to keep the details of his movie close to the chest, but in an interview with Hero Complex, he opened up about what it was like filming the last installment of ‘The Dark Knight’ series and why he chose Bane as the villain for Batman’s epic finale.

The idea to use Bane was actually David Goyer’s idea. “I didn’t know him very well,” Nolan said. “David Goyer got me a bunch of stuff on him and we looked into him… I wasn’t familiar with his back story. He’s a very cool character.” Considering Bane was actually a relatively new character in the pages of the Batman comics (only coming on the scene in 1993), the departure of using a tried and true villain came as a surprise for some fans. But Nolan assures that they won’t be disappointed.

He states that Bane will test Bruce Wayne in an unprecedented and savage way. “With a good villain you need an archetype, you know, you need the extreme of some type of villainy,” he  explains, “The Joker is obviously a particular archetype of diabolical, chaotic anarchy and has a devilish sense of humor. Bane, to me, is something we haven’t dealt with in the films… He’s a primarily physical villain; he’s a classic movie monster in a way — but with a terrific brain…I think people are going to get a kick out of what we’ve done with him.”

From the teaser that was revealed several months ago and the poster that was recently released, fans are wondering if the movie will follow the same storyline as ‘Knightfall.’ In that story arc, Bane waited until Batman was at his weakest point physically and mentally before delivering a crippling blow to his back causing his spine to snap. Does that mean the end of Bruce Wayne’s Batman and an opening for someone to come in and take his place? Nolan, of course, won’t give anything away but does say that ‘The Dark Knight Rises’ would close out the trilogy in a powerful and definitive way.

As for fast forwarding the timeline by eight years, Nolan says that he did that to truly show the gravity of what happened at the end of ‘The Dark Knight’ and to explain the mood for this film. “I think what we’re saying is that for Batman and Commissioner Gordon, there’s a big sacrifice, a big compromise, at the end of the ‘The Dark Knight’ and for that to mean something, that sacrifice has  to work and Gotham has to get better in a sense. They have to achieve something for the ending of that film — and the feeling at the end of that film — to have validity. Their sacrifice has to have meaning and it takes time to establish that and to show that, and that’s the primary reason we did that… it gave them something to get their teeth into, particularly Christian in terms of [portraying] this guy who has been frozen in this moment in time with nowhere to go.”

Nolan hopes that by filming in IMAX, it will bring back the “grandeur of the movies” and although he enjoyed working with this format, towards the end of filming, it became a sentimental journey. “It was pretty emotional as we would finish these characters and say goodbye to Alfred for the last time and say goodbye to Commissioner Gordon and eventually, with Christian, fairly close to the end, saying goodbye to Batman … it was a big deal… It was quite touching, I must say.”

‘The Dark Knight Rises’ will be released in theaters on June 20, 2012.

Source: HeroComplex