Corona | Coming Attractions

When a new Christopher Nolan Batman movie is coming out soon, the anticipation just keeps building and building. While The Dark Knight Rises won't arrive in theaters until July, the media can't get enough quotes from anyone associated with the movie.

One recent interview was with Emma Thomas, one of the producers on The Dark Knight Rises (and who also happens to be Nolan's wife.) She was asked by Total Film on two of the new faces we'll see in the sequel, Tom Hardy's Bane and Anne Hathaway's Catwoman.

"Tom made a massive physical transformation for the role... It really is an intense performance," said Thomas. "He finally feels like a match for Batman – both physically and mentally."

She also compared the way that Hardy approached his role as the film's main villain to the way the other guy inside the Bat-suit does it. "Christian Bale and Tom Hardy are both such fiercely committed actors that pitching them as adversaries works incredibly well – they have such a great chemistry on camera."

As for Hathaway's Selina Kyle/Catwoman, "It’s completely new," Thomas said, perhaps recalling the way that Michelle Pfeiffer played the Cat in Batman Returns. "It's a really interesting role. You never quite know where you are with her."

OK, so no big story spoilers were in her answers. Maybe we'll fair better with the stuff concept artist Tully Summers had to tell CineWebRadio.com (and translated by Batman-on-Film).

"The difference for me was the visual style of Christopher Nolan," said the artist. "One of the things that makes his Batman films are so good is [the realistic tone]. He often prefers something crude -- a more gritty style of design -- rather than something very smooth and nice. It's military aesthetic. The Dark Knight Rises is a war movie."

Now that's something we can chew on for a while until the next cast/crew member is cornered by a reporter and asked a question.

The Dark Knight Rises opens in theaters on July 20.