Anne Hathaway will be playing Catwoman in Christopher Nolan’s third and supposedly final Batman film The Dark Knight Rises. Aside from that little tidbit given in the official Warner Bros. press release this morning, we don’t know much else. But that’s not all for “Dark Knight Rises”-related casting news: Tom Hardy has long been attached, but now we know that he’ll star as Batman nemesis Bane.
Hathaway is an exceptionally talented actress with lots of range. She can do comedy and drama superbly and can even kick some tail when she needs to, so I like the idea of her being in the Batman universe crafted by Nolan, but if this is the Catwoman that we are used to, then it’s easy to be a little skeptical. Of course, when Heath Ledger was cast as the Joker in The Dark Knight, the response was largely pessimistic.
Until everyone saw the amazing performance, that is. Nolan gave the Joker a certain darkness that most hadn’t seen before. I have no doubt that he can do the same for Catwoman. Likewise, this could turn out to be one of Hathaway’s best performances.
The same goes for Hardy, who had a really great year with the release of Inception and a Rising Star nomination from the British Academy. He’s arguably one step away from becoming a household name, and a high profile role of this nature would help make it happen. Bane is a muscle-bound foe who grows up in a prison where he's treated with "venom" which gives him superhuman strength, enough so that in the comics he snaps Bruce Wayne's back in half. He's incredibly strong, but he's also super intelligent -- sounds right for Nolan's Gotham.
How do you feel about Anne Hathaway and Tom Hardy in these roles?
