the dark knight rises

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An awful lot of the homegrown cinema lately seems to have more heart and soul than most of the big studio productions.  These two fan-created films are some of the best that I’ve seen lately.

First up, it’s a sequel to the original Star Trek episode “Who Mourns for Adonais?”.  “Pilgrim of Eternity” has Michael Forest reprising his role as Apollo from the 1967 episode.  The script was written by Jack TreviƱo (who wrote the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episodes “Little Green Men” and “Indiscretion”).  Christopher Doohan – son of James Doohan – plays Scotty and Marina Sirtis herself is the voice of the Enterprise computer.  And not being content with just one Apollo, “Pilgrim of Eternity” also has Jamie Bamber (Battlestar Galactica‘s Lee Adama) as a redshirt security officer!




And then we have this: Arkham Rising.  Set during the events of The Dark ...

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“You don’t owe these people anymore. You’ve given them everything.”

“Not everything. Not yet.”

For the first time, I am beginning to warm up to the “eight years later…” aspect of The Dark Knight Rises. Mainly ‘cuz it looks like Christopher Nolan really is giving us something we’ve never seen cinematically before: a Batman facing his own doubts and mortality. That Nolan is apparently drawing from three of the greatest Batman storylines ever – The Dark Knight Returns, Knightfall and No Man’s Land – is convincing me even more that I can accept this being the closing chapter of a trilogy, instead of that ongoing Batman film franchise that I had hoped Batman Begins would have been the start of.

‘Course it goes without saying that this trailer is gorgeous, in a hauntingly subtle way that I can’t remember seeing from a trailer for a comic book ...

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In what has to be one of the coolest efforts at crowdsourcing ever, composer Hans Zimmer has put the word out that he needs our vocal talents for next summer’s The Dark Knight Rises: Christopher Nolan’s third and final Batman film.

Want to contribute? All you gotta do is record yourself repeating the same crazy chant that’s been heard in the teaser that came out a few months ago. As Zimmer puts it…

“I’m shining the bat-signal up into the sky to call you all! We need to hear your voices! Now and Loud! We are creating the sound of a worldwide chant. Everyone come and be part of it. It’s easy: There is no such thing as out-of-tune, no timing we can’t fix later. If you mumble, growl, scream or whisper, it’s all good. Make it yours. If you only get halfway through, no problem! Do it alone,

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Photographer Jason Wickerham took some terrific photos over the weekend of filming of The Dark Knight Rises currently taking place in Pittsburgh. Near the Carnegie Mellon University Software Engineering Institute Building, there was a wedding going on at a church across the street and Jason caught this image of Tom Hardy, in full costume as mega-villain Bane, waving to the bridesmaids…

Click here to see more of Jason’s photos, including some of the first shots anywhere of the Bane costume, more of the wedding party including the bride and groom being allowed to pose with the un-blackened Tumbler, Marion Cotillard in her costume, and some killer pics of Batman and Bane fighting it out… in broad daylight and falling snow?

The Dark Knight Rises next summer....

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And that ain’t even the best look at Bane that we get in the first trailer for The Dark Knight Rises! That comes at the end of the one and a half minute-long glimpse of next year’s surefire megahit.

Yes friends, Warner Bros. has officially released the trailer online (which you couldn’t see until now unless you went to see the last Harry Potter movie over the weekend, which I didn’t, so this is new to me too).

My only gripe is that this is going to be the last of the “Nolan-verse” Batman… which is easily my most favorite Batman continuity ever! I’d hoped that Warners might have let Nolan’s work be the springboard of an ongoing series, sorta like its own James Bond franchise. But we’ve had two excellent Batman movies from Christopher Nolan already and I’ve no doubt that he will end this trilogy in fine...

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The official site for The Dark Knight Rises has gone online and much like the gradual reveal of Heath Ledger’s Joker during the lead-up to The Dark Knight a few years ago, the Warner Bros. marketing team has left it to the fans to figure out how to get their first glimpse at the next Batman movie’s big villain.

But those industrious folks at ComingSoon.net got to it first. Here’s the first official look at Tom Hardy as Bane!

Well, he doesn’t have the tubes running to the back of his skull for the Venom drug… but I can definitely dig this being Bane. Hardy looks the part without the mask being “Gimp”-y at all.

Maybe this’ll be the final nail in the coffin of the bad memories still lingering from Batman & Robin… šŸ˜›...

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