Christopher Nolan is finally getting serious about the followup to his massive hit The Dark Knight. Today, he announced two major pieces of news about the third film in his Batman series: he has decided on a title for this next movie and says The Riddler will no longer be an integral part of the storyline.
Nolan says the film, which is scheduled for release on July 20, 2012, is nothing like fanboys predicted:
Christopher Nolan’s third Batman film will be called “The Dark Knight Rises” and though the Gotham City auteur isn’t ready to reveal the villain of his 2012 film, he did eliminate one of the big contenders: “It won’t be the Riddler,” Nolan said in an exclusive interview with Hero Complex.
Nolan [said] Warner Bros. had agreed with his argument that the film should resist the current 3-D craze and instead use high-definition approaches and IMAX cameras to strike out on a different cinematic path than the stereoscopic technology that, for better or worse, has become the dominant conversation in the blockbuster sector.
“We’ll use many of the same characters as we have all along, and we’ll be introducing some new ones,” Nolan said cryptically. …Nolan told me that the title “The Dark Knight” was just as much about Dent and his fall from the status of shining-knight civic crusader. Dent was plainly dead at the end of the last film, though, and Nolan has been intent on keeping his Gotham City film firmly rooted in a gritty gangland realism. [Hero Complex / L.A. Times]
So, if this is called The Dark Knight Rises, does that mean Dent will be back?
Photo via this artist.