Spoilerific: Four New Official ‘The Dark Knight Rises’ Photos and Timeline Details

This weekend, Empire Magazine released a new issue doing a big spread on the upcoming sequel to The Dark Knight, The Dark Knight Rises. Obviously, seeing as how this is one of the most anticipated movies of next year, there’s some exciting stuff in it. Hit the jump to see four new interesting photos and hear some comments from Nolan.

First off, the photos. It’s what you’re probably here for:

I find it rather interesting that Bane is referencing a photo of Harvey Dent in that shot. Hmm.

Anyway some other interesting bits come from director Christopher Nolan himself, particularly about the timeline of the film:
It’s really all about finishing Batman and Bruce Wayne’s story. We left him in a very precarious place. Perhaps surprisingly for some people, our story picks up quite a bit later, eight years after The Dark Knight. So he’s an older Bruce Wayne; he’s not in a great state.

Eight years, eh? It works for me, we’ll probably see a more matured and focused Bruce. In other words, we may get to see the closest portrayal of the comics’ version of Batman as we’ll ever get. I’m excited. Nolan also confirmed that there will be a prologue to The Dark Knight Rises running before Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol IMAX screenings:

The Prologue is basically the first six, seven minutes of the film. It’s the introduction to Bane and a taste of the rest of the film. With Bane we are looking to give Batman a physical challenge that he hasn’t had before. In terms of finishing our story and increasing its scope, we were trying to craft an epic.

Cannot wait. Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol releases December 16th, so be sure to get tickets now and check out that prologue.

Via Slashfilm