Since winning Best Actress at the Academy Awards for her performance in Black Swan, Natalie Portman has stepped out of the spotlight to be a mom. But now it’s time to get back to work, and the actress has set up two back-to-back projects with the same director: none other than Terrence Malick, whose Tree of Life is up for Best Picture at this year’s Oscars and has garnered him a nomination for Best Director. I think it’s safe to say there will be a certain amount of prestige attached to these films.

First up is Knight of the Cups, which co-stars Christian Bale, Cate Blanchett, and…Isabel Lucas (let’s play a game – which of these actors doesn’t seem to belong here?). Nobody knows much about this one – other than it shoots this summer – but suffice it to say that any Malick movie is going to be highly anticipated among the cinephile community. And immediately following will be a film called Lawless, which co-stars Christian Bale, Cate Blanchett (sound familiar?), Ryan Gosling, Rooney Mara, and Haley Bennett. Some filming for this was done at last year’s Austin City Limits music festival, but we’re not sure if that was just some kind of character research or if we’ll end up seeing any of that footage in the final cut.

The Playlist brings up an interesting point: though Knight of the Cups and Lawless were initially announced as individual projects, the casting of Portman, Bale, and Blanchett leaves us wondering whether there may be some connection after all. Don’t expect much as far as answers go any time soon; Malick’s projects are almost always shrouded in secrecy.

Malick clearly wants to scratch a filmmaking itch that has been building up for years by taking on so many projects this quickly. There was a five year gap between The New World and Tree of Life, and now he’s got these two projects, plus another one that stars Ben Affleck, Rachel Weisz, and Javier Bardem that’s presumably finished but still without a title or release date.

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Bootlegs have been popping up over the weekend but Warner Bros. has today released the second official trailer for The Dark Knight Rises. It begins with Alfred worrying about Bruce and slowly builds, with Selina Kyle warning him “there’s a storm coming, Mr. Wayne”. Then chants begin, a football field crumbles, Bane emerges, and the Batwing roars down a Gotham street. We also get brief glimpses at Marion Cotillard, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Gary Oldman.

Watch below:

The Dark Knight Rises is set for release on July 20th, 2012. Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Gary Oldman and Morgan Freeman will reprise their roles alongside Anne Hathaway (Catwoman), Tom Hardy (Bane), Marion Cotillard and Joseph Gordon-Levitt.

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Remakes have the reputation of provoking emotions of disgust, confusion, and even hilarity among fans, but it really depends on the actual film that happens to be the victim of being remade. After the recent news of a Scarface remake in the works, fans were downright livid with Hollywood and questioned its integrity for making movies, which is absolutely understandable.

How about if that film is a well loved cult classic that has a passionately dedicated group of fans? When handling with that type of group, a remake is the equivalent of declaring war, and the recent film being targeted, according to Variety, is American Psycho.

Yes that’s right, the film that made us aware of Christian Bale’s acting potential as the psychotic yet suave Patrick Bateman, is getting a remake. In fact, Lionsgate has already hired Noble Jones as both writer and director, meaning this is all too real to be just a sick joke. Now the original, even though being released in 2000, was set in the 80′s and did a fantastic job as showing a psychotic version of Wall Street boom and the effects fortune can lead to.

However, the remake will be taking place in the present day, which honestly completely misses the point, taking away from the entire message that both the original book, written by Easton Ellis, and the film adaptation focused on.

The most devastating news of all, though, is the fact that Bale’s performance was all too perfect, giving a psychotic and methodical killing machine a sense of charm and charisma, and ultimately jump starting Bale’s acting career. So to see someone else take over the role of Bateman would just diminish a character that already reached the pinnacle of perfection, making it just an empty attempt to make some quick cash.

Ironically, the original, being a cult classic and all, had a poor return at the box office, only making around $15 million, so with only the diehard fans essentially being aware of the film, it would make it difficult for a new audience to flock to a newer version of the film without being aware of what the actual meaning is, and just thinking it’s a typical horror movie. But alas, the film is being made and someone will fill Bateman’s shoes, but whom?

Well actually Ellis had recently said on his Twitter that “I have warned Lionsgate that I will not approve a new version of “American Psycho” unless it stars SCOTT DISICK or MILES FISCHER.” Disick is definitely the oddball here because, with those of you unfamiliar with him, he’s primarily a reality “star” in Keeping Up With The Kardashians as Kourtney Kardashian’s husband.

Yea, maybe he has had some experience with a little drama in his days and he does have a Bateman-esque look to him, but the lack of actual acting experience is definitely a problem. On the other hand, Fischer, in addition to having true acting experience (ok, maybe a role in Final Destination 5 isn’t that great, but at least it’s something), actually bears a striking resemblance of a young Bale and has even played Bateman in a parody music video entitled “This Must Be The Place,” which you can check out below:

So with that being said, no matter how “perfect” Fischer may be, the remake is still an idea that I definitely don’t support. We’ve all bear witness to what some remakes have done to our favorite films in the past, coming off as just a heartless rehashing, and I have a feeling that this one is no exception.

I’m sure we’ll be seeing quite a bit of news roll out until the film actually starts production, and we’ll no doubt keep you updated. But, unless you’re a supporter of the remake, definitely tread lightly with this one because, if you’re like me, you’ll be needing a lot of convincing in order to accept this.

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A Bane-focused prologue for The Dark Knight Rises is currently playing before Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol in IMAX and a new trailer is expected to be released soon, but in the meantime Warner Bros. has released a new teaser poster.

The poster, which could foreshadow some unpleasant events in the film, features Batman’s broken mask on the ground, with Bane (Tom Hardy) stood menacingly in the background.

Check out the full poster below, and click to enlarge.

The Dark Knight Rises is set for release on July 20th, 2012. Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Gary Oldman and Morgan Freeman will reprise their roles alongside Anne Hathaway (Catwoman), Tom Hardy (Bane), Marion Cotillard and Joseph Gordon-Levitt.

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Over recent months we’ve been hearing about Darren Aronofsky’s next project Noah, which will be a big screen adaptation of the Noah’s Ark story. In October Paramount and New Regency came on-board to finance and distribute the $130 million movie, and Aronofsky was said to be interested in having Christian Bale play the lead character.

Well Variety now reports that Bale has had to pass on the role as he’ll be shooting Terrence Malick’s next two films, Lawless and Knight of Cups, back-to-back next year. Instead, Aronofsky is said to be holding talks with Michael Fassbender.

Fassbender is on a roll at the moment following the success of X-Men: First Class and that’s unlikely to slow down with the awards buzz he’s picking up for Steve McQueen’s Shame. Fassbender is no stranger to the swords and sandals genre having starred in 300, but this time he’ll be leading the film instead of playing a supporting role.

Below is a recently released French trailer for the graphic novel which gives us an idea of what to expect:

Earlier this year Aronofsky said:

“Since I was a kid, I have been moved and inspired by the story of Noah and his family’s journey. The imaginations of countless generations have sparked to this epic story of faith. It’s my hope that I can present a window into Noah’s passion and perseverance for the silver screen”.

Academy Award nominated screenwriter John Logan (Gladiator, The Aviator) is re-writing the script and the aim is to begin production next year.

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In the latest issue of Empire Magazine The Dark Knight Rises director Christopher Nolan spoke about “finishing Batman and Bruce Wayne’s story” in the film, and revealed that Rises picks up 8 years after the events of The Dark Knight (which is a long time, Alfred must be on the verge of retirement).

Tom Hardy also spoke about Bane’s “brutal” and “nasty” fighting style which is “all about carnage”.

Excepts from the article have been posted on Empire‘s site:

“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.

“With Bane, we’re looking to give Batman a challenge he hasn’t had before. With our choice of villain and with our choice of story we’re testing Batman both physically as well as mentally.”

Speaking of physical challenges, what can Tom Hardy tell us about Bane? “He’s brutal. Brutal. He’s a big dude who’s incredibly clinical, in the fact that he has a result-based and oriented fighting style. It’s not about fighting. It’s about carnage. The style is heavy-handed, heavy-footed, it’s nasty. Anything from small-joint manipulation to crushing skulls, crushing rib cages, stamping on shins and knees and necks and collarbones and snapping heads off and tearing his fists through chests, ripping out spinal columns. He is a terrorist in mentality as well as brutal action.”

Costume designer Lindy Hemming also lets drop a few clues to his backstory as she talks about Bane’s look. On the mask, she says, “He was injured early in his story. He’s suffering from pain and needs gas to survive. He can’t survive the pain without the mask. The pipes from the mask go back along his jawline and feed into the thing at his back, where there are two cannisters.”

Nolan also said the prologue which will be attached to Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol in IMAX “is basically the first six, seven minutes of the film. It’s an introduction to Bane, and a taste of the rest of the film.” Ghost Protocol hits IMAX on December 16 (5 days before the general release on December 21).

The Dark Knight Rises is set for release on July 20th, 2012. Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Gary Oldman and Morgan Freeman will reprise their roles alongside Anne Hathaway (Catwoman), Tom Hardy (Bane), Marion Cotillard and Joseph Gordon-Levitt.

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Anarchy ensues on the streets of Gotham City, at least that’s what we get out of the recent batch of videos coming from the set of The Dark Knight Rises, now filming in New York. Three videos showing different takes from what looks like an important scene in the movie found their way onto YouTube and thanks to IGN, we have them here for you. As always, if you want to go into The Dark Knight Rises spoiler-free, I recommend you skip this.

In the last video we see Batman going up against Bane in the middle of the street, surrounded by people beating the crap out of each other. SPOILER, if you ask me, it doesn’t seem like he’s winning that fight. Also, with so many extras on the set, this looks really expensive, not to mention they are filming on Wall Street no less. This could end up costing easily $250 million when done. But considering The Dark Knight made over $1 billion in box office receipts worldwide, Legendary Pictures and Warner Bros. spared no expenses on this one.

There’s also a video showing some photos of Batman and Bane from the set:

Directed by Christopher Nolan, The Dark Knight Rises stars Christian Bale, Anne Hathaway, Tom Hardy, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Cillian Murphy, Gary Oldman, Morgan Freeman, Marion Cotillard, Michael Caine and Liam Neeson. Set to open July 20th 2012, The Dark Knight Rises is easily one of the most highly anticipated movies of next year and videos like this only serve to send the hype meter into overdrive.

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FilmNation Entertainment today announced that they’ll be handling international sales and distribution on Terrence Malick’s next two films, which are currently in pre-production and will shoot back-to-back in 2012.

No plot details for either film have been revealed, but The Tree of Life director has put together two impressive casts. The first film, Lawless, will star Ryan Gosling as the lead character, with Christian Bale, Cate Blanchett, Rooney Mara, and Haley Bennett in supporting roles.

In the second film, Knight of Cups, Bale will take the lead, with Cate Blanchett and Isabel Lucas (Immortals) supporting. The Playlist says both are being described as “separate narratives” so it’s unlikely they’ll have a connection story-wise.

While the filmmakers are keeping quiet, Christian Bale and Terrence Malick were spotted shooting something at the Austin City Limits Music Festival in September so one film (likely Knight of Cups) may be music-related.

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Warner Bros. released our first official look at Anne Hathaway in her Catwoman costume back in August and it seemed Christopher Nolan had replaced the traditional ‘cat ears’ with hi-tech goggles.

However some new set images have appeared online over at Just Jared of Anne Hathaway in her costume, and she’s wearing cat ears.

In past incarnations the cat ears have mainly been used for aesthetic reasons, giving the character a more feline appearance to fit with the name, but here Nolan seems to have given them a practical use. The primary function of these hi-tech goggles is still unknown, but when not in use they could give the appearance of cat ears on top of her head. If that’s the idea it’s quite a smart and interesting take on the design, but we’ll have to see if they work on-screen when The Dark Knight Rises hits next July.

You can see more set images, which include Christian Bale in his Batman suit and Gary Oldman as Comissioner Gordon, by clicking here.

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The Dark Knight Rises has been filming since May, and isn’t scheduled to finish until November. Naturally the cast haven’t been that talkative due to the secrecy surrounding the production, but in a new interview Christian Bale spoke about working with Christopher Nolan again, completing the Batman trilogy, and being “impressed” with Tom Hardy.

Update: Warner Bros. has asked us to remove the quotes as the interview was taken during a set visit and wasn’t meant to be posted by the site until closer to the film’s release.

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