Anne Hathaway Will Play Selina Kyle in The Dark Knight Rises

[Elizabeth Grunewald]

Anne Hathaway Will Play Selina Kyle in The Dark Knight Rises

The Love and Other Drugs star beat a bevy of actresses for the role opposite Christian Bale's Batman.

Christopher Nolan has finally cast the villains for The Dark Knight Rises, the third film in his Batman trilogy. Warner Bros. released an announcement confirming the casting of Anne Hathaway as Selina Kyle, and further specifying that the already-cast Tom Hardy will be playing Bane.

Deadline quotes the studio's official announcement, which curiously omits a very specific word: "Warner Bros. Pictures announced today that Anne Hathaway has been cast as Selina Kyle in Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight Rises. She will be starring alongside Christian Bale, who returns in the title role of Bruce Wayne/Batman." Bale is credited with his dual role, but there's no mention of Catwoman anywhere in the release. It's a little nit-picky, to be sure, but if they went to the trouble to mention Batman and Bruce Wayne, mentioning Selina Kyle without Catwoman seems significant.

According to Deadline, the release goes on to quote director Christopher Nolan, who gushes, "I am thrilled to have the opportunity to work with Anne Hathaway, who will be a fantastic addition to our ensemble as we complete our story." Nolan continues to discuss the other revelation in today's announcement, saying "I am delighted to be working with Tom again and excited to watch him bring to life our new interpretation of one of Batman's most formidable enemies." Bane is best known for breaking Batman's back in Batman #497, but it's improbable for Nolan to "complete [his] story" with a paraplegic Dark Knight. Paralyzing the man in a movie called The Dark Knight Rises seems cruel.

We'll find out either way when The Dark Knight Rises comes out on July 20, 2012.

Source: Deadline [http://www.deadline.com/2011/01/anne-hathaway-wins-selina-kyle-role-in-the-dark-knight-rises/]



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[GrinningManiac]

Bane? Bane!? BAAANE!?

NOOOOO!

 

[stormtrooper9091]

call me blind but Anne makes a bad film less bad so I think it will work out

 

[Shirokurou]

Hey, who expected "Brokeback mountain" and "Knight's tale" star Ledger to give the Joker performance that he did?
So let's give Hathaway a chance and see the results...

 

[Julianking93]

Eh. Christopher Nolan's a good director so I think it'll work.

I mean, I despise Anne Hathaway and I don't really like the idea of Bane in this film, but then again no one liked the idea of Ledger as the Joker.

 

[Anton P. Nym]

It's a little nit-picky, to be sure, but if they went to the trouble to mention Batman and Bruce Wayne, mentioning Selina Kyle without Catwoman seems significant.

If I were to place a bet, I'd bet that the lack of "Catwoman" in the press-release is out of superstitious dread, like talking about the "Scottish Play" when in the theatre; hoping beyond hope that they can use the character again without invoking the revenant spirit of the Catwoman movie. (Didn't that one get like a 20% "fresh" rating on Rotten Tomatoes? I can't check here at the office.)

-- Steve

 

[Sixcess]

Bane feels like an odd choice. Maybe I'm showing my age but he still feels like a second string villain with exactly one claim to fame, and that was his debut story.

I'll keep my fingers crossed for Selina to get some decent characterisation beyond eye candy/love interest/damsel in distress, but I'm not really expecting it. The Nolanverse is a bit of a boys club after all, and most versions of Catwoman are awful, unless written by Ed Brubaker or played by Michelle Pfeiffer.

 

[DTWolfwood]

Woo Bane! thats pretty epic. To have one of Batman's smartest and strongest opponents in what looks to be Nolans last Batman flick is pretty damn clever! Bravo on the villain.

Selina Kyle might not become Catwoman till the end of the movie, kinda like Harvey Dent didn't show himself as two face till the very end ^-^

 

[esperandote]

I dont see her playing a strong character

 

[Aiddon_v1legacy]

hmmm, it is noteworthy that they have NO mention of her alter-ego. Also, the rumor was going around that there would be TWO female leads in it with one being a villain.

Tom Hardy seems to be an odd choice for Bane, but Bane was also supposed to be a smart guy in his debut. I guess Hardy wants to get some practice in playing a tough guy before he does Mad Max.

 

[Vault Citizen]

Its funny, I thought they wanted to use villains that hadn't been used in previous movies but these announced characters (as people know) have both been in a Batman movie from the 90's, not a complaint so much as an observation

 

[powercrisis]

At least its not Halle Berry...

 

[Julianking93]

Aw c'mon. Bane from that movie was NOTHING like he is in the comics. I feel lazy, so I'll just link the wikipedia article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bane_(comics)
Basically he had managed to break Batman physically and psychologically in his debut against him.

Exactly!
Schumacher's version was just stupid. They made him just a borderline retarded guy with muscles.
In the comics, Bane was a borderline genius. He broke down Batman psychologically by releasing all the inmates from Arkham and was even able to learn his secret identity, something that no one else seems to be able to do >>

 

[Jaebird]

Holy sh*t; I friggin' called it on Bane. It's a shame I can't find the post on the Escapist forums to show for it.

Edit: Wait a second... Anne Hathaway? As in the actress with the most distracting eyebrows in Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland? Oy...

 

[MasterSplinter]

Maybe they didn't say she was cat woman so on the middle of the movie some people can go "Oh, so she's cat woman!, cool"
I had to google "Selina Kyle" (midway reading the article) to know who she was.

 

[Cpt Corallis]

Holy sh*t; I friggin' called it on Bane. It's a shame I can't find the post on the Escapist forums to show for it.

I did as well! I'm hoping that The Dark Knight rises does have two separate villains. Bane is good, especially if they actually follow the route of using his origin story to show the growth of Batman as a character but I think it does need someone slightly more high profile as well, no idea who it could be though, especially following The Joker and Two Face In The Dark Knight.