The internet is ON FIRE right now due to the press release sent by Warner Bros. announcing that Anne Hathaway has been added to the cast of The Dark Knight Rises as Selina Kyle – otherwise known at Catwoman.
Tom Hardy (who we already knew was involved in production) was also confirmed to play Bane – the villain who let loose all of the prisoners in Arkham Asylum before wearing down Batman’s defenses and breaking his back in the Knightfall story arc from the early 90s.
If you’re not familiar with the comics, Bane was also the goofy looking muscle-bound goon from 1997’s Batman & Robin and was previously played by professional wrestler Jeep Swenson.
The online consensus seems to be largely positive surrounding these announcements. Although I most closely associate Hardy with his reedy, sniveling performance as Praetor Shinzon in the much-loathed Star Trek: Nemesis, if you’ve seen him in Bronson or Warrior, you know that he’s capable to bulking up. I’m not worried about him.
It’s Anne Hathaway I’m scratching my head about.
The appeal of Catwoman has always been a strong mix between her street smarts and pin-up sultriness – neither of which Hathaway possess.
Don’t get my wrong. I like Anne Hathaway as an actress. I think she’s affable and makes good choices. I’m just not sure if she’s the right fit for Catwoman. She’s too “girl-next-door” to me. She’s not aggressive enough in my eyes to do the character justice.
I guess I don’t know who I would have cast from the current crop of Hollywood starlets for the role. Gina Gershon from about 10 years ago would have been good. Too old now.
Truthfully, Maggie Gyllenhaal would have been a good choice if she hadn’t already been cast (and killed) in The Dark Knight. She seems resilient and the product of an urban upbringing. And if you’ve seen Secretary, you KNOW she can do sultry.
Alas, it’s not to be.
More than anything, I guess I’m confused by the choices director Christopher Nolan is making for his villains. Catwoman and Bane? I mean, if you played them right, both characters could be seen as emotionally manipulating Batman. The original draft of Bane in the comics had him paired as a strategic equal to The Dark Knight. But over time, his cunning has been buried under a mountain of muscle that other writers have handcuffed him to.
I would think that a filmmaker as cerebral as Nolan would have had a field day with The Riddler or Hugo Strange. And by the way… what happened to those rumors?
I don’t know. I guess if Nolan sees something in the capability of these actors, then I have to trust him. But my gut is telling me this is a misfire.
What’s your take? Leave your comments below!
Nolan’s villains have so far been tied to the theme of the movie, so I still think it could be interesting. Interesting note: in the comics, Bane broke Bruce Wayne/Batman’s back, butting him out of action for ages.
i’m gonna start by saying that i’m not a batman expert, but bane have always seemed like a silly villain to me. like i could get behind Ras al Ghul and the scarecrow on the first one, both were played right and have many important story arcs in the comics i’ve read. same with the joker. and i’d say same with catwoman. but to be honest i’ve never read a comicbook where bane is the strategic mastermind it was suppoused to be, and sure, the dude broke batman’s back, but it didnt really matter that much in the end.
i stand by your call about the riddler and hugo strange.
personally, i would love to see the riddler and scarface on the movies.
Interesting choices in both casting and character choice. I look forward to seeing how this plays out. Will be interesting to see how much Hardy bulks up for the role as well.
Bane gets a lot of love from fans, because he’s SUPPOSED to be brilliant and awesome and blah blah blah. But he’s never ACTUALLY been used well. Ever.
He’s a fine idea, though… and Nolan might find a way to finally use him to his potential. So… there’s that.
He was used well in Knighfall, but the payoff was short-lived.
He turned up in Suicide Squad recently, didn’t he? Was that any good?
Bane release all the inmates from Arkham, systematically wore Batman down, took over organized crime in Gotham, and then broke Batman’s back.
Let’s not forget how skeptical everyone was when Nolan cast Heath Ledger as the Joker, and look how that turned out.
I’m saving my comments til I see some costumes
You also have to remember that a lot of people were scratching their heads over Heath Ledger as Joker for quite a while. And look how that turned out. I think Anne Hathaway at least deserves a shot to prove to everyone that she can envelope more than one type of role.
A fair point. But Ledger had been building toward something with his performances in Lords of Dogtown, The Brothers Grimm and Brokeback Mountain. You could tell that he wanted to be thought of as an actor and not a celebrity.
There is nothing about Anne Hathaway that communicates that same yearning to be taken seriously to me. You might be able to make that argument with Rachel Getting Married or MAYBE Love and Other Drugs. But I don’t think she’s tried very hard to wrestle her persona away from The Princess Diaries, Bride Wars quagmire it’s currently stuck in.
She was in Havoc. That’s pretty out of character for her.
Yeah, except nobody saw Havoc. It was direct to video, wasn’t it?
She’s playing at a completely different level with The Dark Knight Rises.
Bane was in Batman and Robin, but with this being the end to the Nolan Batman Trilogy I would say it could work. I hate to admit this but I like comic book movies yet the number of Comic Books I have read is slim. I am working on fixing that though.
Bane? Really? That’s the best we can come up with?
Nolan did a good job with what I consider to be a couple of second-string villains for Batman Begins, and blew it out of the water with the first-stringer’s in Dark Knight. I personally feel as though there was some potential wasted with Two-Face, but it was still a good dramatic punch in the story.
Catwoman I can understand. She’s definitely been an important part of Bruce’s life, and most people who know Batman know her. But Bane? He’s somewhere around third-string in my eyes. I’m sure he’s got his fans, but other than Knightfall, he’s barely been a blip in the rogues’ gallery that makes up Batman villains. If not for the fact that the other two movies were so rad, this would garner a supreme “meh” from me.
So many other villains that could be done better. Riddler and his brilliant mind, Poison Ivy and her toxin-based eco-terrorism, Mr. Freeze and the wonderful dramatic potential of his fallen wife, even the Mad Hatter and his Wonderlandish brain-washing. Hell, I’d rather see Killer Croc than Bane. Hugo Strange would be good, too.
Oh well. I’ll have to put my faith in Nolan to make something good of it.
See, no one thought that Heath Ledger could pull off Joker, but he was the best one! Sometimes, it just takes the right role to push an actor/actress to that next level.
And now I realize that someone else said EXACTLY the same thing yesterday. That’s what I get for reading two comments and skipping to the bottom.
Don’t worry, bman. We still love you.
I’m pretty sure it’s shopped, but still gives an impression of Hathaway as catwoman: link
Yeah… that’s a shop from an Adam Hughes cover from the Catwoman comic series. It’s not bad, actually. Certainly gives me a sense of things more better than Hathaway’s more recent performances might indicate.
I’m just saying she has an uphill climb in terms of setting the right tone for the character. I don’t think she innately possesses the qualities that I think of when I think of Catwoman.
Here’s one I just did of her
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a285/VariablePenguin/Cathaway.jpg
Technically they said she was playing Selina Kyle, so it could be that Catwoman is not in the movie at all, just her alter ego.
I’m not sure you can say Hathaway isn’t trying to expand. She has to do the ones she can in order to keep her name “up front”. Just because Havok wound up being a direct to dvd doesn’t mean she wasn’t trying to branch out. Someone has to give her a chance to break out of type-casting first, and Nolan seems to be pretty generous with giving actors that sort of chance.