World Building: Man of Steel, Joseph Gordon-Levitt May Be Involved In Justice League Movie

Update, 7 p.m.: According to Sydney Bucksbaum at Hollywood.com, Gordon-Levitt’s representatives have “refuted the rumor entirely.” Of course, one time I had representatives “refute” the “rumor” that I had “run over” an “elderly person” while I was “hammered.” At least they did until my representatives negotiated a final “plea agreement.” So for now, I guess this will remain, as it did this morning, a cool-sounding rumor.

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Ever since Marvel Studios’ Avengers movie made about a bazillion dollars earlier this year, it was all but a foregone conclusion that Warner Bros. would be coming out with a Justice League movie. You know, unless for some reason they hate money. Watching a movie about a superhero team make beaucoup delores, to the point it has only been beaten by blue people fucking or young lovers freezing to death in the frigid North Atlantic (again: blue people fucking. Pow! Thank you folks, I’ll be here all week! I work here!), and then leaving your own superhero property on the table, would be less a poor management decision than terminal self-destructive whiskey insanity.

The Justice League movie has quietly been in pre-production since Warner Bros. won the latest battle for the rights to Superman against the estate of Superman creator Joe Shuster about a month ago, but without a lot of detail as to how they were gonna proceed. Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy had ended, with both Nolan and Batman actor Christian Bale saying pretty strongly that they wouldn’t be involved in anything else Batman-related. Zack Snyder was deep into production on Superman movie Man of Steel, but he’d said back in March of last year that Man of Steel wouldn’t be part of any Justice League movie. So all initial indications were that Warner Bros. was planning pull a reverse of Marvel Studios, and just make a Justice League movie, spinning individual heroes’ movies off of that.

But that was then, and $623,279,547 Avengers movie dollars ago. Today, it looks like there might be some moves to make Justice League tie not only into Man of Steel… but into Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy.

Conan O’Brien Finds Link Between TDKR Baine And Mitt Romney (Bane)

So, on Tuesday I guess Rush Limbagh said some nonsense about how the villain in The Dark Knight Rises, Bane, is actually supposed to be a liberal slam against Mitt Romney and his former company Bain Capital. Really. Here’s the quote:

Have you heard, this new movie, the Batman movie — what is it, the Dark Knight Lights Up or something? Whatever the name of it is. That’s right, Dark Knight Rises, Lights Up, same thing. Do you know the name of the villain in this movie? Bane. The villain in the Dark Knight Rises is named Bane. B-A-N-E. What is the name of the venture capital firm that Romney ran, and around which there’s now this make-believe controversy? Bain. The movie has been in the works for a long time, the release date’s been known, summer 2012 for a long time. Do you think that it is accidental, that the name of the really vicious, fire-breathing, four-eyed, whatever-it-is villain in this movie is named Bane? … Anyway, so this evil villain in the new Batman movie is named Bane. And there’s now discussion out there as to whether or not this was purposeful, and whether or not it will influence voters. It’s going to have a lot of people. This movie, the audience is going to be huge, lot of people are going to see the movie. And it’s a lot of brain-dead people, entertainment, the pop culture crowd. And they’re going to hear ‘Bane’ in the movie, and they are going to associate Bain. And the thought is that when they start paying attention to the campaign later in the year, and Obama and the Democrats keep talking about Bain, not Bain Capital, but Bain, Romney and Bain, that these people will think back to the Batman movie — “Oh yeah, I know who that is.” There are some people who think it will work. There are some people think it will work. Others think — “You’re really underestimating the American people who think that will work.”

I’d say his statements must make the folks over at Southeast Missouri State University really proud of him, but he never actually graduated from there. Bane, the Batman villain, was created in 1993, Rush. Even if you don’t have a full college education, Google is your fucking friend, buddy.

Meanwhile, leave it to the fine staff at Conan O’Brien to poke further fun at this ridiculous statement.

The Dark Knight Rises is in theaters now.

Instant Panel, Just Add Discomfort: Fifteen-Minute Dark Knight Rises Featurette

As we speak, we are en route to San Diego for SDCC 2012, enduring a combination of planes, trains, automobiles, TSA groping and hideous nicotine fits. So expect quiet for the remainder of our broadcast day.

But in the meantime, please enjoy this fifteen-minute featurette on The Dark Knight Rises. You can use it to simulate being at a big SDCC Hall H panel! Simply stand outside the room containing your computer for ten, maybe twelve hours. Try to fart copiously and often to simulate the smell. Maybe you can invite a neighbor kid in to irritate you during the process! Then sit across the room and watch the video! It’ll be like you’re actually at SDCC!

Just remember that you’re not allowed to urinate while you’re waiting in line.

New Dark Knight Rises Promo Unveiled During MTV Movie Awards

Something wonderful happened at the MTV Movie Awards last night – and it wasn’t just that Jennifer Anniston was named “Best Dirtbag“, an honor that’s been overdue to her for years now. No, no. A new promo trailer for The Dark Knight Rises aired. This time with some new footage of Christian Bale in a humorous exchange with Morgan Freeman, more Selina Kyle/Catwoman, and Bane vs. Batman throwdown goodness. Check out the awesomeness!

The Dark Knight Rises hits US theaters on July 20th, 2012.

Feets Don’t Fail Me Now

Things are a bit busy today here at the Crisis On Infinite Midlives Home Office. Between an upgrade we need to run on a major site component on the Web server, and putting the finishing touches on our application for press credentials for San Diego Comic-Con, we are simply balls-out today.

So please forgive any outages you might see as we run the overhaul, and in the meantime, here’s the latest released television spot for The Dark Knight Rises, as well as three banner posters recently released by Warner Brothers for the flick.

And not only that, but we’ve got a sooper seekrit hidden The Dark Knight Rises one-sheet poster that could only be found by scanning the QR code at the bottom of one of the official one-sheets WB released last week. It’s a different kind of image than we’ve seen associated with the movie, and one that should appeal to foot fetishists and… well, probably just foot fetishists. Let’s just say somewhere, Quentin Tarantino is probably taking a break from firing off the cast of Django Unchained to look at this poster to do a completely different kind of firing off.

All are available after the jump.

Third Dark Knight Rises Trailer – Now With More Intelligible Bane Audio!

In case you haven’t seen it yet, the newest trailer for The Dark Knight Rises is out. Not only do we get to see more of Batman, Catwoman, and Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s John Blake, we also get to hear Bane’s voice more clearly as he menaces Batman. Yay! Complaining about stuff on the Internet works!

The Dark Knight Rises opens in US theaters on July 20, 2012.

What Happens When Batman: The Animated Series Meets The Dark Knight Rises?

Awesomeness. That’s what.

Over on The Mary Sue, Jill Pantozzi, who you may know as @TheNerdyBird on Twitter, recently shared this video mash up of Batman: The Animated Series and the sound footage of The Dark Knight Rises trailer (via Geek Tyrant):

It’s weird, but I somehow understand Bane better in this version. Maybe because I don’t have to look at the weird face mask/grill thing he wears in the movie:

That's some head gear! You need to look into other orthodontists.

The Dark Knight Rises is set to be released in US theaters on July 20, 2012.

The Dark Knight Rises Trailer Finally Out

Well, it’s finally out and far more viewable than the blurry cell phone footage that made its way to The Gothamist four days ago. I give to you, for your viewing pleasure, The Dark Knight Rises official movie trailer:

Just in the nick of time, now that the other, also blurry, cell phone footage of the 8 minutes of DKR prologue got yanked from the Internet by Warner Bros. I will say the brief snippets of Anne Hathaway as Selina Kyle are definitely getting me more interested in her/the movie’s take on the character. Oh, and it’s nice to finally be able to understand what Bane is saying without needing a script to follow – although the dialogue in that script refers to the DKR prologue, not that Bane was particularly intelligible in the trailer leaked on Dec. 15, either.

The Dark Whowhatnow Prologue?

It’s 10 p.m. on Thursday, and you should hurry up and look… because it won’t be here by 11.

Exclusive Pictures of Pussy!

Some celebrity gossip site called Just Jared got their hands on some more pictures of Anne Hathaway in the Catwoman costume she’s wearing for The Dark Knight Rises.

Here’s one; you can go here for the rest if you don’t mind that their second top story is about Justin Bieber going to Chik-Fil-A… and if you do mind (Please God, if you’re reading this Web site, tell me you fucking mind), Bleeding Cool has all the pictures plus a few more exclusives you can check out.

There seems to be a lot of negative buzz in the comics world about the new costume ever since the first official photo of Hathaway in the suit came out about a month and a half ago – not enough cat ear, too much cat ear but the mask is stupid, no tail, the high heels are dumb for a cat suit – all of which make comics people look less like they’re interested in a good Batman movie and more like petulant, disappointed furries losing their boners.