Casting news surrounding Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight Rises continues despite the fact Warner Bros. has already issued a press release announcing the start of production and following the first reveal of Tom Hardy as the film’s villain, Bane.
The three latest actors to join the cast are Matthew Modine (Full Metal Jacket), Tom Conti (Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence) and Joey King (Ramona and Beezus). Of course, as is tradition until Bat-fanatics figure it out, the roles each will play are being kept quiet, other than Modine’s character of which all that’s known is he will be named Nixon, a character name Variety puts in quotes which may imply the character wears a Richard Nixon mask.
ScreenRant‘s Sandy Schaefer already turned to Frank Miller’s “The Dark Knight Returns” comic in which I now understand a convenience store robber wore a Richard Nixon mask, which may in fact be where the script drew inspiration.
The same Screenrant post speculates 11-year-old Joey King’s role as potentially a slightly older version of Jim Gordan’s (Gary Oldman) daughter Barbara or even a 13-year old Carrie Kelley, a.k.a. the first full-time female Robin, who was also featured in Miller’s “Dark Knight Returns.” I must say, it is nice to have these kinds of sites around to keep these things straight for me.
Otherwise, filming on The Dark Knight Rises is underway for a July 20, 2012.
