Development In 2005,
David S. Goyer confirmed that he wrote treatments for two
Batman Begins (2005) sequels involving the
Joker; the first would involve
Batman, Harvey Dent and Commissioner Gordon hunting the Joker, while the second would have the Joker scarring Dent and turning him into
Two-Face during his trial. The third treatment ended in the same way as the final version of
The Dark Knight Rises. Other aspects of the third treatment were incorporated into
The Dark Knight (2008). However,
Heath Ledger's family stated that he was planning on reprising his role as the
Joker before his death, a notion supported by Ledger's co-star
Aaron Eckhart, who portrayed Two-Face in that film. After Ledger's death, director
Christopher Nolan decided not to recast the role out of respect for his performance, and was initially hesitant to make a third film. Warner Bros. president of production Jeff Robinov had hoped a third film would be released in 2011 or 2012. Nolan only agreed to a third film based on finding a worthwhile story, fearing that he would become bored halfway through production if he discovered the film to be unnecessary. However, Nolan wanted the antagonist to be vastly different from the previous incarnations and committed to using
Bane instead, This homage to Dickens was briefly illustrated by having Bane inconspicuously finger knit
paracord in the film, symbolizing
Madame Defarge, the villain of
A Tale of Two Cities, and more overtly by Commissioner Gordon's eulogy for Bruce Wayne, which is taken directly from Dickens's novel. The film's storyline was compared to the
Batman comic book series' story arc "
Knightfall" (1993), which showcases Bane; the miniseries
The Dark Knight Returns (1986), in which Batman returns to
Gotham City after a ten-year absence; and the story arc "
No Man's Land" (1999), which depicts a Gotham cut off from the rest of the world and overrun by gangs. Nolan confirmed the Joker would not return in the third film, and dismissed rumors that he considered using unused footage of Ledger from
The Dark Knight.
The Dark Knight Rises reunited Nolan with many of his past collaborators, including cinematographer
Wally Pfister, production designer
Nathan Crowley, editor
Lee Smith, costume designer Lindy Hemming, special effects supervisors Paul Franklin and
Chris Corbould, and composer
Hans Zimmer.
Filming on the set of
The Dark Knight Rises in
Pittsburgh During location scouting in December 2010, Nolan began searching for locations such as India, Romania, and Michigan. According to the
Romania Insider, Nolan was interested in
Bucharest's historical centers, Edgar Quinet Street, the
Palace of the Parliament, and the
Turda salt mine. The film had an estimated budget of $250–300 million, coming down to about $230 million after tax credits. Nolan elected not to film in
3-D, but instead stated that he intended to focus on improving image quality and scale using the
IMAX format.
The Dark Knight Rises featured over an hour of footage shot in IMAX (by comparison,
The Dark Knight contained 28 minutes). Nolan had several meetings with IMAX Vice-president David Keighley to work on the logistics of projecting films in digital IMAX venues. Wally Pfister had expressed interest in shooting the film entirely in IMAX, but because of the considerable noise made by IMAX cameras,
35 mm and
70 mm cameras had to be used for shooting the film's dialogue scenes, as dialogue had to be dubbed when shot with IMAX cameras. Chairman and president of the
IMAX Corporation Greg Foster stated that IMAX planned to run the film in its theatres for two months, despite only being contractually committed to run the film for two weeks. Nolan also bypassed the use of a
digital intermediate for the film, resulting in less manipulation of the filmed image and higher
film resolution. Filming was scheduled to start in May and conclude in November 2011.
Principal photography commenced on May 6, 2011, in
Jodhpur, India, at the
Mehrangarh Fort before moving to
Pittsburgh, where it operated under the
ruse title Magnus Rex to reduce the visibility of the production. Shooting locations within the city included
Heinz Field, the site of an
American football game, with members of the
Pittsburgh Steelers playing the Gotham Rogues football team. More than 11,000 extras were used to depict the shot sequence. Filming in Pittsburgh also took place at the
Mellon Institute and
Software Engineering Institute at
Carnegie Mellon University. A letter sent out to residents and business owners detailing road closures revealed that the streets of the city would be featured "as the start of [the] film".
9-1-1 operators were told to expect an increase in calls related to gunshots and explosions in the film's production. The Pittsburgh leg of production wrapped after three weeks on August 21, 2011. The next portion of the filming began in Los Angeles in late August and finished up on October 23 after nine weeks of filming. New York and New Jersey were the next places of filming. The
Trump Tower replaced the
Richard J. Daley Center as the location for the headquarters of
Wayne Enterprises. In November 2011, shooting shifted to
Newark, New Jersey.
Newark City Hall and
Military Park were among the locations used for filming. Other shooting locations include London and
Glasgow, the latter of which was used for "additional exterior filming". Principal photography concluded on November 14, 2011. The external waterfall scene at the end of the film was shot at
Sgwd Henrhyd falls, on the edge of the
Brecon Beacons National Park in
Wales. Production photos from filming in Pittsburgh showed a second
Tumbler chassis after the first was destroyed, indicating that a new Batmobile would be in the film, following the destruction of the first in
The Dark Knight. Further set photos revealed a "new vehicle" being transported to
Wabash Tunnel, prompting speculation as to its nature. In June 2011, Autoblog confirmed the presence of the new
Lamborghini Aventador on the film set. in Nottingham was used as
Wayne Manor, Bruce Wayne's residence. Several accidents occurred during the production of the film. While filming at
Wollaton Hall,
Nottingham, a
tractor-trailer crashed into the main entrance, though no one was injured. A stuntman
parachutist later crashed through the roof of a home in Cairngorm Gliding Club, Feshiebridge in
Scotland, and became wedged there after a failed landing during a skydiving stunt; he was not seriously injured. While filming scenes in Pittsburgh, Hathaway's stunt double crashed into an IMAX camera while filming a sequence that required her to ride a
Batpod down a flight of stairs during a riot. There were no injuries, but the camera was destroyed. A second accident took place in Pittsburgh when the truck carrying the then-unidentified vehicle later termed "the Bat" went off-course and crashed into a lighting array, damaging the model of the aircraft. Production was delayed while the model was repaired. Shortly before Christmas of 2011, Nolan invited several prominent directors, including
Edgar Wright,
Michael Bay,
Bryan Singer,
Jon Favreau,
Eli Roth,
Duncan Jones and
Stephen Daldry, to
Universal CityWalk's IMAX theatre for a private screening of the first six minutes of
The Dark Knight Rises, which had been shot on IMAX film and edited from the
original camera negative. Nolan, feeling that the use of
film stock in cinema was being phased out due to the introduction of
digital cinematography and projection, used this screening to make a case for the continued use of film, which he asserts still offers superior image quality to any digital format, and warned the filmmakers that unless they continued to assert their choice to use film in their productions, they may eventually lose it as an option. Nolan explained, "I wanted to give them a chance to see the potential, because I think IMAX is the best film format that was ever invented. It's the gold standard and what any other technology has to match up to, but none have, in my opinion. The message I wanted to put out there was that no one is taking anyone's digital cameras away. But if we want film to continue as an option, and someone is working on a big studio movie with the resources and the power to insist [on] film, they should say so. I felt as if I didn't say anything, and then we started to lose that option, it would be a shame. When I look at a digitally acquired and projected image, it looks inferior against an original negative anamorphic print or an IMAX one."
Design Costume design Costume designer
Lindy Hemming explained that Bane uses a mask to inhale an
analgesic gas, which, in Nolan's words, "keeps his pain just below the threshold so he can function." In designing Bane's costume, Hemming needed it to look "like an amalgam of all sorts of bits and pieces he cobbled together, as he passed through some very remote places. We made parts of his vest, for example, from fragments of an old military tent. His clothes are militaristic, but are not in any way a uniform." Hemming also designed Bane's mask to look "animalistic". Costume effects supervisor Graham Churchyard created a three-dimensional model of actor Tom Hardy's face and skull to design the mask, allowing the mask to perfectly conform to the contours of Hardy's face. Hemming personally designed Bane's coat, which took two years to complete. Taking inspiration from a
Swedish army jacket and a
frock coat from the French Revolution, it was designed to make Bane look equal parts dictatorial and revolutionary. The design was difficult as Hemming struggled to find a tailor in Los Angeles who could work with
shearling. The
Batsuit consisted of 110 separate pieces, each of which had to be replicated dozens of times over the course of the production. The base layer was made of a
polyester mesh that is used by the military and high-tech sports manufacturers because of its breathability and moisture-wicking properties. Molded pieces of flexible urethane were then attached to the mesh, to form the overall body armor plating. Carbon fiber panels were placed inside the sections on the legs, chest and abdomen. The cowl was sculpted from a cast of Christian Bale's head to become a perfect fit for Bale. The suit remained unchanged for the film since
The Dark Knight. In creating Selina Kyle's catsuit, two layers of material were used, the outer layer being
polyurethane-coated spandex embossed with a hexagonal pattern. The catsuit also consisted of
elbow-length gloves, a
utility belt, and
thigh-high boots with spike heels.
Production design Concept artist Tully Summers commented on Nolan's style of
cinematography when asked about the difference between his designs for this film and fantasy-based designs for
Men in Black 3 (2012): "The difference for me was Christopher Nolan's visual style. One of the things that makes his Batman movies so compelling is their tone of plausibility. He will often prefer a raw, grittier design over one that is very sleek and product design pretty. It's sort of a practical military aesthetic. This stuff is made to work, not impress shoppers.
The Dark Knight Rises is a war film." Producer
Emma Thomas stated that
The Dark Knight Rises has a different visual aesthetic from the first two Nolan-directed features, explaining that "it's meant to be winter in Gotham, so that right there is going to lend a whole different look to the film." The film introduces a vehicle that has been compared with the
Batplane and the
Batcopter, dubbed "the Bat". In designing the Bat, Nathan Crowley approached it as if it were an actual military project, emphasising the need for it to "fit into the same family" as the Tumbler and the
Batpod. The final version of the Bat takes its design cues from the
Harrier jump jet,
Bell Boeing V-22 Osprey and the
Boeing AH-64 Apache. Chris Corbould described the Bat's size and shape as presenting a major challenge for filming given Christopher Nolan's emphasis on practical effects over
computer-generated imagery. In order to make the Bat "fly", it was variously supported by wires, suspended from cranes and helicopters, and mounted on a purpose-built vehicle with hydraulic controls to simulate movement. When designing the
Batcave set, Crowley and fellow production designer Kevin Kavanaugh hit upon the idea of flooding the Batcave and having Batman's equipment, the
Batsuit and a
supercomputer rise from the water. Another set was designed at
Cardington as an "underground prison", a rough-hewn labyrinth of stone cells in a vast abyss with a vertical shaft leading to the surface. Exteriors above the prison were filmed in
Jodhpur,
India, chosen because the "forbidding landscape added to the desolation". ==Music==