The Pittsburgh shoot of The Dark Knight Rises has provided endless opportunities for reporting in the last few weeks, giving us everything from our first look at Bane in costume to a shot of Anne Hathaway on the set that may be Selina Kyle in resortwear, but is probably just Hathaway herself trying to stay cool. Over the weekend production moved over to the football stadium Heinz Field, where a game between the Gotham City Rogues-- as depicted by actual Pittsburgh Steelers player-- and the Rapid City Monuments got interrupted by Bane himself. The production has been so canny about spoilers that we still don't know exactly what's going on at the game, but a video snagged by an extra in the stadium (via Movies.com) gives us both a sense of the action and our first listen to Tom Hardy in character as Bane. Check it out below:
Thanks to the uploader's very helpful subtitles, we know that Bane has taken his mayhem to the people, blowing up the field in the middle of a game and bringing out a hostage-- maybe Commissioner Gordon? Maybe nobody we care about?-- for the assembled fans to witness. Since we can't see Hardy all that well in the video, we have no choice but to focus on his voice, which is truly bizarre, even stranger than Heath Ledger's David-Lynch-meets-John-Wayne-Gacy Midwestern drawl as The Joker. Even keeping in mind that Bane wears a mask over his mouth, his voice seems very strained and labored, and what's that accent exactly? In the comics Bane hailed from a fictional Caribbean island, but there seems to be some kind of affected English accent there, or maybe just an attempt to sound fancy in front of a giant crowd. You can hear Hardy's natural accent here and immediately tell that's not just Hardy's natural Britishness slipping through.
You guys are welcome to speculate about what's happening in the comments below, or maybe commiserate about the fact that, while all this leaked stuff from the Dark Knight Rises set is pretty interesting, it also seems to be systematically eliminating a lot of surprises in the film. Again, we still don't know the film's plot, which makes it hard to cry spoiler-- but a part of me wishes I could watch the movie without knowing the Gotham Rogues game would be interrupted by a giant explosion. Yes, I know I'm the person who posted the video and have no room to complain… but I can't be the only one torn between natural curiosity about something cool and a desire to save some surprises for later. Any of you guys with me?
