Christian Bale has been talking about where the final chapter of Chris Nolan’s Batman trilogy will take the character of Bruce Wayne, and from the sounds of it, he’ll be going to some very dark places indeed.
“How long will you let the pain and loss define your life?” was the question Bale posed to his fictional alter-ego when talking to Aceshowbiz . “Walking around chasing bad guys is very heroic and attracts attention, but at the end it all accounts for a means to deal with the pain of a huge loss.”
“We agreed that Bruce Wayne is absolutely sincere as Bruce Wayne,” he continues, “and as Batman utterly sincere but Bruce Wayne, the playboy, is a pure façade. It's a lie he has, somehow, to control one side of [ his ] soul that's not really under control. In fact, only Alfred knows who he is. It's time for Bruce Wayne to face the pain that has always stirred his life.”
Sounds pretty epic to us. Bale’s musings come in the wake of a rash of new info on The Dark Knight Rises , with Chris Nolan having officially confirmed that the story will take place eight years after the events depicted in The Dark Knight . The film’s set-up will find Batman in a grim place mentally, before he is pushed to his physical limits by the arrival of the monstrous Bane.
Meanwhile, Bale is gradually making his peace with the fact that this will be his last outing in the famous black suit. “It's like saying goodbye to an old friend," he admits. "When you have the opportunity to be a character so many times, you develop another relationship with him, a more profound one.”
And as for The Dark Knight Rises , he describes the experience as one of the richest so far. “Shooting in seven different locations chosen by Nolan was a pleasure. It's really a privilege to work [ on ], especially with the extraordinary troupe of actors, who always manage to meet Chris's expectations.”
The Dark Knight Rises arrives in UK cinemas on 20 July 2012. We’re not sure we could be any more excited…
