Matthew Modine and Tom Conti join The Dark Knight Rises cast

With the unveiling of Tom Hardy's Bane that occurred to rapturous excitement yesterday, The Dark Knight Rises anticipation has been at fever pitch.

Shooting is officially underway on Nolan's epic trilogy closer, and a few more names have been added to the line-up.

Matthew Modine (ironically best known for playing 'Joker' in Full Metal Jacket ) has landed the role of a character only known as 'Nixon': we're guessing he's not playing Tricky Dicky, but if Nolan is using Ra's al Ghul flashbacks, you never know…

Modine looked set to become a big star after Jacket , but his career never went quite as stellar as expected. Perhaps that had something to do with mega-flop Cutthroat Island .

Still, he's worked fairly consistently since then, and luckily Nolan has a penchant for unsung 80s heroes (Rutger Hauer, Anthony Michael Hall, Tom Berenger) in his A-list populated blockbusters.

Also joining the cast is Tom Conti, the Scottish thesp known for his work on the stage as well as the big and small screens.

His notable movies include Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence , Reuben, Reuben , and Shirley Valentine .

And finally, Joey King, the young actress who starred in Ramona and Beezus , has also come aboard the production.

Despite being only 11 years old, King has racked up an impressive list of screen credits, including appearances in Crazy, Stupid, Love , Battle: Los Angeles and Quarantine .

There's currently no word on who Conti and King will be playing.

The Dark Knight Rises is released on 20 July 2012, and we're counting down the minutes…

Matt Maytum is the former Editor of Total Film magazine. Over the past decade, Matt has worked in various roles for TF online and in print, including at GamesRadar+. Bucket-list-ticking career highlights have included reporting from the set of Tenet and Avengers: Infinity War, as well as covering Comic-Con, TIFF and the Sundance Film Festival.