The Dark Knight Rises European premiere report

The Dark Knight Rises held its European premiere in London, and despite the relentless drizzle, the stars turned out in force.

Director Christopher Nolan, producers Emma Thomas and Charles Roven, and co-writer Jonathan Nolan greeted the crowds, as did pretty much every major star of the movie, including Christian Bale, Tom Hardy, Anne Hathaway, Marion Cotillard and Joseph Gordon-Levitt.

One of many Tumbler's revved along the carpet, circling the most impressive fixture of the night: the giant, shattered bat-mask that sat in the middle of Leicester Square.

Tom Hardy was typically modest when it came to talking about his prep for playing Bane: "I went to the gym and I put some weight on, and I put a mask on and I got on stage and I did an accent - that was it."

And on joining an established bunch of actors for the threequel, he added: "They're all incredible actors and of course Nolan's an incredible director, so it's a dream come true."

Co-writer (and brother of Christopher) Jonathan Nolan talked to us about wrapping up the franchise: "Several times I've read brilliant comic-book writers and artists try to imagine, 'How does this end?' And I've read all of those, and Chris had read all of those.

"But Chris was really proceeding from his place of living with this character for years, and trying to imagine, 'What is the fitting ending for our take on this character?' I think he always had a sense of where he wanted to go.

"I'm very satisfied with the ending and I hope the audience are too. I hope they get a good time - that's what we always aim to provide - as well as our vision of an ending of this story."

And he's not rattled by the thought of a Batman reboot in a few years time. "When you come to work on Batman, you know you're working on a character that's been written in various media for 70 years, so you know you're not the last word on it. And that's actually kind of a relief in a sense.

"And hopefully someone really talented is going to come along in a few years and pick it up, and I can wait to see what they'll do with it."

And ultra-composer Hans Zimmer listed the challenges he faced scoring the movie: "A new villain... Not getting sad that it was our last one... Figuring out how not to procrastinate forever... Because it was our last one, I didn't want it to end.

"And in one way or another Chris and I have been working together now for eight years so, it was all a bit sad. It just came from conversations with Chris really so I just had a fairly insane idea and went for it. And he liked it!"

The Dark Knight Rises opens on 20 July 2012.

Read our film review of The Dark Knight Rises .

Watch our video interviews with Christopher Nolan and Anne Hathaway , Christian Bale , and Gary Oldman and Joseph Gordon-Levitt .

PRODUCTS

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.