14 DAY TRIAL // It’s still a long way to go until fans of Chris Nolan’s “Batman” get to see their favorite caped crusader take on criminals again on the silver screen, but at least they have something new to pass the time with: the first official photo of villain Bane, played by Tom Hardy.
After it was announced that Hardy would take on the famous villain and thus reteam with his “Inception” director, it became clear that he’d have to hit the gym regularly if he wanted to make a convincing Bane.
Not that Hardy is a stranger to beefing up for movie roles: the one that got him worldwide critical acclaim, in “Bronson,” as Britain’s most infamous prisoner of all times, also saw him pack on lots of muscle.
In February this year, Hardy was saying that he’d already started working out to increase his body weight by adding muscle, but he claimed he wasn’t there just yet.
Judging by the recently released photo, he’s now there – if by “there” we mean “the point where he’s built like a tank.”
The official pic shows Bane with his back to the camera: it would seem he’s sitting down, while looking at a point over his shoulder.
He’s shirtless and only a part of his face is visible because he’s wearing a mask – fans of the original comics will instantly note that there’s a huge difference between the mask of the original Bane and the one Nolan’s is wearing.
All in all, in this first photo Hardy makes for a very menacing villain and he will undoubtedly put on a performance to match.
This was, in the end, the goal: to make Bane less cartoonish and more dangerous, as the British actor also noted in the aforementioned February interview.
“Have you seen Joel Schumacher’s Batman & Robin? Doesn’t look very menacing does he? Christopher Nolan will revisit the character so I wouldn’t go by that at all,” he said at the time.
“Dark Knight Rises” is out in theaters in 2012. Stay tuned here for more details.