Two new snippets of news about The Dark Knight Rises just came out, and I must say, things are really starting to point towards the Talia al Ghul rumors being true. What we’ve got here is an interview with Marion Cotillard and some leaked set photos, both of which are actually quite revealing (especially when coupled with the news of the India shoot, and Josh Pence playing a young version of Ra’s al Ghul).
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| Talia al Ghul will fuck your shit up. |
For starters, there’s Marion Cotillard’s LA Times interview. On the surface, it’s not really all that telling, and she doesn’t have anything earth shattering to reveal. She does, however, say that her role in the film is “a secret” which raises some interesting points. Now, I realize that Nolan has almost certainly forbade his cast members from revealing even the slightest bit of information about TDKR, but it still seems odd that Cotillard had nothing to say about her role, even after some information about it has been revealed. Maybe I’m reading into this too much (it wouldn’t be the first time), but why didn’t she just repeat what we already know about her character? Possibly because there’s something more to Miranda Tate?
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| Marion Cotillard in a photo shoot for Harper's Bazaar Japan. |
So… a big green pit of slime? Is that all? Well, not exactly. Popular speculation says that this isn’t just any ol’ pit of green stuff – it’s a Lazarus Pit. Comic book fans will already know what this means, but here’s the rundown for everyone else: Ra’s al Ghul’s Lazarus Pits are kind of like Fountains of Youth, which Ra’s al Ghul uses to keep himself all young and not dead and stuff (See? Lazarus? Like the bible story? I just love it when my religious upbringing actually makes itself useful…), and they’ve played a fairly big role in the Batman comics.
If the green pool in the pictures is indeed a Lazarus Pit, it would point towards Nolan taking a somewhat fantastical turn in his normally fairly realistic Batman movies. Some might say that this proves the rumors wrong, but it’s always possible that Nolan will come up with a scientific explanation for the Lazarus Pits. Besides, doesn’t anyone else remember The Prestige? Tesla’s seemingly-magical teleportation/cloning machine wasn’t exactly the most believable thing in the world…
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| Ra's al Ghul in one of his Lazarus Pits. |
Anyway, with all this taken into account, I’m really starting to believe the Talia rumors – they just fit so perfectly. Still, we’ll have to keep an eye out for more information.
Oh, and on a sorta-kinda-related note, happy Free Comic Book Day! Go get a free comic book. That’s an order.
