Though not as exuberantly debated a topic as many of the other questions still lingering in the air around director Christopher Nolan's third and final Batman movie, The Dark Knight Rises (TDKR)—like what character Joseph Gordon-Levitt will play (odds are on Alberto Falcone) or if Anne Hathaway will appear only as Selina Kyle or if we will get to see her in costume as Catwoman (it seems likely)—fans have been speculating for months about where the movie will be shot. Early odds had TDKR returning to Chicago, which served as Gotham City in many scenes in The Dark Knight, with a "GPD" police SUV serving as "proof" of this as recently as last month, but everywhere from Detroit to New Orleans to Romania have been bandied about as location contenders. Now, we have official confirmation of the shooting location for TDKR and...everyone was wrong!
It was announced yesterday that Pittsburgh will serve as the new stand-in for Gotham City in TDKR, with the production shooting for "four to six weeks" in downtown Pittsburgh and surrounding areas. In a statement released to the Pittsburgh Post Gazette, Nolan called Pittsburgh "a beautiful city."
We have been able to find everything we were looking for here, and I am excited to spend the summer in Pittsburgh with our final installment of Batman.
Nolan apparently met yesterday morning with representatives of Pittsburgh Mayor Luke Ravenstahl to finalize the deal. Said Ravenstahl in a statement:
We are thrilled to be welcoming the Batman film to Pittsburgh, and eager for the economic impact that our city will experience. This is another example of the growing film industry in our community, and we will be rolling out the red carpet for them.
Jonathan Nolan, brother of the director, wrote the script for TDKR from an idea conceived by his brother and David S. Goyer. Returning in TDKR are Christian Bale as Bruce Wayne, aka Batman, Morgan Freeman as Lucius Fox, Sir Michael Caine as Alfred Pennyworth, and Gary Oldman as Commissioner James Gordon. New additions include Tom Hardy as the villain Bane and Juno Temple as a "street-smart Gotham girl." The movie is expected to go into production in May.
