The Dark Knight Rises

The Dark Knight Rises, As highly anticipated as “The Dark Knight Rises” is, an unfortunate parenthetical has followed most praise of the six-minute prologue and the first theatrical trailer.

Tom Hardy’s voice became the hot topic of Batman conversations as soon as critics saw the first minutes of the film, which focus heavily on the masked villain Bane. Fans complained, too, wishing they could comprehend more from a character they wanted to like so much, but almost every complaint came with a caveat tacked on: “I’m sure Nolan will fix it.”

Then, at the height of discussion, an unnamed source “close to the movie” told The Hollywood Reporter that Nolan had no intentions of completely reworking Bane’s voice, insisting he would only make slight changes to the sound mix.

Now, Collider has the testimony of a source that claims Warner Bros. sent a new soundtrack for the prologue still attached to select IMAX showings of “Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol,” making Bane’s dialogue “40 to 50 percent” clearer.

Here is the source’s full account: “A friend of mine who is an IMAX projectionist told me they received a new soundtrack for the ‘Dark Knight Rises’ prologue. He said it’s now a combo soundtrack with ‘Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol,’ but the cool thing about this is that they’ve cleaned up the dialogue. They’ve gone in and lowered the background noise of the plane and other things, thus making Bane’s dialogue clearer and more understandable. He asked some people after they left the movie if they could understand Bane and they all said they had no issue understanding him, and were excited for the movie.”

Warner Bros. told The New York Times’ Dave Itzkoff that there was “no truth” to the rumors, but Collider followed up its initial report with a letter purportedly from IMAX sent to its projectionists. The letter instructs them on how to dub the combined tracks properly and perfectly aligns with the original report.

This is certainly looking like the tweak we’ve expected from Nolan since The Hollywood Reporter article. If the director is adamant about keeping the gargled effect on Bane’s voice and encouraging the audience to participate in the film more, this is the change that needed to be made. Regardless of whether you’re part of the camp that insists the voice is comprehendible, the change, however slight it may be, was needed.

Dark Knight Rises Prologue

Dark Knight Rises Prologue, Almost exactly four years ago, moviegoers who bought a ticket to the IMAX presentations of I Am Legend were treated to a first look at the opening bank heist prologue of The Dark Knight – and, more specifically, its main villain, Heath Ledger’s mad anarchist, the Joker. Next week, starting Dec. 16, ticket buyers to select IMAX showings of Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol will enjoy a similar presentation of the opening seven minutes of The Dark Knight Rises – and, more specifically, its mysterious new villain, Tom Hardy’s creepy masked hulk, Bane.

It is easily the most anticipated movie preview of the holiday season, and EW, along with a gaggle of Los Angeles journalists, got a sneak peek at the footage Thursday night at an event hosted by director Christopher Nolan. I have been sworn to secrecy on most of the details of what I’ve seen until the general public can check out the prologue too. But my colleague Jeff Jensen and I did get a chance to speak with Nolan afterwards about the sequence and the advantages and the challenges of shooting in the IMAX format. One thing is definitely clear: Any concern that Nolan would be daunted by topping The Dark Knight‘s scope and scale will be eradicated after audiences get a look at what he has in store for The Dark Knight Rises.