Actual Batman 3 news! Marion Cotillard isn't Talia Al Ghul, Joseph Gordon-Levitt isn't Black Mask, Dr. Strange, or Alberto Falcone.

As usual, everything you think you know about The Dark Knight Rises is wrong. After months of 'rumors', Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Marion Cotillard have been officially signed for the third Chris Nolan Batman picture. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Cotillard is not be playing Talia Al Ghul, but rather 'Miranda Tate, a Wayne Enterprises board member eager to help a still-grieving Bruce Wayne resume his father’s philanthropic endeavors for Gotham.' This is certainly a notable development on two fronts: A) It implies that Wayne's relationship with Rachel Dawes will not be tossed under the rug and forgotten in the wake of her murder in The Dark Knight. B) It also implies that Nolan may be getting away from the whole 'Bruce Wayne pretends to be an asshole so no one suspects he's Batman' shtick that I do so loathe. It's a classic trope of the comics over the last twenty-five years or so, but it remains a silly and self-defeating concept, as it neuters the theoretically much-greater potential for social good that Bruce Wayne can provide so Batman can run around at night and beat up muggers.

It's also good to see that Nolan may be telling a more Bruce Wayne-centric story for the finale, as Batman more-or-less became a supporting character in his own movie in the battle of wills between Harvey Dent, Jim Gordon, and The Joker. As for Joseph Gordon-Levitt, he has been rumored to be playing, at one time or another, The Riddler, Black Mask, Alberto Falcone, Dr. Hugo Strange, The Joker, and Egghead. Instead, he will be playing 'John Blake, a Gotham City beat cop assigned to special duty under the command of Commissioner Gordon'. Whether or not Blake will play any special role outside of merely being someone for Gary Oldman to talk to remains to be seen. But this bit of news does finally put the nail in the coffin of the whole "Nolan is adapting 'Prey' story-arc'" meme. Whether or not Tate turns out to be secretly Talia Al Ghul, it appears that Bane (Tom Hardy) remains the only source of overt villainy so far with Anne Hathaway's Catwoman not yet confirmed as friend or foe.

Once again, it remains amusing just how inaccurate the last several months of rumor-mongering for The Dark Knight Rises has turned out. The movie rumor sites were wrong about who Thomas Hardy was playing, wrong about who Joseph Gordan-Levitt was playing, apparently wrong about Marion Cotillard, and possibly dead-wrong on who the villains would be (not Riddler, not Black Mask, not the Holiday Killer, not Dr. Hugo Strange, and now possibly not Talia Al Ghul). Nice work Internet. Maybe next time you can wait for the press release.

Scott Mendelson