‘The Dark Knight Rises’ Releases; 1st Photo of Tom Hardy as Bane

Christopher Nolan is using social media to his advantage, but fans are also seeing the benefit. The first photo of Tom Hardy as Bane in The Dark Knight Rises has been released. It seems the viral campaign has just been activated, however.

Directed by: Christopher Nolan
Produced by: Christopher Nolan, Emma Thomas, Charles Roven
Screenplay by: Christopher Nolan, Jonathan Nolan
Music by: Hans Zimmer
Cinematography: Wally Pfister
Starring: Christian Bale, Anne Hathaway, Michael Caine, Tom Hardy, Gary Oldman, Morgan Freeman
Release date: July 20, 2012
Language: English
Budget: $250 million

Yesterday the website went online with an audio file of what sounded like people chanting. According to Variety, actors Matthew Modine, Tom Conti and Joey King (an 11-year old who starred in last summer's "Ramona and Beezus") have joined the cast of director Christopher Nolan's epic final Batman film.

The movie will be filming starting in June, right here in Gotham (as well as Pittsburgh, London, and India). If you spot Magnus Rex and Fox Hills Green locations around town, those are the names it will be filming under. Fans quickly realized there was a clue to decode on the site and once the figured out it was  “#thefirerises” they started Tweeting, MTV News reports.