Steve Buscemi hosted Saturday Night Live this weekend, and he made an appearance in a Dark Knight-style Digital Short from the Lonely Island.  The two-minute video is done in the style of Christopher Nolan's take on the Caped Crusader – complete with very Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard-sounding music – has Buscemi sporting a mustache as Commissioner Gordon and Andy Samberg in an ill-fitting Batman costume.  Unlike so many parodies of the cinematic Batman, this one does not focus on Christian Bale's chain-smoking-demon-with-a-really-bad-cough Batman voice, but instead on Bruce Wayne's love of pulling that ninja trick where he dramatically appears as if from nowhere then just disappears once his crime fighting point has been made.

Thanks for staying tuned, Bat-fans, as there's now an official list of IMAX theaters where you'll be able to see the first six minutes of The Dark Knight Rises on a jumbo screen near you this month.  As you may have heard, the conclusion of Christopher Nolan's crazy-popular Batman trilogy is arriving in theaters next summer.  As you may have also heard, a six minute prologue introducing the villainous Bane, played by Tom Hardy, will precede selected showings of Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol when it arrives on IMAX screens this December 16th.  Like The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Rises, the fourth Mission: Impossible features sequences shot with IMAX cameras, so Warner Bros and Paramount teamed up for a bit of mutally beneficial cross-pollination.

Casting on Akira, Warner Bros' live action remake of the seminal 1988 manga, which director Katsuhiro Otomo adapted from his own sprawling manga series of the same name, would seem to be proceeding apace.  Since early in the project's development, under another director, fans have made no secret of their displeasure at the whitewashed casting, with originally Japanese characters being layed by Caucasian actors.  Garrett Hedlund of Tron: Legacy is in talks to star as Kaneda, Kristen Stewart has been offered the female lead of Kei, and both Gary Oldman and Helena Bonham Carter were offered roles.  It looks like there might just be a familiar Japanese actor in the mix, as Ken Watanabe has reportedly been offered a substantial supporting role.

The Americanized live-action Akira received a green light from Warner Bros almost a month ago, with TRON: Legacy star Garrett Hedlund immediately mentioned as a frontrunner for a lead role.  Hedlund's involvement was confirmed not long thereafter, and with production scheduled to being in January or February of next year, casting is well underway on the adaptation of Katsuhiro Otomo's 1988 anime masterpiece, which was based on his own sprawling Manga comic book series.  Now, we might know the next thoroughly Caucasian actor to join the cast, as Kristen Stewart has reportedly been offered the female lead in Akira.

A little movie desperately trying to garner some attention, The Dark Knight Rises is filming on location in New York for just one more week, after which production will wrap and months of blurry metropolitan set photos will finally come to an end.  As it happens, though, what could very well be the last crop of unofficial images from the production have arrived online, and the goings-on in Gotham are pretty huge.  These images from the set of Christopher Nolan's finale to his much-loved Batman saga are, however, quite packed with SPOILERS, so avert your eyes right about now if you're at all wary of being spoiled.  If, on the other hand, you never miss a spoiler from The Dark Knight Rises, venture onward.

Prepare your indignation over whitewashing casting, ladies and gentleman, because the lead in Akira is going to be played by a corn-fed white boy, despite still bearing the distinctly un-Caucasian name of Kaneda.  When the live-action adaptation of Katsuhiro Otomo's manga series and landmark 1988 anime adaptation thereof had a different director months ago, a shortlist of potential leading men consisted of entirely white actors, upsetting a whole lot of fans.  Now that the project has finally received a green light under new director Jaume Collet-Serra, it's one of the actors on that list who will ride Kaneda's futuristic motorbike.  According to Variety, Garrett Hedlund is now in negotiations to play the lead role, after having been closely associated with it for weeks.

Principal photography on The Dark Knight Rises is scheduled to end when the production finishes up its last leg of shooting in New York City on November 14th.  When that happens, it will see the end of six months wherein unofficial set photos provided by far the best look at the very secretive filming, and we all mourn in whatever manner is most appropriate.  Until then, though, Christopher Nolan and company are shooting in one of the most densely populated cities in the world, and we can enjoy more photos from the set of The Dark Knight Rises.

On Friday of last week, we saw some images from the first day of filming in New York, with Christian Bale and Joseph Gordon-Levitt in and around Trump Tower.  Today, a gaggle of new unofficial pictures show more action being filmed downtown.  There's some motorcycle stuff and plenty of Gotham police cars, but more importantly, there are newer, clearer images of something we've seen before, something that could be considered a spoiler.

Today, production on The Dark Knight Rises began the final leg of its extensive location filming in New York under its code name Magnus Rex.  We've known for awhile that the two-week New York shoot would begin today in Manhattan, and though a previous rumor suggested that director Christopher Nolan might add the Occupy Wall Street protests to Gotham City turned out to be unfounded, the production was indeed out in full force today.  In fact, the location was quite the opposite of Occupy Wall Street, as Christian Bale and Joseph Gordon-Levitt were on hand to film scenes in and around a monument capitalism, self-glorification, and terrible hair: Trump Tower.

As this latest round of pretty much spoiler-free set photos shows, Donald Trump's edifice to himself is doubling as the headquarters of Wayne Enterprises, which explains why Bruce Wayne is present in one of his many sharp suits.  Gordon-Levitt, meanwhile, is suited up himself, wearing the Gotham City Police uniform of John Blake, a character created specifically for the film.

The Dark Knight Rises has finished up the penultimate leg of a long shooting schedule, as the production has wrapped up in Los Angeles, where its been filming since the start of September.  This week, the Christopher Nolan-directed franchise finale heads to New York, where scenes will be filmed in Manhattan, and last week, a rumor hit the interwebs postulating that Nolan and Co. might be adding the Occupy Wall Street protesters camped out in Zucotti Park to the texture of Gotham City.  It turns out that Occupy Wall Street won't be utilizing Occupy Wall Street during the production's two-week stay in the city so nice they named it twice.  Not only that, but some new, spoiler-filled details have emerged about story points being covered while The Dark Knight Rises hits Manhattan.

In July, the very first teaser trailer for The Dark Knight Rises whipped audiences into a passionate, applauding fervor despite featuring a bare minimum of footage and revealing virtually nothing on the ultra-secretive finale of Christopher Nolan's Bat-trilogy.  At that point, the production still had about four months of shooting left, so the brevity makes sense.  By December, though, The Dark Knight Rises will be in the midst of post-production, and last week, a rumor asserted that a six-minute prologue for the sequel would be attached to IMAX prints of this winter's Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol.  Today, that rumor, already generally accepted as true, gets an official confirmation and a caveat.