Details on 'The Dark Knight Rises' India Shoot

Friday, 29 April 2011 07:29 Written by Jordan DeSaulnier

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Details on 'The Dark Knight Rises' India Shoot

On Wednesday, a new The Dark Knight Rises rumor hit the interwebs, as The Dark Knight Rises rumors are wont to do. Unlike, say, Joseph Gordon-Levitt playing Alberto Falcone, however, it turns out that this rumor is true, and production on Christopher Nolan's final Batman film will spend some time in Jodhpur, India. Some details on the two-day shoot have emerged, including the presence of Nolan and Christian Bale and an exact location.

The Times of India confirm that Nolan and Bale will be in Jodhpur to film a week from now, on May 6th and 7th.

Nolan had come down to India in December to scout for locations in Jodhpur. That was when he chose to shoot in Jodhpur's Mehrangar Fort. The main crew will start arriving from May 1. Christian Bale is expected to arrive in India on May 4 or May 5. Though permissions have been sought for shooting the film for the whole of May, the unit will shoot in India for only two days – May 6 and May 7.

When the rumor first hit, Devin at Badass Digest reasoned that the motivation for shooting in Jodhpur is the Mehrangahr Fort. Turns out, he was right on the money.

Incidentally, hotels in Jaipur and Jodhpur have been booked for the crew. Says a source, "Nolan had scouted locations in both Jodhpur and Jaipur. But, he fell in love with Jodhpur and decided to return to film here. They are coming with a very small unit of around 15 people and will be shooting here for two days. There are no Bollywood actors being cast in the movie. But, local actors and crew members might be roped in. The unit wants to use the beautiful fort as the background for the movie. However, nothing is known yet whether Jodhpur will feature as an Indian city in the movie or not."

According to Devin, the Fort is likely to serve as a headquarters for the League of Shadows, the mysterious group headed by Ra's Al Ghul that first taught Bruce Wayne all those ninja skills in an effort to destroy Gotham. The Mehrangahr Fort certainly looks like it could double for the abode of an ancient cabal of assassins.

The brief visit is similar to the international components of production on both Batman Begins and The Dark Knight, which visited Iceland and Hong Kong, though for greater periods than the two days in Jodhpur.

The Dark Knight Rises is scheduled to hit theaters on July 20, 2012. Once again, it stars Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Morgan Freeman, and Gary Oldman, along with fresh additions Anne Hathaway, Tom Hardy, Marion Cotillard, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and Juno Temple.