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Tom Hardy didn't need to see a script before he agreed to play the villainous Bane in "The Dark Knight Rises."  All he needed was a phone call.

Hardy said that in their initial conversations, director Christopher Nolan "wouldn't tell me anything else about the character, except that he was a very bad guy."

In an interview with Yahoo! Movies, Nolan discussed how he recruited Hardy, who had previously appeared in Nolan's "Inception," to take on the role of the hulking masked terrorist who faces off against Batman.  Nolan recounted how he called Hardy after finishing "Inception" and laid out the unique challenges of the part.


"I said, 'Tom, there's good news and bad news,'" Nolan recalled.  "The good news is I've got a great character for you. The bad news is, you're going to cover your face. People are only going to see your eyes. You're going to have to express depths of evil just through your voice, your eyes, and your physicality. And I knew he'd be up for that, and he was. He loved it."

Hardy has also said that audiences not seeing his face -- or not getting to see the script himself beforehand -- did nothing to dampen his enthusiasm for the role.  Hardy said he asked Nolan, "You want me to come and work with you, travel around the world, have a stunt team and all the weapons I could possibly want to play with, and all I have to do is wear a mask?" When Nolan answered yes, Hardy said, "I'm in!" Eventually, of course, he discovered that he was playing the masked villain Bane.

After agreeing to the role, Hardy set about transforming himself from the slick, well-dressed forger he played in "Inception" to the menacing bad guy.  Hardy had some experience beefing up for earlier movies like "Bronson," where he played a notorious prison inmate, and "Warrior," in which he played an MMA fighter.  For Bane, he put on 30 lbs. through months of rigorous training (and eating).


He also had to deal with Bane's mask, which in the movie delivers an anesthetic to dull the constant, paralyzing pain from a botched prison surgery.  The mask was designed from a 3D computer model of Hardy's face so it would seal tightly around him.  Costume designer Lindy Hemming said, "It was gripping Tom's head like a vice... The fact that he tolerated it, let alone acted with it, was astounding."

Hardy is actually one of three actors from "Inception" drafted by Nolan to come aboard "The Dark Knight Rises."  Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Marion Cottilard also play significant roles in both film.  Hardy told The Hollywood Reporter at Monday night's premiere for "Rises" that he didn't realize that Nolan was considering him for Bane while they were making "Inception."  Hardy said, "I hope he quietly auditioned me during this film for something else."

"The Dark Knight Rises" opens this Friday.

"The desire is: What's going to be the interesting story?" Tom Hanks explained of his creative process on Tuesday during a phone call with Yahoo! Movies.

Hanks has launched his web series "Electric City" -- a sci-fi animation he created and to which he also lent his voice -- on Yahoo! Screen.

"I wanted to do something that was -- for a lack of a better phrase here -- somehow deadly serious," Hanks said of the animated series, which depicts a post-apocalyptic world with limited technology.

In it, Hanks plays Cleveland Carr, an operative tasked with keeping order in his city, often with the help of lawless, violent tactics.

With two Oscar wins and a sophisticated-yet-relateable onscreen persona, it's difficult not to compare Hanks to Jimmy Stewart. And like the indelible star of "It's A Wonderful Life," Hanks too likes to experiment. (Stewart's career could have easily flourished with "safer" choices than Hitchock's "Rope" (1948) and "Harvey" (1950) -- in which he plays opposite an imaginary giant rabbit, for example.)


Hanks -- who often diffused hype with self-effacing jokes during our call -- seemed reluctant to acknowledge the comparison to Stewart. But he did find a link between a Stewart movie and his new character Carr: "I just recently saw 'Winchester '73' in which [Stewart] plays a very angry guy that goes around trying to kill everybody."

"Everybody in some way has darker moods... [there are] thematically ironic stories I want to tell," Hanks further explained of his motivation behind "Electric City."

The Internet, Hanks joked, "[is] not all cat videos or guys getting kicked in the nuts." And with "Electric City," he said he intended to create something very different than what the general public is accustomed to seeing in the online original content space.

Hanks said he wanted to portray "a different brand of noir storytelling that is in... an unexplained world, as opposed to a world where we know exactly what the risks are."

His production company Playtone, which he runs with producer Gary Goetzman and was the birthplace of "Electric City," is devoted, in part, to Hanks' experimental inclinations.

Hanks jokes that Playtone is good for three things: 1) making long distance phone calls, 2) getting someone to grab you lunch and a cup of coffee, and, jokes aside, 3) being an idea lab for television, film and Internet content projects.

"Electric City" is a passion project for Hanks: "Quite frankly, this is not a movie. This is the cultural equivalent, or the work equivalent, of writing a bunch of short stories and just putting them out there for people to read."

When it comes to launching entertainment content exclusively on the Web, Hanks is the first to admit, "There's no money in it." He added, "You might be able to make the salaries of the people that help you do it. But, it's literally in order to be creative."

And when it came to deciding on what platform "Electric City" should be seen, the Web seemed to make the most sense, though, Hanks admitted, "I must confess I do not live any life online." He went on to say there are only 24 hours in a day, he's a grandfather, and he tends to read books; he does, however, share thoughts through his Twitter account regularly. "Again, there's no money in that. And if you think it's self promotion -- I don't know what I'm promoting." He quipped, "If that had worked, then 'Larry Crowne' would have made $100 million."

When it came to posting first reviews of "The Dark Knight Rises" on the aggregation site Rotten Tomatoes, editor-in-chief Matt Atchity says he and his staff were prepared for the worst: "...I knew full well that when the first negative review came in, the reviewer would get pasted in the comments," he wrote in a statement.

Atchity and his staff decided to temporarily disable comments on Rotten Tomatoes' "TDKR" page after death threats -- directed at a reviewer who panned the much anticipated film -- were made.

The threats were initially directed at the first negative review that was posted on the page -- written by Marshall Fine -- who we noted as a dissenting voice earlier this week in our reviews roundup.


Some comments used lines in the movie to take joking jabs at Fine [via Indiewire]: "...quoting Bane's line to Batman that Fine's punishment 'must be more severe' and that they didn't give him 'permission to die' yet. Others were more direct in their hatred. One comment, since removed, kindly requested Fine 'die in a fire.'"

"As expected, we saw a mountain of comments come in about [Fine's] review, and we're policing them to make sure they're in line with our TOS [terms of service]. Broadly speaking, threats and hate speech will get your commenting privileges revoked," Atchity wrote, adding that the site is exploring alternative avenues for commentary. "We're probably going to move to a Facebook-based commenting system that doesn't allow for anonymity. You'll have to stand by your comments, just like a critic does."

Other negative reviews of the film, while in the minority, have been written by Christy Lemire of the Associated Press who said the film "feels overloaded," and Nick Pinkerton of the Village Voice who wrote that "TDKR" is "a shallow repository of ideas."

Some have speculated that negative reviewers are simply seeking attention. But Atchity told Yahoo! Movies, "It's extremely rare that we have any proof of someone writing a dishonest review just to get attention.  If and when we see that, we address it with the reviewer."

"TDKR" has so far received overwhelmingly positive response from critics. Rotten Tomatoes currently rates "TDKR" at 86 percent on their "Tomatometer" -- which has aggregated reviewer response to the film. While impressive, the rating is not quite as high as the one "Marvel's The Avengers" ultimately settled on -- 92 percent positive response.

But reviews are still being filed, so there is still time for the score to -- like Batman -- rise.

When it came to posting first reviews of "The Dark Knight Rises" on the aggregation site Rotten Tomatoes, editor-in-chief Matt Atchity says he and his staff were prepared for the worst: "...I knew full well that when the first negative review came in, the reviewer would get pasted in the comments," he wrote in a statement.

Atchity and his staff decided to temporarily disable comments on Rotten Tomatoes' "TDKR" page after death threats -- directed at a reviewer who panned the much anticipated film -- were made.

The threats were initially directed at the first negative review that was posted on the page -- written by Marshall Fine -- who we noted as a dissenting voice earlier this week in our reviews roundup.


Some comments used lines in the movie to take joking jabs at Fine [via Indiewire]: "...quoting Bane's line to Batman that Fine's punishment 'must be more severe' and that they didn't give him 'permission to die' yet. Others were more direct in their hatred. One comment, since removed, kindly requested Fine 'die in a fire.'"

"As expected, we saw a mountain of comments come in about [Fine's] review, and we're policing them to make sure they're in line with our TOS [terms of service]. Broadly speaking, threats and hate speech will get your commenting privileges revoked," Atchity wrote, adding that the site is exploring alternative avenues for commentary. "We're probably going to move to a Facebook-based commenting system that doesn't allow for anonymity. You'll have to stand by your comments, just like a critic does."

Other negative reviews of the film, while in the minority, have been written by Christy Lemire of the Associated Press who said the film "feels overloaded," and Nick Pinkerton of the Village Voice who wrote that "TDKR" is "a shallow repository of ideas."

Some have speculated that negative reviewers are simply seeking attention. But Atchity told Yahoo! Movies, "It's extremely rare that we have any proof of someone writing a dishonest review just to get attention.  If and when we see that, we address it with the reviewer."

"TDKR" has so far received overwhelmingly positive response from critics. Rotten Tomatoes currently rates "TDKR" at 86 percent on their "Tomatometer" -- which has aggregated reviewer response to the film. While impressive, the rating is not quite as high as the one "Marvel's The Avengers" ultimately settled on -- 92 percent positive response.

But reviews are still being filed, so there is still time for the score to -- like Batman -- rise.

Perhaps it is a project aimed at helping her heal in the midst of her divorce from Tom Cruise, or maybe it's that great work can sprout from real life experience.

Whatever the reason, Katie Holmes is set to start working on a new film which centers around something she can now relate to: being the single mother of a daughter.

Thirty-three-year-old Holmes is set to start production next week on "Molly," according to a source via a People.com report, a film which she is said to have co-written and is co-producing.

Holmes has produced once before, according to her filmography on IMDB.com: She was an executive producer of a little-known romantic dramedy "The Romantics" (2010) in which she starred along with Anna Paquin and Josh Duhamel. (The film was very narrowly released in only a few dozen theaters, grossing little more than $103 thousand.)

This new project, however, signifies Holmes' foray into writing, as she has no other writing credits listed in her body of existing work.

The film is shooting in New York City through roughly August, where Holmes and her daughter Suri have moved into an apartment.

Holmes and Cruise have released a joint statement through their respective reps regarding privacy around their impending divorce and child custody matters:

We are committed to working together as parents to accomplish what is in our daughter Suri's best interests. We want to keep matters affecting our family private and express our respect for each other's commitment to each of our respective beliefs and support each other's roles as parents.



Holmes recently finished working on "The Seagull," and is set to shoot romantic comedy "Responsible Adults" with Chace Crawford in the fall.

We contacted Holmes' rep to confirm the details around "Molly," but did not hear back in time for the publication of this report.