Christopher Nolan is meeting with actresses for two female lead roles in The Dark Knight Rises, the third installment of the Batman franchise which Warner Bros has dated release on July 20, 2012.
This report comes via Deadline. The report is essentially a shortlist but it does mention that the roles are for a love interest and a Villain. The shortlisted actresses are: Rachel Weisz, Naomi Watts, Blake Lively, Natalie Portman, Anne Hathaway and Keira Knightley. Surprisingly the list does not include Charlize Theron who was reportedly previously approached and offered a role. Nolan is giving little away, just the way that he did when he drafted his Inception star Tom Hardy to come aboard to likely play a villain. So which Villain and which love interest? Well after we reported back in August that Marion Cottilard had turned down the role of both Catwoman and Talia Al Ghul it does seem that today's draft is still concurrent.
