It’s official: ‘The Dark Knight Rises’ will film in Pittsburgh

By on | @BatmanNewsCom

Update 04/06/11: Check out this great article from Complex: 5 Pittsburgh Locations Christopher Nolan Should Use In The Dark Knight Rises

After many back-and-forth rumors, Pittsburgh, PA has been named an official shooting location for The Dark Knight Rises. Christopher Nolan was spotted in Pittsburgh back in February, and it seems like he found everything he was looking for. Pittsburgh Post-Gazette broke the story and has an official comment from Nolan:

“Pittsburgh is a beautiful city,” the London-born director said in a statement. “We have been able to find everything we were looking for here, and I am excited to spend the summer in Pittsburgh with our final installment of Batman.”

The article also has an interesting bit of casting news…

In addition to the returning Mr. Bale, who won an Academy Award for his work in “The Fighter,” the third movie will introduce Marion Cotillard, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Tom Hardy, who came to Pittsburgh for “Warrior,” and Anne Hathaway, who filmed “Love & Other Drugs” here.

I’m working on getting more clarification from Pittsburgh Post-Gazette’s author. It’s unclear if she was given confirmation on Marion Cotillard and Joseph Gordon-Levitt by Nolan/Warner Bros. or if she’s just reporting on the rumors. The Dark Knight Rises is scheduled to begin filming in just a few short weeks.

Update: I just heard back from Barbara of Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. She is going to try to get confirmation, but her comments about Marion Cotillard and Joseph Gordon-Levitt come from Variety and The Hollywood Reporter.

SOURCE: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Press Release

You May Also Like

  • http://www.facebook.com/denis.miconi Denis Miconi

    I don’t know Pittsburgh..but I know JGL and Marion Cotillard! Can we say that they’re official in the film?

  • http://twitter.com/The_Derek_Fay Derek Fay

    Kinda odd that they would change the city. I mean both of the first films Gotham was Chicago now its gonna be Pittsburgh…odd. I wonder if it will be noticeable.

    • http://www.facebook.com/denis.miconi Denis Miconi

      Well, they confirmed Pittsbugh, but maybe they will also film in Chicago..also we’ve heard about NY and LA..

    • Anonymous

      I don’t think it’s that big of a deal. Gotham is supposed to be at least as big as New York, right? All kinds of architectural styles in the different parts of the City there. Unless Gotham become psuedo-Vegas again, I don’t think we need to worry.

  • FanOfNolan

    I would’ve liked the film to be filmed in Chicago as well, in order to maintain continuity. But I’m not surprised they switched cities. Chicago is pretty expensive and Detroit and Pittsburgh can offer much better incentives right now.

    • http://twitter.com/The_Derek_Fay Derek Fay

      Boston offers great incentives as well, I think its like a 25% tax break or something of that sort. That would have been great to film it here. I would have been excited being from Boston and all.

    • Batman Fan

      Umm you’re incorrect in saying that Chicago is too expensive to shoot in and that it does not have better financial incentives than Pittsburgh. Illinois offers a 30% back tax credit for film productions while Pennsylvania only offers 25%. My source is the Chicago tribune which today wrote an article about Batman not coming back here to Chicago which you can find here: http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/metz/ct-live-0406-batman-pittsburgh-20110405,0,6551242.story

      That story also speculates that one of the main reasons Batman did not come back to Chicago was because Superman was coming to film here this summer. That it would be too much for both Warner Bros. and Nolan (as director/producer of TDKR and producer of Superman) to have both huge blockbusters filming in the same city at the same time. I’ve been speculating recently that was the real reason they didn’t come back to Chicago for TDKR. Also, I suspect that they didn’t want to risk Metropolis and Gotham looking too similar on screen. I think, in my opinion, that Nolan decided a while ago that if using Toronto for Superman didn’t work out that they would use Chicago and he would just find a new city for Gotham. I mean it sort of makes sense. He doesn’t want two huge productions in the same place as one another at the same time and he doesn’t want the two movies to look too similar. But at the same time he is probably going to have to visit the Superman shoot once in a while which will be in Chicago where he grew up. So for him, going to visit the Superman shoot as the producer is just like going back home for a while.

  • Anonymous

    BAM! You read it on Batman-News.com FIRST!

  • Anonymous

    Cool, I’m guessing they might fill in some of the skyline with CGI anyway but good choice for Gotham.

  • circa

    i need to get on this set. time to send my resume into some film offices…even though they don’t list Batman on their sites yet….hmm :/

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000567030814 Denny Wood

    YES! My city! I want a role! XD

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000567030814 Denny Wood

    YES! My city! I want a role! XD

  • Anonymous

    Congrats to the steel city , I think in this case change is a good thing , somewere new keeps it fresh . GO PENS in the play offs !

    • http://twitter.com/The_Derek_Fay Derek Fay

      Nah go Bruins!

  • Disgruntled Nolan Fan

    NOOOOOOOOOOO!!! You can bet the Chicagoans will notice! Garrr this stinks.

    • Shmeggles345

      YES! If I catch a glimpse of anyone from this movie, I might die.

  • http://twitter.com/titanX64 Michael

    Not bad. I’m sure new locations (of Gotham) in the film will be good. And maybe they will try to make it look like the first two in some parts as well.

  • Anonymous

    Pittsburgh, no big deal so long as the story is strong. No doubt there’s some Chicago fanboy raging about now: “OMGGG y r dey filmin in SHITSburgh!!!111!!!”.

  • One-eyed Willie

    Any chance to film in Rio? :D

  • Anonymous

    Testing my new account…

    • http://batman-news.com Batman-News.com

      It works! :) I was going to suggest you create a Disqus account. Now you won’t have to login every time you want to comment.

  • ethan

    Joseph Gordon Levitt is confirmed.
    The new casting updates are discussed here:
    http://www.examiner.com/film-industry-in-houston/nolan-s-cast-for-the-dark-knight-rises

    • http://batman-news.com Batman-News.com

      He’s confirmed, but his role is still up in the air. Variety says he’s Alberto Falcone, Entertainment Weekly says he’s not.

    • Anonymous

      That report, as far as I can tell, is erroneous in that fact that it says Carmine Falcone died in Begins. I don’t believe that was ever established. The last we saw of him, he was muttering “scarecrow” over and over.

      • bradley

        It was mentioned in TDK that he was in Arkham.

  • Anonymous

    God , its been quite over the last week or so on TDKR , The calm before the storm !