Entertainment Weekly’s exclusive DARK KNIGHT RISES photos and cover!

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I’ll be flying out to Los Angeles this summer to see The Dark Knight Rises with my friend Kareem (just as I did for The Dark Knight in 2008, and I wouldn’t see it any other way), and he’s already bought our IMAX tickets, which is 47 kinds of excellent.

(Thanks for doing all the footwork, Kareem. You’ve basically made it so that all I have to do is show up, enjoy wonderful hospitality from you and your family and friends, feast like a king on delicious California burgers and sushi, and watch Batman battle the forces of Bane for the soul of Gotham and its people on a screen as big as a planet.)

Entertainment Weekly has posted their cover for this week’s issue …

… featuring a Batman’d up Christian Bale, who says of his final adventure as Bruce Wayne, “I can tell you the truth because I’m done with it: I felt immense pressure, and I think it’s a good pressure, because you owe it to the films — and the people’s expectations — to make great work.”

As if he’s ever given anything less than above and beyond his best.

The magazine has also shared three exclusive photos depicting Tom Hardy’s Bane, Bane and Batman grappling in sunny, snowy daylight, and Gary Oldman’s Commissioner Gordon:

I feel bad that I’ve basically abandoned this website and even worse that I’m so far behind (to the point of never catching up) on Batman and Man of Steel news.

But I am writing.

I’m working hard on two projects I can’t talk about until contracts have been signed, and once I can talk about them, I’ll probably never shut up.

More on those things when I can.

In the meantime, for all your Batman movie news needs, there’s only one place to go: Bill “Jett” Ramey’s Batman on Film.

And for superhero movie news, head on over to Sean Gerber’s amazing Modern Myth Media.

I am honored to be able to write for both sites, and I appear most weeks on MMM’s podcast!

Get ready to rumble, folks. The Dark Knight Rises rocks the theater near YOU on July 20, 2012!

Could Superman swap slots with Hobbits?

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UPDATE: Warner Bros. says …

“Contrary to inaccurate reports – The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey is being released on December 14, 2012″ – Dan Fellman, President, Domestic Distribution, Warner Bros. Pictures

Seems awfully suspicious that a heavy-hitter like Mr. Fellman would take the time to personally respond to this, doesn’t it? Original story follows:

(Photo: Just Jared)

When Warner Bros. announced a June 14, 2013 release date for their Superman reboot Man of Steel this summer, I became a man of two minds. The rational side of me was happy that director Zack Snyder would have even more time to get every edit and effect absolutely perfect, but the rest of me was pouting that I wouldn’t get to see Batman and Superman on the silver screen in the same year after all.

However.

A new report by Peter Georgiou at Think McFly Think suggests the cinematic scene of 2012 may just get a Henry Cavill-sized injection of Truth, Justice, and the American Way after all.

TMT lays it out like this: Snyder has reportedly kept to his shooting schedule so well that big scenes are already being edited and special-effected, while Jackson’s monumental Hobbit shoot isn’t moving as quickly as Jackson would like. Jackson doesn’t want to rush his technologically complex and narratively dense epic, and it sounds as if WB is on the same page with him.

Moving An Unexpected Journey to 2013 would push the second installment, There & Back Again, to 2014. (TMT reports that both films would remain in their respective Decembers.) If this does indeed happen, could Man of Steel be ready by the end of 2012? Would it suffer from losing the extra six months of post-production the 2013 date gave it?

It sounds like Snyder might not need the extra time anyway.

Filming ends in February, and we know from set photos that Snyder’s already filmed a lot of the big action stuff. If those big sequences are indeed already being put together as TMT reports, the movie could comfortably be finished and ready to rock well ahead of a December 2012 release date. It certainly doesn’t hurt Snyder’s film that he’s working with a staggeringly talented group of professionals on both sides of the camera — his General Zod, Michael Shannon, recently told The Province about the loyalty Snyder’s kindness has inspired in his cast and crew.

So if Jackson’s production is feeling pinched and if Superman has enough post-production time to fly as high as he and his fans deserve, it’s certainly fun to consider the possibility that The Dark Knight Rises might not be the only DC epic we see in 2012.

Our friends at Think McFly Think have always been on the cutting edge of Superman movie news and opinion, and we know they wouldn’t share this possibility if they didn’t have the sources to back it up.

What do you think? Would you be happy to see Superman six months early? Or would you prefer that Snyder has a little more time to perfect his film? Or does he even need the extra time in the first place, given how well the shoot has gone so far? The mind boggles, and we’ll certainly be following this one closely. In the meantime, make sure you read TMT’s article for all the angles.

Man of Steel stars Henry Cavill as Superman and Clark Kent, Amy Adams as Lois Lane, Michael Shannon as Zod, Antje Traue as Kryptonian femme fatale Faora, Russell Crowe and Ayelet Zurer (replacing Julia Ormond) as Superman’s birth parents Jor-El and Lara Lor-Van, Kevin Costner and Diane Lane as his Earth parents Jonathan and Martha Kent, Laurence Fishburne as Daily Planet editor-in-chief Perry White, Harry Lennix as General Swanwick, and Christopher Meloni as Colonel Hardy.

Yeah. That’s a cast I wouldn’t mind seeing a few months early. But it’s also a cast that’s worth the wait. We shall see!