20. Co-starring Cardington Studios
Formerly a giant airstrip hanger, the Cardington Sheds in Bedfordshire (or, more specifically,
one of the sheds) was converted into a sound stage for Batman Begins, used to construct that film's
enormous Gotham City set, a sort of "indoor backlot"; various other sets on Nolans films the spinning corridor in Inception, the pit into which Bruce is tossed in The Dark Knight Rises have been constructed there as well; Cardington is so large that
both parts of the pit set for The Dark Knight Rises the seventy foot high prison and the one hundred twenty foot shaft Bruce climbs out of were housed there at the same time. The exterior of Cardington also finally made an onscreen cameo in The Dark Knight Rises opening moments. Look closely in the background of the shot that introduces Aidan Gillens CIA operative; behind him stands the imposing Cardington Shed. We looked for airstrips around the Cardington area for that, producer Emma Thomas said in the book The Art and Making of the Dark Knight Trilogy, and eventually we thought, Lets just do it outside Cardington. Since this was the last film wed probably ever be making there, we thought we should record it on film for posteritys sake.
19. Leonardo DiCaprio as The Riddler?
Having The Dark Knight Rises primary villain be Bane the monster who breaks the Bat and brings Gotham to its knees seems obvious in retrospect, but when news of a third Christopher Nolan Batman film was first being kicked around shortly after the release of The Dark Knight, there was a very
different character most of the internet assumed would appear The Riddler, last portrayed in live action by Jim Carrey in Joel Schumachers 1995 film Batman forever. That assumption extended to the
studio, who told David Goyer at the premiere of The Dark Knight that the next villain would
be the Riddler, and we want it to be Leonardo DiCaprio, who of course went on the work quite successfully with Christopher Nolan on Inception.