Christian Bale's a dead cert for Best Supporting Actor in The Fighter, which proves that there's one thing Bale is really good at: fighting. Ladies and Gentleman, Academy Award nominee Christian Bale. Punching people since 2000.
 

With The King's Speech out in cinemas this week, I'm reminded of the hoo-hah that went on back in October when the BBFC reclassified the film from a 15 certificate to a 12A. The issue, of course, was the swearing: in training King George VI to overcome his stammer, Geoffrey Rush gets Colin Firth to say "fuck". 42 times. The BBFC didn't like that very much and slapped it with a 15 sticker, only to be criticised by director Tom Hooper.

Hooper pointed out that other recent films with graphic content, such as Daniel Craig's bollock-smashing torture in Casino Royale (i.e. films that were not polite period biopics), were awarded 12A labels. Then came The Great Reclassification of 2010. Scandalous.

So that's the title of the third Batman film: The Dark Knight Rises.

So much for The Dark Knight Returns - clearly a better title. Nolan confirmed the sequel's name to the LA Times, also ruling out The Riddler as a villain. He also spoke about his determined dislike of 3D, and had this to add:

"We’ll use many of the same characters as we have all along, and we’ll be introducing some new ones". It's enigmatic as usual, but I'll forgive any director who not only makes Inception but also prefers IMAX to 3D.

Tom Hardy has been recruited for Christopher Nolan's third Batman film. The world rejoices.

It may not be much of a surprise after his scene-stealing performance in Inception, but Nolan has brought in Hardy for an unconfirmed role in Batman 3. So naturally everyone is presuming he'll play the villain. And everyone's presuming the villain is The Riddler.

All the rumour and conjecture is a little pre-emptive, but it's hard not to be a little excited. Especially with Hardy coming off the back of Thomas Alfredson's Tinker, Tailor, Soldier Spy - he's getting some top-notch work at the moment. You could include Mad Max: Fury Road in there too, I suppose, but luckily that's been delayed so he has time for The Dark Knight's return.

With the script being scribbled away by Jonah Nolan and David Goyer, Batman 3 is slowly starting to gather momentum. Until the inevitable announcement that Tom will be playing Robin. Or Batgirl. Or, even worse, Mr Freeze.