'Dark Knight Rises' TV Spots: A Lighter Side Of Batman

Two new 30-second commercials feature Lucius Fox and Catwoman.
By Kevin P. Sullivan


Christian Bale in "Dark Knight Rises"
Photo: Warner Bros.

As the "Dark Knight" prepares to rise, two new TV spots that hit the Web on Thursday (May 24) let us in on the lighter side of the series closer, which, until now, has been deathly serious.

Christopher Nolan's Batman films have never been all doom and gloom. Though they are known for their gritty tone and dark aesthetic, Nolan has never been afraid to throw in some humor (albeit dark humor) to lighten the mood. The first two TV spots for "The Dark Knight Rises" pack in a few of those familiar moments, including one of Catwoman doing what she does best: burgling.

The first 30-second commercial focuses primarily on Bruce Wayne's return. After going on the run because of the events surrounding Harvey Dent's death, Wayne needs to resurrect the Batman, and he reaches out to the man who made all his bat-gadgetry possible, Lucius Fox, with Morgan Freeman making a welcome return.

Selina Kyle (a.k.a. Catwoman), portrayed by Anne Hathaway, holds the spotlight in the second spot, which plays up the teasing dynamic between the famous cat burglar and the Batman. Having talked and danced briefly at the masquerade ball we've already seen in a few trailers, Bruce goes to fetch his Lamborghini from the valet. Unfortunately, Wayne's "wife" got to it first.

Additionally, a handful of hi-res stills from the film have appeared over at Batman-News.com, featuring Joseph Gordon-Levitt's John Blake and an interesting look at Batman, Catwoman and Bane in an industrial complex, presumably before a fight seen in the trailer.

With a little less than two months to go until the film's release, "The Dark Knight Rises" is shaping up to be a movie not only worthy of its series, but one that deserves a fever pitch of anticipation.

Check out everything we've got on "The Dark Knight Rises."

For breaking news and previews of the latest comic book movies — updated around the clock — visit SplashPage.MTV.com.

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Canada's Flaherty says rising confidence important

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CBMBA 2012 Season Kick-off Party & Natty Trails Day Weekend!

Crested Butte Mountain Bike Association (CBMBA) will celebrate the official opening of CBMBA?s 30th Season with its Annual Meeting & Kick-Off party on Friday June 1st at Rainbow Park in CB. The Annual Meeting will run from 4:00PM to 6:00PM.

CBMBA members and the community-at-large will hear all about CBMBA?s exciting 2012 season of events; new community initiatives and legendary trail work days, as well as have an opportunity to provide input and ideas.

CBMBA?s Annual Party will immediately follow the meeting at 6:00PM. A chicken BBQ dinner will be provided to the first 100 participants. The BBQ will be supplied by Sally K. Johnson, and the beer will be provided by New Belgium. Prize raffles courtesy of Osprey, Kenda, Smith Optics, Clif, Mountain Khakis, Doc Brown, Acli-Mate, Peak Sports, and Primal!

Natty Trails Day: The trail work-day will begin Saturday June 2nd at 9:00AM at the Slate River Winter Trailhead, Land Trust Kikel Parcel. CBMBA encourages everyone to RIDE YOUR BIKE to the trailhead! If driving, please park on the County Road and respect natural lands on site. Shuttles from the 4-Way (Chamber Parking lot) will be at 8:30AM, 9:00AM, and 9:30AM, courtesy of Jim Schmidt and Alpine Express. An after work-day party will follow at 4:00PM at the Brick Oven, raffle prizes courtesy of: Osprey, Smith Optics, Clif, Mountain Khakis, Doc Brown, Kenda, Acli-Mate, Peak Sports, and Primal.

To celebrate its 30th year as ?The Oldest Mountain Bike Club in the World?, CBMBA, will give away a customized, CBMBA 30th Anniversary Electra Courier 3i Cruiser Bike. Any new membership or renewal is includes an automatic entry to the bike drawing!

CBMBA is also rolling out its new logo and merchandise this season including; bike jerseys, pint glasses, T-shirts, kids and dog wear.

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Colonoscopy May Detect Curable Cancer in Elderly: Study

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TiVo shows off Pace-built XG1 six-tuner gateway DVR it plans to ship later this year

Image

New add-on boxes that extend and supplement the functionality of existing Premiere DVRs aren't all TiVo had to show off this week at the Cable Show in Boston, as it also demonstrated the fruits of its new partnership with Pace. The result is this XG1 gateway, a six-tuner DVR that's intended to be sold by TV providers and then hidden away in a closet, quietly distributing video to smart TVs or extenders located throughout the house. It runs TiVo's software with support for multi-room video, MoCA, mobile and tablet remote apps and at least 500GB of hard drive space inside. Since it hasn't announced any plans to bring this unit to retail we'll have to wait and see which providers decide to offer it when it becomes available in the Americas "later this year".

Continue reading TiVo shows off Pace-built XG1 six-tuner gateway DVR it plans to ship later this year

TiVo shows off Pace-built XG1 six-tuner gateway DVR it plans to ship later this year originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 24 May 2012 03:52:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Review: El-P 'Cancer For Cure' | Death and Taxes

El-P said of his new album in a recent interview?, ?This is a fight record. Like, ?Goddamn it. Enough is fuckin? enough.?? It?s not so much that ?Cancer For Cure? is a fight record with anyone individually ? although ?For My Upstairs Neighbor? makes a specific target ? but it?s more of a fight against the world and where it?s going.

Dystopia runs all throughout this album, through ?Request Denied??s air raid intro to ?FTL (Me and You)??s cyborg drone close. On the former song, El proclaims ?We are not dying? which runs straight through to ?FTL??s closing arguments, ?Groveling, look what they?re accomplishing/ The systematic Gods of all demolishing/ But I never felt so brave as when I?m looking at your face/ They can decimate my body but my heart will not disgrace/They can torture and interrogate and shackle to my boot/I would gnaw off my own leg and hop the fuck right back to you.? That determination is what makes ?Cancer For Cure? such an invigorating listen, even if it sounds like the world is crumbling around you.

El-P has always existed in his own world in terms of style and delivery. His beats do not crackle and pop, they buzz and explode. Taking a loop from Camu Tao?s ?When You?re Going Down? for its chorus, ?The Full Retard? transports the classic hip-hop horn brake and transfers it to a futuristic nightmare. And that song is probably the record?s lightest moment. ?True Story? and ?Sign Here? proceed with paranoid scenarios of torture and extermination while ?Drones Over Bklyn? paints the borough as its own worst enemy in the fight for the future with its ?little dragons of fad rap,? and its ?Hollywood off the bus? posers.

?I?m not a big fan of records that have a bunch of (featuring so and so) after every single title,? El-P had once said on his blog upon the release of his last album ?I?ll Sleep When I?m Dead? five years ago. It?s true that ?Cancer For Cure??s collaborations don?t play out like the polished-off guest spots on Kanye West records, but in just about every case his collaborators provide the album with its most memorable moments for better or worse. The trade off between Killer Mike and Despot on ?Tougher Colder Killer? is a thrilling hit to the chest, helped a great deal by the horn-stab beat and the equally punchy (and hilarious) Mike line, ?Niggas stay sweet like Smuckers/Peanut butter packing motherfuckers/ I?m ashamed for your mothers.? Mr. Muthafuckin? eXquire takes the cake though ? his breakneck verse on ?Oh Hail No? sort of makes you wish it was his album for a sec. The only faltering moment unfortunately is with Danny Brown whose heavily pronunciated style conflicts a bit too hard during ?All Hail No??s breakdown section. Islands? Nick Diamonds? chorus cameo on ?Stay Down? likewise brings an unwanted stop to ?Stay Down.?

Apocalyptic visions are hardly a new concept for records, or even hip-hop records (?Cancer For Cure? more or less plays like a serious ?Deltron 3030?), but El-P?s new opus does well with the concept. His multi-threat renaissance man approach shows throughout the record, which sounds furiously labored-over with auteur precision. That hard work seems to be doing its most heavy lifting in the penultimate ?$4 Vic,? where El sounds nearly out of breath at the end of the couplet, ?And I can no longer contain what?s under my disguise/I?ve always had the cancer for the cure so what the fuck am I?? That positive use of anger is a key element to El-P?s essential status, and it?s what makes ?C4C? a hip-hop standout this year.

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Trust, school district trying to strike land deal | Philadelphia Real ...

Representatives of a family trust and a Pennsylvania school district are negotiating the transfer of a piece of commercial real estate. First, however, the two sides must agree to future land use and other issues.

The family trust wants to sign over a 68-acre parcel, but it will require that the local school district first meet a dozen conditions. A school district official vowed to live up to the conditions, should it go ahead and accept the gift.

Appraisers have valued the land at about $700,000.

First among the conditions is the agreement to use the land primarily for a school. The trust wants the district to agree to build a school in a two-year time span. That would require speeding up the plans to open a new school before the 2015-16 academic year, so representatives for the district hope to strike an agreement to amend the wording to "under construction" within that time frame.

Other stipulations for the gift include putting $35,000 into an escrow account; reimburse the family trust for any legal fees, paying a local real estate company a $70,000 finder's fee and allowing the family trust to access any sewage and water lines that the district might build at no cost.

As the two sides discuss a prospective agreement, architects will conduct environmental tests and study the wetland barrier to make sure no barriers exist to building.

The school district is being prudent in making sure the site can accommodate a school in the size the district will need as well as testing the site for building capability before any land transfer takes place. Exercising caution now can ensure that the transfer does not turn into a real estate dispute later.

Source: The Kittanning Paper, "'Free' Land Comes at a "Price" to ASD," Jonathan Weaver, May 11, 2012

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Hunt for trafficker terrorizes Honduran villagers

Honduran policemen patrol in Ahuas, Honduras, Monday, May 21, 2012. On Friday May 11, a joint Honduran-U.S. drug raid, on a helicopter mission with advisers from the DEA, appears to have mistakenly targeted civilians in the remote jungle area, killing four riverboat passengers and injuring four others. Later, according to villagers, Honduran police narcotics forces and men speaking English spent hours searching the small town of Ahuas for a suspected drug trafficker.(AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)

Honduran policemen patrol in Ahuas, Honduras, Monday, May 21, 2012. On Friday May 11, a joint Honduran-U.S. drug raid, on a helicopter mission with advisers from the DEA, appears to have mistakenly targeted civilians in the remote jungle area, killing four riverboat passengers and injuring four others. Later, according to villagers, Honduran police narcotics forces and men speaking English spent hours searching the small town of Ahuas for a suspected drug trafficker.(AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)

Honduran Navy officers patrol in Patuca river, near Ahuas, a remote community in La Mosquitia region, Honduras, Monday, May 21, 2012. On Friday May 11, a joint Honduran-U.S. drug raid, on a helicopter mission with advisers from the DEA, appears to have mistakenly targeted civilians in the remote jungle area, killing four riverboat passengers and injuring four others. Later, according to villagers, Honduran police narcotics forces and men speaking English spent hours searching the small town of Ahuas for a suspected drug trafficker.(AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)

Children play outside their houses in the Paptalaya pier, where helicopters of a joint Honduran-U.S. drug raid landed last Friday, in Ahuas, Mosquitia region, Honduras, Monday, May 21, 2012. On Friday May 11, a helicopter mission with advisers from the DEA, appears to have mistakenly targeted civilians in the remote jungle area, killing four riverboat passengers and injuring four others. Later, according to villagers, Honduran police narcotics forces and men speaking English spent hours searching the small town of Ahuas for a suspected drug trafficker.(AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)

Honduran soldiers stand next to a plane after checking passengers information in Brus Laguna , Honduras, Monday, May 21, 2012. On Friday May 11, a joint Honduran-U.S. drug raid, on a helicopter mission with advisers from the DEA, appears to have mistakenly targeted civilians in the remote jungle area, killing four riverboat passengers and injuring four others. Later, according to villagers, Honduran police narcotics forces and men speaking English spent hours searching the small nearby town of Ahuas for a suspected drug trafficker.(AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)

An aerial view of the Mosquitia region near the remote community of Ahuas, Honduras, Monday, May 21, 2012. On Friday May 11, a joint Honduran-U.S. drug raid, on a helicopter mission with advisers from the DEA, appears to have mistakenly targeted civilians in the remote jungle area, killing four riverboat passengers and injuring four others. Later, according to villagers, Honduran police narcotics forces and men speaking English spent hours searching the small town of Ahuas for a suspected drug trafficker.(AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)

(AP) ? A fearsome rattle of gunfire from the sky. The roar of helicopters descending on a tiny, Honduran town. And the sound of commandos speaking in English as they battered down doors and detained locals in the hunt for a drug trafficker.

Villagers say the drug bust that left four passengers of a riverboat dead after helicopters mistakenly fired on civilians continued into the predawn hours when commandos, including Americans, raided their town.

Heavily armed Honduran police in at least two helicopters landed and took off numerous times while agents searched homes and detained several people in the village on the banks of a river deep in Honduras' Mosquitia region, named for the Miskito Indians. In the end, enraged residents torched the home of the town's suspected drug trafficker in retaliation for the fatalities on the river.

One chopper landed in front of Hilaria Zavala's home at about 3 a.m. and the six men who got out kicked down her door. She said a "gringo" threw her husband on the ground and put a gun to his head.

"They kept him that way for two hours," said Zavala, who owns a market near the main pier in Ahuas. "They asked if he was El Renco, if he worked for El Renco, if the stuff belonged to El Renco. My husband said he had nothing to do with it."

The shooting started after midnight, when Honduran national police tracking a cocaine shipment after it had been unloaded from a plane and onto a boat near the village were fired upon, authorities say. The officers returned fire, mistakenly shooting at a passenger boat, killing four people and wounding four more.

Celin Eriksson 17, whose cousin Haskel Tom Brooks Wood, 14, died in the boat, was waiting on the dock for his cousin before the shooting when he saw a white truck and about 50 men coming from Ahuas. He hid because he knew they were traffickers, but saw them load bundles into a boat. When the helicopters appeared, the men ran. He said he heard no gunshots coming from the ground. The boat with bundles went drifting by itself down the river.

The commandos who came off the helicopter handcuffed him, Celin said, and put a gun to his head. Some spoke to him in English, which he also speaks.

"If you don't talk we'll kill you," the boy said he was told. "Where is El Renco? Where is the merchandise?"

He said they made him walk along the river bank with them to find the boat with the bundles. Then they left him, handcuffed. He found a neighbor who broke the plastic handcuffs with a machete and saved them to prove to authorities that he had been detained by commandos.

The May 11 shooting and subsequent raid raises questions about what role, if any, U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agents who were on the helicopters played in the events described by villagers. The DEA has repeatedly said its agents on the mission, which included two U.S. helicopters, acted only in an advisory role to their Honduran National Police counterparts and did not use their weapons.

DEA spokeswoman Dawn Dearden, when asked to respond to the villagers' story, said Monday night that there were no DEA personnel in the village. Honduran Security Ministry spokesman Hector Ivan Mejia said he had no information about the raid reported by residents.

Several villagers, however, told The Associated Press that some of the masked agents were gringos.

"They spoke in English among themselves and on the radios," said Zavala, whose husband was held at gunpoint. "They had brought a computer and they put in the names of everyone and sought identification for everyone."

On the shore near the main pier for Ahuas, Sandra Madrid cowered in her home from the bursts of gunfire coming from overhead. The manager of the village's main river transportation company said it lasted 15 minutes. "I've never seen a machine like that," Madrid said of the helicopter. "I've never seen a shootout like that."

About an hour later, the machines landed in her front yard. Neighbor Mariano Uitol said about 40 men in total got out. "They told everyone to get inside and don't anyone leave."

The commandos seized a neighbor's boat and gasoline to travel down the river, Madrid said, taking Hilaria Zavala's teenage nephew to guide them. He had been waiting on the dock for his mother in the shot-up passenger boat.

Witnesses said the agents made several trips carrying sacks and loading them onto the helicopters that took off and landed repeatedly over the next two hours.

An investigation by Honduran military based in nearby Puerto Lempira concluded that the agents fired on the civilians by accident, said Col. Ronald Rivera Amador, commander of the Honduran Joint Military Task Force-Paz Garcia.

He said the task force conducted only part of the investigation and sent its findings to the Joint Task Force Gen. Rene Osorio. Mejia said a Honduran federal prosecutor is leading the investigation.

The isolated savannah and jungle region of northern Honduras has been a drug-running area for decades. But cocaine shipments increased dramatically in the last few years as authorities cracked down in Mexico and other parts of the main drug routes from South America to the United States. The U.S. State Department says 79 percent of all cocaine smuggling flights leaving South America land in Honduras.

Ahuas Mayor Lucio Baquedano, who said all the shooting victims were innocents, said that there is a drug trafficking cell in his town and that the number of clandestine landing strips is not only increasing, but getting closer to populated areas and putting more uninvolved people at risk.

He said the traffickers who used to operate in more isolated spots now seek shorter routes to the river, where boats take the illicit cargo to the Caribbean coast.

The landing strip where the agents detected a landing on May 11 is less than 2 miles (3 kilometers) from the village, Baquedano said.

"The cell that operates in town is very powerful and up to now has had no opposition," he said, adding that he can't stop them. "We had meetings and I told them that the landing strips shouldn't be so close to town. Now we know the consequences when the strips are close to people."

Members of the U.S. Congress and human rights groups have been ramping up their criticism of U.S. spending in this small Central American country of 8 million people, which has one of the highest murder rates in the world and alarmingly low conviction rates.

The State Department is required to vet the Honduran National Police to make sure they have not committed gross human rights violations, or it can withhold U.S. assistance. It has not been withheld, despite a demand from 87 members of Congress to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton a year ago asking for further investigation.

The State Department's most recent human rights report on Honduras is a scathing 18 pages that describe unlawful killings by police and government agents.

In the region surrounded Ahuas, impoverished families earn money by helping load and unload cocaine, a well-known problem noted by government officials from President Porfirio Lobo to the local police chief, Filiberto Pravia Rodriguez.

Pravia said he heard the helicopters in the middle of the night but did not go out until soldiers knocked at his door about 5:30 a.m. He and a judge tried to go to the river, where soldiers said there were two bodies in the water, but they were met by an angry crowd waving machetes and clubs and carrying cans of gasoline.

"I was lucky I could run," he said.

Several hours later, the crowd turned its wrath on the home reportedly owned by El Renco. They burned his home and those of three of his friends.

"The family and friends of the victims burned the homes because of the narcos," Zavala said. "This whole mess was their fault ... because of them, we all had to pay."

___

Associated Press writer Alberto Arce reported this story in Ahuas and Katherine Corcoran reported from Tegucigalpa. AP writers Matthew Lee in Washington and Martha Mendoza in Santa Cruz, California, contributed to this report.

Associated Press

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Natalie Portman To Star In Western 'Jane Got A Gun'

Natalie Portman is lining up yet another big screen project, this time teaming her with "We Need To Talk About Kevin" helmer Lynne Ramsay. According to new reports, Portman is going to star in and produce Ramsay's upcoming Western, "Jane Got a Gun." The Hollywood Reporter has the news, reporting that CAA is shopping the [...]

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Tropical Storm Alberto expected not to make landfall

On its current track,?Alberto?is expected to stay offshore of the Carolinas and Georgia coast.

By Associated Press / May 21, 2012

This NOAA satellite image taken Monday, May 21, 2012 at 1:45 a.m. EDT shows Tropical Storm Alberto located about 85 miles northeast of St. Augustine Florida.

AP/Weather Underground

Enlarge

Tropical Storm?Alberto?is moving southeastward as it spins off the coast of Florida.

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Alberto's?maximum sustained winds are near 40 mph (65 kph) early Monday with little change in strength expected.

The storm is centered about 100 miles (165 kilometers) east-northeast of St. Augustine, Florida.?Alberto?is moving south-southeast near 5 mph (7 kph) but is expected to turn northeastward Monday night and Tuesday.

On its current track,?Alberto?is expected to stay offshore of the Carolinas and Georgia coast.

Meanwhile in the Pacific, a tropical depression south of Mexico is expected to strengthen. The depression's maximum sustained winds are near 35 mph (55 kph) but it's expected to reach tropical storm strength later in the day. It's centered about 520 miles (835 kilometers) south of Acapulco, Mexico.

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