With The Dark Knight Rises officially less than two months away from its domestic debut, a Bat-heavy mega-issue of Empire magazine has hit the shelves.  Within the pages, you won’t only find a massive poster that features the Caped Crusader (Christian Bale) on one side and Catwoman (Anne Hathaway) on the other, you’ll find a lot of interesting information on how The Dark Knight Rises came about; what has changed since its earliest imaginings by Christopher Nolan, Jonathan Nolan and David Goyer and the original plans for a villain.  Apparently, by as early as the premiere for The Dark Knight, the Warner Bros. executives were all hopped up on Leonardo DiCaprio coming on board to play The Riddler for the final picture in the trilogy (we were half right on that guess).  Hit the jump to find out what else has changed and, more importantly, what has stayed the same.

With Comic-Con quickly approaching, news from a film that will not be represented at the convention may steal the show.  First Showing hears from a “reliable inside source” that Mr. Edward Nygma (a.k.a. The Riddler) is included in a casting grid for Christopher Nolan’s third Batman film, which Warner Bros. is referring to as Batman 3 internally.  The report also claims that Joseph Gordon-Levitt (Inception) is listed as “interested” in the role.

It is important to stress that, at this time, the unconfirmed report should be considered a rumor.   That said, with Nolan’s Inception currently holding top honors at the box office, any news regarding Batman 3 is exciting.  Hit the jump for why some aspects of the report’s claims may be stronger than others.

This item will probably end up being filed under “crazy Batman 3 casting rumors” when all is said and done, but it’s reasonable and interesting enough to report.  Joseph Gordon-Levitt reportedly joked with director Christopher Nolan on the set of Inception that he’d love to read for the next Batman film.  The more they joked, the more they actually came to like the idea.  And now Hollywood Life reports that Levitt is “on the shortlist” to play The Riddler.

This makes a lot more sense than the rumor that pegged Eddie Murphy as The Riddler.  But David Goyer is still working on the script, and there are two summers between us and the announced July 20, 2012 release date, so we’re likely months away from any official casting notices.  Though I am rather fond of the idea… At the very least, you can enjoy the pair’s work in Inception when it hits theaters on July 16th.