As we previously reported, Christopher Nolan was looking for a new love interest for The Dark Knight Rises, which wasn't a huge shock.  Now, Deadline has some impressive possible candidates to for not only the love interest but also a separate female villain.  Nolan is reportedly considering Rachel Weisz, Naomi Watts, Blake Lively, Natalie Portman, Anne Hathaway, and Keira Knightley for the roles.  It's worth noting that Deadline makes it clear these are two different roles so don't go shouting "Catwoman!" just yet.  Deadline also says it's likely that Tom Hardy, who was previously cast in an unspecified role, is playing a villain.

Hit the jump for my wild speculation on who Batman's female nemesis may be.  The Dark Knight Rises is set to open on July 20, 2012.

Assuming that Nolan hasn't written a new character who isn't in the comics, my guess to the female villain would be Catwoman.  She fits best within Nolan's "real" Gotham City.  The other major female rogues in Batman's gallery are Poison Ivy, Harley Quinn, and Talia Al Ghul.  However, Poison Ivy's powers are supernatural, Harley Quinn doesn't really work without The Joker (who Nolan has made clear he won't bring back), and it would be weird to bring in Ra's Al Ghul's daughter after Ra's death back in the first movie.

As for the love interest, they could easily be a new character as was done previously with Rachel Dawes or Dr. Chase Meridian.  People don't seem to care if the love interest is from the comics or not.  I would be curious to see how folks would react to a villain created from scratch.

As for Hardy, if he's playing a villain, we only know that it won't be The Riddler or Mr. Freeze.  Of course, all these assumptions are based off Nolan not re-inventing characters like Poison Ivy and keeping them close to their comic origins.