Film News: ‘The Dark Knight Rises’ Casts Chris Ellis as Priest, Brett Cullen as Judge

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CHICAGO – “The Dark Knight Rises” is seeing a casting frenzy over the past week. Just three days after we learn that Matt Modine, Tom Conti and Joey King have joined Christopher Nolan’s blockbuster team, Variety on Monday broke the news that veteran character actors Brett Cullen and Chris Ellis will round out the film’s already A-list ensemble cast.

“The Dark Knight Rises” has cast Chris Ellis (right) as a priest and Brett Cullen as a judge.
Image credit: Screen Rant

Brett Cullen has been cast as a judge and Chris Ellis will play the role of a priest. Both will be small roles. Cullen and Ellis previously appeared together in “Apollo 13”. You might recall Chris Ellis from his roles in Tim Burton’s “Planet of the Apes,” Steven Spielberg’s “Catch Me If You Can” and Michael Bay’s “Transformers”.

Cullen, whose most notable role has been in ABC’s “Lost,” has the father character locked down. He has played the role of Nicolas Cage’s father in “Ghost Rider,” Dakota Fanning’s dad in “The Runaways” and he will be Chris Hemsworth’s papa in the 2011 film “Red Dawn”.

In other recent news, we know “The Dark Knight Rises” has filmed in India and London and will be filming in Pittsburgh, New York, Los Angeles and Scotland, according to an official statement from Warner Bros. As for within Scotland, a new report on Monday from the Scottish outlet The Daily Record specifically says the film will shoot in Glasgow:

[Director Christopher Nolan] plans to use various cities to provide a mash up of what Gotham will look like. [While] Glasgow was location scouted for “The Dark Knight,” in the end it wasn’t used.

This time, [Nolan] already has several scenes in mind. The city centre architecture is hugely impressive. But he will be filming in secret. That said, if you see a man in body armour driving a big Batmobile down Sauchiehall Street, it’s Batman.

“The Dark Knight Rises” will again star Christian Bale as Batman/Bruce Wayne, Gary Oldman as Jim Gordon, Morgan Freeman as Lucius Fox, Michael Caine as Alfred, Tom Hardy as Bane, Anne Hathaway as Selina Kyle/Catwoman, Joseph Gordon-Levitt as John Blake, Marion Cotillard as Miranda Tate, Josh Pence as the young Ra’s al Ghul, Matt Modine as Nixon, Diego Klattenhoff as a rookie cop, Brett Cullen as a judge and Chris Ellis as a priest.

The film also stars Juno Temple, Alon Aboutboul, Tom Conti, Joey King, Burn Gorman and Daniel Sunjata. Nestor Carbonell is currently rumored to be involved.

“The Dark Knight Rises,” which is again directed by Christopher Nolan, is scheduled for release on July 20, 2012. “The Dark Knight Rises” is written by David S. Goyer (story), Bob Kane (characters), Christopher Nolan (screenplay), Christopher Nolan (story) and Jonathan Nolan (screenplay) with original music from Hans Zimmer and cinematography by Wally Pfister. During filming, “The Dark Knight Rises” is going by the fake name “Magnus Rex”.

By ADAM FENDELMAN Publisher HollywoodChicago.com [email protected]