**Update: **Well, fmug. New York Times writer Dave Itzkoff has tweeted:'Warner Bros. says "no truth" to reports of new Dark Knight Rises prologue trailers going out with fixed Bane audio." Looks like we'll just have to bring ear trumpets to the film. Thanks to The Playlist for the spot.
You’ll recall that back in early December, we reported on the first screening of the Dark Knight Rises prologue currently playing in front of Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol on IMAX screens. While the footage scored some glowing reviews (including our own), the first inklings of an issue began to appear, with concerns raised about Bane (Tom Hardy)’s raspy, metallic, and accented dialogue being hard to understand. Chris Nolan has said he won’t overhaul it, but now comes word that he may at least have tinkered with it to help audiences make out the big bad’s breathy pronouncements.
We’re taking Collider’s sourced story with a few grains of salt as there’s been no official word from Warner Bros. on the issue, but according to an IMAX projectionist who received an updated soundtrack for the prologue, the new audio lowers the background noise so that Bane stands out a little more, without comprising Nolan’s vision of a film that doesn’t simply shovel the plot’s ideas out at you. Still, if true, the tweak was necessary after the issue spawned a slew of 'net jokes and critical comments.
In case you’ve yet to check out the prologue, beware some spoilers ahead: the main chunk of the footage concerns a prisoner transport situation, with a CIA agent (Aidan Gillen) interrogating two hooded captives on a plane, demanding more information about Bane. Turns out one of them is the masked mauler himself, and things suddenly go very wrong for the agency… The new report mentions that the noise of the plane and the operation to disable it so Bane can escape is now lowered, so all the dialogue is clearer.
Let us know if you see the prologue and notice a change. But please – don’t leave us voicemails in Bane speak or we'll be forced to mghfgph your ghrthhhff.
The Dark Knight Rises will be out on July 20.