This morning, I caught wind that LEGO had gotten the full DC Comics license. The deal will allow LEGO to create figures and playsets based on the characters and properties of DC Comics. The line will launch in January with 13 characters including Joker, Bane, Lex Luthor, Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman. The first pieces from the line will be on display at the LEGO booth at SDCC 2011 this weekend along with 3,000 Batman and Green Lantern exclusive figures as part of a promotion for the line.

The Marvel announcement stated that their deal would similarly cover figures and playsets. The license would take effect January 1, 2012 and would start seeing products roll out about May of 2012. The Super Heroes Marvel Collection would focus on the Avengers movie as well as classic Spider-man and X-Men characters. Some of the characters specifically mentioned included Wolverine, Nick Fury, Magneto, Deadpool, Spider-man, Doctor Octopus, Captain America, Hulk, Thor, Iron Man, Loki and more. Select items, again, will be on display at SDCC 2011 this weekend.

It looks like both licenses will be brought under LEGO’s new Super Heroes line. LEGO scored a major coup with these two licenses and surely dealt a very strong blow to Hasbro’s up and coming construction block brand, KRE-O. Can KRE-O strike back with Star Wars?

See the press releases after the jump
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We get our first look at the teaser trailer for the Dark Knight Rises. Mostly reused footage and audio from the previous movies, with a short scene with Commissioner Gordon (Gary Oldman) in a hospital bed talking to Bruce Wayne. Its hard to make out what he is saying, but he’s basically telling Bruce, the city needs Batman.

[UPDATE – Crazy] It looks like the video is getting taken down everywhere. I found another one and placed it after the jump, so check it out.

Let us know what you think in the comments!
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The first teaser poster has been unveiled for the third movie in the current Batman film franchise. The Dark Knight Rises will feature Tom Hardy as Bane, Anne Hathaway as Catwoman (as we discussed here) and Christian Bale as Batman/Bruce Wayne. Not much more is known about the film and the poster does little to add to that knowledge.

Yesterday Warner Bros. announced that The Dark Knight Rises had started filming, as well as launching the film’s official website. Along with this launch includes a social campaign that revealed the first photo of Tom Hardy as Bane.

At launch the official website was just a black image with some odd chanting playing. A deditcated fan looked at the visual spectrum of the chanting and noticed it contained a twitter hashtag of #thefirerises. As fans tweeted using that hashtag, on the official site an image started to be filled in using the twitter icon of people using the hashtag. The image is still being filled in, but /Film has posted the details of this social campaign and the high res photo of the finished picture.

We’ve known for a while that Tom Hardy would be in the next Batman flick, but we didn’t know who he would be. Speculation fuleed by plot rumors put him as Dr Hugo Strange, but an official press release from Warner Bros has eliminated rumors and confirmed another cast member.

Tom Hardy will be Bane, a Batman villain notorious for breaking the caped crusader’s back during the Knightfall plot in the mid-90s. Bane’s power is derived from a super potent steroid-like substance called Venom that amplifies his musculature.

Additionally, Anne Hathaway has been cast as Selina Kyle, better known as Catwoman. A very popular character for decades in the Batman mythos as both a villain and a hero, its unknown what role she will play in Nolan universe. One thing is for sure: it will likely be better than Halle Berry’s attempt.

Read the full press release:
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