The Dark Knight Rises to take place 8 Years Later

The latest issue of Empire has arrived in the mail to subscribers. Not only has the magazine's The Dark Knight Rises preview supplied us with a batch new official images, but also brand new details regarding the film's story.

First and foremost, there's the shocker that The Dark Knight Rises is set eight years after The Dark Knight. "It's really all about finishing Batman and Bruce Wayne's story. We left him in a very precarious place. Perhaps surprisingly for some people, our story picks up quite a bit later, eight years after 'The Dark Knight.' So he's an older Bruce Wayne; he's not in a great state. With Bane, we're looking to give Batman a challenge he hasn't had before. With our choice of villain and with our choice of story we're testing Batman both physically as well as mentally," Nolan explained to Empire.

Tom Hardy also discussed his character, Bane. "He's brutal. Brutal. He's a big dude who's incredibly clinical, in the fact that he has a result-based and oriented fighting style. It's not about fighting. It's about carnage. The style is heavy-handed, heavy-footed, it's nasty. Anything from small-joint manipulation to crushing skulls, crushing rib cages, stamping on shins and knees and necks and collarbones and snapping heads off and tearing his fists through chests, ripping out spinal columns. He is a terrorist in mentality as well as brutal action. He's a smashing machine. He's a wrecking ball. If we're going to shoot somebody, shoot the pregnant woman or the old lady first. Make sure everybody stands up. He's a terrorist in his mentality as well as brutal actions. He's horrible piece of work."

There were some other tidbits in the preview, particularly from Costume Designer Lindy Hemming who divulged some details regarding Bane's appearance. "He was injured early in his story. He's suffering from pain and needs gas to survive. He can't survive the pain without the mask. The pipes from the mask go back along his jaw line and feed into the thing at the back where there are two canisters of what ever it is… the anesthetic," she told Empire.

And as for that rumor of there being a prologue coming to IMAX. Yes, it's true. A six-minute clip will debut alongside the new Mission Impossible movie in IMAX theaters, beginning December 16th. It's said to introduce Bane and give moviegoers a taste of the rest of the film.

The Dark Knight Rises opens July 20th, 2012 starring Christian Bale, Tom Hardy, Michael Caine, Gary Oldman, Anne Hathaway, Marion Cotillard, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Morgan Freeman.

The cover and a few scans courtesy of ComingSoon are below. Expect some higher quality shots later.