'Dark Knight Rises' Director Christopher Nolan Reveals New Details About the Plot, Villain Bane

Ethan Miller/Getty Images

Christopher Nolan has gone overboard to guard the plot details of upcoming Batman threequel, The Dark Knight Rises, including at one point reportedly refusing to let the cast know the ending.

our editor recommends

‘The Dark Knight Rises’' Wall Street Fight Scene Resembles Pittsburgh Shoot (Video)

'Dark Knight Rises' Co-stars Anne Hathaway, Joseph Gordon-Levitt Sing Together in French (Video)

'The Dark Knight Rises': Anne Hathaway's Catwoman Wears Louis Vuitton

'Dark Knight Rises' Filming Footage Shows Batwing in Action (Video)

Joseph Gordon-Levitt's Gotham Cop Revealed On 'The Dark Night Rises' NYC Set (Photo)

'Dark Knight Rises:' More Footage Hits Web; See Batwing and Tumblers (Video)

But now he's spilling a few secrets about the movie in a new interview with Empire magazine.

PHOTOS: 'The Dark Knight Rises' First Look: On the Set

"It's really all about finishing Batman and Bruce Wayne's story," said Nolan, who previously directed 2005's Batman Begins and 2008's The Dark Knight. "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."

Warner Bros.' summer 2012 tentpole finds Christian Bale reprising his role of Bruce Wayne/Batman and Gary Oldman back as Commissioner Gordon. But several newcomers also have joined the film, including Tom Hardy as the villain Bane, whom Nolan described as "brutal."

VIDEO: 'Dark Knight Rises' Fight Scene Hits Web

"He's a big dude who's incredibly clinical, in the fact that he has a result-based and oriented fighting style," Hardy said of his character. "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."

Nolan said the plan was to give Batman a villain unlike any he's previously encountered.

"With Bane, we're looking to give Batman a challenge he hasn't had before," Nolan said. "With our choice of villain and with our choice of story we're testing Batman both physically as well as mentally."

STORY: First 'Dark Knight Rises' Villain Photo Released

Meanwhile, costume designer Lindy Hemming revealed a few more details about the villain's backstory as it relates to his mask [see picture, below].

"He was injured early in his story," she told Empire. "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 jawline and feed into the thing at his back, where there are two cannisters."

Nolan has been notoriously secretive about the movie's plot. In September, Oldman said that he believed he was the only actor who knew details about the final scenes.

PHOTOS: 'Dark Knight Rises': Anne Hathaway's Catwoman Outfit, Bane's Orb

"Christopher doesn't want anyone to ruin it and I completely understand that," he told ContactMusic.com. "The newer people on the film go to his office to read the script. They sent mine out, but it had to be hand-delivered directly to me and nobody else. And the final few pages were missing. I went along and talked to Christopher and in person about the ending. Then I locked it away in my head."

The movie -- which also stars franchise newcomers Anne Hathaway as Catwoman along with Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Marion Cotillard and Josh Pence -- opens July 20. Nolan has said it will be his last Batman film.