Sources have now informed us that Warner Bros. has sent out a new audio mix for the Dark Knight Rises prologue to IMAX theaters, and Bane’s dialogue is now much easier to understand.

According to these “sources” who are no doubt risking their very lives to bring us this important information, the dialogue itself remains the same, but other background noise, including that of a plane, have been lowered, making Bane much more comprehensible. Also, there are rumors that Michael Caine‘s dialogue is now less cockney thanks to a 30% reduction in glottal stops. (Collider)

Christopher Nolan screened the film’s opening sequence for the press last night (my invite must have gone to spam), and the consensus is, “Huh? What??” The Hollywood Reporter recaps, “A lot of key dialogue, particularly that of Bane, who speaks via a mask, was unintelligible.”

It’s important to note that the film is still being edited and it’s likely that this is not the final version of the audio. But, I’d warn Nolan before he goes too far down the rabbit hole of attempting to fix it. Vin Diesel movies suffer from the same problem and they rake in the cash. Be true to yourself, Christopher.

Pence — who played the torso, arms, and legs of Tyler Winkelvoss in The Social Network (his face was digitally swapped out for Armie Hammer‘s) — joins a cast that already includes Christian Bale, Anne Hathaway, Morgan Freeman, and Gary Oldman. His part takes place during a key flashback in the film, set 30 years in the past.

Though the plot of the film remains under wraps, Pence’s role clearly indicates that Ra’s Al Ghul, Batman’s mentor-turned nemesis who died in Batman Begins, isn’t entirely out of the picture quite yet. Whether that means we’ll get to see more of Liam Neeson (who played Al Ghul in the first installment of the series) remains to be seen. My guess is that he’s too busy filming movies where he gets revenge for things to go anywhere near the Batman franchise. (HollywoodReporter)

Speculation seems silly, as the Internet rumor mill has suggested virtually every character for JGL, and the description of Temple’s character doesn’t seem to warrant too much investigation based on the info at hand. Upon hearing “street-smart Gotham girl,” my mind immediately went to the young teenage girl from the original Crow, but that’s just me. And that character has existed in virtually every dystopian film made in the past 30 years, so go nuts.

Temple, though relativel unknown, has cut her teeth in Kaboom and the approaching Cracks, so check those out if you want to get obsessive about things. (Playlist)