Christopher Nolan's Third Batman Film Will Be Titled 'The Dark Knight Rises' And Will NOT Feature The Riddler

In an interview published minutes ago, director Christopher Nolan revealed that the title of the third Batman film will be The Dark Knight Rises. He also gave scant details about the plot and direction of the third film. Hit the jump to find out what (little) we know.

The news comes from Geoff Boucher over at Hero Complex, who was able to score a coveted interview with the secretive director. "It won't be the Riddler," Nolan said of the third film's villain, squashing earlier rumors and speculation to the contrary. He also noted, "We'll use many of the same characters as we have all along, and we'll be introducing some new ones," a fairly self-evident  yet cryptic statement.

Evidently, Boucher and Nolan also chatted about convincing Warner Brothers to go with IMAX instead of 3D for the film, which I find incredibly encouraging. Boucher says that information will be made available later today. We'll update you guys when we hear about it.

Is anyone sad to see the Riddler eliminated from contention? Note that Nolan already took Mr. Freeze out of the running back in March. Also, what do you guys think of the title? Despite re-using the entire title of the second film, I think it has a nice poetic ring to it.