Bane Wouldn't Hesitate to Kill Pregnant Woman in 'Dark Knight Rises'

Tom Hardy opens up about his villainous character in the highly anticipated Batman film, describing him as a 'terrorist' and a 'horrible piece of work' who would shoot a pregnant woman or old lady.

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Females Buy Over 50% of the Movie Tickets But Get Only 33% of the Speaking Roles, USC Study Finds

That there's a gender disparity in Hollywood won't come as a surprise to anyone, but a study recently published by USC's Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism brings to light just how uneven things can be. For example: It turns out that of the 4,342 speaking roles in the 100 highest-grossing films of 2009, just 32,8% were female. This despite the fact that women and girls, as estimated by the MPAA, bought over 50% of the domestic movie tickets that year — and, duh, make up half the population. After the jump, 5 other highlights from the survey.

• When women do appear in films, they're more likely to be eye candy. Jokes about Taylor Lautner's frequent shirtlessness in the Twilight franchise notwithstanding, it seems that if a character is scantily clad, she's stil more likely to be female. Female characters were more likely to wear "sexy attire" (25.8% of females versus 4.7% of males), "expose skin" (23.6% versus 7.4%), and be described by other characters as "attractive" (10.9% versus 2.5). What makes this more icky is that this sexualization applies even to younger female characters, with similar statistics for those in the 13-20 age range as those in the 21-39 group. Meanwhile, those figures dropped sharply for women aged 40-64 (14.1%, 14.1%, and 3.9% for attire, skin, and attractiveness, respectively).

• Hollywood is not kind to older actresses. Maybe that anonymous actress who sued IMDb had a point — youth really is king in Hollywood, especially for women. The gender disparity was lower for characters in the 21-39 range, with females making up 36.9% of speaking roles, but in the 40-64 group, only 24% were female. Or to look at it another way: Over half (56.6%) of female characters were depicted as being between 21 and 39 years of age, while just 22.2% of them were in the 40-64 range. In contrast, 48.7% of male characters were 21-39, while 35.2% were 40-64. Well… at least older women characters get to keep their clothes on?

• Female filmmakers are still very, very rare. Much was made in 2009 of Kathryn Bigelow's Best Picture and Best Director win over ex James Cameron, but for the most part it's still men who dominate behind the camera. (Actually, The Hurt Locker wasn't even included in the survey because it didn't gross enough.) Just 3.9% of the directors, 13.5% of the writers, and 21.6% of the producers behind the top 100 films of 2009 were women.

• Things haven't really changed lately… And if you're wondering whether 2009 was just an anomaly, the answer, sadly, is no. Most of the statistics for 2009 showed little change from the two previous years in which USC had conducted the survey, 2008 and 2009. In fact, the percentage of female speaking roles hadn't budged at all since 2008. "We see remarkably stable trends," noted USC Annenberg associate professor Stacy L. Smith to the LA Times. "This reveals an industry formula for gender that may be outside of people's conscious awareness."

• … But there's still hope for change. One key finding was that including women behind the camera could be one way to bring more females in front of it. Films with at least one female director gave 47.7% of speaking roles to women, while including at least one female writer on staff increased the percentage of female characters from 29.8% to 40.0%. (Producers' gender had no measurable effect on the representation of women onscreen.) "Some of this is a function of the fact that we see more males working behind the scenes than females, and they're telling the stories that they know," said Smith. "If the numbers behind the scenes move, we're likely to see numbers on-screen move."

The top-grossing films of 2009 that were analyzed for this survey included female-centric hits like The Twilight Saga: New Moon, Confessions of a Shopaholic, and Bride Wars, as well as more gender-netural or male-oriented blockbusters such as Avatar, Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen, and Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince.

It goes almost without saying that these figures aren't the whole story. For one thing, it leaves out indie films, which is one area in which I suspect (without the statistics to back me up) that women are doing a bit better. For another, the survey does little to delve into the types of characters being portrayed, aside from their sexiness or lack thereof, or the quality of the films they're featured in. Et cetera. Still, the numbers are interesting to consider.

The reasons for

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Mondo Partners With DC Comics, First Poster Released Black Friday

Add another amazing license to Mondo's growing list of conquests. The poster boutique of the Alamo Drafthouse has made official posters for Star Wars, Star Trek, Pixar, Disney, Jurassic Park and Wednesday they announced a partnership with DC Comics to start producing posters for films and comics. Yes, DC. As in Batman, Superman, Green Lantern and Wonder Woman.

The first poster, Fortress of Solitude, is by rising artist JC Richard (whose Jurassic Park poster by Mondo might be their best yet) and will be released on Black Friday.

After the jump, check out the full image and speculate as to what a team up between Mondo and DC could mean for the future.

Here's JC Richard's Fortress of Solitude, inspired by Richard Donner's Superman. Click on the link for the hi-res image.

Fortress of Solitude is 12 x 32 in an edition of 390. It'll cost $50 and go on sale at a random time Black Friday, November 25, by following @MondoNews.

As for the art itself, it's definitely influenced by Dan McCarthy's Hoth print from 2010. That striking winter landscape, featuring an ever so tiny probe droid, is the definition of what I like to call "subtle fandom." The same can be said for this poster. Someone who knows Superman will understand this image immediately. Anyone else would really have to look hard to figure out what it is. Then, they'll see that small piece of Red and Blue flying through the sky and it'll just click.

Clicking is what you'll have to do a lot of to snag one of these bad boys on Friday.

Finally, Mondo having a license with DC opens a huge, huge bag of worms. Or should I say bats. Read this clip from the press release including by Mondo Creative director Justin Ishmael:

The DC Comics series, in partnership with Sideshow Collectibles, will encompass both comics and films as Mondo artists tackle some of the most iconic characters of all time.  "We wanted to kick off the DC Comics series with an art print from arguably the most famous character ever, but in a unique way which focuses on the iconic Fortress of Solitude," said Mondo's Creative Director Justin Ishmael.

"Comics and films." What major DC movie is scheduled for 2012? You know it. The Dark Knight Rises. Let the anticipation begin.

Read more about Mondo's team up with DC in an interview with Ishmael over at Comic Book Resources.

• Mondo's 'Jurassic Park' Poster Series Continues With JC Richard
• Christopher Meloni Offers Slightly More Information on His 'Man of Steel' Role
• Legal Red Tape Could Sever Superman In Two Come 2013
• DC Plans to Reboot Continuity in Graphic Novel Series; Precursor to Film Versions?
• George Romero And 200 Live Zombies Attend Mondo Mystery Screening Of 'Dawn of the Dead;' Photos and Videos Here
• Superhero Bits: Man of Steel, Red 2, Dark Knight Rises, Marvel, Amazing Spider-Man, Watchmen

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Report: Demi Moore and Ashton Kutcher Still Meet for Counseling Post-Split

Words are, the 'Margin Call' actress and the ' Two and a Half Men' star have got together at a friend's Beverly Hills home, which is called the 'Kabbalah House', over the weekend.

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'Grimm' Gets Full-Season Pick-Up and a Thursday Tryout

NBC gives a back-nine episode order to the fairytale procedural series and gives it a try in the competitive Thursday, 10 P.M. slot on December 8.

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Celebrity Birthdays - November 20, 2011

Happy Birthday to: Actress/model Angelica Bridges (1973) Kings of Leon bassist Jared Followill (1986) Singer Josh Turner (1977) American AFI singer Davey Havok (1975) Community star Joel McHa...

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Justin Bieber Lights Up Empire State Building

Justin Bieber has turned New York red and green after lighting up the Empire State Building to promote new children's movie "Arthur Christmas." The teen pop sensation, whose festive song "Santa ...

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Style Stars Of The Week: Nikki Reed, Ashley Greene & More

All eyes were on Nikki Reed and Ashley Greene this week. The on-screen vampire sisters have been jetsetting across the country for the premieres of their new film. Nikki and Ashley turned heads in...

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ArtsBeat Blog: Canadian Modesty Meets Icelandic Imagination

Guy Maddin's "Tales from the Gimli Hospital: Reframed" contains film, music, voices and sounds that at times fuse into a transporting whole.

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Pressures Led to Jack Wagner and Heather Locklear's Broken Engagement

The actor finally revealed why they decided not to continue with the plan to get married although they have been together for four years and engaged for three months.

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