When a superhero movie grosses more than a billion dollars worldwide and is critically acclaimed (94% on Rotten Tomatoes.com), people, not only fanboys, wait with somewhat baited breath to see what the filmmakers have in store for the next installment. Such is the case with Christopher Nolan’s Batman saga, with the aforementioned 2008 mega-hit, The Dark Knight, and its predecessor, Batman Begins, arguably setting the bar for what superhero movies should deliver. I’m still bitter The Dark Knight wasn’t given more Oscar love. Maybe Nolan will get a repentance Oscar this year for Inception.

At any rate, imagine my excitement and the buzz on the web today when it was announced the lovely and stunning Anne Hathaway would be portraying Selina Kyle, a.k.a Catwoman, in Nolan’s presumably final caped crusader movie, The Dark Knight Rises. Many a fanboy across the web enjoyed a rise at this news and probably all flocked to Mr. Skin.com to ogle Hathaway’s plethora of nude scenes, most recently in Love & Other Drugs. In related news, Tom Hardy, who shined for Nolan in Inception and was the first new casting in The Dark Knight Rises, will be playing Bane, who some probably – and sadly – remember as a gianormous, roided-out luchador in the craptastic Batman & Robin.

Some will undoubtedly hate this move by Nolan and Co. Me? I have no issue with the characters of Catwoman or Bane in The Dark Knight Rises, nor do I have any problem whatsoever with the casting of Hathaway and Hardy. Both have proven to be adept actors and seem to be multi-faceted in their thespian abilities. But even more so, Nolan, both in screenwriting and directing the Batman franchise, has proven to be a virtuoso at creating depth, emotion and passion in a genre usually filled with quips, explosions and tights. At this point, I’m more than willing to put my trust in Nolan and I have no doubt The Dark Knight Rises will meet or exceed my expectations come the summer of 2012.