When I made my first post announcing that Anne had been cast as Catwoman in the upcoming The Dark Knight Rises, it was literally seconds after the official announcement and not much was known. Here is some more information:

Hathaway was on the the list of actresses which tested for the role in recent weeks, along with Jessica Biel and Keira Knightley, as revealed by Heat Vision.

The test involved Christian Bale, who had to leave his National Board of Review in New York dinner early so he could catch a flight back to LA. to conduct.

The announcement didn’t actually name Hathaway’s character as Catwoman, which keeps in line with Nolan’s more grounded approach to the movie series.

Michelle Pfeiffer starred as Kyle/Catwoman in Tim Burton’s Batman Returns.

The character, as interpreted by Burton, was a meek secretary who becomes empowered after she is almost killed and left for dead.

Pfeiffer played her with a mix of repression and sensuality, with the character breaking out as a symbol of female empowerment and becoming a pop culture sensation.

In his interpretation, Nolan has been giving his characters a deeper and darker psychological edge.

Nolan and his team of writers (he wrote the screenplay with his brother Jonah Nolan, from a story by Nolan and David S. Goyer) have taken some inspiration for their take on Batman from the classic Batman: Year One storyline by Frank Miller and David Mazzucchelli, by way of asking, “What if the story continued?”

The Catwoman in Year One was a prostitute-dominatrix who helps Batman even as he inadvertently inspires her to don a costume and embark on a life of crime.

Warner gave no indication if this was Nolan’s take on the character.

– Source

Filming is planned to start in May and the film is scheduled to open in July of 2012.