The Dark Knight Trilogy

The Dark Knight Trilogy
Cover of The Dark Knight Trilogy box set of the three films
Directed by	Christopher Nolan
Produced by	Larry Franco (1) Christopher Nolan (2,3) Charles Roven Emma Thomas
Screenplay by	David S. Goyer (1) Christopher Nolan Jonathan Nolan (2,3)
Story by	Christopher Nolan (2,3) David S. Goyer
Based on	Characters appearing in comic books published by DC Comics
Starring	Christian Bale Michael Caine Liam Neeson Katie Holmes Gary Oldman Cillian Murphy Tom Wilkinson Rutger Hauer Ken Watanabe Morgan Freeman Heath Ledger Aaron Eckhart Maggie Gyllenhaal Anne Hathaway Tom Hardy Marion Cotillard Joseph Gordon-Levitt
Music by	Hans Zimmer James Newton Howard (1,2)
Cinematography	Wally Pfister
Edited by	Lee Smith
Production companies	DC Comics Legendary Pictures Syncopy
Distributed by	Warner Bros. Pictures
Release date	June 15, 2005 (2005-06-15) (Batman Begins) July 18, 2008 (2008-07-18) (The Dark Knight) July 20, 2012 (2012-07-20) (The Dark Knight Rises)
Running time	456 minutes
Country	United Kingdom United States
Language	English
Budget	$585 million
Box office	$2.464 billion

The Dark Knight Trilogy is a British-American superhero film trilogy based on the DC Comics character Batman. The trilogy consists of Batman Begins (2005), The Dark Knight (2008) and The Dark Knight Rises (2012), directed by Christopher Nolan.

Following the critical failure and box office disappointment of Batman & Robin (1997), Warner Bros. rebooted the film franchise. The trilogy stars Christian Bale as Bruce Wayne/Batman, Michael Caine as Alfred Pennyworth, Gary Oldman as James Gordon, Morgan Freeman as Lucius Fox, and Cillian Murphy as Dr. Jonathan Crane/Scarecrow.

Each film in the series was a critical and box-office success. The second and third films earned over $1 billion worldwide.

Following a rejected Batman origin story reboot Joss Whedon pitched in December 2002, Warner Bros. hired Christopher Nolan and David S. Goyer to script Batman Begins. The duo aimed for a darker and more realistic tone, with humanity and realism being the basis of the film. The film relied on traditional stunts and scale models with minimal use of computer-generated imagery. Christian Bale starred as Batman, Liam Neeson starred as Ra's al Ghul, and Cillian Murphy as The Scarecrow. Katie Holmes also starred in the movie as Bruce's love interest, Rachel Dawes, a role created for the film. A new Batmobile (called the Tumbler) and a more mobile Batsuit were both created specifically for the film.