It has the weight and scope — and then some — of 2008′s “The Dark Knight,” the “Batman Begins” sequel whose snub in the best-picture field helped prod the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to expand the category to more than five nominees.
[...] in the snub department, academy voters are not likely to forget that Batman boss Christopher Nolan, one of modern Hollywood’s true innovators, has yet to be nominated for best director.
Nolan doesn’t feel snubbed that “The Dark Knight” was overlooked for best picture or that he missed out on a directing nomination for that one and his 2010 thriller “Inception,” a best-picture nominee.
Opening next week, “The Dark Knight Rises” may just speak for itself as a work of high costume drama — albeit superhero costumes — that’s worthy of show business’ highest honors, no matter how many nominees there are.
Round up the rest of Nolan’s key cast and the film’s got even more academy backers: four Oscar winners — Michael Caine, Morgan Freeman, Marion Cotillard and Batman himself, Christian Bale — and another longtime awards season oversight, Gary Oldman, who finally got his first nomination last season.
Characters wear silly disguises, but it all feels real — so real that Heath Ledger posthumously won the supporting-actor Oscar as the Joker in “The Dark Knight,” playing a madman hidden behind makeup that looked like a melted ice cream cake.
The Directors Guild of America, whose awards contenders usually are a close match for the Oscar directing field, has nominated Nolan three times, for Memento, ”The Dark Knight and Inception.
