Warner Bros. has issued a press release announcing that principal photography on The Dark Knight Rises, the final film in Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy, has begun. Locations for the film span three continents and include the American cities of Pittsburgh, New York, and Los Angeles as well as sites in India, England, and Scotland. Nolan, who used IMAX cameras for the first time ever in a major feature film in The Dark Knight, is using the large format cameras much more extensively in The Dark Knight Rises, where they will be under the control of Director of Photography Wally Pfister, who won an Academy Award for his work on Nolan’s Inception.

The Dark Knight Rises features an incredible array of talent both in front of and behind the camera. Oscar winner Christian Bale (The Fighter) reprises his role as Bruce Wayne/Batman with Michael Caine returning as Alfred, Gary Oldman as Commissioner Gordon, and Morgan Freeman as Lucious Fox. Additional cast members include Anne Hathaway as Selina Kyle, Tom Hardy as Bane, Marion Cotillard as Miranda Tate, and Joseph Gordon-Levitt as John Blake.  Caine (Cider House Rules), Freeman (Million Dollar Baby), Cotillard (La Vie En Rose) have all won Oscars as have costume designer Lindy Hemming (Topsy-Turvy), composer Hans Zimmer (The Lion King), and special effects supervisors Paul Frankline and Chris Corbould (Inception).

The Dark Knight Rises is slated to debut on July 20th, 2012 and is expected to be one of the major films of the year.  The Dark Knight earned over $1 billion at the worldwide box office in 2008.