While we're more than a year away from the July 20, 2012 release of Christopher Nolan's highly anticipated third installment in his Batman series entitled The Dark Knight Rises, Warner Bros. has already launched an official website for the film which contains nothing but a cryptic audio file. When deciphered, the voice is chanting "the fire rises," which leads to a Twitter account @TheFireRises. Of course, that site links to another site which features an encrypted image telling users to tweet the hashtag @TheFireRises. The encryption has been decrypted and we can all now lay eyes on the first photo of Tom Hardy as Bane. Needless to say, 2012 seems light years away.

 

You can read on to check out the photo and be sure to share your thoughts! The Dark Knight Rises opens in theaters July 20, 2012 and stars Christian Bale, Morgan Freeman, Michael Caine, Gary Oldman, Tom Hardy, Anne Hathaway, Marion Cotillard and Joseph Gordon-Levitt. It's directed by Christopher Nolan.

 

Now all we need is an image of Anne Hathaway in her Catwoman attire and we'll be set. Would you guys agree?