The ongoing Occupy Wall Street protests have served as a loud, if cacophonous voice in the urban wilderness, crying out against the corporations and millionaires who for too long have exploited the lower- and middle-class population for its own purposes. And now it may play another, somewhat ironic role: Serving as a stand-in for the equally pissed-off denizens of Gotham City in Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight Rises, which would thereby co-opt Occupy Wall Street's "gritty authenticity," save global media conglomerate Warner Bros. the cost of staging complicated crowd scenes that might otherwise add to the film’s $250 million budget, and essentially turn protestors into unpaid extras. (Counterargument: Batman is cool.)
The L.A. Times picked up on the as-yet-unconfirmed rumor that Occupy Wall Street might soon become set dressing for more than just Fox News’ daily “Look At This Silly College Kid” roundup, noting that a recently released casting notice suggests that the film’s upcoming New York shoot will include scenes from the protest. And of course, given that the script has already been written, and notorious planner Nolan has no intention of tweaking it at this point, the actual protest wouldn’t factor into the storyline, but would rather function as an all-purpose scene of civil unrest—one that could be applied to anything from, say, crippling economic disparity to demanding that Batman go and beat up some gangsters. Of course, there’s no official confirmation from Warner Bros. that Bruce Wayne will actually be anywhere near Zuccotti Park, but it certainly wouldn’t be the first time that a wealthy playboy crashed Occupy Wall Street to walk among people protesting the very greed he represents.