Remember the well-executed viral marketing for Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight back in 2008? Brace yourself now for the unveiling of Tom Hardy as Bane in one hell of viral fashion.

Massive update! After the lengthy announcement from Warner Bros. on the commencement of filming on The Dark Knight Rises, the much-anticipated swan song to Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy yesterday, the film, in keeping with The Dark Knight's impressive viral marketing history, has kicked off its rampaging viral marketing engine today with an astounding result.

While the official website for Christopher Nolan's third Batman film went live yesterday, it contains nothing but a sound file of a mysterious chanting. Ever the efficient internet lurkers, the online communities soon uncover the source code of the sound file, which led to a link to a Twitter account, TheFireRises, where a somewhat obscured image will gradually be clarified with posting and tweeting of the hashtag #thefirerises.

And with that, the smarter folks online managed to uncover the first image of Tom Hardy as Bane. Enjoy.