The first poster for Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight Rises is released by Warner Bros., on www.thedarkknightrises.com. It’s reminiscent of Nolan’s film Inception, but hey . . . it does play off the escalation angle — and the bat symbol being formed by the skyscrapers is a nice touch.

Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Gary Oldman and Morgan Freeman reprise their role for Nolan’s third and final Batman movie. Tom Hardy, Anne Hathaway, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Marion Cotillard join.

The Dark Knight Rises releases July 20, 2012.