'The Dark Knight Rises': Anne Hathaway and Joseph Gordon-Levitt star in newly released pics

With the crescendo of hype surrounding "The Dark Knight Rises" at its peak, Warner Bros. has released a few new photos from the movie that focus not on Batman and Bane but on two other key characters.

Anne Hathaway's Selina Kyle and Joseph Gordon-Levitt's John Blake are featured most prominently in the new shots, including the one above -- which looks to be from the scene in which Blake interrogates Kyle about her ties to Bane (Tom Hardy).

Selina also apparently knows her way with a gun, as indicated in this shot (the guy with his head down is identified as British actor Burn Gorman).

As Gotham City comes apart during Bane's campaign of terror, Blake, a dedicated police officer, does what he can to protect innocent people -- which includes shepherding kids off a wrecked school bus on a bridge and running through the lobby of a hospital with a shotgun.

"The Dark Knight Rises" is, of course, a Batman movie, so the new batch of photos also includes the following shots of Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale) and Alfred (Michael Caine) in the Batcave and Batman with a new gadget -- which presumably is not an iPad, though it kind of looks like one.

"The Dark Knight Rises" opens Friday (July 20). You can see many more images from the movie in Zap2it's photo gallery.