Modine will play character named Nixon, but Conti and King's roles are not yet known.

Production on "The Dark Knight Rises" is already under way, and on Friday Warner Bros. released the first photo from director Christopher Nolan's film. Now three new actors have officially joined the cast.

target="_blank">Variety reported that Matthew Modine will play a character named Nixon. Tom Conti and Joey King have also signed on, but the exact nature of their roles is being kept under wraps.

While Modine is new to the world of blockbuster comic-book adaptations, Variety noted that the actor has in fact played a Joker before, albeit Private Joker in 1987's "Full Metal Jacket," the Oscar-nominated Vietnam War film directed by Stanley Kubrick.

The Scottish-born Conti himself nabbed an Oscar nod for his turn as a troubled poet in 1983's "Reuben, Reuben." The 11-year-old King played Ramona last year in "Ramona and Beezus" and will appear in this summer's ensemble comedy "Crazy, Stupid, Love."

These three actors join a production expected to jump from locales in India, England and Scotland to domestic stops in Pittsburgh, New York and Los Angeles. They join Christian Bale, who returns as Bruce Wayne (and his alter ego Batman), and newcomers Anne Hathaway as Selina Kyle (who becomes Catwoman in comic-book lore) and Tom Hardy as the villain Bane, among many others.

On Friday, we got our first look at href="http://splashpage.mtv.com/2011/05/20/tom-hardy-bane-the-dark-knight-rises-poll/">Hardy as Bane , thanks to a viral marketing campaign that sent fans on an investigative hunt from the film's website to Twitter and back again. The reaction was immediately positive. "Chris Nolan will do it big again," wrote one MTV News commenter. "One image has never made me so excited for one film. Looks to me like Nolan and company are gonna go out with a huge bang and leave people talking."

Check out everything we've got on "The Dark Knight Rises."

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