Is the rumor true?

Batman-on-Film says that the rumor Tom Hardy will play Professor Hugo Strange in the upcoming Dark Knight Rises are false.

In fact, they're wondering if Strange will be in the movie at all - they believe all of the Strange rumors come from the character being the main villain in the new Batman: Arkham Asylum game.

The rumor was that Dark Knight Rises would draw its plot from the Legends of The Dark Knight comic story arc "Prey", which features Batman battling "Hugo Strange, a psychiatrist appointed by the mayor to the GCPD task force dedicated to taking down Batman - led by Jim Gordon. Strange, an oddball himself, becomes obsessed with Batman, and hypnotizes Max Cort, a brutish detective on the task force, into becoming a masked vigilante himself."

No plot details have been officially confirmed by Christopher Nolan.