It's the big secret on the "Dark Knight Rises" set -- a giant armored jet thing spotted careening around the streets of Pittsburgh -- but so far, no one's seen it up close in nerdgasmic detail ... UNTIL NOW.
TMZ obtained the recent pictures of what appear to be Batman's updated Batwing for the new movie -- and if you look closely ... you can even see a Batman dummy through the windshield.
The original Batwing first appeared in Tim Burton's 1989 "Batman" movie -- starring Michael Keaton and Jack Nicholson.
Check out the video below to see the new maybe-Batwing in action.
Batman is SUPPOSED to be a master of all things mechanical -- but last weekend in Toronto, some bat-impostor ruined the Dark Knight's good reputation ... when his replica Batmobile overheated on the side of the road.
Law enforcement tells TMZ, it wasn't the REAL Batman -- though the man's receding hairline bears a striking resemblance to Michael Keaton -- it was some Canadian superfan with a lot of time on his hands.
With a new "Batman" movie in the works -- Danny DeVito already has a great suggestion about who should resurrect his famous Penguin role ... somebody who's a total punk.
Danny -- along with his wife Rhea Perlman and his "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" co-star Charlie Day -- were leaving dinner in Beverly Hills last night when they fired off a list of possible Oswald Cobblepot contenders ... before settling on the "perfect" guy.
Robert Ouriel -- the guy accused of robbing the actress famous for playing Catwoman -- just pled not guilty to grand theft.
Ouriel was recently arrested for allegedly stealing $25,000 worth of jewelry from Julie Newmar backin 2008.
The case was busted wide open when Newmar -- a crime fighter in her own right -- saw the stolen items on eBay and notified police ... who were able to track them back to Ouriel.
If convicted, Ouriel -- a former acquaintance of Newmar -- faces up to 3 years in prison.
Catwoman is now a crime fighter ... or at least the woman who played Catwoman is.
Cops apprehended a man suspected of stealing $25,000 worth of jewelry from Julie Newmar's home back in 2008 -- and authorities say the actress is responsible for cracking the case.
According to law enforcement sources, 76-year-old Newmar -- who played Catwoman on the old "Batman"TV show -- was trolling through the Internet recently, when she "discovered the items for sale on Ebay."
Authorities say they were able to track the items back to a man named Robert Ouriel -- a former acquaintance of Newmar. Ouriel was eventually arrested and charged with grand theft -- if convicted he faces up to 3 years in prison.
The lesson: You mess with the kitty, you get the claws.
Julie Newmar, 76, and Adam West, 81 -- the original Catwoman and Batman from the campy '60s TV series -- came out of their bat caves and joined forces in Gotham this weekend.
The sight of the dynamic duo together is utterly stunning.
Not every Batman is a raging, angry lunatic -- in fact, the caped crusader who launched the movie franchise, Michael Keaton, was the coolest cat ever when almost every person at the Tampa airport approached him for a picture.
Seems everyone in the world has seen "The Dark Knight" –- everyone except about a billion Chinese folks.
That's because "DK" hasn't been released by Warner Bros. in mainland China, reports the Huffington Post, because of "prerelease conditions" and "cultural sensitivities." There's a scene that takes place in Hong Kong where Batman corrals a gangster, and another involving a famous actor who got caught up in a sex-pic scandal, and those scenes may have worried the studio.
Of course, as HuffPost points out, bootlegs have been available for months in China.
Robert Ouriel -- the guy accused of robbing the actress famous for playing Catwoman -- just pled not guilty to grand theft.
Catwoman is now a crime fighter ... or at least the woman who played Catwoman is. 
Seems everyone in the world has seen "The Dark Knight" –- everyone except about a billion Chinese folks.
