Dark Knight Rises leaked photo defeats Warner Bros campaign

A leaked photo of the Dark Knight Rises villain which Warner Brothers had kept a secret from batman fans has defeated the Hollywood film producer's original intended purpose of using it as part of a viral marketing campaign.

Had this photo not been leaked, at least millions of twitter followers were required to reveal the mysterious mosaic puzzle into a full clear image of batman's new villain character Bane.

The viral marketing campaign started at the movie's official website TheDarkKnightRises.com where a muffled audio plays over a pitchblack background screen. The mysterious sounds can then be interpreted into a Twitter hashtag that will direct fans to the movie's twitter page. Once a fan becomes a follower, an image would add onto a mosaic, which would then reveal a complete image once enough followers joined.

But thanks to fans, a clear full image of actor Tom Hardy's Bane character was obtained by cracking the page's source code. The conclusion may or may not have been what Warner Brothers intended, but the attention spawned so far has left fans waiting for more.