As if anticipation hadn't already reached a fever pitch for “The Avengers,” following its stellar reception by nearly every news outlet including ours, then consider that level increased, as news comes today that the third trailer for “The Dark Knight Rises” will unspool in front of the Joss Whedon film.
The news sprang up on Warner Brothers' theater exhibitor website (and caught by the eager eyes at Nolan Fans), and revealed the trailer will be attached to every 2D, 3D, and IMAX combination print of “The Avengers.” Marvel and Christopher Nolan have pulled this move before, as the final trailer for “Inception” made its debut in front of “Iron Man 2” in 2010. It's a smart move on both parties' ends, and will only prove to increase each film's already-incredible box office projections. We'll see just how incredible when “The Avengers” opens May 4th.
Also in Nolan news, the Wall Street Journal reports in their rundown of the IMAX format that “The Dark Knight Rises” will feature more than an hour of IMAX footage, besting its predecessor by more than 20 minutes. With the theater business falling over themselves to capitalize on the format (“The Hunger Games” returns to IMAX this weekend, while more than half of sales for “Titanic 3D” came from IMAX customers — though it should be noted those were conversions, not films shot natively in IMAX), Nolan continues his streak of keen foresight by being the only feature film actually shot with IMAX cameras. There are of course much-discussed working issues with the cameras, but Nolan just laughs at the idea that anyone would be wary. "These were cameras that had been to the top of Mount Everest, to the bottom of the ocean and into outer space, but people thought we couldn't make a feature film,” Nolan said, “It was absurd."
The WSJ article does a great job running down the format's history and its designs for the future, but what's abundantly clear is that “The Dark Knight Rises” will be scrutinized very closely by both detractors and supporters of in the film industry. "The Dark Knight Rises" opens on July 20th.