chicago entertainment events: 'Dark Knight Rises' Third Trailer To Premiere With 'Avengers'

Tuesday, April 24, 2012

'Dark Knight Rises' Third Trailer To Premiere With 'Avengers'

'Knight' will also have the most IMAX footage of any Hollywood movie.
By Fallon Prinzivalli

Tom Hardy as Bane in "Dark Knight Rises"
Photo: Warner Bros/EW

Marvel and DC Comics fans are in for quite a treat. Not only will "Marvel's The Avengers" finally release in theaters on May 4, but it was confirmed over the weekend that DC Comics' "The Dark Knight Rises" third trailer will debut when Earth's mightiest heroes ban together.

A Warner Bros. executive told Deadline Hollywood, "We see this placement as a good strategic decision. We always want our trailers to be seen with films that people want to see — and a lot of people will be going to 'The Avengers'!"

Warner Bros.' idea of placing a DC Comics trailer in front of a Marvel film isn't new. In 2008, a third trailer for "The Dark Knight" played before "Iron Man." It would seem a little strange since Marvel and DC are rivals, but it's all a marketing strategy. "It will provide the best potential exposure for 'The Dark Knight Rises,' " the studio exec said. "It's a big positive for everyone!"

We know comic fans are certainly not complaining. And that's not all they have to look forward to when it comes to Christopher Nolan's final Batman flick. The Wall Street Journal also reported that "The Dark Knight Rises" will contain the most IMAX footage ever featured in a Hollywood film. "The Dark Knight" had 40 minutes of IMAX footage when it released in 2008, but the 2012 follow-up will have more than an hour's worth. It may seem like IMAX is nothing to get excited over, with "The Avengers," "The Amazing Spider-Man" and "Prometheus" all slated to hit IMAX screens this summer as well. The difference is Nolan's film was shot with an actual IMAX camera, whereas the others are simply being converted by IMAX's technology.

The 90-pound, incredibly noisy IMAX camera has proved to be difficult for some directors, but it didn't faze Nolan. "There was a huge irony that we were told it would be too difficult to shoot a Hollywood movie on IMAX when we had this gigantic camera department, grips, electric, hundreds of people working for us," the director told WSJ. "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. It was absurd."

Audiences can see the third trailer for "The Dark Knight Rises" during the "Avengers" previews on May 4, before the Batman epic releases on July 18, 2012.

Check out everything we've got on "The Dark Knight Rises" and "Marvel's The Avengers." For breaking news and previews of the latest comic book movies — updated around the clock — visit SplashPage.MTV.com.

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