14 DAY TRIAL // Come December 21, if you're a fan of Chris Nolan's “Batman” films, you'd better not miss the IMAX release of “Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol” with Tom Cruise, since Warner Bros. will pack no less than 6 full minutes with it.
Slash Film is the first to report this, after confirming it with studio sources. Various other publications have also confirmed the report, but Warner is choosing to keep mum on the topic.
Admittedly, the studio would have wanted it to be a surprise for unsuspecting fans, but the cat is out of the bag now.
“A trusted theater (read: exhibitor) source has just exclusively alerted /Film that Warner Bros. plans to attach a six minute prologue to The Dark Knight Rises to all IMAX prints of Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol,” the e-zine writes.
“Christopher Nolan's third film in his Batman trilogy is being released by Warner Bros. and Brad Bird's first live action film is Paramount, but the arrangement would certainly be mutually beneficial as Mission: Impossible is the biggest IMAX release of the holiday season,” Slash Film further says.
“Putting a teaser for The Dark Knight Rises in front of it would certainly drive audiences to that format as opposed to regular theaters,” the e-zine explains.
However, this is no teaser in the sense of a teaser “trailer”: clocking in at 6 full minutes, the “Dark Knight Rises” footage would actually be the longest released in years – and a major surprise and most welcome present for fans of what Slash Film calls “the most anticipated movie of the decade.”
“Audiences would get their first chance at seeing The Dark Knight Rises footage in IMAX on December 16. That’s because Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol is opening exclusively in IMAX five days before its general release, which is on December 21,” the e-zine says.
“The Dark Knight Rises” is Nolan's third and last Batman film, and will be out in theaters in the summer of 2012.
It stars Christian Bale as the caped crusader, Tom Hardy as villain Bane and Anne Hathaway as Catwoman. Nolan is directing on his own script.