Over an hour of IMAX footage for The Dark Knight Rises

Christopher Nolan has made no secrets about his dislike for the 3D format that has been taking over cinemas the past few years. His arguments have been backed by facts that the we already perceive them in a three dimensional scope and the use of the forced gimmick causes the picture to lose aspects of its bright quality. He's also been quite vocal about IMAX giving the viewer a truly immersive experience that is absent from the other various formats. Without sounding too much like an internet dubbed "Nolanite", from my personal experience I am in agreement in the statements he's made.

The first time I watched The Dark Knight in my local IMAX dome theatre it really was a new and interesting experience. Fast forward to the Dark Knight Rises prologue released in December. When the scene of a plane flying over an open field showed up on the huge dome screen, I literally felt like I was falling forward out of my seat and had to hold onto my wife's arm until I settled in to what I was seeing. This is how I can really understand Nolan wanting to help bring IMAX to the audience more often for future films.

The Wall Street Journal has posted a lengthy article with some great points on studio's trying to bring IMAX back in a big way. They reveal that Nolan has over an hour's worth worth of footage in the giant format which is record for a Hollywood feature film. In the article he addresses concerns the studio had with shooting so much footage with the bigger cameras;

"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. 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."

Seems like a good way to shut up the guys that were probably begging him to use the 3D format for his final Batman film. I believe the movie will benefit more from being in IMAX anyway. Click the link above to read the full article.