Today comes the revelation that Christopher Nolan will be FILMING some of THE DARK KNIGHT with the 70mm IMAX camera. That’s right, for a few select action scenes (including The Joker’s introduction) Nolan will lug the 200 pound camera out – making the choice sequences as crisp as anything we’ve ever seen. This is the first major motion picture to do this. Nolan says: “We wanted the Joker to have the grandest entrance possible.”
If you’ve ever seen a regular movie on an IMAX screen, you know that the image is stretched out to fit the eight-story tall screen, making it slightly distorted. With THE DARK KNIGHT, these special images will fit perfectly on the screen, as is the case with all the documentaries that are made especially for the format. It won’t have an adverse effect on a regular movie screen, it will just look sharper. Now the only question raised is, will it be a bit jarring – if you’re watching the movie on an IMAX screen – when all of a sudden the perspective changes from the flattened look to a cleaner one? I guess we’ll live with it – I’m just itching to see this flick.
And as a bonus, the above pic reveals a couple of villains, although it’s not clear if they’re just henchmen, or if one is Heath Ledger’s Joker incognito. The below pic certainly is (albeit a blurry glimpse). Take a gander at the camera. Looks like the dude is about to launch some rockets out of that thing…
THE DARK KNIGHT will open on July 18, 2008. Let us pray to the Lord that it’s better than SPIDER-MAN 3.