Sequel To 'The Dark Knight' Officially Announced

From Box Office Mojo comes the announcement that will set the geek world aflame (and on Free Comic Book Day too):

In one of the most anticipated announcements in recent memory, Warner Bros. officially set a date this morning for the follow-up to The Dark Knight. Tentatively known as Batman 3, the movie will debut July 20, 2012 in conventional and IMAX theaters, almost exactly four years after The Dark Knight opened to record-breaking numbers.

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'Inception' Goes IMAX

IMAX has scored another mature film: Chrisopher Nolan's follow-up to the cirtically acclaimed (but not by the Oscars) film "The Dark Knight."  That movie is "Inception," starring Leonardio DiCaprio, and the film has a budget someone could only get by making the second highest grossing film of all time.  This new film is a science fiction film.  You can see the trailer below.  I have to admit that I'm impressed with IMAX.  Though movies like this, "Where The Wild Things Are," and "Avatar" are helping make IMAX a legitimate experience for people who love more then documentaries and 3D family films.

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Disney's "A Christmas Carol" Poster

Though Disney may be returning to 2D animation with "The Princess & The Frog" they aren't going to throw in the towel with 3D animation yet either. In fact, they may have done one of the smartest things by signing a multi-picture deal with Oscar-winner Robert Zemeckis. Now Bob may be best known for "Forrest Gump" and the "Back To The Future" trilogy, but in recent years he's been perfecting motion capture technology. His most recent work was with "Beowulf," which took in so much more money with it's IMAX and 3D showings that Hollywood had to sit up and take notice. His most noticble work in recent years was "The Polar Express." Though the movie was snubbed an Oscar nomination in favor of Dreamworks (far more subpar in my opinion) "Shark Tale," Bob had the last laugh when word-of-mouth made his film a much bigger hit. Not only that, but IMAX found it could be a yearly tradition, and the thing was re-released for five years straight every Christmas at IMAX.

That said though "The Polar Express" is starting to run out of steam, and IMAX needs a new tradition to keep them alive during the holidays. Enter Disney's "A Christmas Carol." Bob has wrote the screenplay, directed the film, and Disney is finally coming home to IMAX after a long absense. What should make this a big hit is Jim Carrey providing the voice of not only Scrooge, but the three ghosts as well. If this movie is half as good as "The Polar Express" was we should have a new Christmas tradition on our hands. Oh, and hopefully the Academy won't blunder the nomination with this one.

Jonas Brothers: Bigger Then The Beatles (Possibly Even Jesus)

Okay, so they aren't as big as The Beatles and likely never will be, but they will be coming to IMAX 3D in about a month...

...which means all you girls who loved them in "Hannah Montana: Best of Both Worlds" can get ready to watch another manufactured band from the Disney tween machine. This is perfect timing because with "Hannah Montana: The Movie" coming out and rumors of Miley Cyrus opting out of a third season...well, the Jonas Brothers seem to be the perfect replacement. Wholesome, good looking, and easy on the ears. They may be instantly forgettable but with faces like that you can sell a lot of posters which will in turn kill a lot of trees (so much for kids going green these days). So if this is such a marketing ploy why am I bothering to blog about it in the first place (and on an Oscar site no less)?

Easy: Because this is Disney's first movie on the IMAX since they released "Treasure Planet" on it years ago. Yeah, I know they released a couple of hour long documentaries in the past few years, but this is the first real movie they are releasing on IMAX since they decided the format wasn't really that profitable. I'm hoping the sucess of this will lead Disney to release their 3D remasters of Best Picture nominee "Beauty & The Beast" and "Toy Story" on IMAX as well as conventional theaters. I saw "Beauty & The Beast" on IMAX about eighr years ago and I still remember the experience. I was crushed when I found out we wouldn't get the IMAX versions of "Aladdin," "Pocahontas," "The Hunchback of Notre Dame," or "The Little Mermaid" in this format. Hopefully this 3D thing will bring in lots of dough for Disney and convince them to give these films a second chance on the really big screen.

More Then Meets The Eye

What you see above you is (what I assume to be) the official teaser poster for "Transformers 2: More Then Meets The Eye." This movie likely will only get sound and visual Oscar nominations when it's released later this year (or is it next?), but who cares? It's Transformers, it's going to be in full 3D, and it's going to IMAX. What else do you need to know? Oh, yeah, I guess Shia Labeouf is still going to be in this. Oh well, you can't win everything.

"Speed Racer" Is Out

This is just a friendly reminder that one of the years more overlooked films (and big budget acid trip) "Speed Racer" was released on DVD a couple of days ago. This is a movie that has potential effects and sound nominations in the cards (as well as a wild card Best Animated Feature nod). You can buy the DVD or BluRay below. Oh, and though this may be stating the obvious, the BluRay disk is the second best way to view this thing (the first being the IMAX showing, but that's not much of an option anymore).

The Battle Is On: Warner Bros. Wants Oscars For "The Dark Knight"

The fight is on people: Warner Bros. wants "The Dark Knight" in the race for Best Picture and they're not being shy about it. This is a campaign that will last longer then the Presidential elections folks so strap yourselves in for the ride. What Warner plans to do is re-release the film in select IMAX's this January (why not all of them?), just so that the movie "stays in the voters minds." I'm sure there will be lots of free passes given out to Academy members as well. The movie likely won't beat "Titanic's" since Warner is planning a December release for the DVD and BluRay (Note to Warner CEO: BIG FREAKING MISTAKE!!!), but the film sits commertably at number two. I'm glad Warner is taking this seriously. Right now I've the movie as a potential nominee is all but one categoty: Best Visual Effects.

And really, a nomination there doesn't seem like a stretch, seeing as how the effects used to create Two-Face's burnt face were so seemless you forgot that computers were involved. If I had my way, "The Dark Knight" would walk away with 13 nominations. I don't know if THAT'S going to happen, but I think a nomination in the top spot is pretty much a given at this point! Here's hoping the Academy doesn't disapoint. Oh, and here's a look at the BluRay box art for the movie.

I Wonder What Warner Bros. Plans To Do With All That Money

"The Dark Knight" is going to pass the $500 million mark this weekend. That much is a given but that's not what I want to talk about. No, I want to talk about the movie as it's seen in IMAX. As with most IMAX theaters, my local theater didn't get this movie until today. I had seen it three times already so this would be my forth. I knew that twenty minutes of the movie was shot with IMAX camera's. What I didn't think of was how this could potentially affect the Best Director race. Right now everyone is talking about what Oscars "The Dark Knight" will be nominated for; Best Supporting Actor, Best Picture, Best Makeup...everything. And though Christopher Nolan is predicted to get a Best Director nomination I think he's going to actually win it.

Integrating the IMAX scenes in with the regular cinemascope was pure genius. Not only are the scenes edited together in ways that they aren't distracting, but they made the movie a THEATER experience above all else! In a world where plasma TV's and bright texting is hurting the theater, the direction of "The Dark Knight" actually makes the IMAX experience the best way to see this movie. I saw the movie with about ten people last night. Four had not seen the movie and of those four two had never been to IMAX. Well, once they saw this movie on IMAX they were sold. Not only did they plan to see it again, they started asking what the next films would be on IMAX. They were actually excited about this theater, and they knew the DVD would never match up to what they just saw.

As of right now Christopher Nolan has made the theater experience more profitable and more exciting then it's been in years. We know this movie is likely going to get a Best Picture nomination. We know Heath Ledger will win Best Supporting Actor. Well count me in on betting that even if the movie doesn't win the top prize, Christopher Nolan WILL win Best Director! Unless, of course, the Academy gives the award to Spike Lee as a way of apologizing for not nominating "Do The Right Thing" for Best Picture.

Christopher Nolan filming a scene with an IMAX camera.