The Dark Knight Rises is going to be a big film, and now we know that has more than one meaning. The blockbuster is going to be setting a new standard for how much IMAX native footage is released for a Hollywood feature film.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Christopher Nolan’s Bat-Finale will include the most actual IMAX footage of any studio film before it:

When Mr. Nolan’s “The Dark Knight Rises” opens July 20, it will contain the most IMAX footage ever for a Hollywood feature, more than one hour’s worth. There were 40 minutes of such footage in 2008’s “The Dark Knight”—which set box-office records in its opening weekend.

IMAX’s summer slate also includes potential blockbusters “The Avengers,” “The Amazing Spider-Man,” “Men in Black 3,” Tim Burton’s gothic comedy “Dark Shadows,” and Ridley Scott’s 3-D “Prometheus.” Mr. Nolan’s film was the only one shot using IMAX cameras; the others were converted using IMAX’s technology.

Sounds exciting. These Nolan Bat-Films are paving the way for the first truly IMAX movie. Sure the cameras and tech have been around for ages, but up till know it was used for nature docs and educational programming. We want to see what true film-making legends can do with the tech. IMAX is always going to be more immersive than traditional movies, so this can only be a big win movie goers.

For those who can’t stop talking, reading, or imagining what Chris Nolan’s ultimate film in the Batman franchise will be like, you’ll be in luck on December 16th, as a specific 16 theaters, all 70mm IMAX capable, will be screening a 6-minute Dark Knight Rises prologue attached to the front of Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol. Deadline‘s got the report.

The prologue for The Dark Knight Rises will not screen with digital Imax or regular digital or 35mm film presentations of Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol. Regular, non-Imax versions of Ghost Protocol open December 21. The list of theaters follows. Moviegoers should confirm theaters will be playing the prologue for The Dark Knight Rises before purchasing tickets.

That last note is especially important, because not many theaters may be supporting this, even if they say they will. Be sure to check out the full list after the jump, and find out which theater works for you, and which to skip when seeing Tom Cruise scale a skyscraper.

Dark Knight Rises hits theaters on July 12, 2012.

Megamind is the latest animated 3D offering from DreamWorks Animation studios. It  is cute and  clever, but it has the disadvantage of coming out after Despicable Me, another animated film that was released earlier this year. Ultimately, that leaves Megamind feeling a bit stale and not particularly original, but it should provide for a fine family night out at the movies.

Will Ferrell is well cast as the voice of Megamind, a villain who has gone toe to toe with his nemesis “Metro Man” (voiced by Brad Pitt) for decades. They have been vying for bragging rights over Metro City, the place they both call home.

A charming opening sequence shows a flashback of  the two characters as infants, when they were sent to earth (separately) from other planets. Metro Man is embraced as a gift from the gods by his surrogate parents, and is blessed with the chiseled good looks of a movie star.  He grows up  adored and admired by all who come in contact with him.

In stark contrast, Megamind grows up misunderstood and under-appreciated in a prison, saddled with a bulbous head and blue coloring.  His only friend is a minion (David Cross) who is sent to earth with him. Megamind was not always a villain; it is only after getting beat down time after time by his peers that he embraces his inner evil. It becomes his coping mechanism of sorts.

It’s looking like this holiday season will be stacked up with tons of cinematic treats for adults this year, rather than in previous years when it’s been geared toward families. While comedies like Yogi Bear, Little Fockers and Gulliver’s Travels will most likely flop, films like True Grit and Tron: Legacy will definitely be enough to make this a Hollywood Christmas.

Not counting a few trailers, we haven’t gotten to see much of the upcoming Tron sequel. Daft Punk released a music video that gave us a bit more of the 100% computer-generated TRON world. Now we’re finally getting something with human actors as a scene with Jeff Bridges and Garrett Hedlund, the on-screen father and son of the Flynn’s, has hit the web.

The film picks up almost 28 years after the events of 1982’s original film. Jeff Bridge’s Kevin Flynn has gone missing and it’s up to his son, Sam, to get to the bottom of the mystery. Mix this story with a bunch of amazing visual shots of the game grid and Olivia Wilde in a skin-tight Tron suit, and you’ve got yourself a film.

Check out this new scene after the jump. Be sure to catch TRON: LEGACY in theaters, IMAX, and Disney 3D everywhere on December 17th.

While Kanye may be off producing 30 minute super music videos that don’t make any sense, the band Daft Punk is actually doing an incredible service to the world of geek by producing their newest music video for the song Derezzed completely in the world of TRON: Legacy.

The electronica band is doing all of the music for the film (yes, just like Queen did for Flash Gordon) and if the rest of the songs on the album are anything like this one, you can expect some intense score for the rest of the film.

This new music video gives us some great new shots of the TRON world, including suiting up in the infamous suit, having a light disc battle, and even racing along the endless field of circuits.

Check out the music video after the jump, and be sure to catch TRON: Legacy in theaters in both 3D and IMAX this Christmas.

Normally $71 Million sounds like a pretty good haul, but despite making that over the weekend, Shrek Forever After was widely considered a box office disappointment, compared to its predecessors.  In 2007, Shrek 3 made over $121 Million on its opening weekend, a cool $50 Million over this total.

Consider that the 3D ticket prices were much higher for Shrek 4, and it seems that not near as many people were clamoring to see the final chapter of the fairy tale franchise.  It also opened on a staggering 4,300 screens, which is a full thousand more than most tent-pole movies get, so lack of accessibility certainly wasn’t the issue.

However, word of mouth by exiting audience members is good (cinemascore of A, according to Entertainment Weekly), and the kiddos will be out of school in the next few weeks.  The family demographic will likely provide Shrek 4 with a long run at the box office, similar to How to Train Your Dragon. The movie will need to have that very thing happen to earn back its reported $165 Million budget.

Coming in at a very strong second place was Iron Man 2, earning a robust $26.6 Million in its third week in release. Not too shabby.  Robin Hood earned another $18.7 Million, bringing its two-week total to $66 Million. The film still is performing better overseas, so it should earn back its whopping $200 million budget.

Though the movie has been out for a week now, we wanted to make sure the majority of you saw Iron Man 2 before we posted anything else that could potentially spoil the movie. And then there’s this video.

For those of you you remember the trailer very well and saw the film, you might recall the scene where Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow) kisses RDJ’s helmet and throws it off the back of a cargo plane wasn’t actually in the film. We also know how much RDJ and the rest of the cast ad-libbed while shooting.

CollegeHumor put together a great compilation of animated “alternate takes” that also didn’t make it into the film. It isn’t completely out of the question that some of these outtakes were actually shot.

They’re all pretty amusing, especially the potential to see a sequel titled Mask-O. Check out the animated clip after the jump, and you can still catch the rest of the movie (without the scene) in theaters and IMAX everywhere.

Inception, acclaimed director Christopher Nolan’s next project since the box office smash The Dark Knight, has had buzz surrounding it since it was greenlit at Warners. And while numerous trailers and a poster have been revealed, the details are still vague about this upcoming psychological thriller…until now.

The first full trailer has just hit the web, which finally gives us some more insight on Dicaprio and Ellen Page’s characters. We now know that the story surrounds the world of corporate espionage, with a sci-fi twist. Also revealed online was a brand new poster for the film, giving us a deeper look into the dark and twisted tone of Nolan’s world.

While the first poster just featured Leonardo Dicaprio, alone surrounded by a sea of water and buildings and vaguely reminding us of the The Dark Knight posters, this new IMAX poster features more of the cast. While Leo’s still at his prominent point front and center, other characters walk along the walls and upside down. This film has a really strong ensemble cast so it’s great to see the other actors and actresses of this film on this poster, like Cillian Murphy and Marion Cotillard, as the trailers have all featured Leonardo Dicaprio and Ellen Page.

Written and directed by Christopher Nolan and starring the likes of Leonardo DiCaprio, Ken Watanabe, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Marion Cotillard, Ellen Page, Tom Hardy, Cillian Murphy, and Tom Berenger. Check out the new poster and trailer (courtesy of TrailerAddict) after the jump and catch Inception in theaters and IMAX on July 16th.

Since 2007, studios and fans alike have been contemplating, worrying, speculating, and spewing rumors about the upcoming prequel to Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy, The Hobbit. The news that we do know is that Jackson is teaming up with Hellboy director Guillermo del Toro, the story will be split into two films over two years, and now we have a release date for the two films. From Heat Vision:

Warner Bros. is scheduling Peter Jackson and Guillermo del Toro’s two-part adaptation of “The Hobbit” for December 2012 and December 2013.

As if it was ever in question, Dreamworks was so pleased with the results that How To Train Your Dragon has brought in over the past month, pulling in nearly $400 million worldwide, that they are already gearing up for a sequel.

As if the films monetary success wasn’t enough, in an unprecedented turn of events, the film had a resurgence in popularity 4 weeks after it’s initial release, picking up the #1 spot over Warner’s The Losers and Lionsgate’s Kick-Ass. In a recent press release from Dreamworks CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg, they seem to be pleased with the results of the film, and believe that it was all thanks to the 3D medium.

2010 is off to a strong start, thanks in large part to the performance of ‘How to Train Your Dragon,’ which – having grossed nearly $375 million to date in worldwide box office – has become DreamWorks Animation’s next franchise. We plan to release the sequel theatrically in 2013.

3D continues to have a tremendous impact on the industry at large and we are now looking forward with great anticipation to bringing ‘Shrek Forever After,’ the final chapter in our beloved ‘Shrek’ series and the first in 3D, to audiences across the globe next month.

So there you have it. Dreamworks seems quite pleased with themselves, and rather than wait to see how the film fares against this summer’s blockbusters like Iron Man 2 or Robin Hood, they are cutting their losses and planning on the next film already.

You can also expect to see just about every upcoming Dreamworks animated (and probably live action) film to embrace 3D technology over the next 5 years.

Things were awful quiet at the box office this weekend, you could hear a pin drop at your nearest multiplex.  The combined gross of the top four films this weekend did not even hit the $50 million mark.  Also, audiences did not have a lot of love for new movies this weekend, as How to Train Your Dragon won the weekend over The Back-Up Plan, starring Jennifer Lopez, and The Losers.  Ultimately, Dragon dropped about 23% from last weekend and made $15 Million on its fifth week in release.

The Back-Up Plan was no doubt a disappointment for fledgling film company CBS films, and for Lopez.  The company’s first and only other release was Extraordinary Measures, the Harrison Ford/Brendan Fraser medical drama that was released in late January.

That film only managed $11.8 Million in its first three weeks in release, so The Back-Up Plan is faring a bit better, with $12.2 Million for the weekend.  Still, it is a very underwhelming gross for an opening weekend, and CBS films and Lopez could definitely have used a hit.

In fourth place came an action movie that a lot of people thought would win the weekend.  The Losers is based on a comic book, and features a sexy ensemble cast, and plenty of explosions. Audiences barely gave the $25 Million film a second glance, and it limped into fourth place never breaking $10 Million in ticket sales.  It stands at $9.6 Million.

This week On the Radar Leonard Nimoy says goodbye to Spock, Robert Downey Jr. may journey to the land of Oz, and Mickey Rourke wants to play one of the most feared Mongolians in history.

Did Jason Voorhees just get killed? Oh, the irony!

However evil slasher Jason Voorhees may appear to be it seems there is something that can stop him afterall-movie studios.  While the recent remake of Friday the 13th garnished nearly $100 million worldwide, producer Brad Fuller responded to a fan via Twitter and said a sequel may be dead.

Platinum Dunes does not seem interested in continuing the story at this time.  Let’s not count Jason out yet, though.  Freddy Krueger is about to leap bag onto the big screen in the Nightmare on Elm Street remake.  If that’s successful, Voorhees may climb out of the grave once more.

Leonard Nimoy to hang up his Spock ears for good

While not as active as his friend William Shatner on the acting front, Leonard Nimoy took fanboys by storm by reprising his role as Spock in J.J. Abrams Star Trek reboot.  He caused further excitement by taking on the enigmatic role of William Bell in the TV series Fringe.  Unfortunately, it seems Nimoy is ready to step back from the celebrity life:

“I want to get off the stage. Also, I don’t think it would be fair to Zachary Quinto,” he says, referring to the actor who portrayed a youthful Spock in last summer’s smash Star Trek relaunch. “He’s a terrific actor, he looks the part, and it’s time to give him some space. And I’m very flattered the character will continue.”