Christopher Nolan Speaks About Avoiding 3D For 'The Dark Knight Rises'

Today's biggest film news was, without a doubt, the announcement that Christopher Nolan has titled the third Batman film The Dark Knight Rises, and that the film will not shoot in 3D or be released in post-converted fashion. Now there are a few more quotes from the director about his choice of presentation for the film, and they suggest wonderful things about what we might eventually see.

The LA Times once again has the scoop here, and Mr. Nolan told the paper that he wants this third film to "carry on with that look and feel" of The Dark Knight, specifically with respect to the "large canvas and operatic sweep" of his Batman blockbuster. That's one of the core reasons that the film will shoot and be presented in flat IMAX format rather than 3D. Another issue is the fact that 3D presents a more dim image than a traditional projection.

But that's not even the good bit. The good bit comes in his expansion of that comment:

There's an intimacy at times [with spatial illusion of the 3D effect] and we want didn't want to lose scale... our ambitions for the third movie is to complete a story that has begun. This is not starting over, this not rebooting... We're looking to do something technologically that's never been done before... Our ambitions are to make a great movie.

The idea of consistency is wonderful, especially with respect to the visual side of the films. I've long maintained that Wally Pfister's cinematography is one of the key components that makes the Nolan Batman films stand out — working together, Nolan and Pfister have a calm, penetrating gaze that is unlike any other in mainstream action films.

But it's the suggestion of scale that really gets to me. Some of the shots in The Dark Knight communicate scale in a spectacular fashion, and without the flashiness that is often seen in similar films. Together with that title, I'm picturing a film that isn't only operatic and huge, but may actually be optimistic. The Dark Knight Rises isn't just a play on the fourth chapter of Frank Miller's original Dark Knight series (the chapter was called The Dark Knight Falls) but a promise of a rebirth for the character, and of a triumphant finish for this expanded storyline.