While comic book fans and movie buffs theorize on what characters, villains and stories Christopher Nolan is drawing from to conclude his Batman trilogy with The Dark Knight Rises, we do have some important hard facts about the film. What may be the most interesting design choice about the movie - and certainly very pleasing to moviegoers - is that Nolan will not will shooting Batman 3 in 3D, nor converting it afterward as per the desire of Warner Bros.

Nolan's interest in utilizing IMAX tech may lead to them shooting most, if not all, of The Dark Knight Rises in the higher resolution (and expensive) format instead. And if director of photography, Wally Pfister, has his way, he'd love to do the entire movie in IMAX as well. But with 3D offering and obvious method of bringing in more cash for the studio, why didn't Nolan share his Inception in 3D and why will The Dark Knight Rises not be shot that way either?

Deadline interviewed the revered director about the experience and development of Inception, where they touched on the subject of the 3D phenomenon and Nolan's choice to not make use of it (yet).

"We looked at shooting Inception in 3D and decided we’d be too restricted by the technology. We wouldn't have been able to shoot on film the way we’d like to. We looked at post-converting it, actually did some tests, and they were very good. But we didn't have time to do the conversion that we would have been satisfied with. Inception deals with subjectivity, quite intimate associations between the audience and the perceived state of reality of the characters."

Warner Bros. has made it known that their next major ongoing film franchise to fill the void soon to be left from the conclusion of the Harry Potter series will make use of their vast library of DC Comics characters, and that all of these films along with their other big budget blockbusters, will be in 3D. Nolan's Batman Begins and The Dark Knight didn't make use of the third dimension, but why not jump in on the fad for The Dark Knight Rises?

Christopher Nolan Batman 3 The Dark Knight Rises

Nolan continues:

"In the case of Batman, I view those as iconic, operatic movies, dealing with larger-than-life characters. The intimacy that the 3D parallax illusion imposes isn't really compatible with that. We are finishing our story on the next Batman, and we want to be consistent to the look of the previous films. There was more of an argument for a film like Inception. Ive seen work in 3D like Avatar that’s exciting. But, for me, what was most exciting about Avatar was the creation of a world, the use of visual effects, motion capture, performance capture, these kinds of things. I don’t think Avatar can be reduced to its 3D component, it had so much more innovation going on that’s extremely exciting. 3D has always been an interesting technical format, a way of showing something to the audience. But you have to look at the story you’re telling: is it right?"

Yes, very. With his recent successes, Nolan has earned the right to make whatever movie he chooses in whatever method we wishes, and we can applaud him for not forcing 3D into Inception and sticking to his guns in ending his Batman trilogy in the same style he shot the first two installments. It's much preferred over the post-converted route Green Lantern is taking.

For most live-action films to date, I would happily choose the 2D option over its overpriced counterpart. And if IMAX were the other alternative, if shot that way, I would always go with that, especially on a Nolan project.

3D or IMAX. Which would you prefer for your superhero movies?

The Dark Knight Rises begins production in May and is scheduled for theatrical release on July 20th, 2012.

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Source: Deadline