UPDATE: AMC Theaters have since removed their earlier statement and posted the following online: "The information in this post has been retracted until further notice. Please refer to Warner Bros. for any information about The Dark Knight Rises."
A brief but significant **The Dark Knight Rises **titbit surfaced among today's Mission Impossible news. Confirmation has come through, as strong rumours suggested last week, that six minutes worth of DKR prologue will play before showings of Mission Impossible - Ghost Protocol at selected IMAX screens this Christmas.
We say 'selected' because according to US cinema chain AMC Theaters, only full 70mm screens, rather than digital theatres, would be entitled to show the footage. There's no word on whether UK IMAX screens will also be showing the prologue.
It's a bit of a surprise to see the ever-secretive Christopher Nolan laying his Bat-cards on the table - six minutes of footage is, after all, a decent chunk of scene-setting - but we're definitely not complaining. It's not a new strategy for Warner Bros. either. The studio showed off the opening minutes of The Dark Knight before screenings of** I Am Legend** four years ago.
Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol lands in the UK on December 26, so you'll be able to lay your eyes on the first minutes of The Dark Knight Rises then. The full film storms into cinemas on July 20, 2012.