‘Dark Knight Rises’ Teaser Confirmed to Run Before ‘Harry Potter’ Showings

I personally don’t care for geek sites that post rumors as news. I’d rather spend my time doing something worthwhile (like watching a movie) than trudging through alleged “news” that gets discredited a day later. Unless something is 100 percent confirmed, I won’t believe it, let alone report on it. But the rumor that a ‘Dark Knight Rises’ teaser trailer will play before ‘Harry Potter’ showings this weekend has been solidified as fact when a source of my own confirmed it today.

While I usually have to rely on press releases and other news sources for my accredited confirmations, this one came from a friend who works as the general manager of a local theater. When the hard drives containing the digital prints of ‘Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2’ showed up, he noticed that the ‘Dark Knight Rises’ teaser was on them as well. However, it’s encrypted. Until the ‘Harry Potter’ keys go active at 7PM on Thursday night, the trailer is locked. It’s typical for high-profile films to be locked until opening, but I’ve never heard of a trailer being locked before.

Other sites are claiming to have theater chain contacts like mine that have actually played the teaser. Don’t believe it. There’s no way that happened.

Some sites have even claimed that the teaser showed up with the 35mm film prints of ‘Harry Potter’. My assumption? Don’t believe that either. Why would the studio go to the trouble of digitally locking the teaser just to give out film prints of the same thing that can be played or shown at any theater worker’s convenience? Warner Bros. isn’t going to make that mistake.

One site posted a description of the teaser trailer yesterday, claiming that it showed up with a 35mm print. In the description, the writer talked about watching it ten times in a row. If someone was die-hard enough to watch the trailer ten times and submit a large anonymous write-up about it, why wouldn’t that person pull a ‘Deathblow’ (yes, that’s a ‘Seinfeld’ reference) by recording it and being the first person to post a bootleg copy online?

Although the majority of the theaters across America have switched to digital cinema, there are enough film-print theaters out there showing ‘Harry Potter’ this weekend that a cell-phone bootleg of the teaser would have popped up online by now had it really been included with the 35mm prints. Bootleg Comic-Con footage from public events show up online just minutes after happening. With just a day left until the keys go active, and days after actual ‘Harry Potter’ prints arrived, why hasn’t bootleg footage of ‘The Dark Knight Rises’ teaser appeared yet?

Don’t believe the rumors. My press screening of ‘Harry Potter’ on Monday night didn’t show the teaser because it wasn’t included on the screening hard drives. When studios want to keep something secret, they never show it to the press. For example, the Nick Fury post-credits easter egg ending to the first ‘Iron Man’ film was not included with press screenings. Trust me – I waited for it.

Yes, theaters already have the teaser trailer, but it’s not watchable yet. If you’re going to a Thursday showing of ‘Harry Potter’ at 7 PM (or later) at a digital cinema, then you should get to see the ‘The Dark Knight Rises’ teaser trailer for yourself.

14 comments

  1. Jane Morgan

    What about the bootleg footage that hit youtube one hour ago, and has already been pulled?

    • Luke wrote his post last night, before that would have happened. Did you see the vid, Jane? Did it look real?

      I find all of this fuss over a teaser trailer to be a little silly. Teasers never show much of anything. It’s probably just a Bat-symbol with a “Summer 2012” announcement below it.

      • Jane Morgan

        I saw it. It was real. 90 seconds. Mostly footage from ‘Batman Begins.’

        It had a nice shot that was like a live-action version of the poster. It had two close-ups of the villain, mostly in shadows. Lots of animated tag lines. Some generic voiceover. Ending with a big “Filmed In IMAX.”

        As teasers go, it was fairly tepid. Anyone who goes to ‘Harry Potter’ overhyped for this, will be disappointed. Keep the expectations low.

        For casual audiences, it’s a nice save-the-date card.

        For uber-geeks, there is little to dissect.

  2. Jay

    I watched it on Cinemablend this morning. There is footage. Some from the previous films and some from the new. It’s definately a teaser. I don’t really want to spoil it for anyone, but it’s pretty good.

  3. Was hoping that they’d play the teaser during the ‘Harry Potter’ screening we went to, but instead we got a trailer for ‘Happy Feet 2’ that gave me nightmares and a headache.

  4. Luke Hickman
    Author

    Jane’s right. My buddy just told me that the locked trailer’s runtime is 1:33.

  5. Here is my question – if the film prints of Harry Potter have shown up, and theaters have already looked at the trailer, and bootlegs of the trailer have already found its way onto the net, then shouldn’t the bootlegs to Harry Potter already be out? Doesn’t really matter to me, though, I paid $15 a ticket to see the movie on the big screen in 3D tomorrow at midnight, and I am not going to ruin any of it (even the trailers) by going out and searching for CAM bootlegs. Oh, I need to remember to take my camera tomorrow night, and get pictures of all the people dressed up! That is the FUN part of the midnight shows!

  6. It was definitely real.

    I think the post should be updated, because by now even Luke must have seen it.

    Most of the new footage is commisioner gordon talking with a voiceover from Bruce Wayne. Interesting enough, though.

  7. M. Enois Duarte

    for second there, I thought I might get a chance for new material for the next ‘Trailer Park,’ but then saw that it actually doesn’t show much and this is the best version I’ve been able to find.

    http://vimeo.com/26389975

    • Jane Morgan

      There are plenty of new trailers to love and mock.

      Juan Of The Dead
      Sherlock Holmes 2
      Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
      Jack And Jill
      The Adventures Of Tintin

      • M. Enois Duarte

        Oh, I have plenty of trailers (I freaking love ‘Juan of the Dead’!); I was referring to adding something as recent as ‘TDKR’ teaser. But it looks like we’ll have to wait until a better quality video pops up somewhere.

  8. I’m not quite sure whats with all the hating on the teaser. Yeah, its got alot of stuff from BB and TDK but the teaser for the Dark Knight was even worse. All we got was the bat symbol and voice over and then had to wait until December (I Am Legend) to see any actual footage (or the opening bank robbery if you saw it in IMAX). I’m pretty bad at scoping out news on movies especially when it comes to Bats and the only complaint I have about finding the teaser is that I wish I had it downloaded, in 1080p on my mac so I could dissect the thing frame by frame because there are definitely some quick cuts that warrant it.