A threateningly exciting, behind-the-scenes 13 minute short for The Dark Knight Rises

We’re officially no stranger to the teaser/featurette style of cinematic promotion – just look at the wonderful David film by Johnny Hardstaff for Ridley Scott’s Prometheus or Alfred Hitchcock creeping out audiences on all levels with his jowly premonitions.

Now, as Christopher Nolan’s dramatic coda in his Batman trilogy nears theatres, the internet is rife with hypotheses and premature reviews based on a very internet specific style of long-lens set spoilers and production studio wikileaks. It makes sense, then, that the people behind the film would want to harness such promotional power – perhaps as a diversion to would-be cinema goers from any negative previews or, similarly, to influence the blog/twitter mass into sharing viral-intent shorts rather than the opinion pieces.

In the case of this 13 minute behind-the-scenes TV special for The Dark Knight Rises, we’re more than happy to share. The director, scriptwriters, set designers, stunt co-ordinators etc, as well as the actors are all given equal opportunity to supply us with anecdotal insights into the characters and logistics of the film’s making.

Previously unseen glimpses of Christian Bale looking remarkably like his emaciated character in The Machinist do nothing to dissuade rumours of the darkest Batman portrayal on screen yet. Such footage is naturally accompanied by pondering on the mortality of Batman as opposed to other DC “superheroes” – which I’m guessing is exactly what the studios want, for us to be thinking of these characters as human beings and not merely Hollywood roles.

Although they are somewhat demystifying, the logistical glimpses of action sequences do an extraordinary job of telling us exactly how epic this film is going to be and have my brain working over time as to how, how, how, they managed to shut-down New York’s Wall St. with a few thousand mercenaries/extras.

Anyhow, opinion is still divided as to whether too many previews like this might kill the experience once we are finally seated in the cinema, but in any case, even the most trolling comments are unlikely to penetrate the extraordinary excitement this short induces.