The opening six minutes of the next Batman movie "The Dark Knight" will be shown to audiences before viewings of "I Am Legend: The IMAX Experience" in IMAX theaters starting Friday, December 14, 2007.

Heath Ledger will be seen in the clip as The Joker, which will give us a good taste of what direction they're going to take the movie in, given the natural comparison to Jack Nicholson's portrayal of the character in the 1989 version of Batman.

According to the press release:

The release of the opening six minutes of the movie marks the world premiere of the first footage ever shot with extremely high resolution IMAX^® cameras for a major motion picture release. In an unprecedented move, director Christopher Nolan employed IMAX cameras for a number of sequences in “The Dark Knight.”

Nolan stated, “I’ve always found the IMAX format to be completely astounding in terms of the crispness and clarity of the image and sound, as well as the sheer size and scope. I knew that if you could shoot scenes of a feature film in that format—not just blow up a 35mm film to fit those screens but actually to shoot with IMAX cameras—you could achieve an incredibly immersive experience. No one had ever done it before, but with a lot of careful preparation by our director of photography, Wally Pfister, and the help of the IMAX technicians, the results are beyond our expectations. When you watch the finished product, it’s like being on an amazing roller coaster. It’s literally larger than life.”

"The Dark Knight" will open in traditional and IMAX theaters nationwide on July 18, 2008. For more information, please see the Information Page for the movie.

Source: Warner Bros. Pictures Press Release