First Batman V. Superman Footage Expected Tomorrow

For now, it's only a rumour but we won't have to wait very long to find out how air-tight it is. According to Latino Review, who pretty much threw the story away on Instagram, Zack Snyder is gearing up to release the first footage from Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice. He won't have to grind his gears too long or too hard, however, as the clip is expected to be just five seconds long, and to drop at 9am California time on Thursday 16th April. This is just one hour before Star Wars Celebration kicks off its Force Awakens panel and unveils their own new footage. As such, lots of people have read this as Snyder and Warner Bros. trying to upstage J.J. Abrams and Lucasfilm, but to me, it looks rather more like they've decided to lie down in front of a train. Would you schedule your big movie to open just before what has a very, very good chance of being the biggest movie of all time? No. Then why throw away your publicity materials in the same way? The same rumour comes with a note that the full Batman v. Superman teaser trailer will play in cinemas on April 20th, somehow, and then get attached to prints of The Avengers: Age of Ultron. This is all in contrast to the last big rumour which said the Batman promotions will kick off around Mad Max Fury Road. So we'll see. In any case, there's some precedent for this kind of Dawn of Justice v. Force Awakens behaviour, with Snyder and Bad Robot trading snipes and jibes through social media. That all seemed to be in good fun; now it seems to have taken a turn for the slightly more consequential. Presuming the rumour is right. We'll find out tomorrow in any case.