Later this Friday, Fortnite players will stow away their guns and kick back for a movie screening.

Three of Christopher Nolan’s biggest films – The Dark Knight, Inception, and The Prestige – will be shown in the game’s Party Royale mode.

What you’ll see will depend on what country you’re in.

But why would anyone want to watch a film inside a video game?

Join the metaverse

“The real world is unbeatable, in my opinion,” says Darshan Shankar, the founder of Bigscreen VR – a company that lets users watch films together in cinemas created within virtual reality.

Image copyrightBIGSCREEN VR

Image caption

Bigscreen VR provides virtual cinemas where strangers can come together to watch movies and chat about them

“Things like Fortnite and Bigscreen don’t necessarily replace the awesomeness of a real world cinema,” he says, instead it’s about being “able to watch things together with people”.

Browser extensions for Netflix and the BBC’s iPlayer also exist for those wanting to watch films and TV shows together while apart, so they can text and chat about the action as it unfolds.

But Fortnite – like Bigscreen – has the potential to take this to another level by giving users a sense of being in the same space.

It’s not the first time Fortnite has tried something like this. It debuted a clip from the last Star Wars movie last year, and was also first to show a trailer for Nolan’s next film, Tenet, in May.

Spy action film Tenet was supposed to come to cinemas on 17 July and help bring people back to the multiplex post-lockdown. But it has been repeatedly delayed, with 12 August given as its latest release date.