Heath Ledger in The Dark Knight courtesy Warner Bros. Pictures
As the summer movie season gets into full swing, movie buffs are being treated to a plethora of cool companion Web sites and interactive experiences for their favorite films. Let's take a look at some of the coolest viral campaigns, games and widgets. There are even sites devoted just to the movie marketing initiatives, like the awesome Chris Thilk's Movie Marketing Madness blog.
And our favorite viral campaigns for upcoming summer movies are:
Wanted (Opens June 27)
After her sizzling hot turn as a housewife/assassin in Mr. and Mrs. Smith, it seems almost natural that Angelina Jolie would turn in her mommy card and play a different kind of assassin in Wanted. This is a visual feast apparently, with little dialogue to distract the men from drooling over Angie and the woman drooling over yummy James McAvoy (or vice versa for that matter). So, in our investigation of the movies marketing campaign, we came across this site all about the society of secret assassins in the movie. But, as my colleague pointed out, why would secret assassins have a web site? Just sayin'.
Hancock (Opens July 2)
Will Smith is back to smack the crap out of the box office competition for the Fourth of July movie weekend. This time he plays a guy with super hero powers, but who acts like anything but a hero. He's crass, destructive, sloppy and rude. He's Hancock. The people at Sony created a game for users to "Guess the Financial Toll" — where you guess how much Hancock's good deeds cost the cities he's trying to help. I failed miserably at my estimates.... How did you do?
The Dark Knight (Opens July 18)
My co-workers are nerding out about this movie big time! As in, already purchased IMAX tickets for opening weekend (not naming any names, but his name rhymes with "Badam"). Given the film's length (almost three hours) and Heath Ledger's haunting final performance, I would've thought demand for this movie might be down a bit. Apparently, I'm a moron. Baggage or not, and judging from the sheer number of viral sites we've seen, the comic book/super hero nerds want their Batman! This movie, by far, wins the "Most Insane Viral Campaign" award. This wiki has a run down of the coolest sites.
Other individual Dark Knight sites:
• The Gotham Times
• Why So Serious?
• Why So Serious? — Personality Profile
• I Believe in Harvey Dent
The X Files: I Want to Believe (Opens July 25)There are plenty of fan sites for X- Files fans to talk endlessly about conspiracies and Mulder and Scully angst. But since the show ended six years ago, Fox has gotten with the times and produced not only viral videos of Mulder and Scully "missing each other," (Uh, that better not mean they're not together anymore! Sorry, my inner fan girl just slipped out) but there's also an awesome flash site for the movie complete with a kick ass X- Files Widget. It includes an area for fan chat, movie clues (The more you download and use the widget, the more clues will be revealed!), a video tab and a countdown clock to the premiere. They have even partnered with our friends at xfilesnews.com and posted their link at the bottom of the flash page!
Which movies are you most excited to see? Will you download games or widgets for your most anticipated summer flick? — Erin Fox
Related
• Use Our Online Video Guide to Watch More X-Files
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