7 posts tagged “aicn”
As this AICN report confirms, World of Warcraft is being made into a movie; quite a hefty budget too. Never played the games, but along with Second Life I'm well aware of the geek impact this has made. At first look it's just another fantasy romp, but I have to say, this piece of attached concept art reminds me of Norse mythology and Ygdrassil which is something I'm heavily into at the moment. So, first tiny signs are good then.
Well, let this be an end to it then. Those interesting Lovecraftian viral sites, may well be legitimate virals, just not for Abrams' Cloverfield flick. It's a shame AICN had to get a little haughty in reporting all of this, but that's the nature of online journalism. Everything moves so fast that one assumes you can take credit and that nobody will notice.
One thing the article highlights is the danger of using virals to promote new cinematic releases. So much buzz can be generated by a single site that before any confirmation has been given fans have made a judgement, and expectation starts to buzz and clamour. It makes an interesting comment on the relationship of author to creation, especially if the fans react badly to the probable news that Cloverfield will have nothing to do with Cthulhu. A great shame, as this looks like a genuine attempt at bringing the cinematic world something new.
It's a warning to us all not to get too excited, and let the mind wander too far from what few facts we have.
Checking my e-mails this morning I noticed two new ones linked to the Watchmen viral that's been going round. A new site's been launched as a side-line to the Rorschachs Journal and can be found here. Looks pretty barebones. Can't tell if it has any studio investment at all as yet.
The second e-mail was a spoofy maildrop for the Veidt Method:
Dear Customer,
You have received this e-mail because you have expressed interest in my course, and if you did that, it's because you think you need a change in your life.A better body? Increased confidence and magnetism? Advanced mental techniques that will help you at home or business? Well, yes we can offer you all these things...but in order to have and enjoy them, there's got to be a new YOU!
More than just a bodybuilding course, the Veidt Method is designed to produce bright and capable young men and women who will be fit to inherit the challenged, promising, and often difficult world that awaits in our future. The course is designed to be easy to read and to understand, and if you follow it through, I can assure you that you and uour friends will quickly notice the results as a whole new realm of ability and experience is opened to you. Stay tuned for more updates on what you can expect to find in later updates online.
Please visit TheVeidtMethod.com!
Best wishes and encouragement - Adrian Veidt.
Different film, but no less interesting, according to JJ Abrams two of the viral sites that I linked to in an earlier post have absolutely nothing to do with his disaster flick Cloverfield. Apparently we are yet to discover the real virals he's seeded across the net....Oh really. As you can read in this story over at AICN, only 1-18-08.com is attached to the movie. Now, the Talkbacks below the article have gone mental, finding references and links and suspicious sites relating to this information so I doubt it will be long before the truth is revealed. I have a sneaking suspicion that Abrams is backtracking on this, as I remember hearing that some of the puzzles on the Game viral site made reference to the same date of 1st August 2008. Coincidence?
As much as it'd be a shame if the film didn't turn out to be about Cthulhu and Lovecraft, the reason the stories were so effective wasn't because of the great reveals, it was the creeping dread and the the aura that surrounded the Great Old Ones. I don't know if them in all their full CGI glory would be quite so chilling.
There's a few people who are already crying hoax over at the AICN Talkbacks regarding this Rorschach's Journals site. Apparently some of the embedded code starts you off on a trail that supposedly ends up at some fan film blog. Devin Faraci over at CHUD.com, a fantastic film journalist, has delved a little deeper and revealed that the owner of the blog is:
'one Michael Regina, better known as Xoanon, one of the guys behind The One Ring. What’s interesting is that Regina and Warner Bros have a bit of a history, with Regina getting very uppity about WB going with bluetights.net as the official ‘fan’ site for Superman Returns (read up on the fiasco here)'
He goes on to suggest that this could be the studio teaming up with Regina to produce this bit of viral. As much as I admire a lot of the fan efforts that are circulated on the internet, it does make these kinds of things hard to verify, and sites like AICN who are absolutely giddy about films, and normal schmoes like me, can get suckered on first look. I hope that isn't the case here because it's a really nice idea and the first real signs of marketing taking the film seriously.
According to Harry Knowles over at AICN (aintitcool.com) he was contacted via the site and after considering the veracity of it he sent this random, abusive message to the address as a way of testing it out:
Subject: rorschach you psychotic twit
Go fuck yourself, you're the one that deserves to be in prison you
sadistic fuck!
The Harry Man
and not to long after he received this in response:
knowles.
have you on my list to visit.
watch your fridge.
.ЯR.
This back and forth apparently went on for a while with one rejoinder from Harry garnering the fantastically characteristic response of 'hurm'.
How cool is that? Have a go and see if you get anything. This is
far better than the Dark Knight virals that went out last month, and it
looks like they're totally getting that it's Rorschach who's the
narrator and main character in the Watchmen film. I've sent mine, and if there's any joy I'll post it up. Let's see if we can get this circulating around.
Will be mostly wearing
You know...the new suit looks cool to me and all. But, whenever I look at this, I smell action figure variants. You know: "Deep Sea Batman", "Arctic Fresh Batman", "Jiffy Pop Batman", stuff like that. Makes me a bit uneasy. - Merrick of AICN
While driving
Looks Asshat- Nick Da Costa
In all seriousness, as it was for the first film, elements of well integrated technology are offset by ugly lumps of boom making like that bike. When I heard the rumours about The Tumbler from the first film getting blown up I was pleased, but if it's being replaced by this piece of crap, that only serves to emphasise how strange a man in a bat suit is and well, can't say I'm not disappointed. At least the Joker is shaping up to wipe the floor with Nicholson's effort. Oh, and in other news, looks like former Brat Packer and star of the tv version of the Dead Zone, Anthony Michael Hall, is set to play Edward Nigma, The Riddler, himself. With Harvey Dent starring as well, let's hope this doesn't lead to a Forever debacle in the inevitable third film.
After that clever use of viral marketing gave us the first look at the new Joker we'll be seeing in The Dark Knight, two more photos have popped up on the net, both clearly attached to the production. Looks like the Joker won't just be exploding in all his manic pasty faced, green bouffoned glory, instead we'll get betting a slow progression from mask wearing, gun toting hood to the full glory of slit grinned clown later on in the film. I imagine just like with Burton's film Batman will have a hand in this transformation. It makes sense in terms of their connection and will have even bigger impact when I'm sure Harvey Dent is turned into Two Face by the Joker's acid projectile.
In further news looks like Chris Nolan (the director, as if you didn't know) 'is filming four of the big action sequences in The Dark Knight with the Imax 70mm cameras, including the introduction of the Joker.' This is fantastic news for cineastes and as you can see from the stills, the look of the film is still just as powerful as the original.
Check this link for AICN news and here for where the story broke.
Here are the photos. Not completely clear in the first pic who the Joker is; many believe it's the shooter in the background:
