As I Am Legend hits theaters starting tonight at midnight I believe, IMAX screenings of the film will also be showing a 6-7 minute scene from The Dark Knight as I am sure many of you already know and have read the description of said scene on various sites around the Net. Warner Bros. went out of their way and spared no expense in promoting this latest marketing piece for the follow-up to the hit Batman Begins, which hits theaters on July 18, 2008, and it is only the latest stunt used to market the film.
Ever since Comic Con this past July the marketing for this film has gone haywire. Online viral sites are everywhere, from TheGothamTimes.com, TheHaHaTimes.com, GothamNationalBank.com, WeAreTheAnswer.org to RememberingGina.org. They all add up to a variety of secrets that have turned out to reveal teaser posters and new pics from the film saturating the marketplace with information and visuals from a film that no longer feels special. It has now reached the level of online absurdity reached by such classics as Snakes on a Plane and the soon-to-be-judged Cloverfield.
I have not seen the IMAX footage (nor will I) of The Dark Knight and I did not include the description that was posted elsewhere of said footage. I didn’t do this for a variety of reasons, but primarily I didn’t want to reveal/spoil any more of the film than has already been revealed/spoiled for myself or for RopeofSilicon readers. Instead, I have taken a few minutes of my time to put together a trailer that accomplishes everything Warner Bros. would have needed to do to get people to see this movie.
This is how The Dark Knight should have been marketed:
Of course the likelihood of the new trailer set to debut next Monday will be like this one is 1 in a gajillion.
