Public Enemies - What Did You Think?
Watch Aziz Ansari Do Stand-Up Comedy in Judd Apatow’s Funny People
Posted on Wednesday, July 1st, 2009 by Peter Sciretta
Universal has been launching a bunch of cool viral websites for Judd Apatow’s Funny People. First we had some clips from Jason Schwartman’s character’s pilot television show Yo Teach. A couple weeks ago they launched the official website for comedian/acotr George Simmons (the main character of the film played by Adam Sandler) complete with video clips from some of his filmography. Today they have launched (NSFW) LaughYourDickOff.com, the official website of Randy (played by Aziz Ansari in the film).
Randy is a superstar comic living in Los Angeles. In addition to being a show-stopping comic performer, he’s socially conscious, too. Check out the “Randy in Darfur” section of his website and find out where you can send your cashier checks to help support Randy…er, the cause.
The website includes a bio, tour dates, a soundboard, and more. The best part is a bunch of video clips from Randy’s stand-up comedy shows, which you can watch embedded after the jump. Warning: NSFW, and I apologize for the autoplay, but Universal doesn’t allow any way to disable it.
Simon Pegg and Nick Frost Say Hello From the Set of Paul
Posted on Thursday, June 25th, 2009 by Russ Fischer
The website for Paul, the film written by and starring Simon Pegg and Nick Frost and directed by Adventureland’s Greg Mottola, has gone live. Whatispaul.com already has a handful of image galleries with on-set photos and a couple of video blogs featuring Pegg, Frost and co-stars Kristin Wiig and Joe Lo Truglio. The Jo Lo Truglio bit is probably the best, as he shows how the production is trying to go green. But Pegg and Frost’s introduction is a nice way to get into their entertaining world. Both are after the jump. Read More »
Paramount Launches Augmented Reality Website To Promote Transformers 2
Posted on Tuesday, June 16th, 2009 by Peter Sciretta
To promote Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, Paramount Pictures International has created an augmented reality website which allows you to wear a virtual Optimus Prime mask, watch footage from the film with a mini-virtual Bumblebee, and more.
It’s pretty easy to set up if you already have a web camera attached to your computer setup (it immediately recognized the isight on my macbook pro). The bumblebee bit requires you to either print out a small symbol on a piece or paper or download the logo to your iPhone. The Optimus Mask requires no extra set-up. The website recognizes your face in the video using some form of facial recognition and virtually inserts the mask, tracking the movements of your head. If you’ve never seen this kind of augmented reality in action, its fun for a few quick minutes.
‘We Are Autobots’ has been developed using the original 3D models of Optimus Prime and Bumblebee that appear in the film. It was developed for PPI by creative marketing agency Picture Production Company (PPC), working in conjunction with augmented reality specialists Total Immersion. Check out a video demo after the jump or head on over to the website WeAreAutobots.com.
Read More »
Must See: Augment Reality With New Star Trek Website
Posted on Tuesday, May 5th, 2009 by Peter Sciretta
JJ Abrams Star Trek has become the first major film release to use augmented reality to promote the release of the film. Paramount Pictures International has created ‘Experience The Enterprise’; “a groundbreaking augmented reality (AR) application placing a 3D interactive version of the Starship Enterprise in the palm of your hand.”
Anybody with a webcam can take a tour of the Enterprise using the kind of futuristic technology that sits at the heart of perhaps the most popular science-fiction franchise of all time. Once underway, you are given a ‘cadet holo-simulation’ by Starfleet. The experience gives visitors a five minute tour of the Enterprise, including testing the ship’s weapons systems, impulse engines and warp drive.
My printer isn’t working, but I was able to try this out using a downloadable wallpaper for the iPhone, and it’s pretty frigging cool. Watch the video demo after the jump.
A few days ago, just after it was announced that the Cannes line up would feature Gaspar Noe’s Enter the Void, the official website for the film was opened up. All of the images in this post come from that site. Whle only the third feature by Noe in over a decade, Enter the Void does, however, maintain his record by scoring a hat trick of Cannes premieres for the director.
As well as more images, which I’ve posted after the break, the site also provided this official synopsis, which I have translated to the best of Google’s ability:
Oscar and sister Linda now live in Tokyo. Oscar survives by doing small drug deals while Linda is a stripper in a nightclub. One night during a police raid, Oscar is hit by a bullet. While dying, his spirit, faithful to the promise made to his sister to never give up, refuses to leave the world of the living. Then his mind wanders in the city and his visions become increasingly chaotic and nightmarish. Past, present and future will mix in a hallucinatory maelstrom.
Crank 2 Web Advertisements Powered by Twitter?
Posted on Thursday, April 9th, 2009 by Peter Sciretta
Lionsgate Pictures made news by being the first movie studio to premiere new content (a Crank 2 poster) on Twitter. And now it appears that the studio is basing part of their internet advertising campaign around the micro-blogging site. While browsing the web, I cam across the above Crank 2 google ad for Crank: High Voltage, which features a rotating feed from the official Lionsgate movies twitter account.
I’m not sure how promoting the Lionsgate twitter account will get more people to buy tickets to the sequel (especially when some of the messages are just the Lionsgate Twitter publicist talking to random twitter users about who-knows-what), but I thought it was an interesting idea. I think it would be cooler to have the advertisement grab random mentions of Crank 2 in real time from around the Twitterverse.
Warner Bros and Paramount Pictures have both released similar movie mini-sites for their May 2009 releases. TrekYourself lets you transform a photo of yourself into a talking 3D Vulcan, Romulan, Captain or Red Shirt Officer avatar. TerminateYourself, is a little less exciting. You can add battle damage to any of your photos, revealing your inner T-800 endoskeleton.
TV Buzz: Season 2 of Breaking Bad Kicks Off Tonight! Kenny Powers Joins Twitter, Crashes BBQ…
Posted on Sunday, March 8th, 2009 by Hunter Stephenson
Mad Men certainly deserves all of the praise thus far received in its first two seasons on AMC, but I always thought it a tad disconcerting that AMC’s Breaking Bad has purred in the background like colorful dry ice. Not only is the series as entertaining, well-produced, and agreeably shrewd with its layered characters, but creator Vince Gilligan has given a daring, nutty jolt to themes long mastered by others shows i.e. the drug war (The Wire) and the rapport between money and mortality (The Sopranos).
At last year’s Emmys, when lead actor Bryan Cranston beat out Dexter’s Michael C. Hall and Mad Men’s Jon Hamm, the underdog bite in the W mirrored that of Walter White’s, the cancer-stricken, primo meth-cooking family man he plays. Season Two begins tonight at 10 p.m. EST. and picks up immediately where the first left off. If you’re a fan, it’s been a friggin’ longtime coming, eh? Almost a year to the day. If you haven’t been following, recommended. This is easily one of the best shows going…
The Science Behind The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Posted on Thursday, February 12th, 2009 by Peter Sciretta
Paramount Pictures has launched BenjaminButtonFX.com, a website that reveals some of the secrets behind the visual effects magic that was used to create The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. From a man aging backwards, to a city’s development over decades, the website features a bunch of different interactive displays of how the visual effects magic was created. It’s definitely one of those websites that you’ll have fun exploring. I’m wondering why it took them so long to get this site up? And I have to say I love the evolution progression on the loading bar (seen above). They should have used that image on a theatrical teaser poster.
Adventureland Website Launched; New Video Clip
Posted on Monday, February 9th, 2009 by Peter Sciretta
Miramax has launched the official website for Greg Mottola’s Adventureland. Included on the site are photos, character bios, games and prizes, cheesy 80’s music, all the usual stuff and this new video clip from the film that will hit you like a punch in the nuts. I’ve embeded the clip after the jump.
The Stunning Official Website For Mr. Nobody Launches
Posted on Tuesday, January 27th, 2009 by Brendon Connelly
I’ll never forget my initial reactions to Jaco Van Dormael’s debut feature, Toto the Hero. I stumbled out of the cinema, genuinely warmed-up by what I had been watching, and wandered back to reality. Reality seemed, for a few minutes at least, rather wanting, and from that day forward I held Van Dormael’s work rather close to my heart.
Since Toto, he’s only directed one more released feature film, the romantic fantasy The Eighth Day. That one didn’t have quite the same impact upon me as his debut, but there certainly weren’t any flies on it.
Now the official website for his third film, a very wild and imaginative sci-fi fantasy called Mr. Nobody, has launched - and while as light on information as these things typically are, it does contain very many incredible images - a few of which I tucked under the fold here.
The Special Effects Secrets of Benjamin Button Laid Bare
Posted on Wednesday, January 21st, 2009 by Brendon Connelly
I don’t get to see The Curious Case of Benjamin Button until Sunday (ahead of a February 6th release in the UK) but I’ve seen all of the clips and trailers and, frankly, find it all a bit funny looking. The first thing that comes to mind is the Orville Redenbacher Popcorn commercial David Fincher directed a couple of years back - presumably as a test bed for some of the tech he went on to call upon for Button. Obviously, the passage of time and an increased budget mean Button has far better fx, but there’s still something similarly uncanny in the results.
Word got around in the last 24 hours about The Science Behind the Curious Case of Benjamin Button, a site that reveals how the many FX in the film were conceived and accomplished.
