'Elysium' Viral Campaign Kicks Into High Gear; Promises Event Next Week

Forever and a day has seemingly passed since fans were given their first glimpse at Neill Blomkamp's sophomore sci-fi film, Elysium, which stars Matt Damon, Jodie Foster and Sharlto Copley in a story about a man (Damon) trying to reach Elysium, an orbital community of the rich and powerful, in order to save his life. That glimpse was at Comic-Con 2012. Soon after that, Sony Pictures bumped the film to August 2013. In the meantime, we've seen a few photos here and there but only the lucky few in Hall H at Comic-Con have seen actual footage from the film.

That seems like it's going to change in the next few days as Sony has kicked off a new viral site for the film. On the site, four locations are revealed (including New York and Los Angeles) to be having "Live Demonstrations" of Elysium "By Appointment Only" with links to a GoFobo page. Sounds like a footage screening to me. Get the links and explore the viral site below.

Thanks to MovieViral (via First Showing) for the heads up.

The first update comes to the site armadyne.net, which has been up and running since Comic-Con 2011. Many new links have gone active on the site with tons of information teasing the story of how Elysium came to be, the technology behind it and what it really is.

What is it? Sure, 200 words in is a great time to explain the plot of the film. Elysium is a Utopian space station society where the Earth's rich and famous can go and live in perfect health and harmony. That's the direct opposite of what's going on on Earth: disease, death, overpopulation. So when one man (Matt Damon) decides the only way to save himself is to go Elysium, he takes on a suicide mission that include becoming a cyborg, to try and break onto the station. Sharlto Copley plays a bounty hunter on his tail and Jodie Foster plays the head of Elysium.

Back to the viral. In additions to armadyne.net, www.welcometoelysium.com is now live. That's where you can link to the "live appointments." I've contacted Sony for more information on those but have yet to hear back. It certainly feels like one of those exciting, can't miss viral marketing events though.

Keep it locked here for more on Elysium and, check out this video blog we did at Comic-Con 2012 that talks more about the film and our excitement from the footage: