Movie Website Updates for May 19 - May 26

May 26, 2005

During the past week promotional websites for several movies were launched and some older ones added additional content. Here the list of this week's releases, a couple of new sites and few updates, including this week's winner, Cinderella Man - Official Site.

Apres Vous
The site is designed like a menu, you can flip through the pages to get to the usual information. And although the format is nice, the actual content is a little light.

BloodRayne
New look, but mostly the same old content. This is a better site than before, but it still doesn't sell the movie.

Bomb the System
The site has most of the usual feature and a bit of style, but not enough to make it stand out in a crowded field.

The Cave
The adventure section of the site was added sometime during the past two weeks. It was fun to play, reminding me of those old King's Quest games, but the ending was a little abrupt.

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
The placeholder site underwent a complete redesign and it is a vast improvement over the old site. However, most of the content that should really sell the movie is still marked coming soon.

Chicken Little
Another site with a completely redesigned placeholder site. This one just has two teaser trailers and the full trailer, but the film doesn't open for more than five months, so there's plenty of time for that to change.

Cinderella Man
The flash site launched this week and it's amazing. Not only does the site have all the usual information, (synopsis, extensive production notes, cast & crew bios, dozens of images and full and teaser trailer) they are done well and presented with style. The extras on the site are comprised of a huge number of videos, the most impressive of which is called A Look Inside, which is so good that it would make a fare bonus feature on the DVD release. But there are also and more than a dozen clips from the film with most of them being in the Legend section of the site, a section that also includes an incredible amount of images. Add it all up and you have the winner of the resurgent Weekly Website Award.

The Da Vinci Code
The flash site launched, but outside an interesting intro, there's really not much here. There is nearly a year till the movie opens, so there's plenty of time for additional features to be added.

Deep Blue
A Miramax site that doesn't suck! Granted, it's not great with just the synopsis and trailer, but at least it's not that awful shade of beige.

The Devil's Rejects
Couple more features were added including a website for Banjo and Sullivan.

Fantastic Four
A couple of new video clips were added to the site, including a promo for the NBA. There's also a new game, but it's not working for me at the moment, however, from the screen shots, it looks like the game on Elektra's Official Site.

George A. Romero's Land of the Dead
A new viral marketing scheme was added to the site. Viral marketing is when studios get regular folk to spread the word of a movie or other product. Done well it can be a great way to create a sense of community among fans as well as giving fans a first look at the film and chances to win merchandize. Done poorly is can cause spamming of message boards and encourages people to become low rent shills. Universal has set up these campaigns for several of their films, Serenity, The Chronicles of Riddick, etc., and I've been happy with the results so far.

Ghost Rider
Placeholder site with just the name and an image to keep you entertained.

Herbie: Fully Loaded
Information on Herbie's promotional tour was added to the site, right now there's just the one blog entry.

High Tension
There's a whole new look for the site, but the Tension section is still marked coming soon.

A History of Violence
Just the synopsis, cast & crew bios and a clip from the movie. The film doesn't open till the end of September, so hopefully that will change.

Howl's Moving Castle
The site just has the synopsis, director's bio, image gallery and trailer. I bet the Japanese site was a lot more inventive.

Kids in America
The site has all the usual features and a couple of video clips, (Testimonials and an interview with Nicole Richie.)

A League of Ordinary Gentlemen
Just in time for tomorrow's release, the full site is up. Great site for a documentary with plenty of extra information on bowling, plus the usual information. I was hoping there would be a bowling game on the site, but alas, it was not to be.

The Longest Yard
This site has a huge problem. The "Get Tickets and Showtimes" button is right in front of the submenu, so you can't select some of the features like crew bios. A mistake like this should not have been made.

Madagascar
With the film opening tomorrow, most of the features marked coming soon were added to the site. There are massive amounts of video clips, audio clips and activities for younger children. But I'm still not sold on the film.

Mr. and Mrs. Smith
The bios and behind the scenes were added to the site, the latter being production notes and not a video clip like I had hoped.

My Date With Drew
The site doesn't have a whole lot of features, nor is there much in the way of pizzazz, but for some reason I really like it. It's a small simple site that works.

My Summer of Love
New site for the North American release with just the trailer and some information on the awards it has won.

The New World
They added a blog last month, but there's been very little activity so far.

Night Watch
As promised, I took a week to check out the game on the site. It's not as interactive as it could have been, but it does encourage exploring the site fully and spending time on the forums. Awards include bonus images throughout the site. Worth checking out.

The Perfect Man
There's a new look to the placeholder site. I expect the full site to be online with the week.

Saving Face
No changes for a while, but the site does have an interesting style to it.

Serenity
No updates on the main site, but the Bowncoats section has a video clip from the Starfury convention, the first convention dedicated to Firefly. I'm amazed that a show that lasted only 13 episodes has enough fan support to justify a convention of its own. Also, the DVD is still on the Amazon Top 100 sales chart, more than a year and a half since it was first released. The Fanboy Effect for this film will be incredible.

The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants
Four TV spots were added to the site, (two in English and two in Spanish) leaving just the clips and friendship quiz marked coming soon.

Spider-Man 3
The news section as the announcement that Topher Grace has joined the cast as one of the two villains for the next movie. There was no word on which specific character he was playing, but if you will allow me to indulge in some speculation, I believe he will be playing (spoiler alert, highlight to read.) Cletus Kasady, a.k.a. Carnage. There's a lot of debate on this subject and we'll have to wait a while to see who is right.

Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith
Now that I've seen the movie and I'm not afraid of spoilers I can check out the site fully. And apparently everyone else is doing the same cause it's taking forever to load. It is an excellent site with all the regular features and extras like behind-the-scenes videos. And yes, there are some minor spoilers so I'm glad I avoided the site till now, but I am a freaky Star Wars fan and the site wouldn't spoil the movie for more normal people. This is a really good site and sells the movie well, but doesn't have the 'Wow!' factor that a movie of its caliber should have.

Tideland
Over the past two week four more parts to the Terry Gilliam interview were added to the site covering the music and characters.

V For Vendetta
Clicking on masks will now take you to different sections of the site: I for News, II for synopsis, III for video clips, IV for bios, V for a few quotes and VI for press. The site gains points for the very cool design, but lose almost as many for not being practical. It took a long time to find all six sections and I kept getting double vision if I looked at the site for more than a few seconds.

War of the Worlds
More levels were added to the game, which I was finally able to beat.

Wedding Crashers
The quail hunt game was added to the site, quite fun and a good stress reliever. One time I was even able to score more than 12,000 points before I gave up.


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Filed under: Movie Website Updates, Star Wars Ep. III: Revenge of the Sith, Spider-Man 3, War of the Worlds, The Da Vinci Code, Wedding Crashers, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Madagascar, Mr. and Mrs. Smith, The Longest Yard, Fantastic Four, Chicken Little, Ghost Rider, V for Vendetta, Herbie: Fully Loaded, Cinderella Man, The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, A History of Violence, Serenity, George A. Romero's Land of the Dead, The Devil’s Rejects, The Perfect Man, The Cave, The New World, Hauru no ugoku shiro, BloodRayne, Nochnoy dozor, Saving Face, My Summer of Love, Tideland