The Knight is Coming

So unless you have been living under a rock for the past few months you may not know about the huge sequel summer the movie studios have in store for us. Moviefone.com recently did an online poll of 2,000 movie goers to rank their interests in upcoming movies on a scale from one to five. The number one movie to clock in was Indiana Jones, but seeing as how I have never really watched a single one of them (I know, I know), we are going to talk about number 2 (which I'm very excited about), The Dark Knight.

The Dark Knight is the sequel to the 2005 summer hit Batman Begins which brought in over $200 million total. The story continues along the same trail as before following Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale) in his heroic attempt to rid Gotham City from evil. The second movie will see two bad guys, including the all time favorite villain made famous by Jack Nicholson, The Joker. Harvey Dent, aka Two Face will also be in this film and is portrayed by Aaron Eckhart.

So far the movie has be producing a lot of buzz but with no real marketing campaign. The main website only features a political campaign poster for Harvey Dent and the studio has yet to release anything beyond a teaser trailer. The original viral marketing campaign set up by 42 Entertainment allowed users to piece away the political poster to eventually reveal the face of Heath Ledger as the joker. The site has since be taken down however.

Another viral marketing campaign entitled "Anticipation" was launched for the movie shortly after its release of the teaser trailer at the 2007 Comic Con. Apparently Warner Bros. created a mini scavenger hunt for all their loyal fans at the convention where they could view the new trailer as well as see teaser photos for the new film.

Of course it wouldn't be a Batman movie without the Mattel toys that follow, but what is most interesting is what Six Flags seems to be doing with their amusement parks for the movie. Chicago's (where the movie was filmed) very own Six Flags Great America, Jackson NJ's Six Flag's Great Adventure, and Six Flag's New England in Agawam MA will all be constructing and debuting its newest roller coaster entitled...thats rights, you guessed it, the Dark Knight in May of 2008. The ride will strap in riders as Gotham City patrons who are caught in a battle between Batman and the Joker.