Non-Human Trespassing

Comic-Con 2008 has been pulling out all the stops over the weekend, with reports on some promising projects for both television audiences and movie-goers. Panels at Comic-Con included sessions on: X-Men Origins: Wolverine-which allegedly has a cameo by Ryan Reynolds as Deadpool and features our favorite card-throwing-mutant Gambit, Dollhouse, Season 4 of Lost, Heroes Season 3: "Villains", Twilight, G.I. Joe: Rise of Cobra, Max Payne and Tron 2!

While I was lamenting the fact that I was not at Comic-Con this weekend and experiencing the all-around-geekness represented there, I decided that I could definitely receive much pleasure out of experiencing the convention vicariously through the internets. Whedonesque for the Whedon information, Aint it Cool News and JoBlo for comic-book/movie tidbits and of course, the blogosphere.

As I meandered through the blogs-of-friends-of-friends, I came across the blog of a pop-culture-enthusiast-college-professor who put the following pictures up of some intriguing promotional material for a-yet-to-be-named project.



These posters have the web address D-9.com on them, so I quickly put it in to my browser. I never have been a hardcore follower of viral marketing-the kind that was all over Cloverfield and The Dark Knight. But with this, I kind of figured if I could start following it at the beginning, then I would be more excited down the road when new information about the project is released-speculation is always fun.

Opening the D-9 website leads the user to choose a Human or Non-Human platform-both lead to similar pages, albeit the Non-Human page is written in alien symbols. A news ticker repeats the following headlines:

Shooting investigation W. Franklin Ave. The 300 block of W. Franklin Ave. is closed for an on-going investigation into a non-lethal shooting reported last night at 9:15 p.m.

City Hall meeting - City Hall 12500 Main Street. A meeting at city hall will be held to discuss a series of new ordinances proposed to help address the recent outbreak of non-human trespassing…

Traffic alert Highway J reminder: Non-human buses are schedules to be on the highway from 6-7am and 9-10 pm Citizens are advised to avoid this highway at times of transport to ensure ease of traffic and passenger safety…

Public intoxication by a non-human 700 block of S. Freeport Rd. Police detained one non-human on charges of intoxication after seeing it walking down S. Free port Road and noticing suspicious activity…

That page includes a link to the Multi-National United corporate website.

A countdown on the upper right hand side of the MNU page puts the release of a movie-if that is what the site is promoting-at Mid-August of next year. A side-bar reads:

For nearly 20 years, MNU has been looking forward to a date that will stand as the turning point in the progression of the human race. On August 14, 2009, MNU will begin reverse engineering new technologies that will trigger this turning point. Join us in counting down to this momentous occasion.

The movie can’t be Mutant Chronicles, or X-Men Origins: Wolverine as these will both be out by June of next year. It is likely a project such as Cloverfield that will be kept under wraps for as long as possible. J.J. Abrams, king-of-viral-marketing is set to re-launch of the Star Trek franchise in May 2009. Has J.J. Abram’s been producing another sci-fi project on the side?

Speculate away!