X-Men: Days Of Future Past - Viral Marketing Campaign Builds Momentum

The viral marketing campaign for Bryan Singer's X-Men Days of Future Past is picking up some serious momentum with the recent launch of the excellent Trask Industries website.

The fictional company site delves into the history and mythology of Trask Industries and its creator Bolivar Trask (played by Peter Dinklage - TV's Game of Thrones). The site also explores the creation of the Sentinels from Mark I to X.

Commentary: A Reaction to the shift in Tentpole Movie Marketing in Hollywood

Last week, Variety published a brief article about the state of film marketing in Hollywood. The fascinating piece explored the thought-provoking notion that concept is now bigger than star-power, which indicates a major shift in the necessity of A-List stars fronting big-budget blockbusters.

"The idea is to sell a film initially based on a concept", says Par domestic marketing and distrib prexy Megan Colligan.

Main theatrical poster for Oblivion

Ten years ago it would have been unfathomable for Tom Cruise not to feature in almost the entire marketing campaign for his latest blockbuster; however, times have changed.

Coming off the back of his biggest success to-date (Mission: Impossible Ghost Protocol), Cruise's next major release was Oblivion, a big budget sci-fi film from the director of Tron:Legacy. There was immense pressure on Cruise to deliver another major hit and reassert his dominance as an unrivalled global box-office star. However, this was somewhat contradicted by his presence within the marketing campaign being strangely understated.

Silver Samurai poster debuts

Character poster for the Silver Samurai

Fox have debuted a Silver Samurai character poster in preparation for the forthcoming sequel The Wolverine. Last month, I wrote an article  that analysed the film's marketing campaign and questioned the decision to focus entirely on the titular character (played by Hugh Jackman).

Well, it seems that the marketing team have finally started to bring some much-needed focus towards the sequel's other pivotal characters.

The very stylish image (seen right) is an ink-design interpretation of Wolverine's iconic adversary, and one of the film's primary antagonists, though you'd be forgiven for not realising it.

The Wolverine

WHERE IS MY CAR?!!!!!

The marketing campaign for The Wolverine has finally gained some momentum and so it seems only right to analyse the primary theatrical posters for the movie.

The Wolverine is the (sort-of) follow-up to the 2009 disappointment X-Men Origins: Wolverine and follows Logan to Japan where he attempts to master his demons and train with the Samurai. The film is actually set after the events of X-Men: The Last Stand, and for the first time, we apparently see a more vulnerable side to Wolverine/Logan.

The film's marketing campaign has so far proved to be somewhat inconsistent, with some promotional images focusing on the character's disciplined new approach, and others being more frantic. Many of the pics simply showed him standing around, dressed in black, which is all well and good, but it all seems a bit bland.