Two budding franchises, the Peter Jackson-produced District 9 movie and the Syfy Channel's new series Warehouse 13, have launched new websites. And they both want you to help consign aliens to internment camps, or weird objects to an Iowa warehouse.
The District 9 website goes some way towards selling you on the movie's concept, of a dark future where aliens come to Earth in friendship, only to be locked up in camps. The site's front page forbids non-humans from entering the site, and once inside, you're greeted with a panoramic display of a wasteland with an alien sillhouette practice target covered with bullet holes. There are links to some of the movie's viral sites, including the evil corporation MNU and an anti-MNU site. Plus wallpapers (see above.)
The Warehouse 13 site is a bit more fun — you can "chat" with the Warehouse's keeper, Artie (Saul Rubinek) who pops up via a video. And there are a bunch of index cards with names of weird artifacts stored in the warehouse, like Dillinger's Pistol, which you can learn about. More excitingly, you can type in the name of a random artifact you've found, and Artie will tell you if it belongs in the warehouse. I typed in, "Space dildo," and Artie hemmed and hawed, and finally said he didn't really have anything about that in his files.
Apparently Syfy is promoting this site by having weird tags attached to items at flea markets in Brooklyn and L.A., saying that the items may belong in the warehouse and you need to check on the website. Also, some items on eBay will have digital versions of the tag, which is sort of a nifty kind of viral marketing.