Viral marketing is an interesting phenomenon. You take the hardest of the hardcore fans of your product and make/let them jump through hoops following the trail of crumbs that lead to more traditional promotional fare, like one-sheets and in this case, trailers. The faithful fans then take it upon themselves to spread the message of the movie, whether it’s through the Harvey Dent election campaign materials they got in the mail or uploading cell phone video from a screening of an as yet unreleased trailer:

It will be interesting to see if there’s a backlash over time, because unlike employees, the manipulated faithful aren’t financially compensated. ‘Fan boys’ already tend to think that the producers of the product owe them creative input due to their loyalty. I can only imagine what actual involvement in the machine of promotion will lead to.

Now, on to the trailer itself…

The new preview makes me want to call a movie I haven’t seen unbelievably amazing. Nolan seems to be living up to his word, having described the movie as a crime drama in the style of Michael Mann’s ‘Heat.’ There is an unprecedented amount of daylight for a Batman movie, which is interesting, considering just how dark the tone of this movie looks to be (I mean, it’s ‘The Dark Knight,’ not ‘The Bright Son’, after all).

This is pure speculation, but I’m guessing that the amount of daylight follows the rise and fall of Harvey Dent. Batman and the Joker’s world is dark and cynical. Dent’s is bright and optimistic. As he rises to power as attorney general, he’ll pull Gotham out of the darkness and make Batman less necessary. As he gets pulled toward the darkness and eventually falls, night will fall on Gotham all over again, making Batman a necessity. Or not.

After early reports of plans to shift promotional focus away from the Joker, due to Ledger’s death, WB said they were going to continue marketing the film as originally planned. I think this is for the best, because it will allow people to get a better idea of whether or not they want or are able to sit through a movie where an apparently unparalleled villian is portrayed by someone who’s died so recently. From the new Joker footage in the trailer, Ledger really does seem to disappear into the role (and behind the makeup). I honestly didn’t think of Ledger’s death until sometime after watching the trailer, and I have to give credit to his performance in the clips for that.

Wow, July 18 is a bit too far away. Oh well, at least Iron Man’s out on Friday.

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If you haven’t heard, NBC has officially cancelled Scrubs, which has resulted in untold carnage throughout the world. That second part may be made up, but it’s still pretty bad news.

All hope is not lost, though, since it’s being reported that ABC has decided to take another network’s hilarious but ratings challenged show after cancelling its own (Carpoolers died much too young).

NBC will air six more new episodes of Scrubs this season, beginning this Thursday, April 10. (Woo!) The cast finished shooting episode “712″ (the 12th episode of season seven) on Monday, which is the last episode that will be shown on NBC. However! The production train keeps on chugging.

According to sources on set, Scrubs began shooting an episode on Tuesday that is being numbered as “713/800.” (Meaning, it is the 13th episode in production this season but is scheduled to air in season eight.) The cast and crew will shoot through August and are expected to end on episode 816.

Those episodes—yes, 16 of them by my count—are slated to air on ABC.

Source: E!

While we’re on the subject of Scrubs, there’s some related casting news for Oliver Stone’s movie about President Bush the second. Elizabeth Banks, who plays the accidental mother of JD’s child on the show, has been cast as Laura Bush. From what I hear, Josh Brolin (playing the President) isn’t complaining.

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