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COOL STUFF

Your Map to the Gotham City Subway!

by Alex Billington
November 26, 2007

In connection with the viral marketing campaign for The Dark Knight that kicked up last week with The Gotham Times newspaper, another website has appeared - GothamCityRail.com. The site is for Gotham City Rail, the above-ground subway system that Bruce Wayne's father built and was shown extensively in Batman Begins (and is pictured below). The coolest feature is the City Rail Map, which is your standard subway map but actually for Gotham City! It's like one of those virtual maps they have for the Star Wars or Star Trek universe, but this one is for Batman and Gotham City!

The map is a bit too big for us to show you here, so we suggest you head right over to the City Rail Map page on GothamCityRail.com.

I love the special touch if you zoom into The Narrows island and look at that station and the line that goes towards Wayne Central you'll notice it says Under Construction. This is where everything took place in Batman Begins and where the subway was destroyed when Batman killed Ra's Al Ghul. It's a smart nod to show that part being under construction and keeping up with continuity and consistency. Another job well done Warner Brothers marketing!

The Dark Knight arrives in theaters next summer on July 18th, 2008. Keep up to date on all the latest happenings, news, viral marketing events, and everything The Dark Knight related right here at FS.net!

Gotham City Subway

Filed under Cool Stuff, Hype, Viral

From around the web:

http://www.williammize.com William Mize

I know this is one of those times where I'm showing my age and having one of those "You kids get offa my yard moments" but these viral marketing things don't mean bupkus to me. None of the games, the puzzles, the websites, they do nothing to build up any excitement or anticipation for the film. I've never visited any of the sites and I never will. I want PREVIEWS. I want trailers. Seeing the actual product on the screen, even if it's for 30 seconds, a minute, two minutes, THAT is what gets me excited and builds my buzz. The leaked Iron Man trailer from ComicCon got me more excited than any subway map or fake newspaper website ever will. Now you really need to get off my yard. I just mowed it - Bill
Davor

i think is cool and brilliant what they are doing
jason_md2020

I love these things. The interactive/viral aspect of these things makes the fan feel more a part of the story or world being created. Having hidden links to find, or puzzles to solve, is more involving and entertaining to me than just sitting and being a passive viewer. By the way, where the hell did the word "bupkus" come from? I'm not being sarcastic, I really want to know.
http://www.firstshowing.net Alex Billington

Bill, I'm gunna stand on your yard and heckle you since you're too old and slow to get your walk and come shoe me off!! Hahah, just kidding... you actually make a very good point, however I think you're missing why they're actually doing this. Jason is a prime example of exactly why they have it! You'll get your previews and trailers eventually, so it's not like they're doing this instead of them. However, this is building buzz and hype in an entirely seperate demographic that isn't designed for you. They're covering ALL their bases and are doing a great job of it. The younger generations and fanboys are all getting wrapped up in this viral biz and are already all for the movie without even seeing a trailer, so they've got that demo nailed. Then when the trailer comes along, they're grabbing your demo as well. I think they're doing such a great, great job catering to the fans (and fanboys) because they're the ones who drive the movie to success. Without the fans enthusiasm and buzz and hype, a movie could never be this book. Just look at it - you already know all about this movie and are already thinking about it just because of these viral things, even if you don't like them. That's how great marketing works, it spreads from one demo to another because they give each one what they want.
jason_md2020

By the way just to shed some light on "the younger generations" & "you kids" comments, I'm gonna be 37 in a few months. Does this disqualify me for fanboy status?